[5,73] Οὗτος πρῶτος ἐν Ῥώμῃ μόναρχος ἀπεδείχθη πολέμου τε καὶ εἰρήνης καὶ παντὸς ἄλλου πράγματος αὐτοκράτωρ. ὄνομα δ´ αὐτῷ τίθενται δικτάτορα, εἴτε διὰ τὴν ἐξουσίαν τοῦ κελεύειν, ὅτι θέλοι, καὶ τάττειν τὰ δίκαιά τε καὶ τὰ καλὰ τοῖς ἄλλοις, ὡς ἂν αὐτῷ δοκῇ· τὰ γὰρ ἐπιτάγματα καὶ τὰς διαγραφὰς τῶν δικαίων τε καὶ ἀδίκων ἠδίκτα οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι καλοῦσιν· εἴτε ὥς τινες γράφουσι διὰ τὴν τότε γενομένην ἀνάρρησιν, ἐπειδὴ οὐ παρὰ τοῦ δήμου τὴν ἀρχὴν εὑρόμενος κατὰ τοὺς πατρίους ἐθισμοὺς ἕξειν ἔμελλεν, ἀλλ´ ὑπ´ ἀνδρὸς ἀποδειχθεὶς ἑνός. οὐ γὰρ ᾤοντο δεῖν ἐπίφθονον ὄνομα καὶ βαρὺ θέσθαι τινὶ ἀρχῇ πόλιν ἐλευθέραν ἐπιτροπευούσῃ, τῶν τε ἀρχομένων ἕνεκα, ἵνα μηθὲν ἐπὶ ταῖς μισουμέναις προσηγορίαις ἐκταράττωνται, καὶ τῶν παραλαμβανόντων τὰς ἀρχὰς προνοίᾳ, μή τι λάθωσιν ἢ παθόντες ὑφ´ ἑτέρων πλημμελὲς ἢ δράσαντες αὐτοὶ τοὺς πέλας, ὧν φέρουσιν αἱ τοιαῦται δυναστεῖαι· ἐπεὶ τό γε τῆς ἐξουσίας μέγεθος, ἧς ὁ δικτάτωρ ἔχει, ἥκιστα δηλοῦται ὑπὸ τοῦ ὀνόματος· ἔστι γὰρ αἱρετὴ τυραννὶς ἡ δικτατορία. δοκοῦσι δέ μοι καὶ τοῦτο παρ´ Ἑλλήνων οἱ Ῥωμαῖοι τὸ πολίτευμα λαβεῖν. οἱ γὰρ Αἰσυμνῆται καλούμενοι παρ´ Ἕλλησι τὸ ἀρχαῖον, ὡς ἐν τοῖς περὶ βασιλείας ἱστορεῖ Θεόφραστος, αἱρετοί τινες ἦσαν τύραννοι· ᾑροῦντο δ´ αὐτοὺς αἱ πόλεις οὔτ´ εἰς ὁριστὸν χρόνον οὔτε συνεχῶς, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τοὺς καιρούς, ὁπότε δόξειε συμφέρειν, καὶ εἰς ὁποσονοῦν χρόνον· ὥσπερ καὶ Μιτυληναῖοί ποθ´ εἵλοντο Πιττακὸν πρὸς τοὺς φυγάδας τοὺς περὶ Ἀλκαῖον τὸν ποιητήν.

[5,73] Larcius was the first man to be appointed sole ruler at Rome with absolute authority in war, in peace, and in all other matters. They call this magistrate a dictator, either from his power of issuing whatever orders he wishes and of prescribing for the others rules of justice and right as he thinks proper (for the Romans call commands and ordinances respecting what is right and wrong edicta or "edicts")81 so, as some write, from the form of nomination which was then introduced, since he was to receive the magistracy, not from the people, according to ancestral usage, but by the appointment of one man. For they did not think they ought to give an invidious and obnoxious title to any magistracy that had the oversight of a free people, as well as for the sake of the governed, lest they should be alarmed by the odious terms of address, as from a regard for the men who were assuming the magistracies, lest they should unconsciously either suffer some injury from others or themselves commit against others acts of injustice of the sort that positions of such authority bring in their train. For the extent of the power which the dictator possesses is by no means indicated by the (p223) title; for the dictatorship is in reality an elective tyranny. The Romans seem to me to have taken this institution also from the Greeks. For the magistrates anciently called among the Greeks g-Aisymnehtai or "regulators," as Theophrastus writes in his treatise On Kingship, were a kind of elective tyrants. They were chosen by the cities, not for a definite time nor continuously, but for emergencies, as often and for as long a time as seemed convenient; just as the Mitylenaeans, for example, once chose Pittacus to oppose the exiles headed by Alcaeus, the poet.