In
realtà, diverse versioni sono suggerite circa il corretto
significato dell'acronimo, in base alla presunta declinazione
della "R", che può essere Romanus (Senatus o
Populus), Romani (Senatus e Populus) o
Romae (di
Roma).
Inoltre la "Q" potrebbe essere stata verosimilmente nei tempi
più antichi non l'abbreviazione della congiunzione, ma quella
del termine Quiritium, cioè
Quiriti, come i Romani chiamavano sé stessi nell'accezione
di cittadini godenti dei pieni diritti: quindi la sigla andrebbe
sciolta come Senatus Populusque Quiritium Romanorum (Il
Senato e il Popolo dei Quiriti Romani).
Un'accreditata ipotesi, invece, ne fa autori i Sabini, che avrebbero così inteso sottolineare la loro potenza: la sigla starebbe per Sabinis Populis Quis Resistet ("Chi potrà resistere alle genti sabine?"). Vinti i Sabini, i Romani avrebbero poi risposto mettendo in fila le stesse iniziali per affermare solennemente la propria autorità.[senza fonte]
This signature continued in use under the Roman Empire. The emperors were considered the representatives of the people even though the senatus consulta, or decrees of the Senate, were made at the pleasure of the emperor.
Populus Romanus in Roman literature is a phrase meaning the government of the Republic. When the Romans named governments of other countries they used populus in the singular or plural, such as populi Priscorum Latinorum, "the governments of the Old Latins". Romanus is the established adjective used to distinguish the Romans, as in civis Romanus, "Roman citizen". The locative, Romae, "at Rome", was never used for that purpose. The Roman people appear very often in law and history in such phrases as dignitas, maiestas, auctoritas, libertas populi Romani, the "dignity, majesty, authority, freedom of the Roman people." They were a populus liber, "a free people." There was an exercitus, imperium, iudicia, honores, consules, voluntas of this same populus: "the army, rule, judgments, offices, consuls and will of the Roman people". They appear in early Latin as Popolus and Poplus, so the habit of thinking of themselves as free and sovereign was quite ingrained.
The Romans believed that all authority came from the people. It could be said that similar language seen in more modern political and social revolutions directly comes from this usage. People in this sense meant the whole government. The latter, however, was essentially divided into the aristocratic Senate, whose will was executed by the consuls and praetors, and the comitia centuriata, "committees of the hundreds", whose will came to be safeguarded by the Tribunes.
During the regime of Benito Mussolini, SPQR was emblazoned on a number of public buildings and manhole covers in an attempt to promote his dictatorship as a "New Roman Empire."
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