Categorical Apparatus of the “Roman Revolution” Studies: the Term quasi civitas in Jakov Yu. Mezheritsky’s Research
Dement'eva Vera V.
The article gives a critical review of the Mezheritskiy’s interpretation of the Roman community in the Late Republican period (and even since third century BC) as a quasi civitas. Both the wording of this term and its sense are analysed. The author agrees with Mezheritskiy that civitas Romana is populus Romanus, i.e. population consisting of Roman citizens; civitas and res publica are different terms, civitas being a subject and res publica an object of its possession. The latter consisted of material and non-material components including political structure, which varied during the long period of the existence of the civitas. Analyzing Mezheritskiy’s arguments in favour of regarding the second–first century BC Roman community as а quasi civitas, the author of the article finds them unreliable. She argues that «to restore the republic» under Augustus’ rule (if res publica is understood as something belonging to civil community) was possible only if the subject that possessed it, i.e. civitas, persisted. Therefore, the cause of the «Roman revolution» was not a transformation of civitas into quasi civitas, but a crisis of its political structure as an element of the res publica. The author of this article claims that by introducing the term quasi civitas into the categorical apparatus of his research Mezheritskiy did not strengthen the theoretical basis of his study, as the term came into contradiction with its content.
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