Roman Republican Road-Building

1970 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 122-152 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. P. Wiseman

The early history and development of the Roman road-system in Italy under the Republic has been the subject of much recent study, notably in a book by Dr. T. Pekáry of Berne and in a series of papers by Professor G. Radke of Berlin, who now promises an article on viae in a forthcoming supplement-volume to Paully-Wissowa. The aim of the present paper is to ask how far the theories put forward by these scholars can be accepted, and how much the existing evidence can and cannot tell us. Professor Radke's views are considered first—the basic criteria for his arguments in section I and the results he obtains for the individual roads in section II. Dr. Pekáry's arguments about the chronology of the early road programmes are examined in section III, and his theory about the financial responsibility for the building and repair of roads in section IV. The final section contains some positive, if tentative, suggestions about the development in scale and expense of the roads in the second century B.C., about the political importance of road-building under the Republic, and about the introduction and purpose of milestone inscriptions.

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (88) ◽  

The second half of the 20th century witnessed many political and social upheavals in the Republic of Turkey as well as in the rest of the world. The political turmoil and chaos that occurred after 1970, which we determined as the limit of our study, and the social values that started to change with the introduction of technology in the institutional field after 1980 and in the individual life after 1990 caused the Turkish society to change at different speeds. Mehmet Güleryüz, who is the artist of the is a sensitive painter who observes, assimilates and has succeeded in reflecting these problems in his works by passing these problems through his intellectual filter with his ability to analyze with universal accuracy. In this study, the subject and drawing of Guleryuz's paintings were studied in this context. Keywords: Mehmet Guleryuz, 70’s, oil painting


Author(s):  
José Gomes André ◽  

This paper is concerned with the political philosophy of Richard Price, analysing the way this author has developed the concept of liberty and the problem of human rights. The theme of liberty will be interpreted in a double perspective: a) in a private dimension, that sets liberty in the inner side of the individual; b) in a public dimension, that places it in the domain of a manifest action of the individual. We will try to show how this double outlook of liberty is conceived under the optics of a necessary complementarity, since liberty, which is primarily understood as a feature of the subject taken as an individual, acquires only a full meaning when she becomes efective in a comunitary field, as a social and political expression. The concept of human rights will appear located in this analysis, being defined simultaneously as condition and expression of the human dignity and happiness, at the same time natural attributes of an individual that should be cultivated and public effectiveness that contributes to the development of society.


1912 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ernest Nys

“Law in general,” says Montesquieu, “is human reason so far as it controls all the people of the earth, and the political and civil laws of each nation can only be considered as individual cases in which this human reason is applied.” Reason was held by the Romans to constitute one of the fundamental elements of law. Cicero announced the existence of “a veritable law, true reason (recta ratio), in conformity with nature, universal, immutable and eternal, the commands of which constitute a call to duty and the prohibitions of which avert evil.”It is at present unnecessary to consider what influence the Stoic, Academic and Epicurean doctrines had on Roman jurisprudence, and it would be risky to support as absolutely final any view which might be expressed on the subject. During the last phases of the Republic there had already come to exist in the world’s capital a fusion of the different schools of philosophy; and traces of the Platonic teachings constantly appear in the expression of the great orator’s lofty thought.


2012 ◽  
pp. 67-81 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Lambert ◽  
Eric Pezet

This paper investigates the practices whereby the subject, in an organisational context, carries out systematic practices of self-discipline and becomes a calculative self. In particular, we explore the techniques of conduct developed by management accountants in a French carmaker, which adheres to a neoliberal environment. We show how these management accountants become calculative selves by building the very measurement of their own performance. The organisation thereby emerges as the cauldron in which a Homo liberalis is forged. Homo liberalis is the individual capable of constructing for him/her the political self-discipline establishing his/her relationship with the social world on the basis of measurable performance. The management accountants studied in this article prefigure the Homo liberalis in the self-discipline they develop to act in compliance with the organisation’s goals.


Author(s):  
Aleksei Ivanovich Aleksandrov ◽  
Andrei Andreevich Kovalev

The subject of this research is the philosophical conceptualization of evil in the Confucianism. This goal is achieved by solving the following tasks: 1) assessment of Confucianism as a synthesis of the philosophical views of Confucius and Mencius; 2) determination of good and evil as  the contrasting concepts in the ethical space, which is based on the ideal of a “person of high nature” Junzi and the real world of a “petty person"; 3) evaluation of evil as the antipode of good, which is based on the sense of duty and regard of moral rules. The novelty of this research consists in the first within the Russian historical-philosophical literature comparative analysis of the views of Confucius and Mencius upon the nature of evil, examination of the genesis of such representations, and their relevance for modern philosophy. Representations on the nature of good and evil of Confucius and Mencius are based on the contrast within the ethical space of the ideal of a “gentleman” (due) and the reality of a “petty person”. The virtue of a “gentleman” is a means of achieving good; and the virtuous life leads to prosperity of the country. Evil of a “petty person” captured by selfish motives, leads to social demise and political disintegration. Mecius applies same moral principles, which govern the individual’s everyday life, to the political sphere of social existence. The thinker underlines circumscription of the monarchs, indicating that even the monarch – if not a “gentleman”, but merely a “petty person” – can be corrupted by evil, in which case the country faced demise.


