Emperor

(èm'pur-or.) [From L. imperator, one who commands.] (Hist.) Among the anc. Romans, the title imperator was conferred on a victorious general; but on the fall of the republic, it was applied to the head of the state in the person of August us Cæsar, 27 B. c. The emperors thenceforward appointed their own succe ors, who enjoyed the title of Cesars. The line of EasternE commenced with Valens, 364. Charlemagne a umed the imperial dignity after his coronation at Rome, and it has ever since been claimed by the sovereigns of Germany. When the German empire was di olved in 1805, the title pa ed to the E. of Austria. The Turkish empire was inaugurated under Ottoman (Othman) I., in 1299. In Ru ia, Peter I. a umed the style of Czar (Cæsar), or E. of all the Ru ias, in 1721. Napoleon I. (Bonaparte) declared himself E. of the French, May 18, 1801. Dom Pedro of Portugal became E. of Brazil by popular election in 1825, and Soulouque, under the title of Faustin I., was proclaimed E. of Hayti (San Domingo) in 1849. The French empire was restored under Napoleon III., 1852, and terminated in 1871. In the last-named year, William I., king of Pru ia, was declared E. of Germany by the unanimous voice of the German princes and peoples. [s. 329]