Information AboutImperium |
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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 ". It is not to be mistaken with '' Auctoritas '' ("authority"). ROMAN ANTIQUITY Imperium as a personal characteristic 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 (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 with imperium had in principle absolute authority to apply the law within the scope of his magistracy or promagistracy (see below), but could be vetoed or overruled by a magistrate or promagistrate having '') 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". Imperium was indicated in two prominent ways. A "curule" magistrate or promagistrate carried an ivory baton surmounted by an eagle as his personal symbol of office (''cf''. Field Marshal 's baton). Any such magistrate was also escorted by Lictor s bearing the Fasces ( Tradition al Symbol s of imperium and authority); when outside the '' Pomerium '', axes were added to the fasces to indicate an "imperial" magistrate's power to enact capital punishment outside of Rome (the axes were removed within the ''pomerium''). The number of lictors in attendance upon a magistrate was an overt indication of the degree of imperium. When in the field, a curule magistrate possessing an imperium greater or equal to praetorian imperium wore a sash ritually knotted on the front of his cuirass. Further any man executing imperium within his sphere of influence was entitled to the Curule Chair .
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 owned 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 Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus 's famous command against Quintus Sertorius, were invested with ''imperium maius'', meaning they outranked all other owners of imperium (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 techical 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. DIVINE AND EARTHLY IMPERIUM In monotheistic religions as Christianity (where the official language, latin, used terms as ''Imperium Dei/Domini'') the Almighty God is held to have a superior imperium, as ultimate King Of Kings , above all earthly powers. Whenever a society accepts this Divine will to be expressed on earth, as by a religious authority, that opens the way for a Theocratic legitimation. If however a secular ruler controls the religious hierarchy, he can use it to legitimate his own authority. Thus absolute, universal power was vested under early Islam in the original Caliphate (before it became the political toy of worldy powers 'behind the throne' and was even politically discarded by essentially secular princes), and later again claimed by Mahdi s. While the Byzantine 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'' (the 'priesthood', i.e. the clergy ministrating the word and will of God) in the person of the Pope and the secular ''imperium'' of the revived western Emperor since Charlemagne. Both would refer to the heritage of Roman law by their titular link with the very city Rome: the Pope, Bishop ''of Rome'', versus the Holy ''Roman'' Emperor (even though his seat of power was north of the Alps). Ironically, the 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 twelfth century quoted it as authoritative. In one bitter episode, pope (1237), only embittered the opposition 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 , etcetera. Thomas Cromwell , the first Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, was the one who suggested to Henry VIII , the Tudor King of England, to undo the Roman Catholic papacy's ''imperium in imperio'' (Latin equivalent of state in the state) by proclaiming the crown Protector and Supreme Head of the Church of England. In Orthodox Russia too, when and synod, the Emperor rules his Church as absolutely as his army and navy through their respective ministries; he appoints its members (mostly bishops) just as his generals; and the Russian Governments continued his policy since. Even in 19th century North America, when by the decree of the President of the United States, Brigham Young , the Mormon Hierarch and head of the Church of the Latter Day Saints, was appointed first Governor of the Territory Of Utah on 28 September, 1851, this was called (politically, not in law) establishing a theocratic form of government there (until it became a regular state) as an ''imperium in imperio'', within the limits of the republic. OTHER USE In theology, ''imperium'' has been used to describe the human Free Will 's 'command' over the lower (i.e. biological) faculties. SOURCES AND REFERENCES (incomplete)
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