2021 ◽  
Vol V (4) ◽  
pp. 175-200
Author(s):  
Olga Bychkova ◽  
Artem Kosmarsky

This paper focuses on the political genealogy of one of the most promising and influential IT technologies of our time: the blockchain (or distributed registry). We point at important commonalities between the principles of blockchain projects and models of republican governance. In contrast to techno-anarchist and democratic ideas, the republican genealogy of blockchain has so far failed to attract the attention of researchers. After examining the basic technical properties and ideological images of blockchain, we explore how the four main principles of classical republicanism (personal freedom and autonomy of the individual; civic virtues; common good; recognition of great causes) are realized in influential blockchain projects — Bitcoin (developed by the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto) and Ethereum (developed by Vitalik Buterin). The functioning of blockchain nodes is supported by a community of miners, who are free, but at the same time agree to act for the development of a common thing. What the republic and the blockchain have in common is that it is impossible to have a community without cooperative action. At the same time, blockchain is a vivid illustration of Bruno Latour's argument on the role of non-humans in social relations: his code seeks to replace untrustworthy humans with rule-acting nodes, and to create a cryptographic society where untrustworthy human relations are replaced by computers' relations. This article is an invitation to begin a discussion of the political ideas that are embedded in new technologies and the models of governance that are mobilized through them, often without proper reflection on the nature of such ideas by their creators.


1978 ◽  
Vol 72 (3) ◽  
pp. 888-901 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arlene W. Saxonhouse

The political society founded by Socrates in the Republic has been seen by many as Plato's conception of the ideal political community, his Callipolis. However, a study of the language used by Socrates as he builds his perfect city reveals an unusually heavy concentration of animal images. This language seems to undercut the ostensible perfection of Socrates' city and illustrates rather its connections to the comic world of Aristophanes, whose comedy the Birds offers the model according to which the Republic is built. It is suggested that the city of the Republic is comic and ugly, indicating the limitations of politics rather than its potentialities. The Republic argues for the need to reorient the concept of justice away from social life and towards the individual. Ultimately, the Republic suggests that the notion of social justice is laughable and fit for the comic Stage.


Author(s):  
Theofanis Tassis ◽  

During the last decade Castoriadis’ questioning has become a reference point in contemporary social theory. In this article I examine some of the key notions in Castoriadis’ work and explore how he strives to develop a theory on the irreducible creativity in the radical imagination of the individual and in the institution of the social-historical sphere. Firstly, I briefly discuss his conception of modem capitalism as bureaucratic capitalism, a view initiated by his criticism of the USSR regime. The following break up with Marxist theory and his psychoanalytic interests empowered him to criticize Lacan and read Freud in an imaginative, though unorthodox, fashion. I argue that this criticai enterprise assisted greatly Castoriadis in his conception of the radical imaginary and in his unveiling of the political aspects of psychoanalysis. On the issue of the radical imaginary and its methodological repercussions, I’m focusing mainly on the radical imagination o f the subject and its importance in the transition from the “psychic” to the “subject”. Taking up the notion of “Being” as a starting point, I examine the notion of autonomy, seeking its roots in the ancient Greek world. By looking at notions such as “praxis”, “doing”, “project” and “elucidation”, I show how Castoriadis sought to redefine revolution as a means for social and individual autonomy. Finally I attempt to clarify the meaning of “democracy” and “democratic society” in the context of the social imaginary and its creations, the social imaginary significations.


Author(s):  
Pierluigi SIMONE

The recast of the international debt contracted by the former Ottoman Empire and the overcoming of the capitulations regime that had afflicted Turkey for centuries, are two of the most relevant sectors in which the political and diplomatic action promoted by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk has been expressed. Extremely relevant in this regard are the different disciplines established, respectively, by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920 and then by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. After the Ottoman Government defaulted in 1875, an agreement (the Decree of Muharrem) was concluded in 1881 between the Ottoman Government and representatives of its foreign and domestic creditors for the resumption of payments on Ottoman bonds, and a European control of a part of the Imperial revenues was instituted through the Administration of the Ottoman Public Debt. At the same time, the Ottoman Empire was burdened by capitulations, conferring rights and privileges in favour of their subjects resident or trading in the Ottoman lands, following the policy towards European States of the Byzantine Empire. According to these capitulations, traders entering the Ottoman Empire were exempt from local prosecution, local taxation, local conscription, and the searching of their domicile. The capitulations were initially made during the Ottoman Empire’s military dominance, to entice and encourage commercial exchanges with Western merchants. However, after dominance shifted to Europe, significant economic and political advantages were granted to the European Powers by the Ottoman Empire. Both regimes, substantially maintained by the Treaty of Sèvres, were considered unacceptable by the Nationalist Movement led by Mustafa Kemal and therefore became the subject of negotiations during the Conference of Lausanne. The definitive overcoming of both of them, therefore represents one of the most evident examples of the reacquisition of the full sovereignty of the Republic of Turkey.


1997 ◽  
Vol 47 (2) ◽  
pp. 510-518 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S. Richardson

The origins and nature of the judicial role of the senate in cases which under the republic were the business of the permanentquaestioneshave been the subject of long debate, and a satisfactory explanation has yet to be found for the change that had undoubtedly taken place by the reign of Tiberius. The discovery and publication of the senatorial decree which concluded the investigation into the charge brought in A.D. 20 against Cn. Piso following the murder of Germanicus,2 in addition to the wealth of new material it provides for the political history of the period and the understanding of the methods of the historian Tacitus, allows an insight into the relation of the senate to thequaestio maiestatiswhich may prove useful in unravelling some of the puzzles which have troubled scholars hitherto.


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