Imperium: Difference between revisions

 

== Ancient Rome ==

 

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]].