Ancient Politics Research Articles

Book Review of "Script on Bamboo and Silk - Ancient Chinese Textual Records"

In the flow of history, ancient writing mediums are akin to precious relics, carrying the legacy of millennia of wisdom and culture. A book titled "Script on Bamboo and Silk - Ancient Chinese Textual Records," published by Century Library in 2004, serves as a window through time, guiding us on a marvelous journey into the world of ancient Chinese writing mediums. The author of this book, Qian Cunxun, with his profound research and insightful perspectives, presents to us the historical trajectory of ancient writing mediums such as bamboo slips and silk fabric, exploring their significance and influence in the transmission of ancient culture. Ancient Chinese textual records form an extensive ocean, spanning from the earliest oracle bone script to later paper writing. Within this expanse, bamboo slips and silk fabric, as representatives of ancient writing mediums, uniquely radiate the brilliance of civilization. Bamboo slips once bore witness to the clash of ideas during the Warring States period and the competition between Legalist and Confucianist schools of thought. Silk fabric, on the other hand, provided a sturdy foundation for literary and artistic works such as calligraphy, poetry, and more. Today, the book "Script on Bamboo and Silk - Ancient Chinese Textual Records" guides us into the splendid realm of these writing mediums, offering us an opportunity to delve deep into their crafting techniques, preservation methods, and applications across various domains of ancient society. As Qian Cunxun has articulated, bamboo slips and silk fabric played significant roles in various aspects of ancient politics, culture, and economy. Bamboo slips, serving as the primary medium for political records, documented laws, decrees, and more, providing a solid foundation for the continuity of political systems. Meanwhile, silk fabric assumed a distinct role in the realm of culture, serving as a medium for artistic creations like painting and calligraphy. Simultaneously, in the domain of religion, silk fabric was utilized to transmit religious scriptures, becoming a medium for the dissemination of faith, and finding widespread use in the preservation of classics and the recording of religious rituals. Contemporary research and understanding of ancient Chinese culture are akin to an unfathomable universe, and "Script on Bamboo and Silk - Ancient Chinese Textual Records" has opened the gateway to this universe for us. Through in-depth exploration of ancient writing mediums, we can better grasp the diversity and richness of ancient society, comprehending its ideologies, arts, and systems. Qian Cunxun's rigorous research methods and profound analysis in the book enable us to gain a comprehensive understanding of the historical significance and cultural value of ancient writing mediums such as bamboo slips and silk fabric. In this era of information explosion, we are fortunate to delve into the world of ancient writing through this book, to sense the essence of that era, and to better comprehend the origins and inheritance of Chinese culture.

Онтологическая природа политики

The article is devoted to clarifying the understanding of the nature of politics. Having documented the lack of consensus in the scientific discourse even regarding the very concept of politics, the author proposes an approach that, from his point of view, allows to obtain the most consistent conceptualization of the political. In his study of the nature of politics, the author relies primarily on the analysis of the phenomenon of polis, because, despite serious disagreements in the scientific circles about what politics is, its origin is generally associated with polis. Based on the works of Plato and Aristotle and drawing on the works of modern historians and political philosophers, he demonstrates the inadequacy of the interpretation of polis as a city, state or society, and proposes to consider polis as a sphere of “supra-physical” and “supra-economic” activity of citizens in external and internal harmonization of public space. In the development of the transcendentalist tradition, the article shows that polis is primarily an ontological reality, a place where (in the eyes of the Greeks) the existence of being was manifested. Taking into account the connection between polis and politics in the ancient world, the author comes to the conclusion that politics as a practice of organizing life in polis is an activity for the formation and maintenance of ontological reality. Such an understanding of politics, in his opinion, is valid not only in relation to antiquity. Therefore, he defines politics as an ontological action, in which a struggle for the fate of being unfolds every time. In this respect, the nature of ancient politics differs little from the nature of medieval and modern politics. Despite all the differences between modern and pre-modern political discourse, this definition quite adequately characterizes the nature of the political per se.

