Inancient Rome,imperium was a form of authority held by acitizen to control a military or governmental entity. It is distinct fromauctoritas andpotestas, different and generally inferior types of power in theRoman Republic andEmpire. One'simperium could be over a specificmilitary unit, or it could be over aprovince or territory. Individuals given such power were referred to as curulemagistrates orpromagistrates. These included the curuleaedile, thepraetor, theconsul, themagister equitum, and thedictator. 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.
Imperium originally meantabsolute or kingly power—the word being derived from the Latin verbimperare (to command)—which became somewhat limited under the Republic by the collegiality of the republican magistrates and the right of appeal, orprovocatio, on the part of citizens.Imperium remained absolute in the army, and the power of theimperator (army commander) to punish remained uncurtailed. The titleimperator later was exclusively held by the emperor, as the commander of the armed forces. In fact, the Latin wordimperator is the root of the English wordemperor.[1][2]
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 oflegal authority. A man withimperium (animperator) had, in principle, absolute authority to apply the law within the scope of hismagistracy orpromagistracy. He could bevetoed or overruled either by a magistrate or promagistrate who was a colleague with equal power (e.g., a fellowconsul), by one whoseimperium outranked his – that is, one ofimperium maius (greaterimperium), or by atribune of the plebs.
Some modernscholars such asA. H. M. Jones have definedimperium as "the power vested by the state in a person to do what he considers to be in the best interests of the state".[3]
Imperium was indicated in two prominent ways: acurule magistrate or promagistrate carried an ivory baton surmounted by an eagle as his personal symbol of office;[4] any such magistrate was also escorted bylictors bearing thefasces (traditional symbols ofimperium and authority), when outside thepomerium, axes being added to thefasces to indicate an imperial magistrate's power to inflict capital punishment outside Rome (the axes being removed within thepomerium). The number of lictors inattendance upon a magistrate was an overt indication of the degree ofimperium. When in the field, acurule magistrate possessing animperium greater or equal to that of apraetor wore a sash ritually knotted on the front of hiscuirass. Furthermore, any man executingimperium within his sphere of influence was entitled to thecurule chair.
As can be seen, dictatorialimperium was superior to consular, consular to praetorian, and praetorian to aedilician; there is some historical dispute as to whether or not praetorianimperium was superior to "equine-magisterial"imperium. Apromagistrate, or a man executing acurule office without actually holding that office, also possessedimperium in the same degree as the actual incumbents (i.e., proconsularimperium being more or less equal to consularimperium, propraetorianimperium to praetorian) and was attended by an equal number oflictors.
Certain extraordinarycommissions, such asPompey's famous command against thepirates, were invested withimperium maius, meaning they outranked all other holders ofimperium of the same type or rank (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 theRoman emperor.
Another technical use of the term inRoman law was for the power to extend thelaw beyond its mere interpretation, extendingimperium from formal legislators under the ever-republican constitution: popular assemblies, senate, magistrates, emperor and their delegates to thejurisprudence ofjurisconsults.
While the ByzantineEastern Roman Emperors retained full Romanimperium and made the episcopate subservient, in the feudal West a long rivalry would oppose the claims to supremacy within post-Roman Christianity betweensacerdotium in the person of the Pope and the secularimperium 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, Bishopof Rome, versus the HolyRoman Emperor (even though his seat of power was north of the Alps).
TheDonatio Constantini, by which the Papacy had allegedly been granted the territorialPatrimonium 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 toMichael Cærularius, Patriarch of Constantinople, to show that the Holy See possessed both an earthly and a heavenlyimperium, 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 andCardinal Deusdedit inserted it in their collections of canons;Gratian excluded it from hisDecretum, but it was soon added to it asPalea; 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 theHoly Roman EmperorFrederick 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 theimperium animarum ("command of the souls", i.e. voicing God's will to the faithful) and theprincipatus rerum et corporum in universo mundo ("primacy over all things and bodies in the whole world"), while the Emperor wished to restore theimperium 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 thebattle 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., thepapal states, et cetera).
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Donation of Constantine".Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
