Note 11 — Chapter I · CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH, B.C. 63-44

The difficulty was that both consuls were absent. There was no one therefore capable of holding a consular election. But as the other curule magistrates still existed, “the auspicia had not returned to the Fathers,” who could not therefore name an interrex. The Prætor Lepidus—though willing—could not “create” a maius imperium. The only way out of it was to name a Dictator (com. hab. causa); but one of the consuls, according to tradition, could alone do that. Eventually Lepidus, by a special vote of the people was authorised to name Cæsar as Dictator—which had precedents in the cases of Fabius Maximus and Sulla—and Cæsar, as Dictator, held the consular elections. Cæs., b. c. ii, 21; Dio, 41, 36.