Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- First; original; hence, specifically, earliest printed; belonging to the first edition.
- noun One who is first or chief; a chief; specifically, in early Teut. hist., a chief judicial officer or leader in a pagus or other division. Attached to him was a body of attendants called the comitatus.
- noun That which is first, foremost, original, or principal; especially, the first or original edition of a book: short for
princeps edition , or editio princeps. - noun [cop.] [NL.] In entomology, a genus of lepidopterous insects.
Etymologies
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Examples
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- Nero, later to become Roman Emperor, is given the title princeps iuventutis (head of the youth).
Nothingandall 2009
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“In keeping with his policy of maintaining the appearance of traditional republican government, Octavian refused to be called king or even, like Caesar, dictator; instead, he cleverly disguised his autocratic rule by taking the inoffensive title princeps first citizen.”
Broke Glenn Beck 2010
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PAGE 8: “‘by taking the inoffensive title princeps first citizen’” Marvin Perry, Margaret Jacob, James Jacob, Myrna Chase, and Theodore H.
Broke Glenn Beck 2010
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In its explicit Cice - ronian version the princeps is the “ruler of the com - monwealth” (rector rei publicae) in a purely ideal sense: as princeps, he occupies no official position and pos - sesses no legal power, but he actually guides the balanced constitution of the Roman state from the outside as it were, whatever his formal political function, by dint of the magnetic moral virtues and merits which made
AUTHORITY LEONARD KRIEGER 1968
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He had held the title "Prince of Wales" since infancy and even signed himself "princeps" in his personal correspondence, but had not yet been invested with the title ceremonially.
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He had held the title "Prince of Wales" since infancy and even signed himself "princeps" in his personal correspondence but had not yet been invested with title ceremonially.
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We find a passage in an ancient author, [*] by which it appears that a person of very noble birth, even one allied to the crown, was not esteemed a "princeps" (the term usually employed by ancient historians, when the wittenagemot is mentioned) till he had acquired a fortune of that amount.
The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part A. From the Britons of Early Times to King John David Hume 1743
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"princeps," which, like "imperator," had two different meanings at two different periods of Roman history, meaning, in the time of the Republic, merely "a leading man of the City," and, in the time of the Empire, the Emperor only.
Tacitus and Bracciolini The Annals Forged in the XVth Century John Wilson Ross 1852
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In return for this self-effacing gesture the Senate, its palm greased by the promised restoration of its former constitutional powers, urged Octavian to become consul for life and pressed on him the appellations of Augustus, meaning “divinely favored one,” and princeps, or “first citizen,” familiarly used in the Republic for a leading statesman.
Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010
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On becoming princeps Augustus also added an extension to his home in the form of a temple to his patron god, Apollo, which covered an area half the size of a soccer field.
Caesars’ Wives Annelise Freisenbruch 2010
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