The Ancient City: A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome by Numa Denis Fustel De Coulanges (PDF)

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From the 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. To understand the truth about the Greeks and Romans, it is wise to study them without thinking of ourselves, as if they were entirely foreign to us; with the same disinterestedness, and with the mind as free, as if we were studying ancient India or Arabia. Thus observed, Greece and Rome appear to us in a character absolutely inimitable; nothing in modern times resembles them; nothing in the future can resemble them. We shall attempt to show by what rules these societies were regulated, and it will be freely admitted that the same rules can never govern humanity again. Whence comes this? Why are the conditions of human government no longer the same as in earlier times? The great changes which appear from time to time in the constitution of society can be the effect neither of chance nor of force alone. The cause which produces them must be powerful, and must be found in man himself. If the laws of human association are no longer the same as in antiquity, it is because there has been a change in man. There is, in fact, a part of our being which is modified from age to age; this is our intelligence. It is always in movement; almost always progressing; and on this account, our institutions and our laws are subject to change. Man has not, in our day, the way of thinking that he had twenty-five centuries ago; and this is why he is no longer governed as he was governed then. The history of Greece and Rome is a witness and an example of the intimate relation which always exists between men’s ideas and their social state. Examine the institutions of the ancients without thinking of their religious notions, and you find them obscure, whimsical, and inexplicable. Why were there patricians and plebeians, patrons and clients, eupatrids and theses; and whence came the native of those Lacedaemonian institutions which appear to us so contrary to nature? How are we to explain those unjust caprices of ancient private law; at Corinth and at Thebes, the sale of land prohibited; at Athens and at Rome, an inequality in the succession between brother and sister?

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⭐_The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome_ is a translation of _La Cite Antique_ of Fustel de Coulanges, first published in 1864, and made available as a translation by The Johns Hopkins University Press. Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges was a French classicist who devoted his attention to the ancient pagan civic religions of the Greeks and Romans, contrasting this with that of the Indians (Aryans). His ideas concerning this ancient pagan religion were part of a milieu of social evolutionary ideas that included H. S. Maine and J. J. Bachofen. He also wrote on the origins of the Gauls and French society and his ideas concerning their Roman origins were put to use by various extreme rightist organizations such as the Action Francaise of Charles Maurras. The writings of Fustel de Coulanges have proven particularly profitable for many later French sociologists and anthropologists, though they were to come to reject certain of his ideas as not being confirmed by historical evidence. Christianity played a special role in the theories of Fustel de Coulanges as the subsequent religion which overtook the pagan Greek and Roman civic religion and supplanted it with a universalist system. In addition, Fustel de Coulanges wrote against the various socialist theorists of the time, emphasizing the role of private property among the earliest Greeks and Romans. This book includes a Foreword by Arnaldo Momigliano and S. C. Humphreys which points to many of the central issues involved in the reading of Fustel de Coulanges and the text of _The Ancient City_ proper.To begin, the author notes the essential necessity of studying the earliest beliefs of the ancients in an effort to understand their institutions. The author next turns his attentions to the earliest beliefs about the soul and death. In particular, the abode of the dead is discussed, as well as the need of the dead for food (noting that on certain days the ancients were to bring food to the tombs of the departed). The author also notes the practice of the worship of the dead. The deified souls of the departed were known as demons or heroes to the Greeks and as Lares, Manes, or Genii to the Latins. The author also discusses the role of the sacred hearth-fire and the worship of fire. This hearth-fire was always kept burning. Next, the author turns his attention to the ancient domestic religion, emphasizing the patriarchal society that existed and the role of the family in that religion. Each family was ruled over by the father, who may bequeath his rule to his eldest son, and each family preserved its own gods (the ancestors) and the sacred fire. The author discusses such important aspects of the ancient family as marriage (in which a meal was shared between the bride and her husband initiating the bride into the worship of the husband’s family), kinship, the right of succession, property (an important institution for the ancient family, though one that was passed down from father to son exclusively), authority in the family, and morals in the family. In particular, the author also discusses the gens at Rome and Greece (noting the aristocratic nature of the Roman clan and showing the contrast between plebeians and patricians). Following this discussion, the author turns his attention to the ancient city proper. Here, the author notes how while the ancient domestic religion prohibited families from mingling, it was still possible for the ancient families to unite in a phratria (to the Greeks) or curia (to the Latins). The author also shows how new religious beliefs formed, based on the worship of natural phenomena, invoking such ancient names for the sun as Hercules (the glorious), Phoebus (the shining), Apollo (he who drives away night or evil), Hyperion (the elevated Being), and Alexicacos (the beneficent). The author shows that while the ancient family domestic religion involved the worship of ancestors, these gods came to be present for all. The author discusses the city and its various customs, including the religion of the city and its gods. Here, he notes such things as public repasts, festivals and the calendar, the census, and religion in the assembly, in the Senate, in the Tribunal, in the Army, and in the Triumph. The author also discusses various rituals, the king, the magistracy, the law, and the citizen and stranger. In addition, the author also discusses ancient patriotism and the means to exile. Finally, the author discusses war, peace, and the alliance of the gods. This brings the author to a discussion of the omnipotence of the state and the lack of individual liberty among the ancients. The next section of this book concerns the various revolutions that occurred as plebeians demanded more rights from the ancient order, leading eventually to the creation of democracy. In the first revolution, political authority was taken from the king (although the king was still to retain religious authority). The author discusses this revolution was it played out at Sparta, Athens, and Rome. At this time, the aristocracy governed the city. In the second revolution, various changes occurred in the constitution of the family and the right of primogeniture disappeared. It was at this point that the clients became free (the author mentions in particular the work of Solon). In the third revolution, the plebs entered the city. The author discusses this revolution as it played out at Athens and Rome. The author also discusses changes in the private law, the Code of the Twelve Tables, and the Code of Solon. In the fourth revolution, an aristocracy of wealth tried to establish itself and this lead to the establishment of democracy and popular suffrage. However, it is in the conflict between rich and poor that democracy failed and popular tyrants arose. The final section of this book is devoted to the disappearance of the municipal regime. Here, the author notes how new beliefs arose as the traditional religious structures were changed to become more universal. The author discusses the Roman conquest and the subsequent rise of Christianity. By calling to itself the whole human race, Christianity made the most radical change to the pagan religion.This book provides an excellent account of the earliest ancient Greek and Roman pagan religion that revolved around the family and its subsequent demise with the rise of the Romans and the beginnings of Christianity. It is the universal message of Christianity that lives on from most ancient times. This book is a fascinating sociological account of the ancient city and its religion and customs, showing in detail the ancient pagan belief system. Fustel de Coulanges is very learned and argues extensively from many ancient sources, both Greek and Roman (but also mentioning ancient Indian and Hebrew sources as well).

