REPUBLIC is derived immediately from the French ripublique, and ultimately from the Latin res publica. The Latin expression res publica is defined, by Faeciolati, to be " res commithis et publica civium una viventium," and corresponds very closely with the English word commonwealth, as used in its largest acceptation for a political society. The Latin word res publica might be applied to a community under a monarchical government; thus Augustus is said in a passage of Capita, a Roman lawyer, to have governed the res publiea (Gellius, xiii. 12); the word, however, was more applicable to a society having a popular government than to a society having a monarchical goveni ment; thus Cicero denies that the name of res publica can be pro perly given to a community which is grievously oppressed by the rule of a single man : " Ergo Main rem populi, id eat rem publican], quis diecret turn, quum erudelitate Indus oppressi essent universi ; neque onset ununi vinculum juris, nee coneensus ac societaa coetus, quod est populus " (' De Rep.,' iii. 31).
A republic, according to the modern usage of the word, signifies a political community which is not under monarchical government, or, In other words, a political community in which one person does not possess the entire sovereign power. Dr. Johnson, in his dictionary, defines a republic to be "a. state in which the power is lodged in more than one." Since a republic is a political community in which several persona share the sovereign power, it comprehends the two classes of aristocracies and democracies, the differences between which are ex plained under ARISTOCRACY and DEMOCRACY.
The word republic is sometimes understood to be equivalent to democracy, and the word republican is considered as equivalent to democrat ; but this restricted sense of the words appears to be in accurate'; for aristocratic communities, such as Sparta, Rome in early times, and Venice, have always been called republics.