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By the time of the Enlightenment, many admirers of Rome saw the institution of having two Executives as one of the chief flaws of the Republic. The American Founding Fathers are an excellent example, with the Federalist Papers having no qualms about dismissing such divided rule. Of course, the Romans themselves implicitly admitted this by virtue of the existence of the office of Dictator.

The challenge, therefore, is to devise a scenario in which the Roman Republic has one man as the supreme executive, elected regularly (so the Augustan Principate, no matter how much window-dressing you give it, does not count).

Now, there were plenty of times that the Romans were perfectly happy to appoint a Dictator for just about any reason. This also does not count. You can evolve the office of Dictator if you think that is the best course of action, but the office must be a regularly elected office; in other words, there should always be someone holding that title.
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