Constructing Autocracy

Soziale Absicherung von Soldaten bei Körperschäden

“…Daraus folgt eine abgestufte verfassungsmäßige Gestaltung der Ausgleichspflicht. 2115 Der Ausgleich in Geld ist daher keine Wertoder Vermögensgarantie, sondern Kompensation für den einzelnen Härtefall als Lastenausgleich. 2116 Er soll die Belastungen abmildern und die Durchsetzung des Eingriffs ermöglichen.…”

Greek and Roman Writers on the Virtues of Good Rulers: Praise, Instruction, and Constraint

“…His ethical system is close to Stoicism, but for him a truly moral ruler would imitate God.56 Yet he is not systematic in his analyses, does not contemplate the rule of Rome at length, and tends alternately to concentrate on the Jewish people and on all inhabitants of the cosmos, which has 'but one polity and one law' , the equivalent of Nature's Logos, based on reason.57 54 Braund,"Praise and Protreptic", On the contrast with Domitian, and how to read it in context, see Pan. 16.3,20.4,33.4,45,46,47,48,49,50.5,52.3,53.4,54,55.7,62.3,72.2,76 The extraordinary Musonius Rufus, a Roman who taught Stoicism for many years in the East, is similarly disappointing. While Plato (Rep. 5) thought that philosophers should become kings, Musonius thought that the ideal king of his day would aim to become a philosopher, the Stoic wise man (sapiens), so that he could develop regal virtues.…”

Democratical Gentlemen and the Lust for Mastery

“…26 Both ends of the spectrum-protection from the powerful, on the one hand, and political efficacy, on the otherwere embodied by libertas, an essentially negative category involving "the absence of the restrictions associated with slavery." 27 Thus, what it meant not to be a slave depended significantly on one's status.…”

“…The Roman concept of liberty is fraught with positional ambiguity, suggesting that the underlying metaphor captured in the term libertas-the social condition of not being a slave, which Roller terms the "parent domain" of libertascould be understood differently in what Roller terms the "derived domain," or the political realm. 60 That is, in the apparently straightforward "language and imagery of slavery," Roman speakers articulated "different, and even opposed, metaphorical structurings of political situations in terms of status." 61 While the meaning of libertas rested on the fundamental opposition of the status of the liber to the status servus, descriptions of the experience of slavery varied according to considerations of status.…”