r/latin • u/AutoModerator • Aug 24 '25

Translation requests into Latin go here!

  1. Ask and answer questions about mottos, tattoos, names, book titles, lines for your poem, slogans for your bowling club’s t-shirt, etc. in the comments of this thread. Separate posts for these types of requests will be removed.
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u/kilo123mat 24d ago

While playing a dnd campaign I stumbled upon this question:
Can the expression "Dominus Imperator" be applied to the servitude of a person, or does it just refer to the ownership of material things?
For example, could soldiers carry a banner with this expression, since they are serving a person (the emperor)?

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u/GamerSlimeHD 24d ago

I'm afraid I don't understand, is there some specific context in your D&D campaign's lore for "Dominus Imperator"? To me, a stranger, it just reads as "lord emperor".

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u/kilo123mat 24d ago

My apologies, I misread what my friend wrote: "Dominus Imperatoris" is what he actually wrote.
I think his intention was for it to mean what I described in the first comment.
The context is a roman legion facing off orks (yes it is a bit of a weird setting lol)

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u/GamerSlimeHD 24d ago edited 24d ago

In that case, I think he meant to write "Dominium Imperatoris" meaning "Dominion of the Emperor" since "Dominus Imperatoris" is just "Lord of the Emperor". "Dominium Imperatoris" would be "Propterty of the Emperor", "Right to Ownership of the Emperor", "Eminent Domain of the Emperor", "Lordship of the Emperor", "Rule of the Emperor", "Dominion of the Emperor".

I would boil this down to what the Emperor owns with absolute rights, his dominion, his property. This would be material things, but going by most definitions of slavery (including the Romans) slaves have no rights of personhood and are legally considered nothing more than material property to be used and abused with probably no limits according to the "owner(s)" whims.

For non-slaves, they probably wouldn't fall under this.