Imperium

:This article is about the meaning of the Latin term Imperium in ancient Rome: for other uses, see Imperium (disambiguation)

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Imperium can, in a broad sense, be translated as power. In Antiquity this concept could apply to people, and mean something like "power status" or "authority", or could be used with a geographical connotation and mean something like "territory".

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In ancient Rome "imperium" could be used as a term indicating a characteristic of people, the measure of power they had. This qualification could be used in a rather loose context (like for example poets used it, not necessarily writing about state officials), but in the Roman society it was also a more formal concept of legal authority. A man owning imperium had absolute authority within the scope of his magistracy or promagistracy (see below), but could be vetoed or overruled by a magistrate or promagistrate owning a higher degree of imperium. Some modern scholars (e.g. A.H.M. Jones) have defined it as "the power vested by the state in a person to do what they consider to be in the best interests of the state".

Latin: Latin is an Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages are descended from Latin, and many words based on Latin are found in other modern languages such as English. The ...

Ancient Rome: Ancient Rome was a civilization that existed in Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East between 753 BC and its downfall in AD 476. For several centuries, the Romans controlled the whole of Western Europe, as well as the entire area surrounding the Mediterranean Sea and some of the area surrounding...

Imperium (disambiguation): Imperium may mean:...