temple of Jupiter (_clavi figendi causa_),[859] an act of natural magic which was supposed to be a specific against pestilence. These dictators _imminuto jure_, appointed for a special purpose, were expected to retire as soon as the function was completed.[860] The six months’ tenure of the dictator _rei gerundae causa_[861] was never legally exceeded, but it might be shortened, for it seems to have been necessary for the dictator to resign when the consul who had nominated him retired from office.[862] The creation of a dictator did not abolish the other magistracies of the people; it merely suspended their _independent_ activity. The dictator was a _collega major_ given to the consuls, who still continued under his direction to command armies,[863] and even those troops which were levied by the dictator took the oath of obedience to the consuls as well.[864] The praetors still sat in the courts, and lesser officials continued to perform the subordinate functions of government. But it was felt that under a dictator all magistrates existed on sufferance, with the exception of those of the Plebs.[865] It is certain that the presence of a dictator brought no legal diminution to the powers of the tribune; it is equally certain that constitutional custom dictated that the _auxilium_ of these city magistrates should not be effective when the state was under martial law.[866] Collision was necessarily rare since the duties of the dictator took him far afield. This extraordinary power had yet some normal limitations. The dictator never meddled with civil jurisdiction; and he had not the power, possessed by the consuls while in Rome, of taking money from the _aerarium_ without a decree of the Senate.[867] The government was naturally unwilling that a magistrate to all intents and purposes a king should wage war out of Italy; and there is but one example of a dictator commanding in the extra-Italian world.[868]