Emperor

Emperor (Lat. imperator), a title formerly borne by the heads of the Roman empire, and which in the modern world has become the highest title of sovereignty. In Rome the imperium of a magistrate, whether king or consul, was the power which he possessed of bringing physical force into operation for the fulfilment of his behests. This power was conferred by a lex curiata, and it required this authorisation to entitle a consul to act as the commander of an army. In the case of the kings also the imperium was not implied in their election, but was conferred separately, by a distinct act of the national will. Now it was in virtue of this imperium that the title imperator was given to its possessor. Far from being an emperor in the modern sense, he might be a consul or a pro-consul; and there were, in fact, many imperatores, even after the title had been assumed as a præ-nomen by Julius Cæsar. It was this assumption which gradually gave to the title its modern signification. In republican times it had followed the name, and indicated simply that its possessor was an imperator, or one possessed of the imperium; now it preceded it (see CÆSAR), and signified that he who arrogated it to himself was the emperor. Nor was it, as has often been mistakenly asserted, merely a military command; it included also the supreme judicial and consequently also the administrative power; and under the empire the office was free from the temporal and local limitations which had accompanied its enjoyment during the republic. From the emperors of the West the title passed to Charlemagne, the founder of the Holy Roman Empire. When the Carlovingian family expired in the German branch, the imperial crown became elective, and continued to be so until, in 1806, Francis II. resigned the title, and withdrew to the government of his hereditary dominions, under the title, assumed in 1805, of Emperor of Austria. The title of imperator, like that of basileus (Gr., 'king'), was frequently assumed in England by the Anglo-Saxon monarchs in imitation of their Roman and Byzantine contemporaries. In addition to the Emperor of Austria, there are now in Europe the Emperor of Russia (since 1547; see CZAR) and Emperor of Germany (1871); and in 1876 the Queen of England assumed the title of Empress of India, in addition to those which she bore previously. The First and Second Empires in France were established in 1804 and 1852; in America there have been Haitian emperors and Mexican, and the empire of Brazil (1822) survived till 1890. Also, modern usage applies the title to sundry semi-civilised monarchs, such as the rulers of Morocco, China, and Japan; and the Turkish sultans assumed it on the fall of the eastern empire in 1453.