The Romans: The Real Meaning Of Patriotism

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Power, authority and legitimacy are essential concepts that need to be incorporated when establishing a successful political system. Each essential concept has its own meaning and plays a vital role, these concepts also illustrate an entwined relationship with one another which creates a harmonized political structure. From Kenneth Minogue, in the chapter The Romans: The Real Meaning of Patriotism, he discusses how the Romans describe power; "they used two words in order to acknowledge an important distinction: potentia meant physical power, while potestas signified the legal right and power inhering in an office" (22). In other words, to the Romans, physical power meant that someone had the ability to pressure someone into compliance by threats or enforcement; while potesta can be described as legitimacy, which is power that comes from a position or like Dr, Datta mentions in his fourth lecture, that legitimacy comes from "legal right or power in office." Power by legitimacy contains certain powers…show more content…
In Minogue's chapter he shares that the Romans identified authority as "auctoritas", which "An auctor or author was the founder or initiator of something - a city, a family, even a book or an idea. The reservoir of auctoritas lay in the senate". Meaning that authority, or a person of authority could be the authorizer of something big or small whether it was a place or an idea , however the large sum of authority resides and is mostly associated within the senate. Authority can also be seen as a society's approved figure who is entitled to hold power over something or someone else. In Dr.Datta's Lecture he informs the listener that there is a distinctive "two way relationship between those who govern and those who are governed." He also quotes a quote in Minogue which is that authority to acts "more than advice but less than command." The Romans respect and value was the key to their "political skill".
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