Imperium

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For other uses, see Imperium (disambiguation).

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In ancient Rome, imperium was a form of authority held by a citizen to control a military or governmental entity. It is distinct from auctoritas and potestas, different and generally inferior types of power in the Roman Republic and Empire. One's imperium could be over a specific military unit, or it could be over a province or territory. Individuals given such power were referred to as curule magistrates or promagistrates. These included the curule aedile, the praetor, the consul, the magister equitum, and the dictator. In a general sense, imperium was the scope of someone's power, and could include anything, such as public office, commerce, political influence, or wealth.

Ancient Rome

Imperium originally meant absolute or kingly power—the word being derived from the Latin verb imperare (to command)—which became somewhat limited under the Republic by the collegiality of the republican magistrates and the right of appeal, or provocatio, on the part of citizens. Imperium remained absolute in the army, and the power of the imperator (army commander) to punish remained uncurtailed. The title imperator later was exclusively held by the emperor, as the commander of the armed forces. In fact, the Latin word imperator is the root of the English word emperor.[1][2]

In ancient Rome, imperium could be used as a term indicating a characteristic of people, their wealth in property, or the measure of formal power they had. This qualification could be used in a rather loose context (for example, poets used it, not necessarily writing about state officials). However, in Roman society, it was also a more formal concept of

legal authority. A man with imperium (an imperator) had, in principle, absolute authority to apply the law within the scope of his magistracy or promagistracy. He could be vetoed or overruled either by a magistrate or promagistrate who was a colleague with equal power (e.g., a fellow consul), by one whose imperium outranked his – that is, one of imperium maius (greater imperium), or by a tribune of the plebs
.

Some modern scholars such as A. H. M. Jones have defined imperium as "the power vested by the state in a person to do what he considers to be in the best interests of the state".[citation needed]

Imperium was indicated in two prominent ways: a

curule chair
.

  • Curule aedile (aedilis curulis) – 2 lictors
    • Since a plebeian aedile (aedilis plebis) was not vested with imperium, he was not escorted by lictors.
  • Magister equitum (the dictator's deputy) – 6 lictors
  • Praetor – 6 lictors (2 lictors within the pomerium)
  • Consul – 12 lictors each
  • Lucius Sulla
    the latter rule was ignored.
    • To symbolize that the dictator could enact capital punishment within Rome as well as without, his lictors did not remove the axes from their fasces within the pomerium.

As can be seen, dictatorial imperium was superior to consular, consular to praetorian, and praetorian to aedilician; there is some historical dispute as to whether or not praetorian imperium was superior to "equine-magisterial" imperium. A promagistrate, or a man executing a curule office without actually holding that office, also possessed imperium in the same degree as the actual incumbents (i.e., proconsular imperium being more or less equal to consular imperium, propraetorian imperium to praetorian) and was attended by an equal number of lictors.

Certain extraordinary commissions, such as Pompey's famous command against the pirates, were invested with imperium maius, meaning they outranked all other holders of imperium of the same type or rank (in Pompey's case, even the consuls) within their sphere of command (his being "ultimate on the seas, and within 50 miles inland"). Imperium maius later became a hallmark of the Roman emperor.

Another technical use of the term in

jurisconsults
.

Later Roman Empire

While the Byzantine

Eastern Roman Emperors
retained full Roman imperium and made the episcopate subservient, in the feudal West a long rivalry would oppose the claims to supremacy within post-Roman Christianity between sacerdotium in the person of the Pope and the secular imperium of the Holy Roman Emperor, beginning with Charlemagne, whose title was claimed to have "restored" the office of Western Roman Emperor among the new kingdoms of Western Europe. Both would refer to the heritage of Roman law by their titular link with the very city of Rome: the Pope, Bishop of Rome, versus the Holy Roman Emperor (even though his seat of power was north of the Alps).

The

Michael Cærularius, Patriarch of Constantinople, to show that the Holy See possessed both an earthly and a heavenly imperium, the royal priesthood. Thenceforth, the "Donatio" acquires more importance and is more frequently used as evidence in the ecclesiastical and political conflicts between the papacy and the secular power: Anselm of Lucca and Cardinal Deusdedit inserted it in their collections of canons; Gratian
excluded it from his Decretum, but it was soon added to it as Palea; the ecclesiastical writers in defence of the papacy during the conflicts of the early part of the 12th century quoted it as authoritative.

In one bitter episode,

papal states
, et cetera).

Divine and earthly imperium

In some monotheistic religions such as Christianity (the Catholic Church where the official language, Latin, used terms as Imperium Dei/Domini) the Divine is held to have a superior imperium, as ultimate

theocratic
legitimation. However, the Catholic Church and most other Christian groups acknowledge the authority of secular governments. If, however, a secular ruler controls the religious hierarchy, he can use it to legitimize his own authority.

Thus absolute, universal power was vested under early Islam in the original Caliphate, and later again claimed by Mahdi.[citation needed]

The chief minister of

Imperial Crown Protector and Supreme Head of the Church of England.[citation needed
]

In Orthodox Russia, too, when

Ober-Procurator
and synod, the Emperor ruled his Church as absolutely as the military through their respective ministries; he appointed its members just as he did generals; and the Russian Government continued his policy until the end of the empire in 1917.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Etymology of the word emperor". Retrieved 13 January 2018.
  2. ISBN 978-0-19-866172-6
    . Retrieved 31 October 2020.

Further reading

  • Cary, M. (1967). A History of Rome Down to the Reign of Constantine (2nd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Press. pp. 56–58, 79, 80, 115, 124, 249, 476, 479, 492.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Donation of Constantine". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

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