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{{Short description|Type of authority in ancient Rome}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Wiktionary}}
In [[ancient Rome]], '''''imperium''''' was a form of authority held by a [[Roman citizenship|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 [[Roman Empire|Empire]]. One's ''imperium'' could be over a specific [[Roman legion|military unit]], or it could be over a [[Roman province|province or territory]]. Individuals given such power were referred to as curule [[Roman magistrate|magistrates]] or [[promagistrate]]s. These included the curule [[aedile]], the [[praetor]], the [[Roman consul|consul]], the ''[[magister equitum]]'', and the [[Roman dictator|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.▼
▲In [[ancient Rome]], '''''imperium''''' was a form of authority held by a [[Roman citizenship|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 [[Roman Empire|Empire]]. One's ''imperium'' could be over a specific [[Roman legion|military unit]], or it could be over a [[Roman province|province or territory]]. Individuals given such power were referred to as curule [[Roman magistrate|magistrates]] or [[promagistrate]]s. These included the curule [[aedile]], the [[praetor]], the [[Roman consul|consul]], the [[magister equitum]], and the [[Roman dictator|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 [[Monarchy|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 ''[[Valerian and Porcian laws|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''.<ref>{{cite web|title=Etymology of the word emperor|url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/emperor|access-date=13 January 2018}}</ref><ref name="OCD1996">{{cite encyclopedia |editor1-last=Hornblower |editor1-first=Simon |editor1-link=Simon Hornblower |editor2-last=Spawforth |editor2-first=Antony |title=Imperium |url=https://archive.org/details/TheOxfordClassicalDictionary/page/n807/mode/2up |date=1996 |pages=751–752 |encyclopedia=[[Oxford Classical Dictionary]] |edition=3rd |location=Oxford and New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-866172-6 |ref={{sfnref|OCD|1996}} |access-date=31 October 2020}}
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 [[magistrate|magistracy]] or [[promagistrate|promagistracy]]. He could be [[veto]]ed or overruled either by a magistrate or promagistrate who was a colleague with equal power (e.g. a fellow [[Roman consul|consul]]), by one whose ''imperium'' outranked his – that is, one of ''imperium maius'' (greater ''imperium''), or by a [[Tribune of the plebs|tribune of the people]].▼
</ref>
▲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 [[Right|legal authority]]. A man with ''imperium'' (an ''
Some modern [[scholar]]s 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".{{cn|date=December 2015}}▼
▲Some modern [[scholar]]s 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".<ref>{{
''Imperium'' was indicated in two prominent ways
* 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 [[Roman dictator|dictator]]'s deputy) – 6 lictors
* [[Praetor]] – 6 lictors (2 lictors within the pomerium)
* [[Roman consul|Consul]] – 12 lictors each
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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 [[
Another technical use of the term in [[Roman law]] was for the power to extend the [[law]] beyond its mere interpretation, extending ''imperium'' from formal legislators under the ever-republican constitution: popular assemblies, senate, magistrates, emperor and their delegates to the [[jurisprudence]] of [[jurisconsult]]s.
== Later Roman Empire ==
While the Byzantine [[Byzantine Emperor|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 ''[[Donation of Constantine|Donatio Constantini]]'', by which the Papacy had allegedly been granted the territorial [[Patrimonium Petri]] in Central Italy, became a weapon against the Emperor. The first pope who used it in an official act and relied upon it, [[Leo IX]], cites the "Donatio" in a letter of 1054 to [[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 [[Deusdedit of San Pietro in Vincoli|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, [[Pope Gregory IX]], who had several times mediated between the Lombards and the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor|Frederick II]], reasserted his right to arbitrate between the contending parties. In the numerous manifestos of the Pope and the Emperor the antagonism between Church and State became more evident: the Pope claimed for himself the ''imperium animarum'' ("command of the souls", i.e. voicing God's will to the faithful) and the ''principatus rerum et corporum in universo mundo'' ("primacy over all things and bodies in the whole world"), while the Emperor wished to restore the ''imperium mundi'', ''imperium'' (as under Roman Law) over the (now Christian) world. Rome was again to be the capital of the world and Frederick was to become the real emperor of the Romans, so he energetically protested against the authority of the Pope. The emperor's successes, especially his victory over the Lombards at the [[battle of Cortenuova]] (1237), only aggravated tensions between Church and State. The pope again excommunicated the "self-confessed heretic", the "blasphemous beast of the Apocalypse" (20 March 1239) who now attempted to conquer the rest of Italy (i.e., the [[papal states]], et cetera).
== See also ==
{{Portal|Ancient Rome}}
* [[Constitution of the Roman Republic]]
* [[Cursus honorum]]
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== References ==
{{reflist}}
== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |last=Cary |first=M. |title=A History of Rome Down to the Reign of Constantine |date=1967 |edition=2nd |location=New York |publisher=St. Martin's Press |pages=56–58, 79, 80, 115, 124, 249, 476, 479, 492 }}
{{Ancient Rome topics}}
{{Catholic|wstitle=Donation of Constantine}}
▲{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2011}}
▲{{Italic title}}
[[Category:Ancient Roman government]]
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