Ruling with the gods. Authority, auspices, and power under the Roman Republic and Augustus.
Beautiful Letters| N° d'inventaire | 19404 |
| Format | 15 x 21.5 |
| Détails | 448 p., paperback |
| Publication | Paris, 2015 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | |
The Roman Republic did not emerge fully armed from Montesquieu's head. Far from being guaranteed by a tripartite division of power, the balance of institutions rested above all on the supervision of the potestas of magistrates by the auctoritas of priests and the Senate. The right of auspices of the people's magistrates, inherited from the prestigious auspicious monopoly of the old patrician nobility, formed the Gordian knot of the articulation of potestas to auctoritas. Their potestas being conceived as "imperfect," the magistrates were in fact forced to seek, by means of auspices, an atomized and precarious legitimization of their public acts by the auctoritas of Jupiter. Supervised by the institutional holders of auctoritas, augurs and senators, the taking of auspices was thus at the heart of the self-control mechanisms of the Roman aristocracy. Although Augustus formally respected this patrician and conservative ideological base (optimas), he radically modified its scope through his innovations in matters of potestas and auspices, and through the importance he gave to the prince's auctoritas.
The Roman Republic did not emerge fully armed from Montesquieu's head. Far from being guaranteed by a tripartite division of power, the balance of institutions rested above all on the supervision of the potestas of magistrates by the auctoritas of priests and the Senate. The right of auspices of the people's magistrates, inherited from the prestigious auspicious monopoly of the old patrician nobility, formed the Gordian knot of the articulation of potestas to auctoritas. Their potestas being conceived as "imperfect," the magistrates were in fact forced to seek, by means of auspices, an atomized and precarious legitimization of their public acts by the auctoritas of Jupiter. Supervised by the institutional holders of auctoritas, augurs and senators, the taking of auspices was thus at the heart of the self-control mechanisms of the Roman aristocracy. Although Augustus formally respected this patrician and conservative ideological base (optimas), he radically modified its scope through his innovations in matters of potestas and auspices, and through the importance he gave to the prince's auctoritas.