The absence of a professional police force in the city of Rome in classical times is often identified as a major cause of the collapse of the Republic. But this alleged 'structural weakness' was not removed by the Emperor Augustus and his successors, and was in fact shared with other pre-modern states: a specialised police force is a modern invention. In this critical study of the system of law and order in ancient Rome in both Republican and Imperial periods, Wilfried Nippel identifies the mechanisms of self-regulation which operated as a stabilising force within Roman society. This case-study of ancient Rome has a comparative dimension and will interest legal historians of other pre-modern societies as well as ancient historians, anthropologists, sociologists and political scientists.
No abstract
One fundamental question is already implied in the use of the word ‘policing’. A glance at the scholarly literature shows that ‘policing’ is used in the context of Roman history with respect to the aediles and the tresviri capitales, or as an equivalent of magisterial coercitio; or it is applied to the vigiles, the cohortes urbanae or the cohortes praetoriae of the Principate as well as to the respective praefecti; and, of course, to the various controlling bodies and agents of the Later Roman Empire. This is at least partly due to the fact that the fundamental nineteenth-century works reflect a usage of ‘policing’ which oscillates between the description of a function, i.e. securing public order, on the one hand and the designation of a specialized agency to fulfil this function on the other hand. This is due to the fact that the establishment of a specialized law-enforcement apparatus only took place during the (eighteenth and) nineteenth century. The institutionalization of a professional police force represents a fundamental change in societal as well as individual attitudes towards and demand for public order. It may easily be overlooked that the indisputable gain in security and public order had to be paid for with a considerable loss of flexibility in the interaction between rulers and ruled (which was now mediated by a bureaucratic organization), and with an intensification of control and discipline in the everyday life of most members and strata of society.
Ancient and Modern Democracy is a comprehensive account of Athenian democracy as a subject of criticism, admiration and scholarly debate for 2,500 years, covering the features of Athenian democracy, its importance for the English, American and French revolutions and for the debates on democracy and political liberty from the nineteenth century to the present. Discussions were always in the context of contemporary constitutional problems. Time and again they made a connection with a long-established tradition, involving both dialogue with ancient sources and with earlier phases of the reception of Antiquity. They refer either to a common cultural legacy or to specific national traditions; they often involve a mixture of political and scholarly arguments. This book elucidates the complexity of considering and constructing systems of popular self-rule.
The Odyssey is arguably the µnest tale in Western literature, and the telling of it skilful in narrative detail and subtle in psychological understanding; yet it contains more apparent incoherences than the Iliad. These are not particularly familiar to English-speaking readers, as few Homerists of the analytical persuasion have written on the Odyssey in English. However, in Germany there has been a great deal of work, arguing that the Odyssey as we have it contains relics, echoes, or hints of other versions of the tale of Odysseus' return. Even Schadewaldt, who was convinced himself and convinced others of the unity of composition of the Iliad, thus e ¶ectively bringing an end to a century of German scholarship, was nevertheless driven to an analytical explanation of the Odyssey, specifying two successive composers. There have been other authoritative analysts in recent years, in addition to the old style analysis contemporary with that of the Iliad, of, for example, Kirchho ¶, who in•uenced D. L. Page's The Homeric Odyssey (Oxford, 1955). Georg Danek is a scholar at the University of Vienna, where Professor Hans Schwabl has continued the µne tradition of Albin Lesky. D. has been known up to now especially for his doctoral dissertation Studien zur Dolonie (published in 1988), in which he solved the problem of Iliad 10, or at least came as near to a solution as seems possible at this time (see CR 39 [1989], 178-80); he has now produced a huge book on the Odyssey, which may turn out to be just as important. His model is Kullmann's Die Quellen der Ilias (Wiesbaden, 1960), for he too is dealing with the material behind his epic; but his method is di ¶erent. Almost the whole of the book, from p. 29 to p. 505, consists of a running commentary on the Odyssey book by book, discussing issues as they occur. He has read very widely, especially in the numerous contributions that have appeared in the last few decades. He is also, from proximity, extremely well informed about the South Slavic heroic poetry which has since Milman Parry acted as comparative literature to Homer, though his extensive bibliography surprisingly omits the µnal contributions of A. B. Lord in this µeld: Epic Singers and Oral Tradition (Ithaca, 1991) and The Singer Resumes the Tale (Ithaca, 1995). Epos means the Odyssey, but also previous epic versions of Odysseus' return, and Zitat means, not verbal quotation, but a habit of the author to allude to ('cite') alternative versions, whether actual (i.e. known to him and in many cases to his audience also) or potential. D. considers it probable that in other tellings of the tale Odysseus and Penelope got together at an earlier stage than in our poem and together The Classical Review
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.