EMPEROR (Lat. imperator). The original signification of this, which in the modern world has become the highest title of sovereignty, can be understood only when it is taken in conjunction with imperium, which in the Roman political system had a peculiar and somewhat technical meaning. The imperium of a magistrate, be lie king or consul, was the power which he possessed of bringing physical force into operation for the fulfillment of his behests. This power was conferred by a lea; curiata, and it required this authorization 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 separate act of the national will. " On the death of king Pompilius," says Cicero, "the populus in the comitia curiata elected Tullus Hostilius king, upon the rogation of an interrox; and the king, following the example of Pompilins, took the votes of the populus, according to their curia, on the question of his ii. 17. 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 prenomen by Julius Caesar, 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, and signified that he who arrogated it to himself was the emperor. In this form it appears on the coins of the successors of Julius. After the
times of the Antonines, the title grew into use as expressing the possessor of the sover eignty of the Roman world, in which sense princtp also was frequently employed. In the introduction to the Institutes, Justinian uses both, in speaking of himself, in the same paragraph. From the emperors of the west, the title passed to Charlemagne, the founder of the German empire. When the Carlovingian family expired in the German branch, the imperial crown became elective, and continued to be so till it ceased— Francis II., who in 1804 had declared himself hereditary emperor of Austria, having laid it down in 1806. In addition to the emperor of Austria, there are now in Europe the emperor of Russia and emperor of Germany, the latter of whom, was, on Jan. 18, 1871, proclaimed under this title within the hall of mirrors, in the palace of the French. kings. at Versailles, in the presence of the German princes, and the standards of the German army which was beleaguering Paris. In 1876 the queen of England assumed the title of empress of India, in addition to those which she bore previously.