The Assassinations of the Ancient Jewish Sicarii from an Intelligence Analysis Perspective. Josephus Flavius Reexamined

The authors recognise that contemporary international terrorism is no different from acts of the terrorist violence of antiquity. The aim of their research is to go beyond traditional historiography and to confront the descriptions of the Jewish Sicarii made by the ancient historian Josephus with the knowledge of modern security science, forensic science, medicine and the tactics of modern cold-steel terrorists . This procedure allows to show the extraordinary organisational prowess (efficiency and effectiveness) of the ancient political and terrorist movement. The authors recognise that this group must have used methods that today could also be described as intelligence and counter-detection. Seen in this way, the part of Josephus' account that has not yet been commented on in the literature in this context raises serious doubts about the details of the cold steel attacks, since they seem to have been well planned, executed, and used in political activity. This was by no means the activity of 'lone wolves'.

Indoor and outdoor multi-source 3D data fusion method for ancient buildings

Ancient buildings carry important information, such as ancient politics, economy, culture, customs. However, with the course of time, ancient buildings are often damaged to different degrees, so the restoration of ancient buildings is of great importance from the historical point of view. There are three commonly used non-contact measurement methods, including UAV-based oblique photogrammetry, terrestrial laser scanning, and close-range photogrammetry. These methods can provide integrated three-dimensional surveys of open spaces, indoor and outdoor surfaces for ancient buildings. Theoretically, the combined use of the three measurement methods can provide 3D (three-dimensional) data support for the protection and repair of ancient buildings. However, data from the three methods need to be fused urgently, because if the image data is not used, it will lead to a lack of real and intuitive texture information, and if only image matching point clouds are used, their accuracy will be lower than that of terrestrial laser scanning point clouds, and it will also lead to a lack of digital expression for components with high indoor historical value of ancient buildings. Therefore, in this paper, a data fusion method is proposed to achieve multi-source and multi-scale 3D data fusion of indoor and outdoor surfaces. It takes the terrestrial laser point cloud as the core, and based on fine component texture features and building outline features, respectively, the ground close-range image matching point cloud and UAV oblique image matching point cloud are registered with the terrestrial laser point cloud. This method unifies the data from three measurements in the point cloud and realizes the high-precision fusion of these three data. Based on the indoor and outdoor 3D full-element point cloud formed by the proposed method, it will constitute a visual point cloud model in producing plans, elevations, sections, orthophotos, and other elements for the study of ancient buildings.

Roman History

Another bumper edition, again by way of apology for absenteeism in the spring issue (though this time due to paternity rather than plague). We begin with the latest Beard blockbuster. In her Twelve Caesars, based on her 2011 A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts, Mary Beard turns her trademark combination of penetrating gaze and jovial tongue to the reception of the famed group of elite first-century ce Roman men who span a key moment in the transformation of ancient politics. Belying their importance for ancient historians and archaeologists, they have been rather neglected by art historians of later periods. With an extraordinarily wide lens, spanning from Alexander the Great to the 2017 modern art of Alison Wilding, Beard corrects that omission, demonstrating their central place in the history of Western art, and exploring not just how those emperors have been represented, repackaged, and reused, but what that says about the identities, worlds, and priorities of those who so mobilized them. The result is a tour de force of art and intellectual history. Not only is the reader presented with gloriously arcane anecdotes on almost every page, but their sum amounts to a sustained inquiry into the role that past power has played, and continues to play, in our history, politics, art, and culture.

Murder, Greed, and Corrupt Politicians: The Fall of the Roman Republic

With a prompt that has been written about countless times, this essay argues that the fall of the Roman Republic was inevitable by examining the end of the republic through a new lens- political instability. This paper draws on primary sources and key individuals such as Julius Caesar and the lesser-known Gracchi brothers. The title does not lie – the fall of Rome is filled with exciting twists and turns that are examined within this work. This paper focused on three important political leaders from roughly 130-40BC. The Gracchi Brothers introduced a new strategy to gain power as Tribunes and set a precedent for political violence in the Roman Republic. Lucius Sulla utilized his unstoppable military power to gain control of the Republic as a dictator and removed plebeian favour reforms, removing power from the citizens of Rome. Julius Caesar was the Roman Republic’s final leader; his thirst for power and political self-interest is what eventually caused the Roman Republic to come to an end. The reader will come to find that ancient politics was much more violent than its modern-day counterpart. The Roman Republic did end, but why? Could these key figures have made different choices that might have saved Rome?

