Editing Dictator (section)

== Etymology ==
{{main|Roman dictator}}
The word ''dictator'' comes from the [[Latin]] word ''dictātor'', [[agent noun]] from ''dictare'' (say repeatedly, assert, order).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short, A Latin Dictionary, dicto |url=https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0059:entry=dicto |access-date=2024-01-17 |website=www.perseus.tufts.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Oxford English Dictionary |url=http://www.oed.com/view/Entry/52304?p=emailAOE6bjQCOi1ZQ&d=52304}}</ref> A dictator was a [[Roman magistrate]] given sole power for a limited duration. Originally an emergency legal appointment in the [[Roman Republic]] and the [[Etruscan civilization|Etruscan culture]], the term ''dictator'' did not have the negative meaning it has now.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Le Glay, Marcel.|url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/760889060|title=A history of Rome|date=2009|publisher=Wiley-Blackwell|isbn=978-1-4051-8327-7|oclc=760889060|access-date=2020-05-21|archive-date=2020-07-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200725132827/http://worldcat.org/oclc/760889060|url-status=live}}</ref> It started to get its modern negative meaning with [[Sulla|Cornelius Sulla]]'s ascension to the dictatorship following [[Sulla's civil war]], making himself the first Dictator in Rome in more than a century (during which the office was ostensibly abolished) as well as ''de facto'' eliminating the time limit and need of senatorial acclamation.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Mark B. |title=Dictator: the evolution of the Roman dictatorship |date=2021 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472132669 |page=325 }}</ref>

He avoided a major constitutional crisis by resigning the office after about one year, dying a few years later. [[Julius Caesar]] followed Sulla's example in 49 BC and in February 44 BC was proclaimed {{lang|la|[[Dictator perpetuo]]}}, "Dictator in perpetuity", officially doing away with any limitations on his power, which he kept until [[Assassination of Julius Caesar|his assassination]] the following month. Following Caesar's assassination, his heir [[Augustus]] was offered the title of dictator, but he declined it. Later successors also declined the title of dictator, and usage of the title soon diminished among Roman rulers.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilson |first1=Mark B. |title=Dictator: the evolution of the Roman dictatorship |date=2021 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |location=Ann Arbor |isbn=9780472132669 |page=330 }}</ref>