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Auctoritas is aLatin word that is the origin of the English word "authority". While historically its use in English was restricted to discussions of the politicalhistory of Rome, the beginning ofphenomenological philosophy in the 20th century expanded the use of the word.
Inancient Rome,auctoritas referred to the level of prestige a person had in Roman society, and, as a consequence, his standing, influence, and ability to rally support around his will.Auctoritas was not merely political, however; it had anuminous content and symbolized the mysterious "power of command" of heroic Roman figures.
Noble women could also achieve a degree ofauctoritas. For example, the wives, sisters, and mothers of theJulio-Claudians had immense influence on society, the masses, and the political apparatus. Theirauctoritas was exercised less overtly than that of their male counterparts due to Roman societal norms, but they were powerful nonetheless.[1]
According to linguistÉmile Benveniste,auctor (which also gives us English "author") is derived from Latinaugeō ("to augment", "to enlarge", "to enrich"). Theauctor is "is qui auget", the one who augments the act or thejuridical situation of another.[2] Arguably,[citation needed] Benveniste defended that Latin "auctoritas" was based on a divine conception of power and not on the individual that happened to the position of authority.
Auctor in the sense of "author", comes fromauctor as founder or, one might say, "planter-cultivator".[citation needed] Similarly,auctoritas refers to rightfulownership, based on one's having "produced" orhomesteaded the article of property in question – more in the sense of "sponsored" or "acquired" than "manufactured". Thisauctoritas would, for example, persist through anusucapio of ill-gotten or abandoned property.
Politically, theRoman Senate's authority (auctoritas patrum) was connected toauctoritas—not to be confused withpotestas orimperium, which were held by themagistrates or thepeople.[citation needed] In this context,auctoritas could be defined as the juridical[citation needed] power to authorize some other act.
The 19th-centuryclassicistTheodor Mommsen describes the "force" ofauctoritas as "more than advice and less than command, an advice which one may not ignore."Cicero says of power and authority,"Cum potestas in populo auctoritas in senatu sit." ("While power resides in the people, authority rests with the Senate.")[3]
In the private domain, those under tutelage (guardianship), such as women and minors, were similarly obliged to seek the sanction of theirtutors ("protectors") for certain actions. Thus,auctoritas characterizes theauctor: Thepater familiasauthorizes—that is, validates and legitimates—his son's weddingin prostate. In this way,auctoritas might function as a kind of "passive counsel", much as, for example, a scholarly authority.
In traditional imperial Rome, exceptions could be made to override legal concepts and rules of law under specific military and political situations. This authority allowed the imperial power to safeguard the state and its citizens. In cases where it was necessary to protect the state, a dictator could be appointed by the senate to temporarily override the fundamental laws and rules of theRoman Constitution.[citation needed]
After the fall of theRepublic, during the days of theRoman Empire, theEmperor had the title ofprinceps ("first citizen" of Rome) and held theauctoritas principis—the suprememoral authority—in conjunction with theimperium andpotestas—the military, judicial, and administrative powers. That is to say, there is a non-committal to a separation of powers, some civil rights, constitutionalism, codified constitutional state and legalist concept of law.[ambiguous]
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The notion ofauctoritas was often invoked by the papacy during the Middle Ages, in order to secure thetemporal power of the Pope.Innocent III most famously invokedauctoritas in order to depose kings and emperors and to try to establish a papaltheocracy.
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Hannah Arendt consideredauctoritas a reference to founding acts as the source of political authority in ancient Rome. She took foundation to include (asaugeō suggests), the continuous conservation and increase of principles handed down from "the beginning" (see alsopietas). According to Arendt, this source of authority was rediscovered in the course of the 18th-centuryAmerican Revolution (see "United States of America" underFounding Fathers), as an alternative to an interveningWestern tradition ofabsolutism, claiming absolute authority, as fromGod (seeDivine Right of Kings), and later fromNature,Reason,History, and even, as in theFrench Revolution,Revolution itself (seeLa Terreur). Arendt views a crisis of authority as common to both the American and French Revolutions, and the response to that crisis a key factor in the relative success of the former and failure of the latter.[4]
Arendt further considered the sense ofauctor andauctoritas in various Latinidioms, and the fact thatauctor was used in contradistinction to – and (at least byPliny) held in higher esteem than –artifices, theartisans to whom it might fall to "merely" build up or implement the author-founder's vision and design.[5]
