Auctoritas, potestas, libertas dicendi: una nota

This paper deals with the original concepts of potestas (of the people gathered\r\nin the assemblies and of the magistrates), auctoritas (of the senate)\r\nand libertas (of the citizens) in Republican Rome and with their evolution\r\nthrough the Early Empire (where libertas became freedom of speech to the\r\nemperor) and the Later Empire (where the libertas dicendi passed from the\r\nsenators to the bishops: St. Ambrose was the exemplary model of this courageous\r\nattitude); at the end of this process the Gelasian doctrine separated\r\nthe religious and the political sphere aiming to defend the libertas from\r\nthe imperial autocracy, but doing so it paved the way to the substitution of\r\nthe mixture of powers of ancient Rome with the separation of powers of\r\nmodern times.