Public property Res publica usually is something held in common by many people. For instance, a park or garden in the city of Rome could either be private property (
res privata) or managed by the state, in which case it would be part of the
res publica.
State or commonwealth Taking everything together that is of public interest leads to the connotation that
res publica in general equals "the state". For Romans, the state equaled the
Roman Empire and all its interests, so
Res Publica may also refer to the
Roman Empire as a whole, regardless of whether it was governed as a
republic or under
imperial reign. In this context, scholars suggest
commonwealth as a more accurate and neutral translation of the Latin term, as it implies neither
republican governance nor
imperial rule, but rather refers to the state as a whole; however, translating
res publica as "republic" when it clearly refers to the Roman Empire
under Imperial reign sometimes occurs.
Roman Republic Roman authors would use the phrase
res publica in the context of the era when Rome was governed as a republic: the era between the
Roman Kingdom and
Roman Empire. So in this case,
res publica does distinctly
not refer to the Roman
Empire, but to what is generally described as the
Roman Republic.
Public affairs or institutions Res publica could also be used in a generic meaning, referring to "public affairs" and/or the general system of government of a state. In this usage,
res publica translated the Greek concept
politeia (which originally meant the state organisation of a
city-state). Also, for a Roman politician engaging himself in the
res publica, a translation can often be the even more generic "being occupied in politics".
Other uses Even when limited to its "political" connotations, the meanings of the term
res publica in ancient Rome are diverse and multi-layered, and differing from the Greek
politeia in many ways, that is, from the several interwoven meanings the word
politeia had; however, it is also the customary Latin translation of
politeia, and the modern name of
Plato's The Republic comes from this usage. In some contexts, the "state organisation system" meaning of
res publica derives into something like "constitution", although a constitution, properly speaking, is a much more modern concept. Ancient Romans would use the expression "
Twelve Tables" instead of
res publica, when referring to their constitution at the time of the republic, and the "inalterable laws installed by the divine Augustus", for their equivalent of a constitution in the era of the early Empire. After the Roman Empire collapsed in the West, the idea of
res publica disappeared, as foreign to the
barbarians of the
Migrations Period: whenever
Gregory of Tours refers to
res publica, it is the
Eastern Empire of which he is speaking.
Quotations The translations of the quotations below are copied without alteration from existing non-copyrighted material. Other translations might differ, but they all serve to illustrate the many aspects of the
res publica concept in ancient Rome. The Latin original texts are given concurrently with the translations, in order to show that only the
context of the text allows to interpret the
res publica concept in each instance. From these examples, it also follows that probably there was also a gradual shift of meaning of the
res publica concept throughout the
Roman era: the "(Roman) Republic" connotation of
res publica is something that rather occurs
with retrospect to a closed period (so
less apparent in Cicero's time, who never knew the era of the Emperors, and could only compare with the epoch of the Kings); on the other hand the
translation of the Greek "politeia" concept appears to have nearly completely worn off in late antiquity.
Cicero Cicero's
De re publica (this translates as "about the res publica"), a treatise of the 1st century BC in
Socratic dialogue format, takes the
res publica as its subject. The differing interpretations and translations of the
title of that work are discussed in the "
De re publica" article. The expression
res publica is used several times throughout the work too. The quotes below aim at demonstrating that
within any translation of Cicero's work differing English translations of the term
res publica need to be used, according to
context, in order to make sense. The quotes are taken from the Latin text at "The Latin Library" (chapter numbering follows this text), from C. D. Yonge's translation at gutenberg.org (2nd column) and from Francis Barham's translation at "The Online Library of Liberty" (3rd column). When Cicero refers to the Greek authors (pointing at the "politeia" concept): : When pointing at the
Roman context: : The translation shows that the meaning of
res publica can differ
even within the same paragraph...
Pliny the Elder When Pliny dedicates his
Naturalis Historiae to his friend
Emperor Vespasian in the first century, he uses the word res publica (Latin from LacusCurtius website / 1601
Philemon Holland translation from http://penelope.uchicago.edu/holland/index.html / 1855 John Bostock translation from the Perseus website): : When under an
Emperor, that is Vespasian or his predecessors, Pliny was not talking about the
Roman Republic, but used "commonwealth"/"republic" in the meaning of "the state". The ambiguity of Rome still considering itself formally, or just "pro forma", a republic throughout the era of the
principate, when a monarchic rule had already de facto been established, adds to the complexity of translating "res publica" in this context.
Tacitus As another example of the complexities of the meaning of the word
res publica one can cite
Tacitus, who in the early 2nd century described in his
Annals how the first
Emperors, like
Tiberius in the year
Augustus had died (AD 14), sought to preserve all institutions of the
Res publica completely intact (Latin and translation as available at the Perseus Project): : ... while Tacitus complained in the same writing that at the same time the
res publica went astray for good because not a single soul seemed to care any more: : The least that can be said is that the two quotes above (like so many passages in Tacitus' writings) are a translator's minefield: • In the first quote above Tacitus qualifies the
res publica he intends as "vetus" (the "old" res publica) - which implies he knows another, not "old", "re(s)public(a)", while Tacitus' dense writing style would usually avoid redundancies. Nonetheless in the second quote, actually preceding the first in the text of the
Annals, "res publica" does
not have such qualifier, while in the context it is clear he meant the then lost
republican form of government. • "imperandi", litt. "to command", is translated as "being emperor" - while the "
emperor" concept (which in fact did not yet
literally exist in the time Tacitus describes here, and so could not be assigned to Tiberius as an
intention) was usually indicated as "
princeps" by Tacitus. • "tribunicia potestas" is translated as "title of
Tribune", while the "tribunicia potestas" is more about exercising the
power of a tribune without actually
being a Tribune, and had been an invention of
Caesar Augustus (compare to Holland and Bostock translations for the same concept in the Pliny quote above: "sacred authoritie of the Tribunes" and "the tribunate", respectively). Nonetheless it can only be admired in Tacitus how, with some judicially chosen words, he most poignantly and to the point describes the transition from "(overdue) remnants of the republic" to "actual Imperial reign, already established in the minds of people". In his book
Germania, Tacitus also uses
res publica in the context of the Germanic "barbarian" society. Here the word is used to convey the generic meaning of "public affair" or "the commonwealth" (in contrast to the private or family life) without the Roman connotations of republicanism. This is illustrated in the following text (Latin text and English translation from the Perseus Project): :
Augustine Augustine of Hippo uses the word
res publica several times throughout his work
The City of God, in which he comments, in the early 5th century on several Greek and Roman authors. Again, the standard translations of the expression "res publica" are multiple throughout the work. Examples taken from the Latin text at "The Latin Library", English translation from the version available at "New Advent" Meaning "the (Roman) state" in general: : Note that in this quote Augustine does
not use the expression
imperium Romanum ("the Roman empire") as a synonym to "the era when Rome was governed by emperors". Compare also to the 2nd quote from Tacitus above: there an expression
different from
res publica and
imperium Romanum is used for referring to "the (Roman) State" in general. Meaning "the Roman Republic" as
era with a distinct form of state organisation, from the same book: : ==Calques==