Everything about Auctoritas totally explained
Auctoritas is a
Latin word and is the origin of English "
authority". While historically its use in English was restricted to discussions of the political
history of Rome, the beginning of
phenomenological philosophy in the twentieth century changed the use of the word substantially.
In
Ancient Rome,
Auctoritas referred to the general level of prestige a person had in Roman society. And, as a consequence, their clout, influence, and ability to rally support around one's will.
Etymology and origin
According to French linguist
Emile Benveniste,
auctor (which also gives us English "
author") is derived from Latin augeō ("to augment"). The
auctor is "
is qui auget", the one who augments the act or the
juridical situation of another.
Auctor in the sense of "author", comes from
auctor as founder or, one might say, "planter-cultivator". Similarly,
auctoritas refers to rightful
ownership, based on one's having "produced" or
homesteaded the article of property in question - more in the sense of "sponsored" or "acquired" than "manufactured". (See
Hannah Arendt On Auctoritas below.) This
auctoritas would, for example, persist through an
usucapio of ill-gotten or abandoned property.
In the private domain, those under tutelage (guardianship), such as women and minors, were similarly obliged to seek the sanction of their
tutors ("protectors") for certain actions. Thus,
auctoritas characterizes the
auctor: The
pater familias authorizes - that is, validates and legitimates - his son's wedding
in prostate. In this way,
auctoritas might function as a kind of "passive counsel", much as, for example, a scholarly authority.
Political meaning in Ancient Rome
Politically,
auctoritas was connected to the
Roman Senate's authority (
auctoritas patrum), as opposed to
potestas or
imperium (
power), which were held by the
magistrates or the
people. In this context,
Auctoritas could be defined as the juridical power to authorize some other act.
The 19th-century
classicist Theodor Mommsen describes the "force" of
auctoritas as "more than advice and less than command, an advice which one may not safely ignore." Cicero says of power and authority,
"Cum potestas in populo auctoritas in senatu sit." ("While power resides in the people, authority rests with the Senate.")
A popular translation is 'the ability to make people do what you want, just by being who you are.'
Auctoritas principis
After the fall of the
Republic, during the days of the
Roman Empire, the Emperor had the title of
princeps ("first citizen" of Rome) and held the
auctorictas principis - the supreme moral authority -, in conjunction with the imperium and potestas - the military, judiciary and administrative powers.
Hannah Arendt
Hannah Arendt considers
auctoritas a reference to founding acts as the source of political authority in Ancient Rome. She takes foundation to include (as
augeō suggests), the continuous conservation and increase of principles handed down from "the beginning" (see also
pietas). According to Arendt, this source of authority was rediscovered in the course of the
18th-century American Revolution (see "United States of America" under
Founding Fathers), as an alternative to an intervening
Western tradition of
absolutism, claiming absolute authority, as from
God (see
Divine Right of Kings), and later from
Nature,
Reason,
History, and even, as in the
French Revolution,
Revolution itself (see
La Terreur). Arendt views a crisis of authority as common to both the American and French Revolutions, and the response to that crisis a key factor in the relative success of the former and failure of the latter.
Arendt further considers the sense of
auctor and
auctoritas in various Latin
idioms, and the fact that
auctor was used in contradistinction to - and (at least by
Pliny) held in higher esteem than -
artifices, the
artisans to whom it might fall to "merely" build up or implement the author-founder's vision and design.
Giorgio Agamben
Philosopher
Giorgio Agamben suggests a relationship between the Roman
auctoritas,
Max Weber's "
charismatic power", and
Carl Schmitt's theoretical/ideological basis for the
Nazi Führertum doctrine. Agamben compares
auctoritas to the
Führer (who embodies
nomos empsuchon or "living law") in their relationship to the observance of
gramma (written law).
Further Information
Get more info on 'Auctoritas'.
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