PRINCE (Lat. princeps, from priftrus, first, and capio, I take), an epithet which was miginally applied to the princeps senates of the Roman state, and afterward became a title of dignity. It was adopted by Augustus and his successors; hence the word was afterward applied to persons enjoying kingly power, more especially the rulers of small states, either sovereign, as in the case of the ancient princes of Wales, or dependent, like the rulers of certain states in Germany. The title is now very generally applied to the sons of kings and emperors, and persons of the blood-royal. In various parts of con tinental Europe, the title prince is borne by families of eminent rank, but not possessed of sovereignty; and in England a duke is, in strict heraldic language, entitled to be styled "high puissant and most noble prince," and a marquis or earl as "most noble and puissant prince." Practically, however, in Britain, the term prince is restricted to
members of the royal family. The eldest son of the reigning sovereign Is by a special patent created prince of Wales, and this is the only case in which the title prince is con nected with a territorial distinction. In Germany, the ambiguity of applying the same title to the members of royal houses and princely families, not sovereign, is avoided, the former being styled " print," the latter "ffirst." The German fiirst takes rank below the duke (herzog). Most of the counts who had a seat in the old German diet were elevated to the dignity of prince on their acquiescence in the dismemberment of the German empire. In a more general acceptation, the term prince is often used for a sovereign or the ruler of a state.