DIC 
From the circumflance above mentioned, the cuftom was 
robably derived of anh aa dictetor in the night, 
which is ae mentioned by Livy (lib. iv. c. 21. lib. vii. 
c. 23, lib.i 8. 
The eas of the Roman republic i is praifed by Po- 
lybius (1. vi.) as a happy mixture of monarchy, ariftocracy, 
and democracy ; ce the diGatorfhip reduced it rad a » 
af eee more properly ty eu than regal. mey 
a fiigle c agrecing with the fenate to name a eae 
without ae ean rrence, and we the will of the p:ople, 
might fubject, at any time, the liberty and the life of every 
Roman citizen, to the arbitrary power of one man, fet above 
all the laws, and in no way re{ponhible for the exercife of his 
fuvereipnty, to the j 
end o 
{ealous of the danger of this office 
Sylla took it, no dictator was appointed. ‘Th er in 
which ae chofe to have it conferred on aie was as ices ; 
both the confuls of the year of Rome 670, B.C. 84, having 
perifhed in the war which Sylla and his friends made againtt 
them, he notified to the fenate, that agreeably to the cuftem 
of cheir ancettors, in fuch cafes, they fhould create an interrex 
to hold the comitia for eleGting new confuls. T amed to 
that office the prefident of the fenate, Lucius Valerius 
Flaccus; to whom Syll te, and bade him report his opi- 
nion to the people, that the prefent ftate of affairs required 
the appointment of a dilator; not for the term of fix 
months, but till the whole commonwealth, and every part of 
the empire, which the civil wars had fhaken, fhould be more 
firmly fettled, and brought into better order ; adding, at the 
end of his letter, that, if the fenate approved ae = offered 
himfelf to do the republic a fervice. 18 O 8 under- 
f ; he therefore was cane seater by 
the interrex, without any term being fixed for the agai 
of his office ; and thus, fays Appian (De Bell. Civ. J. i.) 
** the dictatorfhip, which had before been a tyranny limited 
e0 nee ch 6° rati- 
ht bey a a authorifed him 
to put to death, without a trial, any citi me 
cording to his pleafure.” Ciceto, calls this © * the moft unjuft, 
and the moft unlike a law, that had ever been made,” and he 
confiders tt “as null and void in itfelf.?? Yet to fuch an 
extreme degree of fervility were the people and the fenate 
reduced, t 
ie) 
im to ek dignity of his ae of the 
Cefar was the t perpetual diGtato to Sylla. 
After Cefar there were no more di@ators 
the year of Rome 710, B. C 
in doing it, he referved the honour of this aQtion entirely to 
himfelf, For he did not propofe the affair, according to 
ufual cuftom, to the deliberation of the fenate, but he 
blifhing and confirming the prefent hberty, but fecuring it 
againft any future attempts 
” After the famous battle of Thrafymenus, an. U.C. 537, 
B.C. 217, which was ae third defeat of the Romans, in lefs 
than a year after Hannibal had entered Italy, the Roman 
were in great poneruaon, and entertained appreheniions 
DIC 
for the city itfelf. But becaufe - ae A Bsns alone it 
appertained to nominate a dictat and it was 
eafy to carry any mefiage to ee as os (asa 
occupied all the paffes, Q. Fabius Maximus was eleéted Pro- 
difiator. He was allowed to be the only perfon whofe great- 
nefs of fou 1, and gravity of manners. correfponded to the digz- 
yee os majelty of that office ; and the more, as he was fibeg 
fa ey in which the mind is . fufficient vigour to 
cute fae ee it has formed, ard in which refolution a 
boldnefs are tempered with rine Fabius demanded 
permiffion of the people to ride in the army 5 which, i an 
ancient law, the dictator was exprefsly forbidden to do. 
him, w 
Lingua Latina. 
diéta audientes omnes eff ae 
DICTE, in Ancient Geography, a mountain of the ifland of 
Crete, now called Sethia, a alfo Lafhi, next in height to 
a & 
ns cal 
or giod. a ait e ae eer cujus 
the white mountain. However, oe trees pid 
there sncenty amidit ae foo ow, and throve as well as i 
mountain obtained its name a ae a ee ae a 
aymph of Gai, who is fuppofed firft to have invented hunt- 
ing-nets, and to have been called Diétynna on that account 5 
having before been named Brito-martis. ‘This mountain was 
confecrated to Jupiter ; and hence he obtained the appella- 
tion of Dicrzvus, as we a a cave of this name in the 
ifland in which he had pea conce 
DICTIDIUM, a town of Greece, fituated near mount 
a. 
thos. 
; DICTION, the phrafe, elocution, or flyle of a writer or 
eaker. 
The diGtion or language of an orator fhould be pure, 
proper to the fubje&, rich without affeétation, ftrong and 
clofe without drynefs, and fuitable to the perfon, time, place, 
and age ee ELocurion, and oT 
e of a drama is acco unted the fo urth of the 
effential ne rhemer ae other sice being the fable, the 
manners, and the fentiment ; it is of the leaft importance of 
any ; yet muft peculiar care be taken herein to make every 
paffion {peak its proper language. See Drama, 
DICTIONARY, a colle&ion, or catalogue of all the 
words of a oo or art, with their fignifications, ranged 
in as of the alpha 
the Latins, and we after them, call dictionary, the 
Gis ‘call Lex 
For the proper charade, nature, sine &c. of a dictionary, 
fee the preface to this w See alfo VocaBuLary 
The moft ancient peer for ale Latin tongue, are, 
that called Papias, compiled by Solomon, abbot of St. Gall, 
bifhop of Conttance, who lived about the year 1409; ano- 
ther made in 1469, called Gemma Vocabulorum ; ; a third in 
1502, called Gemma | aan: and a fourth by Diony- 
fins Neftor, a Cordelie 
The melt erlenated old Latin wen ae is that of Ams 
eg Calepine, a hermit of St. Aug at Bergamo, and 
n of the count of Calepine. Co ra Gulner is faid to have 
aayerand this with four thoufand words. Paulus Manutius 
increafed it ftill more; and Pafferat after him; and yet 
Matthias Martinius made two volumes of their omiffions, 
There is another noted Latin ditionary of Crifpinus: to 
fay nothing of Cowper, cael tes Gouidman, Littleton, 
Cole, Aistworth, a nd m ethers of lefs confideration. 
For the Creck, we ia aoe of Tlenry Stevens and 
4Gz2 capulay 
