Jupiter und die Republik. Die Entstehung des europäischen Republikanismus in der Antike

Abstract

The evolution of republican forms of organisation at the level of the «early states» is a unique cultural development which distinguishes the ancient city states from other advanced civilisations, such as is particularly shown by a comparison with ethnological research. Taking into consideration the huge impact which the republican form of government had on the evolvement of the modern era, one realises that Antiquity does not present any kind of premodern era, but a special one for the political culture of the present – even outside of Europe. In this article the example of Rome serves to comment on the complex conditions which allowed ancient communities to tread this special path of social organisation. The basic assumption is that the relationship to the sacred sphere, thereby the formation of a sacral organisation, was of key importance.