Dictators have a bad
name, but it was not always so. The word originally referred to a
specific political office of the Roman Republic, which involved
absolute power being invested in an individual (assisted by a deputy,
called the Master of Horse/Magister Equitum) for a time-limited
period.
This was done at
moments of national crisis, and the holder of the office handed back
the power and resigned when his task was done. (The major exception
would be Julius Caesar who was appointed, perhaps not without his
approving consent, dictator for life. However, Brutus et al. did
manage to exploit the slight flaw in the plan by curtailing the
lifespan of Caesar. It’s hard to be dictator when you’ve embarked
upon an exciting new career as a human pincushion).
So, here are a few of
the splendid dictators, whose excellence benefited Rome to a huge
degree.
Marcus Furius
Camillus
You have to be a pretty
cool cat to get the nickname Second Founder of Rome, and so Marcus
Furius Camillus was. He was made dictator a grand number of five
times. His first stint was in a closely contested war with Veii,
which was going quite badly. Camillus turned the situation around and
utterly annihilated the adult male population of the city.
But, after another war
(successful but with little plunder), Camillus was exiled from Rome
by his political opponents.
Unfortunately for Rome,
the Gauls then invaded, and crushed the Roman army before capturing
Rome itself. It turns out exiling your greatest general just before
your worst enemy invades isn’t terribly clever. Camillus organised
his local militia and attacked the Gauls, who were drunkenly
celebrating in their camp. As might be expected, he won a great
victory, and was appointed dictator to give him full authority to
ensure the Gauls were properly defeated. He then fought the Gauls
besieging Rome, and rescued the city, earning himself the moniker
Second Founder.
Titus Manlius
Torquatus
Titus Manlius Torquatus
was a very interesting chap. His father was an utter imbecile, and,
because the young Titus had a speech impediment and was looked down
on, sent him away to live almost as a servant. The same father then
managed to piss off most of Rome when he held authority and was
halfway through a trial when Titus returned to Rome, visited the
prosecuting official, put a blade to his throat and made him swear to
drop the case.
Whilst this is a
questionable act of justice, it did earn Titus some credit for his
filial loyalty, especially to a man who didn’t deserve it. Later,
as a soldier, Titus fought a massive Gaul in single combat, slew him
and claimed the torque from the corpse, earning him his new name.
Titus was a formidable
general, as well as a soldier, commanding armies sometimes as a
consul, and sometimes as a dictator. He was also extremely strict,
and when it was agreed no man should leave his post on penalty of
death, Titus was forced to execute his own son, whose youthful
exuberance had outweighed his discipline.
Quintus Fabius
Maximus
Rome had a problem in
the Second Punic War. Its only battle tactic was to line up a lot of
men, charge the enemy, and stab until the battle was won.
Unfortunately, Hannibal Barca had repeatedly kicked their arse, most notably at Lake Trasimene. Tens of thousands of Romans were dead,
hundreds of senior military and political officials were no more, and
there were fears for Rome itself.
A dictator was called
for. Quintus Fabius Maximus was the man selected, although his
magister equitum, Marcus Minucius Rufus, was chosen for him, rather
than by him. Maximus decided to adopt tactics that seemed strange,
even cowardly, to Roman eyes. He didn’t try to fight Hannibal.
Instead, he delayed, giving Rome time to build up his strength,
harrying foragers sent by Hannibal (who was, after all, marauding in
enemy territory). Moreover, his adversary was no fool. Although
Hannibal was unable to ambush Maximus (and lost prisoners to the
dictator), he left Maximus’ own estates untouched, creating
feelings of resentment and even suspicion towards the dictator.
When prisoners were
swapped (with the Carthaginians returning more Romans than vice
versa), Maximus sold his estates to fund the extra compensation
necessary to make up for the disparity in numbers.
Hannibal sought fresh
foraging ground to the south, but Maximus realised this and
recognised he could trap the Carthaginian in the mountains, fighting
him where the excellent Numidian cavalry would be worth far less than
on the plains of Italy. Hannibal escaped the noose by ‘attacking’
at night, using cattle with torches tied to their horns which
sentinels mistook for an army, enabling the Carthaginians to slip
away.
Maximus, who had
acquired the not necessarily complimentary nickname Cunctator
(Delayer), was annoying the Romans by his tactics. New consuls, Varro
and Paullus were elected.
These two men brought
(on a day of Varro’s command) matters to a head with a decisive
attack on Hannibal, using a force four times the size of a regular
consular army. The lessons of Maximus were thrown away, and perhaps
the highest casualties recorded in Europe until the advent of
machine-gun warfare in World War One was the result. The Battle of
Cannae was a perfect military victory for Hannibal, and tens of
thousands more Romans (including Paullus) were dead.
Later Roman generals
took on the concepts of logistics and strategy emphasised by Maximus,
notably Nero, Marcellus and, of course, Scipio Africanus.
If you want to read
more on these fellows, and more besides, I can strongly recommend
Livy’s Early History of Rome, Rome and Italy, and The Hannibalic
War, as well as Polybius’ work on the Second Punic War.
Thaddeus
