IMPĔRĬUM

was under the republic a power, without which no military operation could be carried on as in the name and on the behalf of the state. It was not incident to any office, and was always specially conferred by a lex curiata, that is, a lex pa ed in the comitia curiata. Consequently, not even a consul could act as commander of an army, unle he were empowered by a lex curiata. It could not be held or exercised within the city in the republican period; but it was sometimes conferred specially upon an individual for the day of his triumph within the city, and at least, in some cases, by a plebiscitum. As opposed to potestas, imperium is the power which was conferred by the state upon an individual who was appointed to command an army. The phrases consular is potestas and consul are imperium might both be properly used; but the expre ion tribunitia potestas only could be used, as the tribuni never received the imperium. In respect of his imperium, he who received it was styled imperator . After a victory it was usual for the soldiers to salute their commander as imperator, but this salutation neither gave nor confirmed the title, since the title as a matter of course was given with the imperium. Under the republic the title came properly after the name; thus Cicero, when he was proconsul in Cilicia, could properly style himself M. Tullius Cicero Imperator, for the term merely expre ed that he had the imperium. The emperors Tiberius and Claudius refused to a ume the praenomen of imperator, but the use of it as a praenomen became established among their succe ors. The term imperium was applied in the republican period to expre the sovereignty of the Roman state. Thus Gaul is said by Cicero to have come under the imperium and ditio of the populus Roman us.