The technical word for this nomination or proclamation was _dicere_ (seldom _creare_ or _facere_). Originally the dictator was of course a patrician. The first plebeian dictator was C. Marcius Rutilus, nominated in B.C. 356 by the plebeian consul M. Popillius Laenas. The reasons which led to the appointment of a dictator, required that there should be only one at a time. The dictators that were appointed for carrying on the business of the state were said to be nominated _rei gerundae causa_, or sometimes _seditionis sedandae causa_; and upon them, as well as upon the other magistrates, the imperium was conferred by a _Lex Curiata_. The dictatorship was limited to six months, and no instances occur in which a person held this office for a longer time, for the dictatorships of Sulla and Caesar are of course not to be taken into account. On the contrary, though a dictator was appointed for six months, he often resigned his office long previously, immediately after he had dispatched the business for which he had been appointed. As soon as the dictator was nominated, a kind of suspension took place with respect to the consuls and all the other magistrates, with the exception of the tribuni plebis. The regular magistrates continued, indeed, to discharge the duties of their various offices under the dictator, but they were no longer independent officers, but were subject to the higher imperium of the dictator, and obliged to obey his orders in every thing. The superiority of the dictator’s power to that of the consuls consisted chiefly in the three following points--greater independence of the senate, more extensive power of punishment without any appeal (_provocatio_) from their sentence to the people, and irresponsibility. To these three points, must of course be added that he was not fettered by a colleague. We may naturally suppose that the dictator would usually act in unison with the senate; but it is expressly stated that in many cases where the consuls required the co-operation of the senate, the dictator could act on his own responsibility. That there was originally no appeal from the sentence of the dictator is certain, and accordingly the lictors bore the axes in the fasces before them even in the city, as a symbol of their absolute power over the lives of the citizens, although by the Valerian law the axes had disappeared from the fasces of the consuls. Whether, however, the right of _provocatio_ was afterwards given cannot be determined. It was in consequence of the great and irresponsible power possessed by the dictatorship, that we find it frequently compared with the regal dignity, from which it only differed in being held for a limited time.--There were however a few limits to the power of the dictator. 1. The most important was that which we have mentioned above, that the period of his office was only six months. 2. He had not power over the treasury, but could only make use of the money which was granted him by the senate. 3.