The essential characteristic of any city, of any polis, is the founding act. This act, played once and for all, embodies a higher, invisible reality, that which allowed the Polis to exist. As such, the laws which the Polis gives herself reflect this reality, and are thus immutable. Thus Solon ... More
It is commonplace to speak of the ancient Greek (or, more exactly, Athenian) democracy, or less commonly nowadays of the Roman Republic, as the ancestor of our modern parliementary democracies. This view corresponds well with a larger interpretation, seeing the ancient world as a beacon of light ... More
“Rome is an empire, so it was built and maintained by force.” Critics of empire, although acknowledging its benefits, also often bring up this point. Such judgement is, however, erroneous because it fails to take into account the reality of history, that people understand a situation ... More
Will Durant, in his History of Civilization, remarked that when Luther and the other Protestant groups broke from Rome, it was as if the German peoples had thrown off Rome’s hegemony a second time–the first being the taking over of the Western Roman Empire. This remark is ... More
These developments in the relationship between basileia and hierosyne are reflected in imperial iconography – i.e., in the way in which emperors are depicted. Down to the time of the iconoclastic controversy, emperors most often were depicted in ways that emphasized their power – crowned ... More
