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colonnades to stage lavish entertainments of wild beast hunts, gladiatorial combats and theatre plays, all on borrowed money, and claimed the goodwill it generated entirely for himself. When he found himself surrounded by enemies, consul Cicero lamented on 9 November 63 BCE, O concidionem miseram non modo administrandae verum etiam conservandae rei publicae ! – ‘the preservation of the Res Publica no less than governing it – what a thankless task it is!’ (In L. Catilinam Oratio Secunda Habita ad Populum , 14) The Romans revered tradition over innovation in politics, but the century before Agrippa’s birth had witnessed the corrosive effects of wealth and the gradual corruption of the checks and balances in the republican system of government. Unwilling to chance victory at election time, an ambitious – butimpatient – aristocrat might borrow huge sums of cash to buy votes to ensure his success, with the promise to repay his debt to his lenders once in office. Such were consuls designated for 63 BCE P. Autronius Paetus and P. Cornelius Sulla who were barred from serving under the terms of the Lex Acilia Calpurnia enacted four years before, which permanently banned officials for corruption in elections ( ambitus ). Ambitus had become so endemic by then that the dozen-or-so agents who negotiated the bargain between the secret buyers and the heads of the voting syndicates (offering so many votes for a given sum) were called interpretes , while the men holding the cash for inspection were known as sequestres . Religion too could be cynically exploited to influence the outcome. The presiding magistrate, who was an augur , conducted a preliminary search for omens ( auspiciae ) the night before a meeting of the Centuriate Assembly. There are several recorded examples where the auguries were declared unfavorable as a means to suspend a session that was thought unlikely to produce the vote an individual wanted.
    In times of extreme emergency, which meant war on Italian soil, the republic could temporarily suspend the democracy and surrender its powers to a single man called a dictator . Under the Lex de Dictatore Creando , the dictator was required to be someone who had served as consul and his power lasted just six months – long enough to launch a response to the threat to the state, but short enough to prevent it becoming a permanent autocracy. Except for Sulla and Iulius Caesar, there are no recorded instances in which a man held this office for a longer time, and most resigned the dictatorship before their time expired. Iulius Caesar held the position of dictator for just eleven days in 49 BCE, and again in the year 48–47, but in 46 was elected as dictator for a period of ten years. When appointed, the magistrates continued to perform their duties, but rather than looking to the Senate for direction, they answered to the dictator . The exceptions were the tribuni plebis whose roles and responsibilities were unchanged. During his term, the dictator neither had authority over the treasury – except the funds allocated him by the Senate – nor could he leave Italy, nor could he ride a horse in Rome. Unlike the consuls, a dictator was not liable to be called to account for any of his official acts after he had abdicated. Iulius Caesar was unique in being declared dictator perpetuo between January and February 44 BCE. The absolute power it brought him raised the odium of conservative faction ( optimates ) in the Senate which resulted in his assassination on the Ides of March 44 BCE – the date which effectively launched the careers of his heir and of his friend, M. Agrippa.
    The dictator chose a deputy ( magister equitum ) from the pool of former praetors, who would assume his imperium whenever he was away from Rome. The name recalls the time when the magister commanded the cavalry while the dictator led the infantry in the field. After Caesar’s death the dictatorship was abolished forever by a lex proposed by his