punishment which he considered the defendant deserved (τίμημα); and the defendant was allowed to make a counter-assessment (ἀντιτιμᾶσθαι or ὑποτιμᾶσθαι), and to argue before the judges why the assessment of the plaintiff ought to be changed or mitigated. In certain causes, which were determined by the laws, any of the judges was allowed to propose an additional assessment (προστίμημα); the amount of which, however, appears to have been usually fixed by the laws. Thus, in certain cases of theft, the additional penalty was fixed at five days’ and nights’ imprisonment. Upon judgment being given in a private suit, the Athenian law left its execution very much in the hands of the successful party, who was empowered to seize the moveables of his antagonist as a pledge for the payment of the money, or institute an action of ejectment (ἐξούλης) against the refractory debtor. The judgment of a court of dicasts was in general decisive (δίκη αὐτοτελής); but upon certain occasions, as, for instance, when a gross case of perjury or conspiracy could be proved by the unsuccessful party to have operated to his disadvantage, the cause, upon the conviction of such conspirators or witnesses, might be commenced _de novo_. DICTĀTOR, an extraordinary magistrate at Rome. The name is of Latin origin, and the office probably existed in many Latin towns before it was introduced into Rome. We find it in Lanuvium even in very late times. At Rome this magistrate was originally called _magister populi_ and not _dictator_, and in the sacred books he was always designated by the former name down to the latest times. On the establishment of the Roman republic the government of the state was entrusted to two consuls, that the citizens might be the better protected against the tyrannical exercise of the supreme power. But it was soon felt that circumstances might arise in which it was of importance for the safety of the state that the government should be vested in the hands of a single person, who should possess for a season absolute power, and from whose decision there should be no appeal to any other body. Thus it came to pass that in B.C. 501, nine years after the expulsion of the Tarquins, the dictatorship (_dictatura_) was instituted. By the original law respecting the appointment of a dictator (_lex de dictatore creando_) no one was eligible for this office unless he had previously been consul. We find, however, a few instances in which this law was not observed.--When a dictator was considered necessary, the senate passed a senatus consultum, that one of the consuls should nominate (_dicere_) a dictator; and without a previous decree of the senate the consuls had not the power of naming a dictator. The nomination or proclamation of the dictator was always made by the consul, probably without any witnesses, between midnight and morning, and with the observance of the auspices (_surgens_ or _oriens nocte silentio dictatorem dicebat_).