"SPQR"

Ever watch those movies that show the might of ancient Rome? You know, "Spartacus" with Kirk Douglas, or maybe more recently "Gladiator?" When you look behind the Roman soldiers, you'll see banners or standards or buildings with the letters "SPQR" on them.

"SPQR" meant stood for "Senatus PopulusQue Romanus" or in English, "The Senate and the People of Rome."

It meant that whatever was going on supposedly had the approval of the official Roman government--the Senate and the People. In the first 500 years of Rome, the people had a fairly decent balanced, free government (especially when compared with other ancient governments). They had a Senate, which was composed of their leading elders. Supposedly wise men. They had an assembly--or lower chamber of government also--which represented the interests of the more common people.

But about 44 years before Christ, there was a switch in government. Through much intrigue and a civil war, Rome replaced their Senate and Assembly with a dictator--Julius Caesar, then his nephew, Octavian ("Augustus Caesar"), then for the next 400 years a succession of brutal tyrants known as the Caesars. Rome was no longer the Republic. It was the Empire.

The Senate continued to meet and babble and dabble in politics, but they had "punted the ball" of true government to the tyrants. The masses of people ignored the loss of freedom so long as they were fed free bread and circuses.

The signs stayed up--SPQR--The Senate and the People of Rome. But it was all a show, and the industrious, proud people of Rome continued their downward spiral toward invasion, slavery, and destruction.