Dignified seriousness of purpose: the weight of character expected of a Roman holding public responsibility, shown through self-restraint, measured speech and steadiness under pressure rather than through display. Cicero and other Republican writers treat it as inseparable from auctoritas, the earned standing that let a senator's word carry weight beyond his formal office.
Facts
Origins
Place of Origin Origin of the NameLatin gravitas, weight or seriousness, from gravis, heavy; the root also gives English gravity and grave. 1 Attributed Author / CompilerA Roman civic value with no single named author, expected above all of senators and magistrates; discussed across Republican political writing as a quality a public man was judged to have or lack. 1 Status
Status Within the TraditionStandard teaching, not formally defined 1 Doctrinal Status DetailExpected above all of senators, magistrates and the male head of a household; a public figure judged to lack it could see his political standing damaged regardless of formal office held. 2 Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourceDignified seriousness of purpose, the self-restraint and steadiness expected of a Roman holding public responsibility. 1 Disputed
Origin PeriodA Republican civic value, prominent from at least the second century BCE in surviving political writing such as Cicero's letters and speeches; its origin as an unwritten expectation of public conduct predates any surviving text and is not precisely dateable on current evidence. 2 Connections
Belongs to Tradition
Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)
In Language
Opposes
Gravitas is the opposite of frivolous or vain conduct unbecoming a public figure; Mada, the Sanskrit term for intoxicated pride and vanity already catalogued among the arishadvarga, is the atlas's existing entry nearest that disposition. Named as an approximation across traditions, not an equivalence.
Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)
Originates in Language
Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)
Related To
Fides, Virtues Both core Roman civic virtues expected of a person of public standing.
Source The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th editionSimon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.)
Sources
1. The Oxford Classical Dictionary, 4th edition
Simon Hornblower, Antony Spawforth and Esther Eidinow (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2012Originates in Language: Latin, Stored language property on this entity, cited to this source: latinView the Source 2. Festivals and Ceremonies of the Roman Republic
H. H. Scullard, Thames and Hudson, 1981
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