• InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
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        1 day ago

        late principate

        Ah, yes.

        -–

        In all seriousness - I googled.

        The Principate was the form of imperial government of the Roman Empire from the beginning of the reign of Augustus in 27 BC to the end of the Crisis of the Third Century in AD 284, after which it evolved into the Dominate.

        • Keld [he/him, any]@hexbear.net
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          18 hours ago

          The point of differentiating is that the principate was a period in which the roman republic was functionally a monarchy, but retained (Depowered) republican institutions and claimed to be a republic, due to a cultural taboo and legal ban on monarchy in the Roman state. This is where we get the word prince from, the styling Augustus used was “Princeps” which means first, and during the principiate the monarchy pretended that the ruler was merely the first among theoretically equal citizens.
          The Dominate period was the period where they just made the empire legal. With the emeperors away with all the pretext of republicanism and adopting the aristocratic styling of lord (Dominus).

          • InevitableSwing [none/use name]@hexbear.netOP
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            17 hours ago

            The point of differentiating is that the principate was a period in which the roman republic was functionally a monarchy, but retained (Depowered) republican institutions and claimed to be a republic, due to a cultural taboo and legal ban on monarchy in the Roman state.

            I wonder if something similar will happen in the US before 2028. GOP SCOTUS will start to claim the Constitution justifies whatever they want. They’ll say Trump can run for a third term even though that’s 100% anti-Constitutional right now. At that point - whenever it happens - it’s clear that Trump has become president for life because federal voting will be total joke. Trump has already won the 2028 election. The US will functionally be a fascist dictatorship but the GOP and their gigantic and powerful media apparatus will still pretend democracy still survives because it’s highly useful for them.

            Trump and his cohort have no interest in history but maybe they’ll eventually use Dominate because it certain has charm to the rightwing.