principate
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈprɪn.sɪ.peɪt/
- Formal
:
principado
- Historians often debate the impacts of the principate on the political structure of the Roman Empire.
- principate of Augustus
Examples
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The principate established by Augustus marked the beginning of imperial rule in ancient Rome.
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An excellent example of that is the expansion of the army and bureaucracy of the Roman Empire after the Republic became the Principate.
Blog text (15) -
Conscription had always been used by the Romans, but possibly the smaller armies of the Principate could usually make up numbers with volunteers except in times of emergency.
Blog text (31) -
Coming after a series of long and bloody civil wars, Augustus promulgated the image of his principate as a reversion to the standards of better days.
Academic text (1990) -
Both scenes represent foundations, actions from Rome's legendary history, which had been foretold in the even more distant past, but which only reached their fulfillment with the contemporary principate of Augustus.
Academic text (1990) -
During the principate, emperors held significant power, fundamentally changing Roman governance.
Synonyms
The time when an emperor rules a country
Surface Forms
Morphology
principate = prince (opaque) = princip + ate
Although formally related to 'prince' + '-ate', this sense refers to a specific Roman office and historical period (the Roman 'principate'), which is not predictable from the base by an average B1 learner.
Etymology
Principate in the Roman sense comes from the title princeps, meaning 'first' or 'chief', a name Augustus used to show he was the 'first citizen' rather than a king. That's why the principate describes the early Roman system where the emperor had the real power while keeping older traditions.