Political Thought

Political Theory in the Early Church. The founder of Christianity had little interest in political doctrines. In appealing to the lowly and oppressed, the importance of the rich and the powerful was disparaged. In emphasizing the principle of the Golden Rule, the morality of the individual was appealed to, and the authority of government was … Read more

The Rise of the Papacy. During the Early Church, the bishops of Rome enjoyed no temporal power until the time of Constantine. After the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, the papacy was influenced by the temporal rulers of the surrounding Italian Peninsula; these periods are known as the Ostrogothic Papacy, Byzantine Papacy, and Frankish … Read more

Christianity in the Roman Empire. Roman religion at the beginning of the Roman Empire (27 BC – 476 AD) was polytheistic and local. Each city worshiped its own set of gods and goddesses that had originally been derived from ancient Greece and become Romanized. Two new elements were added to political life at the beginning … Read more

Contributions of Roman Political Thought. The political ideals of the Greeks and of the Romans were complementary, each being strong whereas the other was weak. In contrast to the Greek ideas of liberty and democracy, Rome placed chief emphasis on the ideas of law, order, and unity. The weakness of the Greeks was in their … Read more

Roman theory of international relations was more primitive and elementary than that of the Greeks. Rome returned to the earlier idea of war as the natural relation among states. In her treaties of peace, however, she was not content with merely bringing war to an end but established some permanent relationship of alliance with the … Read more

Polybius The Roman Historian. No discussion of the principles of Roman government was attempted until after Rome had become the greatest state in the world, and a beginning was then made by a Greek. Polybius (204-122 B.C.) was one of the statesmen who directed the policy of the Achaean League at the time when Macedonian … Read more

Roman Theory of Law. The Roman idea of law developed gradually. The first Roman laws were a mixture of religious regulations, customary rules, and popular conceptions of justice. As usual among early peoples, religion was an important element in authority, with offenses against public order being regarded as injuries to the gods rather than as … Read more

Nature of Roman Political Thought. In general, the Romans derived their philosophical ideas from the Greeks, the doctrines of the Stoics being especially popular. Deliberate purpose played little part in the creation of Roman political institutions. Aside from the general policy of playing off her enemies one against another, and of attaching each newly conquered … Read more

Rome contributed little to the literature of political thought. Roman political institutions and legal system, however, exerted a tremendous influence on political evolution; and for many centuries after her fall the idea of the state was based upon the institutions that Rome had established. Rome first appeared as a city-state, formed by a union of … Read more