A Study Of The Ideology Of The Ancient Roman Political Community

From the ancient to the earlier modern times of the west,the concept of ‘state’had different connotations,including Greek ‘polis’,Roman ‘republic’,and Renaissance ‘nation-state’.Cicero’s concept of ‘republic’ is based on the theory of Greek city-state,combing with Roman history and reality.The Latin word ‘civitas’ sometime refers to ‘republic’ and it breaks through the limit of a city-state,recording a continually expanding empire.In this ‘civitas’,Roman people is the aggregation of citizens,who is not the herd of many people casually,but is organized on the common goal.Therefore,it is a Latin description,different from the Greek ‘polis’ and an important concept of the ‘state’ after the concept of ‘polis’.Cicero,just as Plato,Aristotle,and the Stoic,appeals to the overriding value of the res publica.Cicero appropriates this conventional sentiment and makes it central to his ethical system,which expresses the spirit of the patriotism and the classical republicanism.The authority is always the core of the social and political life.While Roman thinkers attached importance to authority,they inherited from Greek theory a horror of political authority.Cicero’s republican thought is the main part of the theory of Roman political community,which comes from Greek political theory and the Roman reality.Stoic theory is one of the sources of Cicero’s thought,while Polybius’ political theory of ‘checks and balances’ provides a foundation to it.The Roman thinkers considered it necessary to restrict the ruling power by morals,so they stressed on the moral standard function of the man in power.Their focus on ethics and reason has three sources: mos maiorum(the customs of the ancestors)and the aristocratic code;the Greek political theory;the Roman political reality.Besides this,the Roman thinkers also concern the role of laws.Cicero’s theory of natural law establishes the existence of the ius naturae,the origin of the virtue of justice,which is identified also with reason.The Roman jurists were educated in a tradition which instilled in them familiarity with the political thought of the Stoic philosophy of natural law.They showed little interest in political thought and the contact with practice shaped their distinctly pragmatic approach to it.Their ideas made deep influence on later legal system and concept.During the struggle and conquer,Rome had constructed a “coherent structure”for citizenship.The intellectuals such as Polybius and Cicero emphasized duties as the basis for the receipt of legal and civil privileges.Their values were those of a smallgroup of oligarchs,but aristocratic ideals filtered down and were into activities that benefited both the individual and the community.Through the award of citizenship,the spread of Latin literature and Stoic human friendship,Rome maintained relations with other cities and eventually put them under her rule.The life and idea of Josephus reflect the themes of conflicts between the Roman government and the local province.As a diaspora and a member of Jewish social elite,Josephus tried to keep his religious belief and national emotion as well as hoped that Rome and the Jewish nation could have harmonious relationship.To some extent,his ideas reflect the local intellectual elites’ desire and choice.In the empire era,the religious meaning of Stoic philosophy developed increasingly.The idea that the foundation of laws and rules is that the God directed human life rose in the political thought.At the same time,there were also the‘two-states’ theory within the holistic concept of state and the idea of free will.Seneca and Marcus Aurelius believed that each people lived in two countries,which one was his own city,while the other was for all mankind with reason.For Seneca,the latter was not some certain country,but a society and the bonds among people were not legal and political,but moral and religious.Epictetus thought that human values lied in the life led by our will.The liberty was nothing but following our own will.Actually,Seneca’s Stoic philosophy,just like Epictetus’ and Marcus Aurelius’,was some religious belief.Though it provided power and consolation to people,it also led to personal meditation.This belief was rooted in the political theory of Church Fathers and shaped the Medieval political ideas.The concerns about republic,authority,morals and individuals of Roman thinkers reveal the change of political perspective since the decline of the polis and the rise of the empire: from the state to the individuals,from secular reasons to divine reasons.The political views of the Medieval,built on the theory of Roman political community,function as a vehicle between the ancient and the modern times through the interpretation of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.