=--In the new regime absolute authority was lodged in a
single man; he was called the emperor (imperator--the commander). In
himself alone he exercised all those functions which the ancient
magistrates distributed among themselves: he presided over the Senate;
he levied and commanded all the armies; he drew up the lists of
senators, knights, and people; he levied taxes; he was supreme judge;
he was pontifex maximus; he had the power of the tribunes. And to
indicate that this authority made him a superhuman being, it was
decreed that he should bear a religious surname: Augustus (the
venerable).
The empire was not established by a radical revolution. The name of
the republic was not suppressed and for more than three centuries the
standards of the soldiers continued to bear the initials S.P.Q.R.
(senate and people of Rome). The emperor's power was granted to him
for life instead of for one year, as with the old magistrates. The
emperor was the only and lifelong magistrate of the republic. In him
the Roman people was incarnate; this is why he was absolute.
=Apotheosis of the Emperor.=--As long as the emperor lived he was sole
master of the empire, since the Roman people had conveyed all its
power to him.
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