DIODORUS AND THE LENGTH OF THE <i>SOLITVDO MAGISTRATVVM</i>

Abstract In this note I argue that the generally accepted view that Diodorus preserved a tradition which limited the fourth-century anarchy in Rome to one year is groundless, and that the author’s confused chronology of the Early and Middle Republic strongly suggests that in the source he followed the solitudo magistratuum lasted several years, as in other reports.