Potestas

Under Potestas ( Latin for " power", "authority ", " option " ) understood the Romans a legal power of disposal and power of attorney.

The exact definition of potestas was not clear already in antiquity, especially the distinction between imperium was obviously just out of focus, although there was a tendency, empire as primarily military, potestas, however, especially as civilian official power to conceive. In foreign policy context meant the phrase in potestatem se dedere ( " go under potestas " ) that you submitted to the power of Rome. Private legally significant was the patria potestas, ie the paternal power to dispose of the male head of the family on his kinsmen and slaves, who theoretically even included the right to kill nationals and remained until late antiquity de jure untouched.

Constitutionally was understood under the potestas associated with a specific official powers. A Roman magistrate decreed against holders of public offices that were at the cursus honorum under him, basically about maior potestas ( "superior official authority "). To be distinguished from the potestas is the auctoritas, ie the informal power that was not tied to an office, but in prestige, wealth and patronage. Augustus claimed that the other officers not to be superior to potestas, but only to auctoritas, but this was ultimately a fiction.

Since the late Roman Republic, it happened that office and official authority were separated, so that was awarded potestas, without being tied to the clothing of a corresponding Magistracy. The most important case is that of the authority of the People's Tribune ( tribunicia potestas ), which Gaius Julius Caesar had been transferred already and then in 22 BC should be one of the key forces of the Roman Empire.