Reconstructing the Roman Republic (eBook)

An Ancient Political Culture and Modern Research

Karl-J. Hölkeskamp (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2010
232 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-1-4008-3490-7 (ISBN)

Infos

In recent decades, scholars have argued that the Roman Republic's political culture was essentially democratic in nature, stressing the central role of the 'sovereign' people and their assemblies. Karl-J. Hlkeskamp challenges this view in Reconstructing the Roman Republic, warning that this scholarly trend threatens to become the new orthodoxy, and defending the position that the republic was in fact a uniquely Roman, dominantly oligarchic and aristocratic political form. Hlkeskamp offers a comprehensive, in-depth survey of the modern debate surrounding the Roman Republic. He looks at the ongoing controversy first triggered in the 1980s when the 'oligarchic orthodoxy' was called into question by the idea that the republic's political culture was a form of Greek-style democracy, and he considers the important theoretical and methodological advances of the 1960s and 1970s that prepared the ground for this debate. Hlkeskamp renews and refines the 'elitist' view, showing how the republic was a unique kind of premodern city-state political culture shaped by a specific variant of a political class. He covers a host of fascinating topics, including the Roman value system, the senatorial aristocracy, competition in war and politics within this aristocracy, and the symbolic language of public rituals and ceremonies, monuments, architecture, and urban topography. Certain to inspire continued debate, Reconstructing the Roman Republic offers fresh approaches to the study of the republic while attesting to the field's enduring vitality.

---

In recent decades, scholars have argued that the Roman Republic's political culture was essentially democratic in nature, stressing the central role of the 'sovereign' people and their assemblies. Karl-J. Holkeskamp challenges this view in Reconstructing the Roman Republic, warning that this scholarly trend threatens to become the new orthodoxy, and defending the position that the republic was in fact a uniquely Roman, dominantly oligarchic and aristocratic political form. Holkeskamp offers a comprehensive, in-depth survey of the modern debate surrounding the Roman Republic. He looks at the ongoing controversy first triggered in the 1980s when the 'oligarchic orthodoxy' was called into question by the idea that the republic's political culture was a form of Greek-style democracy, and he considers the important theoretical and methodological advances of the 1960s and 1970s that prepared the ground for this debate. Holkeskamp renews and refines the 'elitist' view, showing how the republic was a unique kind of premodern city-state political culture shaped by a specific variant of a political class. He covers a host of fascinating topics, including the Roman value system; the senatorial aristocracy; competition in war and politics within this aristocracy; and the symbolic language of public rituals and ceremonies, monuments, architecture, and urban topography. Certain to inspire continued debate, Reconstructing the Roman Republic offers fresh approaches to the study of the republic while attesting to the field's enduring vitality.Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 22.3.2010
• Übersetzer: Henry Heitmann-Gordon
• Zusatzinfo: 4 halftones. 2 line illus.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Geschichte / Politik ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte / Antike
• Themenwelt: Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Politische Theorie
• Schlagworte: Achievement (heraldry) • Ambitus • Ancient history • Ancient Rome • Appian Way • aristocracy • auctoritas • Caecilius Metellus • Cassius Dio • city-state • classical archaeology • classics • Comitium • commentariolum petitionis • Constitutional theory • Cornelius Scipio • Crisis of the Roman Republic • Culture of ancient Rome • cursus honorum • Dictator perpetuo • Edmund Husserl • Fabius Maximus • First Punic War • Gaius Marius • historian • Historiography • Ideology • imperialism • Institution • legionary • Legislation • Magister Equitum • Meritocracy • Military tribune • mos maiorum • New Laws • Oligarchy • Papirius (pontifex) • Patrician (ancient Rome) • Patrician (post-Roman Europe) • plebs • political class • Political culture • Political History • Political System • Politics • pontifex maximus • Postmodernism • praetor • Principate • punic wars • quaestor • Radicalism (historical) • Reform of the House of Lords • Roman Army • roman citizenship • Roman consul • Roman Empire • Roman Forum • Roman law • roman republic • Scipio Aemilianus • Second Mithridatic War • Suetonius • Sulla • Symbolic Capital • Tomb of the Scipios • Tribune of the Plebs • Valerius Maximus • Voting
• ISBN-10: 1-4008-3490-2 / 1400834902
• ISBN-13: 978-1-4008-3490-7 / 9781400834907