The full phrase appears in Roman political, legal and historical literature, such as the speeches of Cicero and the Template:Lang (Books from the Founding of the City) of Livy.
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In Latin, Senātus is a nominative singular noun meaning "Senate". Populusque is compounded from the nominative noun Populus, "the People", and -que, an enclitic particle meaning "and" which connects the two nominative nouns. The last word, Rōmānus ("Roman"), is an adjective modifying the whole of Senātus Populusque: the "Roman Senate and People", taken as a whole. Thus, the phrase is translated literally as "The Roman Senate and People", or more freely as "The Senate and People of Rome".
Historical context
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The title's date of establishment is unknown, but it first appears in inscriptions of the Late Republic, from around 80 BC onwards. Previously, the official name of the Roman state, as evidenced on coins, was simply ROMA. The abbreviation last appears on coins of Constantine the Great (ruled 312–337 AD), the first Roman emperor to support Christianity.Template:Citation needed
Populus Romanus in Roman literature is a phrase meaning the government of the People. When the Romans named governments of foreign states, 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".Template:Citation needed
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.Template:Citation needed
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, "committee of the centuries", whose will came to be safeguarded by the Tribunes.Template:Citation needed
One of the ways the emperor Commodus (180–192) paid for his donatives and mass entertainments was to tax the senatorial order, and on many inscriptions, the traditional order is provocatively reversed (Populus Senatusque...).Template:Citation needed
Medieval use
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Beginning in 1184, the Commune of Rome struck coins in the name of the SENATVS P Q R. From 1414 until 1517, the Roman Senate struck coins with a shield inscribed SPQR.
Even in contemporary usage, SPQR is still used in the municipal coat of arms of Rome and as abbreviation for the comune of Rome in official documents.<ref name="romeHome">Template:Cite web</ref><ref name="revocaDeleghe">Template:Cite web</ref> The Italians have long used a different and humorous expansion of this abbreviation, "Sono Pazzi Questi Romani" (Template:Lit).<ref>See, e.g. Template:Cite book</ref> SPQR is also part of the coat of arms of the Capital Military Command of the Italian army (Italian: Comando Militare Capitale).
In business, in English-speaking countries, SPQR is sometimes (humorously) used to mean "Small Profits, Quick Returns", often by people who have studied Latin at school.<ref>Template:OED</ref>
On the opera house, theatre and some other major buildings, inscribed on a shield on coins struck in Ghent in 1583, during the Dutch Revolt<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>
Inscribed on a shield on coins struck during Masaniello's 1647 revolt<ref>Italian Coinage Medieval to Modern, The Collection of Ercole Gnecchi, coin 3683</ref>
Above the main entrance of the civic armoury (Bürgerliches Zeughaus) at Am Hof, with a dedication to Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI (Imperante Carolo VI. instauravit)<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
SPQR is often used to represent the Roman Empire and Roman Republic, such as in video games and movies.
In the 2000 movie Gladiator, the Roman general Maximus (portrayed by Russell Crowe) has "SPQR" tattooed on his upper arm, which he removes by scraping after he is sold into slavery.
The humorous modern Italian expansion Sono Pazzi Questi Romani (Template:Lit) is used in the French Ils sont fous, ces Romains ! (Template:Lit) as the catchphrase of the character Obelix in the French comic album series Asterix, and the Italian original/retranslation (translating back to the original) Sono Pazzi Questi Romani is used in the Italian translation of Asterix, rendered with capitals to make the acronym clear;<ref>See for example the image at r/bandedessinee "SPQR", Reddit</ref> note that Albert Uderzo, the co-creator of Asterix, was born to Italian immigrants and was exposed to Italian as a child.
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