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This paper, intended as an introduction to this volume, presents the various historiographical, methodological, and programmatic issues to be considered when labelling the two first centuries BCE and CE as an “Imperial” Republic. What is at stake is the way ancient sources have framed the narrative of this period, traditionally divided between Republic and Empire, and the reception of this narrative by the Moderns. Cicero, Tacitus, Velleius Paterculus, as well as the Acts of Augustus and the Panegyricus of Trajan by Pliny the Younger will be used in that perspective. To introduce this collective research programme, among the issues to be considered are periodization; the profession of historian; the concept of “historian generations”; and, finally, the place of the populus within the Roman State. This inventory of inquiries about political ancient thought, practices and representations of power in Rome, from a global perspective, should be useful for any research on that subject.