There were two extraordinary magistrates: the dictator and the "magister equitum" (literally: master of horse). Dictators were selected by the consuls to resolve some crisis threatening the Republic and served for a term of around six months before they were expected to resign and return their powers to the ordinary magistrates. The "magister equitum" was then appointed by the dictator as his lieutenant. The dictatorship was only used in the early and middle Republic, before falling out of fashion after the end of the Second Punic War only to be revived during the time of Sulla as an extraconstitutional measure, not to defeat some foe or quell unrest, but rather, to bring stability to the political order.