Cancel Report. Create a new account. Log In. Know what is SPQR? Got another good explanation for SPQR? Don't keep it to yourself! Add it HERE! Still can't find the acronym definition you were looking for? Use our Power Search technology to look for more unique definitions from across the web! Search the web. Citation Use the citation options below to add these abbreviations to your bibliography. Powered by CITE. It was customary for the Fetial to carry to the enemies' frontiers a blood-smeared spear tipped with iron or burnt at the end, and, in the presence of at least three adults, to say, "Inasmuch as the peoples of the Prisci Latini have been guilty of wrong against the People of Rome and the Quirites, and inasmuch as the People of Rome and the Quirites have ordered that there be war with the Prisci Latini, and the Senate of the People of Rome and the Quirites have determined and decreed that there shall be war with the Prisci Latini, therefore I and the People of Rome, declare and make war upon the peoples of the Prisci Latini.
This was the way in which at that time satisfaction was demanded from the Latins and war declared, and posterity adopted the custom. English translation.
What is your opinion? Do you have any evidence? Do you know of any uses of the abbreviation before the imperial period? Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Use precise geolocation data. Select personalised content. Create a personalised content profile. Measure ad performance. Although Constantine would use SPQR as part of his propaganda in the early 4th century CE, it fell out of favor in the period of the later Roman empire. It would resurface in the high medieval period.
And just as Augustus had manipulated the iconic abbreviation for his own agenda, it would again be repurposed and reinterpreted to fit the needs of the institution and the institutor. It notably does not have SPQR on it, but does have the goddess Victory holding a wreath to crown a victor image via Wikimedia.
Professor and medieval historian Carrie E. SPQR and this false vision of Rome continued to be a canvas upon which others could both project their own meaning while still conjuring a familiar visual connection to the bygone power of an empire.
This was to become particularly true with the political movements of the early 20th century. Then the image of Rome took a new direction during the invasion of Abyssinia and the declaration of an Italian empire in In the third phase in the late s a climate of increasing racism was created and the Romans and the Latin language were used to define the supposed physical and spiritual and cultural superiority of the modern Italians.
His stamps of power used the familiar Roman abbreviation. Mussolini also popularized the use of SPQR manhole covers seen across the urban landscape of the city even today, though the practice predated him by a number of years.
Encouraging popular unity through the use of a familiar symbols of power is and was a common tactic of Fascism. Historical fiction, TV shows, and videogames focused on ancient Rome have all perpetuated the use of SPQR as symbolic of the Roman military, which may have influenced white nationalist groups to adopt it as well.
Their use of tattoos , t-shirts, and flags that provide an aesthetic rallying point and the visual equivalent of a dog whistle has not gone unnoticed by Dozier and others attempting to translate the icons of the alt-right.
Historians are quick to point out that Roman antiquity is not the only historical period that white nationalists have appropriated or borrowed from.
Cord Whitaker, a professor of English at Wellesley College, noted:. Along with the adaptation of Mussolini-era uses of SPQR, the alt-right, neo-Nazis, and other racist groups have taken up the writings of Italian philosopher and pseudo-medievalist Julius Evola.
Other historians have also pointed out the penchant for ignoring the factual history of the abbreviation and seizing upon their own fiction of the past. One of them is Dame Mary Beard , who has herself waded into discussions of race and ethnicity with some success, but who has also been criticized for colonialist language. In some ways it is a slogan that is very hard to pin down which I rather like … and the fact that it is still all over the place in modern Rome helps that un-pin-down-ability.
Still, Beard believes the appropriation is perhaps more prevalent in the U. The key to understanding the use and abuse of SPQR for over two millennia is perhaps flexibility. While not all applications of SPQR are meant to reference white supremacist ideals, the current work of classicists, medievalists, and modern historians to isolate, translate, and then underscore its current abuse has been heartening to many who wish to understand how the past has become distorted in the lens of the alt-right.
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Where we find the following explanation below in quoted text. I have structured it with some captions. Edit: I traced the source back to an earlier version of the Wikipedia entry. But the following text originally from an older version of the SPQR Wikipedia entry should still offer a good summary:. It currently appears in the modern coat of arms of the city of Rome, as capably as on many of the city's civic buildings and manhole covers.
The latter be originally placed by order of Mussolini, who frequently used SPQR as propaganda for his regime. The initialism itself is subject to ongoing debate, beside divergent phrases and translations offered as explanations. Like any translation, initialisms are of debatable importance and accuracy, as the meaning of words are subject to both change and complexity. Its aim was probably of archaic cause even during ancient Roman times. P is disputed, some see in it Populus or Populusque, "the people" and "and the people", respectively.
Q is disputed, it stood any for que "and" , or Quirites or Quiritium both of which mean "spearmen". Originally adjectives Roman citizens had be soldiers. R probably stood for Romae, Romanus or Romanorum, translated into "of Rome", "Roman" or "of the Romans", respectively. All this leads to divergent phrases:. This initialism is given by Castiglioni and Mariotti, authors of a renowned Latin dictionary, among other scholar.
Senatus Populusque Quiritium Romanorum This version is remarkably similar to the journal above and follows the same logic, self translated as the "Senate and people of the Roman citizens. Senatus Populusque Romanus The Senate and the Roman family This version started to be used since a completely early stage of the Roman republic, and subsequently continued to be used during the Roman empire.
As such, it appears in most of the top monuments and documents. Senatus Populusque Romae. Populus purpose "people", the suffix que meaning "and", and Romae characterization "of Rome". This version have the great merit that its English translation is simply the better sounding one, but its historical accuracy is notably dubious.
The english translation is used in masses movies and TV series about ancient Rome. One have to realize that a citizen of Rome was expected to come to blows for the Roman republic. The people of Rome would include women, children, and probably even slaves. All these classes were a member of the Roman people but not citizens of the Roman republic. A free Roman manly who had adjectives the rights and fulfilled his duties, who was competent and willing to be at odds for the republic and the people be a citizen, a member of an restricted, in effect a subgroup inwardly the people.
Therefore, a citizen would originally be call a Quiris - a "spearman". This can also be seen contained by the original denomination of the citizens right: "Ius civile Quiritium".
On a trustworthy occasion Julius Caesar subdued a insurrectionary legion by apparently accepting adjectives their demands and then famously address them with: "Quirites" - "citizens" Suetonius: Divus Julius The shocked legionaries cried out, reaffirming their loyalty towards their beloved common.
Perhaps a more accurate modern translation of the original target would be: "The Senate and the Citizens of the People of Rome. It wouldn't be chic Latin, but understood. An online version of the book can be found here. Words written in abbreviated form consist either of the initial letter si n g u la or of a continuous group of letters more or less restricted in number. In the latter case the final letter of the abbreviation is the first consonant of a syllable, but this is not an exact rule.
If a word is composed of several members, the above rule applies either to the word treated as a whole or to each of the component parts regarded as individual words. This in theory is the system of abbreviations up to the end of the third century A.
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