Benito Mussolini Mussolini was rescued from captivity in the Gran Sasso raid by German paratroopers and "Waffen-SS" commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors. Adolf Hitler, after meeting with the rescued former dictator, then put Mussolini in charge of a puppet regime in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic (, RSI), informally known as the "Salò Republic". In late April 1945, in the wake of near total defeat, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland, but both were captured by Italian communist partisans and summarily executed by firing squad on 28 April 1945 near Lake Como. His body was
Dictator perpetuo the next ten years. At some point between January and February 44 BCE he was appointed "dictator perpetuo", but was assassinated less than two months later (on the Ides of March). "Dictator perpetuo" is often mistranslated as "dictator for life", but the title did not imply that Caesar would never resign it. Weinstock has argued that the perpetual dictatorship was part of the senatorial decrees regarding Caesar's divine honors, as well as his planned apotheosis as "Divus Iulius", a complex of honors aimed at eternity and divinity. Dictator perpetuo Dictator perpetuo (English: "dictator in perpetuity"), also called dictator in perpetuum,