Quote Originally Posted by Sinner
Shaunk, that was my thought except that apparently on Trajan's column it's carved as SENATVS.POPVLVSQVE.ROMANVS - 3 words, not 4, with a dot to mark between words.
It is three words. "Senatus Populusque Romanus" is equivalent to "Senatus et Populus Romanus". Sometimes you use the word "et", sometimes you use the suffix "-que". Don't ask me why, though it may just be that you can muck about with the metre and some up with a better bit of poetry.

I don't know why they left the Q in, either. Maybe they were sick of TLAs, or maybe the standard plaque for the standards was four characters wide so they had to stick something in.

Thinking on it, perhaps it does change the meaning slightly. "Senatus et Populus Romanus" reads like (Senate + Roman People), whereas "Senatus Populusque Romanus" reads more like (Roman (Senate + People)) - bracketing Senate and People together as Roman.

Cheers,

Pell.R.