The Ancient City

By De Coulanges, Numa Denis Fustel

Book Id: WPLBN0000698914
Format Type: PDF eBook:
File Size: 1.06 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005

Title:	The Ancient City
Author:	De Coulanges, Numa Denis Fustel
Volume:
Language:	English
Subject:	Political science., Economics and literature, Economic & political studies series
Collections:	Economics Publications Collection
Historic Publication Date:
Publisher:	Archive for the History of Economic Thought


Citation APA MLA Chicago Denis Fustel De Coulanges, B. N. (n.d.). The Ancient City. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.us/

Description
Economic Theory Literature

Excerpt
Introduction: The Necessity of Studying the Earliest Beliefs of the Ancients in Order to Understand Their Institutions. It is proposed here to show upon what principles and by what rules Greek and Roman society was governed. We unite in the same study both the Greeks and the Romans, because these two peoples, who were two branches of a single race, and who spoke two idioms of a single language, also had the same institutions and the same principles of government, and passed through a series of similar revolutions. We shall attempt to set in a clear light the radical and essential differences which at all times distinguished these ancient peoples from modern societies. In our system of education, we live from infancy in the midst of the Greeks and Romans, and become accustomed continually to compare them with ourselves, to judge of their history by our own, and to explain our revolutions by theirs. What we have received from them leads us to believe that we resemble them. We have some difficulty in considering them as foreign nations; it is almost always ourselves that we see in them. Hence spring many errors. We rarely fail to deceive ourselves regarding these ancient nations when we see them through the opinions and facts of our own time. Now, errors of this kind are not without danger. The ideas which the moderns have had of Greece and Rome have often been in their way. Having imperfectly observed the institutions of the ancient city, men have dreamed of reviving them among us. They have deceived themselves about the liberty of the ancients, and on this very account liberty among the moderns has been put in peril. The last eighty years have clearly shown that one of the great difficulties which impede the march of modern society is the habit which it has of always keeping Greek and Roman antiquity before its eyes.

Table of Contents
Table of Contents. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Book First: Ancient Beliefs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chapter I: Notions about the Soul and Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Chapter II: The Worship of the Dead. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Chapter III: The Sacred Fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 Book Second: The Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 Chapter I: Religion was the Constituent Principle of the Ancient Family. . . . . . 30 Chapter II: Marriage. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Chapter III: Continuity of the Family. Celibacy Forbidden. Divorce in Case of Sterility. Inequality Between the Son and Daughter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37 Chapter IV: Adoption and Emancipation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Chapter V: Kinship. What the Romans Called Agnation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Chapter VI: The Right of Property. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Chapter VII: The Right of Succession. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Chapter VIII: Authority in the Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 Chapter IX: Morals of the Ancient Family. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Chapter X: The Gens at Rome and in Greece. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Book Third: The City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Chapter I: The Phratry and The Cury. The Tribe. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Chapter II: New Religious Beliefs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98 Chapter III: The City Formed. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 Chapter IV: The City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110 Chapter V: Worship of the Founder. The Legend of Aeneas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Chapter VI: The Gods of the City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Chapter VII: The Religion of the City. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129 Chapter VIII: The Rituals and the Annals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139 Chapter IX: Government of the City. The King. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Chapter X: The Magistracy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Chapter XI: The Law. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Chapter XII: The Citizen and the Stranger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162 Chapter XIII: Patriotism. Exile. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165 Chapter XIV: The Municipal Spirit. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Chapter XV: Relations Between the Cities. War. Peace. The Alliance of the Gods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Chapter XVI: The Roman. The Athenian. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Chapter XVII: The Omnipotence of The State. The Ancients Knew Nothing of