Prof Silvia Giorcelli Bersani
Latin Epigraphy

(3)
Is it possible to give a final answer to the meaning of the abbreviation SPQR?

The amplification of this abbreviation is S(enatus) P(opulus)q(ue) R(omanus), a phrase which may be translated as "the Roman Estate" that is the whole of the civic body and its institutional system. This formula is significant because first of all it proclaims the whole of the civic body, represented by the Senate and the people (i.e. the sovereignty of the republic is one
but is two-headed, and in it the Senate and the people are indivisible). However on the other hand this formula also discloses the prominence of the Senate over the people, and then underlines the limitations which the latter suffered.
The voices which arose in successive stages against this reading mostly refer to G. Dum‚zil's theories and to the functional tripartition of the Indo-European societies, and so of the Roman one too. From here it came the expansion of SPQR in S(enatus) P(opulus) Q(uirites) R(omani), where Quirites stands for the inhabitants of Curi (city of the Sabinians), which in this way would represent the third element with the senate and the people.
In reality, the populus is not the indistinct whole of masses, but rather a narrow group of citizens with political rights, the Quirites precisely (in reality coming from co-viria = group of men, distinct from slaves, from Latins and from foreigners). In addition this formula also appears written in full in this version.
An objection to this view is that the enclitic "que" does not appear in abbreviations. Epigraphy confutes such an hypothesis by presenting a number of cases, like for example SSQ = s(ibi) s(uis)q(ue) or SPQS = s(ibi) p(osteris)q(ue) s(uis) or PSPQR = p(ro) s(e) p(ro)q(ue) p(atria). Concluding, in other communities of Latium, where the presence of Quirites of Curi would not be justified, they make recourse to a similar abbreviation to indicate exactly the Senate and the people: SPQA = S(enatus) p(opulus)q(ue) A(lbanus), SPQT = S(enatus) p(opulus)q(ue) T(iburs), SPQF = S(enatus) p(opulus)q(ue) F(erentinus).