SPQR

SPQR is an initialism from a Latin phrase, Senatus Populus que Romanus ("The Senate and People of Rome", see translation), referring to the government of the ancient Roman Republic, and used as an official emblem of the modern day comune (municipality) of Rome. It appears on coins, at the end of documents made public by inscription in stone or metal, in dedications of monuments and public works, and was emblazoned on the standards of the Roman legions. The phrase appears many hundreds of times in Roman political, legal and historical literature, including the speeches of Marcus Tullius Cicero and the history of Titus Livius. Since the meaning and the words never vary, except for the spelling and inflection of populus in literature, Latin dictionaries classify it as a formula.

Translation

In Latin, Senatus is a nominative singular noun meaning "Senate". Populus que is compounded from the nominative noun Populus, "the People", and -que, an enclitic particle meaning "and" which connects the two nominative nouns. The last word, Romanus ("Roman") is an adjective modifying Populus: the "Roman People". Thus, the sentence is translated as the more literal "The Senate and the Roman People", or alternatively as "The Senate and the People of Rome".

Historical context

The phrase's date of origin is not known, but its meaning places it generally after the founding of the Roman Republic. The two legal entities mentioned, Senatus and the Populus Romanus, are sovereign when combined. However, where populus is sovereign alone, Senatus is not. Under the Roman Monarchy neither entity was sovereign. The phrase, therefore, can be dated to no earlier than the foundation of the Republic.

File:Avgustus Aureus.jpg

An aureus with Augustus on the obverse and a winged victory on the reverse with SPQR above

This signature continued in use under the Roman Empire. The emperors were considered the representatives of the people even though the senatus consulta, or decrees of the Senate, were made at the pleasure of the emperor.

Populus Romanus in Roman literature is a phrase meaning the government of the People. When the Romans named governments of other countries they used populus in the singular or plural, such as populi Priscorum Latinorum, "the governments of the Old Latins". Romanus is the established adjective used to distinguish the Romans, as in civis Romanus, "Roman citizen". The locative, Romae, "at Rome", was never used for that purpose.

The Roman people appear very often in law and history in such phrases as dignitas, maiestas, auctoritas, libertas populi Romani, the "dignity, majesty, authority, freedom of the Roman people". They were a populus liber, "a free people". There was an exercitus, imperium, iudicia, honores, consules, voluntas of this same populus: "the army, rule, judgments, offices, consuls and will of the Roman people". They appear in early Latin as Popolus and Poplus, so the habit of thinking of themselves as free and sovereign was quite ingrained.

The Romans believed that all authority came from the people. It could be said that similar language seen in more modern political and social revolutions directly comes from this usage. People in this sense meant the whole government. The latter, however, was essentially divided into the aristocratic Senate, whose will was executed by the consuls and praetors, and the comitia centuriata, "committee of the centuries", whose will came to be safeguarded by the Tribunes.

During the regime of Benito Mussolini, SPQR was emblazoned on a number of public buildings and manhole covers in an attempt to promote his dictatorship as a "New Roman Empire".

Modern variants

Use of SPQR has been revived in modern times, throughout Europe and beyond.

Civic references

SPQx is sometimes used as an assertion of municipal pride and civic rights. Reggio Emilia, for instance, has SPQR in its coat of arms, standing for "Senatus Populusque Regiensis". There have been reports of SPQx from:

Amsterdam, Netherlands, SPQA at one of the major theatres and some of the bridges^[1]
Antwerp, Belgium, SPQA on the Antwerp City Hall^[2]
Benevento, Italy, SPQB on manhole covers^[3]
Bremen, Germany, SPQB in the Town Hall of Bremen^[4]
Bruges, Belgium, SPQB on its coat of arms^[5]
Brussels, Belgium, SPQB found repeatedly on the Law Courts of Brussels,^[6] and over the main stage of La Monnaie/De Munt opera house
Dublin, Ireland, SPQH on the City Hall, Dublin built in 1769
Florence, Italy, SPQF^[3]
Florianópolis, Brazil, SPQF^[3]
Hamburg, Germany, SPQH on a door in the Hamburg Rathaus^[7]
Hannover, Germany
Hasselt, Belgium, SPQH
Kortrijk, Belgium, SPQC, city hall
Leeuwarden, Netherlands, SPQL on the mayor's chain of office^[8]
Liverpool, England, SPQL on various gold doors in St George's Hall^[9]
City of London, England, SPQL^[10]
Lübeck, Germany, SPQL on the Holstentor^[11]
Lucerne, Switzerland
Modica, Italy, SPQM is on the coat of arms
Molfetta, Italy, SPQM is on the coat of arms^[12]
Olomouc, Czech Republic, SPQO on its coat of arms^[3]
Palermo, Italy, SPQP^[13]
Siena, Italy, SPQS^[14]
Solothurn, Switzerland, on the Cathedral of St Ursus and Victor
Terracina, Italy, SPQT^[15]
Tivoli, Italy, SPQT^[16]
Verviers, Belgium, SPQV on the Grand Theatre^[17]
Vienna, Austria^[3]

Popular culture: Humorous backronyms and other uses

A joke in the Vatican tells that Pope John XXIII asked a bishop about the meaning of SPQR, displayed on the personal coat of arms of the Pope, read backwards RQPS. He answered the question himself with: "Rideo Quia Papa Sum" ("I laugh, because I am the Pope").

A humorous backronym of the initialism is the Italian phrase "Sono pazzi questi Romani", which translates into "These Romans are crazy." This phrase is said by Obelix in many translations of Goscinny and Uderzo's of Asterix the Gaul. The original phrase in French was "Ils sont fous ces Romains".

Another Italian backronym is "Sono Porci Questi Romani" - "Those Romans Are Pigs."

Another Italian backronym is "Solo pago quando ricevo" - "I will pay when I get paid."

Yet another Italian backronym (appropriate to Rome) is "Solo preti qui regnano," meaning "Only priests rule here."

Another Italian backronym uses the initialism and also its reverse: "SPQR - RQPS:" "Sapete Più o meno Quanto Rubiamo? - Rubiamo Quanto Possiamo Senza Parole." - "Do you roughly know how much we steal? - We steal as much as we can, without telling anything."

Another humorous meaning is "Small Profits, Quick Returns.

In the movie Gladiator (2000) 'SPQR' is seen marked on the left shoulder of Maximus when he is in the slave traders camp and when he tries to carve it out of his own skin when Juba asks him 'Is that the sign of your gods?'. It is also seen on the entryway into Rome when Commodus returns as its new emperor.

In the book The Lost Hero and The Son of Neptune, 'SPQR' is branded into the left arm of all Roman demigods. Annabeth identifies it as the motto of the Roman Empire.

In the October 1st, 2011 episode, The Wedding of River Song, of the British TV show Doctor Who, the letters SPQR are seen inscribed on buildings, marked on coats of arms, and stitched onto banners all over the alternate-reality city of London, when many time periods are occurring at once. The assumed reason for the letters being present is the fact that Winston Churchill is the Holy Roman Emperor, due to the fact that many aspects of Roman culture are present in this alternate reality.

Gallery

Senatus Populusque Romanus
The inscription in the Arch of Titus
Modern coat of arms of Rome

Modern coat of arms of Rome
Manhole cover in Rome with SPQR inscription
SPQR of in the coat of arms of Reggio Emilia
Detail from the mosaic floor in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan
"Superiority of the warrior class. State 2." Etching by Wenceslaus Hollar, (University of Toronto)
Arch of Septimius Severus top inscription
Dedicatory plaque to Federico Fellini on Via Veneto