⭐Brilliant and unchallenged interpretation of community and City State life in Indoeuropean ancient societies. Fustel de Coulanges, a 19th Century French specialist in medieval history was so flustered by phrygian caps and the demagogic appropiation of “Greek Democracy” as a “model” or “precursor” of modern western democracies, that he decided to shut himself up at home for ten years, accompanied only by Sanscrit, Greek and Latin primary sources to canvas the truest possible reconstruction of ancient political life. Uninfluenced by university politics, he distilled this wondrous book, “La Cité Antique”, where we find how these societies voted, made law, married, gave cult to their beliefs, etc. Obviously and by far the ancients didn’t do these things as we do them now. “The Ancient City” should be essential reading for Law students and Roman Law courses in particular, even if your current professor omits the book in your reading list. Don’t read it if you want to believe that the greeks and romans held primaries in New Hampshire.

⭐This text provides a detailed account of life in Ancient Greece that goes beyond the mere superficial and exposes the intellectual undercurrents to Greek society. I always find myself referring back to it.

⭐The Kindle edition had no paragraph or chapter breaks. The prose was one continuous series of sentences. It was not what I was expecting from a Kindle edition

⭐I love the book even though it arrived when i had forgotten about it. All the same I have no regrets that i have it.

⭐I read references to the work of Fustel de Coulanges in the writings of the great and heroic French historian, Marc Bloch, (

⭐) and was intrigued enough to get and read it. What an eye-opener! It is undoubtedly among the top 10 seminal historical works ever written, in my opinion. Considering the data that Fustel did not have access to, for which some criticize him, makes this achievement even that much more impressive. His thought revealed in his writing is clear, insightful, brilliant.What you will find in this book is a masterful story of the descent of the many institutions to which we are still heir though the context and specific manifestations have changed. In many cases, we believe things about why this or that custom has always been with us that are wrong, and Fustel sets out the evidence for what is really behind such things as marriage ceremonies, carrying the bride over the threshold, the foundations of the legal system including why it was the eldest son who got everything for thousands of years, and so forth. There are many questions about why things are the way they are answered in this book.As other reviewers have noted, there are many descriptions in “The Ancient City” that will bring elements of the Bible to mind. The big question nowadays is: did the Bible borrow from other stories and cultures to create a “history of Israel” that never actually happened? Were some of those stories Greek? And were the Greek stories influenced by elements from Anatolia and Mesopotamia, coming to the Bible by a circuitous route? Did the authors of the Septuagint borrow from Homer and Herodotus?These are all questions that are interesting and can be better formulated by also reading Russel Gmirkin’s book:

⭐and Bruce Louden’s book:

⭐Despite some of the nit-picking criticisms that have been directed at Fustel over the years, I’ve never found a significant argument that Fustel got it wrong. His sweeping overview of “how things must have happened” by taking what we know and back-engineering it, is amazing. Everyone should – and can – read it because Fustel was not a stuffy academic who wanted to wrap bizarre ideas in obscure language: he wanted to set out a rational view of why our culture is the way it is which can seem to be totally irrational until you understand what is behind things. If he had had knowledge of periodic cosmic catastrophes such as those explicated in the works of Victor Clube and Bill Napier, (

⭐as well as Firestone, West and Warwick-Smith,

⭐he would have been able to take the topic to its most basic level: fear of death manipulated by individuals seeking power. For that part of the story, you need to read Becker’s

⭐.In any event, The Ancient City is definitely a big piece of the puzzle. If you read the works of Julius Caesar, (

⭐you will want to read Fustel first so as to better understand that most amazing of heroes, the one who could have saved Rome had the wealthy elite not been so greedy and psychopathic, and had he not been so humane and forgiving.In short, in order to understand a lot of things about ancient history, the history of Rome, and our own civilization which is the daughter of Rome, you need to read Fustel. And you will enjoy it and be glad you did!

⭐The book is fine and matches the description. However, and unusually, the book arrived 9 days after ordering.

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