An Ancient Political Culture and Modern Research
Buch, Englisch, 208 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 520 g
ISBN: 978-0-691-14038-4
Verlag: Princeton University Press
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. Hölkeskamp 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. Hölkeskamp 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. Hölkeskamp 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.
Fachgebiete
Weitere Infos & Material
List of Figures vii
Preface to the English Edition ix
Preface to the German Edition xiii
CHAPTER 1: From 'Provocation' to'Discussion': A Plea for Continuation 1
CHAPTER 2: 'Reality' versus 'System': Conventional Conceptualizations of a'Constitution' 12
CHAPTER 3: From'System' to'Structure': New Questions about the Social Framework of Politics 23
CHAPTER 4: From'Structures' to 'Concepts': Problems of (Self-) Conceptualization of an Alien Society 44
CHAPTER 5: From'Concepts' to'Political Culture': The Benefi ts of Theory 53
CHAPTER 6: Between' Aristocracy' and 'Democracy': Beyond a Dated Dichotomy 76
CHAPTER 7: Consensus and Consent: Necessary Requirements of a Competitive Culture 98
CHAPTER 8: Symbolic Capital as Social Credit: Locating the Core of the Consensus 107
CHAPTER 9: An End of the Beginning: A New Ancient History and Its Topicality 125
Abbreviations 137
Bibliography 141
Index of Names 181
Index of Subjects 185
