Title: Romans
1Romans
- Contribution to political thought
- Law Administration
- Flexibility of Roman law (Republic, Empire,
recuperated after the 15th century to sustain
Absolutist rule, inspired most legal systems in
the West) - Public/Private realms
2- 750 BC Formation of (Etruscan and Greek)
city-states in the Italian peninsula ( Sicily) - 735-510 Monarchy in Rome (seven kings)
- c.500 Expulsion of the king Establishment of
the Republic - c. 450 Laws of the Twelve Tables
- 241-198 First Roman provinces (Sicily, Spain)
- 168 (end of the Macedonian monarchy) Polybius is
brought to Rome - 130s Introduction of secret ballot in assemblies
- 133-122 Gracchi
- 90-89 Roman citizenship extended throughout Italy
- 82-1 Dictatorship of Sulla
- 70 Cicero prosecutes Verres (governor of Sicily)
- 63-2- Cicero becomes consul
- 60-59 First Triumvirate (Caesar, Crassus, Pompey)
- 59 Caesar becomes consul
- 58 Clodious (tribune)
- 51-50 Cicero becomes governor of Cilicia and
Cyprus - 49 Caesar crosses Rubicon River, invades Italy
and becomes consul and dictator (48) (Pompey
leaves and is killed in Egypt) - 46 Caesar consul and dictator for 10 years
- 44 Caesar is made perpetual dictator and
assassinated
3Roman Republic (509 B.C. to 44, 31, 27 B.C.)
Main Institutions
In 88 B.C. Sulla disempowered the popular
assemblies (ex created a judiciary)
4Polybius interpretation(misses the assemblies)
5Cicero (106-43 B.C.)
- Born in a wealthy but plebeian family (landed
gentry) - Studied philosophy (Athens Rhodes 79-77 B.C.)
and law in Rome - Influenced by the Greek philosophers and Stoicism
- Looked back into the past thinking of how to
restore the Republic (which was collapsing under
the expansion of Rome) - Aristocrat against popular rule and the
democratic party - 75 B.C. Quaestor in Sicily (quaestors supervised
state finances and had seats in the Senate) - 69 B. C. Aedile
- 66 B. C. Praetor
- 63 B. C. Consul
- 62 B. C. Cicero testifies against Clodius
(democratic leader) - 58 B. C. Cicero leaves Rome Clodius declares
him exiled - 57 B. C. Recalled from exile
- 51 B. C. Proconsul of Cilicia (until middle of
following year) - De Republica, De Legibus
- 43 B. C. Cicero (and Quintus) proscribed and
killed
6Stoicism
- Thinking in the new world of Empire
- -Dissolution of communities ? Individuals
- -Zeno (300BC) from Cyprus
- (Wrote an anti-Republic. Theorized on the need of
an anti-Platonic world-state, without slavery,
with universal citizenship, equality of ALL
women, and one law) - -Epictetus (AD 50-120)
- -a slave who came to Rome from Asia Minor. His
master allowed him to study philosophy, then
freed him, and he founded a school. - -Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180)
- Emperor (161-180), philosopher-king
?
Reason, equality, asceticism, Nature, pantheism,
life as a play
7Hegemony
Plato
Aristotle
Polybius
Cicero
Athens Macedon
Rome
Hellenism
8The Roman Empire
9Ciceros Works
- Laws (De Legibus) and the Republic (De Republica,
preserved in parts) - Book VI (Scipios dream while being in Africa)
- Many Discourses
- Ciceros discourses are still a classical
reference in rhetoric - judicial genre (accusing and defending)
- deliberative genre (the genre of parliamentary
and popular politics) - demonstrative genre (ceremonies)
Cicero Homepage http//www.utexas.edu/depts/classi
cs/documents/Cic.htmlImages
10Philosophy Law ( Rhetoric)
- Men are naturally gifted for virtue
- (but) Virtue needs to be practiced/used, and its
noblest use is the government of the State, and
the realization in fact of those very things
that the philosophers are continuously dinning
in our ears. For there is no principle enunciated
by the philosophersat least none that is just
and honourablethat has not been discovered and
established by those who have drawn up codes of
law for States. (131) - Virtue (prudentia) is linked to rhetoric.
11Turning virtue wisdom into law
- Therefore the citizen who compels all men, by
the authority of magistrates and the penalties
imposed by law to follow the philosophers
rules must be considered superior even to the
teachers who enunciated these principles. For
what speech of theirs is excellent enough to be
preferred to a State well provided with law and
custom? (132)
12The philosopher/the statesman
- For if the philosophers are repaid for the
dangers of travel by the knowledge they gain,
statesmen surely win a much greater reward int he
gratitude of their fellow-citizens. (132)
13(Against Epicurean) philosophers
- How can it be reasonable, therefore, for them to
promise to aid the State in case they are
compelled by an emergency to do so, when they do
not know how to rule the State when no emergency
threatens it, though this is a much easier task
than the other? (133)
14Citizens must engage public life
- Because it is a duty towards the country.
- not to be ruled by wicked men and not to allow
the republic to be destroyed by them (133)
15Commonwealth
- a commonwealth is the property of a people. But
a people is not any collection of human beings
but an assemblage of people in large numbers
associated in an agreement with respect to
justice and a partnership for the common good.
(134) - For what is a State except an association or
partnership in justice? (136) - Foundation of the city
16Origins of the Commonwealth
- The first cause of such an association is the
social spirit which nature has implanted in man.
(134)
17Auctoritas (the city)
- Foundation
- For there is really no other occupation in which
human virtue approaches more closely the august
function of the gods than that of founding States
or preserving those already in existence. (134) - Auctoritas/imperium
- Auctoritasauctorbased upon the foundation of
the city of Rome (magistrates did not use force
they were invested with auctoritas)
18Natural Equality
- if bad habits and false beliefs did not twist
the weaker minds all men would be like all
others. there is no difference in kind between
man and man (139) - there is no human being of any race who, if he
finds a guide, cannot attain to virtue. (137)
19Translates into legal equality
- For if we cannot agree to equalize mens wealth,
and equality of innate ability is impossible, the
legal rights at least of those who are citizens
of the same commonwealth ought to be equal.
(136)
20Law
- True law is right reason in agreement with
nature it is of universal application,
unchanging and everlasting (138)
21Justice
- Justice is one it binds all human society, and
is based on one Law, which is right reason
applied to command and prohibition. Whoever knows
not this Law, whether it has been recorded in
writing anywhere or not, is without justice.
(139) - the magistrate is a speaking law, and the law a
silent magistrate.. (140) - If all men knew the Law, we all would live in
peace and friendship with each other, which
originate in our natural inclination to love our
fellow-men (139) which lies at the foundation of
Justice
22Universal Commonwealth of God/s Men
- ...since there is nothing better than reason,
and since it exists both in man and God, the
first common possession of man and God is reason.
But those who have reason in common must also
have right reason in common. And since right
reason is Law, we must believe that men have Law
also in common with the gods. Further, those who
share Law must also share Justice Hence we must
now conceive of this whole universe as one
commonwealth of which both gods and men are
members. (138)