page_title: Imperator
section_title: Post-Roman use
hierarchical_section_title: Imperator / Post-Roman use
caption_attribution_description: English: Obverse of 1 german eastafrikan rupie 1890. Coin from my collevtion, scan was made by me personally
context_page_description: The Latin word imperator derives from the stem of the verb imperare, meaning 'to order, to command'. It was originally employed as a title roughly equivalent to commander under the Roman Republic. Later it became a part of the titulature of the Roman Emperors as part of their cognomen. The English word emperor derives from imperator via Old French: Empereür. The Roman emperors themselves generally based their authority on multiple titles and positions, rather than preferring any single title. Nevertheless, imperator was used relatively consistently as an element of a Roman ruler's title throughout the principate and the dominate. In Latin, the feminine form of imperator is imperatrix.
context_section_description: After the Roman empire collapsed in the West in the 5th century, Latin continued to be used as the language of learning and diplomacy for some centuries.  The Roman emperors of this period (referred to by modern historians as the Byzantine emperors) were referred to as imperatores in Latin texts, while the word basileus (king) was used in Greek.
  After 800, the imperator was used (in conjunction with augustus) as a formal Latin title in succession by the Carolingian and German Holy Roman Emperors until 1806 and by the Austrian Emperors until 1918.
  In medieval Spain, the title imperator was used under a variety of circumstances from the ninth century onwards, but its usage peaked, as a formal and practical title, between 1086 and 1157. It was primarily used by the Kings of León and Castile, but it also found currency in the Kingdom of Navarre and was employed by the Counts of Castile and at least one Duke of Galicia. It signalled at various points the king's equality with the Byzantine Emperor and Holy Roman Emperor, his rule by conquest or military superiority, his rule over several people groups ethnic or religious, and his claim to suzerainty over the other kings of the peninsula, both Christian and Muslim.
  Beginning in 1077 Alfonso instituted the use of the style ego Adefonsus imperator totius Hispaniae ("I, Alfonso, emperor of all Spain") and its use soon became regular. This title was used throughout the period 1079–81, which represents the peak of his imperial pretensions before his capture of the city of Toledo, ancient capital of the Visigoths. In 1080 he introduced the form ego Adefonsus Hispaniarum imperator ("I, Alfonso, emperor of the Spains"), which he used again in 1090. His most elaborate imperial title was ego Adefonsus imperator totius Castelle et Toleto necnon et Nazare seu Alave ("I, Alfonso, emperor of all Castile and of Toledo also and of Nájera, or Álava").
  In 1721, as part of his drive to both westernize the Russian Empire and assert the monarchy's claim that it was the successor to the Byzantine emperors, Peter the Great imported the Latin word directly into Russian and styled himself imperator (Императоръ).  The style remained the official one for all his successors down to the end of the Russian Empire in 1917, though the Russian rulers continued to be colloquially known as tsar (a word derived from "Caesar"), which they had begun to use c. 1480 to likewise assert their contention to be the heirs to the Byzantine state (see: Third Rome.)  Reigning female Russian rulers were styled imperatritsa.
  Napoleon famously adopted the title for himself and after the Napoleonic wars, the number of emperors in Europe proliferated, but Latin began to fall out of use for all but the most ceremonial situations.  Still, in those rare cases in which a European monarch's Latin titles were used, imperator was used as a translation for emperor.  Famously, after assuming the title Emperor of India, British monarchs would follow their signatures with the initials RI, standing for rex imperator ("king-emperor"). George VI of the United Kingdom was the last European ruler to claim an imperial title; when he abdicated as Emperor of India in 1948, the last active use of the title imperator in the West ceased.  It was thereafter used only historically, or as a Latin translation for certain continuing titles of non-European cultures, such as Japan. 
  The imperial title was also adopted by Jean-Bédel Bokassa, during his reign as the emperor of the short-lived Central African Empire (1976–79).
caption: German East African Roupie, 1890.  Coins of European Colonial Empires were sometimes inscribed in Latin, such as this colonial coin featuring Wilhelm II of Germany.
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