提 要：现代西文中与帝国相关的所有词汇多出自同一渊源，即古罗马官员掌握的治权（imperium）。治权概念随行使范围的空间扩展而内涵延展，从罗马官员的权力到皇帝的权力，从罗马人民的权力到罗马国家的统治，从区域性的统治到对整个世界的统治。imperium词义的演变说明了罗马国家蓬勃的发展态势，帝国的成长与帝国观念的更新共同演进。罗马人在很长时间里体认的是一个权力帝国，这一权力帝国的基础在于对其他地区和族群行使治权。罗马人怀揣抱负，相信以军事手段制服对手才是罗马立国图强的最佳出路，这与自蒙森以降视罗马为防御性帝国的传统观点截然不同。

关键词：imperium；权力；帝国；罗马扩张

DOI:10.16758/j.cnki.1004-9371.2016.02.002

Title: On Romans’ View of “Empire” from the Aspect of the Semantic Evolution of the Latin termImperium

Author:Wang Yue, Lecturer, Department of History, East China Normal University, Shanghai, 200241, China.

Abstract: Most of terms on empire in the modern European languages derived from the same origin, namely, imperium of the magistrates in ancient Rome. The connotation of imperium was defined differently according to the range of administration, expanding from magistrates' authority to emperors' authority, fromimperium populiromanitoimperium romanum, from ruling over other regions and races to all over the world, reflecting the expansion process of Rome around the Mediterranean world, which profoundly affected the ideology of Romans. Different from Mommsen’s opinion, this article argues that the Romans were ambitious and aggressive.

Key words:imperium; hegemony; empire; Roman expansion