Potestas
Sign in to savePotestas is a Latin word meaning power or faculty. It is an important concept in Roman Law.
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- native label
- Potestas
- language of work or name
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Encyclopedic overview
5 sectionsContents
- Origin of the concept
- Evolution of the concept in the Middle Ages
- Podestà
- References
- See also
Potestas is a Latin word meaning power or faculty. It is an important concept in Roman Law.
==Origin of the concept== The idea of potestas originally referred to the power, through coercion, of a Roman magistrate to promulgate edicts, give action to litigants, etc. This power, in Roman political and legal theory, is considered analogous in kind though lesser in degree to military power. The most important magistrates (such as consuls and praetors) are said to have imperium, which is the ultimate form of potestas, and refers indeed to military power.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Potestas” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.