Понятия справедливости и благочестия в византийской политико-философской мысли IV века

Introduction. The article analyzes the transformations of the concept of justice in early Byzantine thought. The purpose of the article is to test the hypothesis that the semantic shifts in the meaning of the concept of justice in the philosophical and theological literature were due to political processes and events. Methods. The article analyzes the political philosophical and political theological texts of the fourth century: “Oration in Honor of Constantine on the Thirtieth Anniversary of His Reign” by Eusebius of Caesarea; “Panegyric in Honour of Constantius” and “The Heroic Deeds of Constantius” by emperor Julian (“The Apostate”); “On Kingship” by Synesius of Cyrene. In the course of the analysis, the methodological tools of the history of concepts were used. Analysis. The analysis revealed a conflict between the concepts of “justice” and “piety”. It was found that the analyzed texts violate the ancient political and philosophical correlation of these concepts in which piety is considered as a form of justice. In the texts of Eusebius of Caesarea, piety is presented as a particular virtue without any connection with justice. Moreover, the frequency of using the concept of “piety” in the sense of the ruler’s virtue significantly exceeds the frequency of using the concept of “justice” in the sense of political virtue. In the texts of the Emperor Justinian, the discursive status of “justice” is restored. However, in the political philosophy of Synesius of Cyrene, the correlation of the concepts of “justice” and “piety” prescribed by Eusebius of Caesarea is fixed. Results. These processes is due to the influence of religious discourse on political one which is quite understandable in the works of theologians, on the one hand, and the crisis of polis and republican political technologies and discourses in the situation of increasing complexity of administrative tasks faced by the Roman emperors of the 4th century, on the other hand which subsequently led to the formation of a specific Byzantine “taxis” – a socio-cultural order. In this regard, the texts of Emperor Julian can be considered as an unsuccessful attempt to restore the previous discourse, an attempt to restore justice to a dominant place among the virtues of the ruler. The failure of this attempt is attested from the texts of Synesius of Cyrene. All the above allows us to conclude that a new Christian-imperial political discourse is being generated in the corpus of philosophical and theological texts in which the concept of justice is given a relatively modest place.

The Problem of the Stability of the Social System in Ancient Indian Philosophy

Introduction. The purpose of the article is to show the effect of the law of correspondence as a factor of stability of the social system and the relevance of this problem for ancient Indian philosophy. The problem of the stability of society was not directly considered in ancient Indian philosophy or in modern literature, especially through the prism of the law of correspondence.Methodology and sources. The work uses content analysis, system approach, dialectics and the concept of self-organization. In addition, the main analysis of the problem of stability in ancient Indian philosophy is carried out on the basis of the law of correspondence between the real relations that connect people at a given moment and the essence of the “social”. This law was formulated and proposed by V.V. Tuzov. The essence of the “social” could be conditionally expressed through the concepts of “equality”, “humanism”, mutual assistance, “justice”. Real relations may deviate from the essence, but by a certain amount, a measure. Going beyond the limits of the measure deprives the system of stability, and it becomes uncontrollable. The main source of analysis is the academic edition of the text Arthashastra (ancient Indian political and economic treatise), as well as “History of political and legal doctrines”, “Development of ideas about management in philosophical thought”.Results and discussion. The article analyzes the ancient Indian philosophical texts to reveal in them, in a latent or explicit form, the concern of philosophers with the problem of maintaining the stability of the state and society. Attention is focused on the fact that there is a need to observe the law of conformity in the recommendations for rulers on how to govern the people.Analysis of the main source of ancient Indian philosophy, which deals with the problems of governance, shows that the recommendations to the king, which are set forth by the author of Arthashastra Kautilya, imply, in the end result, the need to maintain a balance of interests between the ruling class and the people, that is, to observe the measure for which society loses its stability due to for the impoverishment of the people. In other words, in the management recommendations, the law of conformity, which was discussed above, appears in a latent form.Conclusion. The problem of the stability of the social system in a class society was and remains extremely relevant. The philosophical law of correspondence between real relations and the essence of social relations, which ensures the stability of society while observing the measure, requires justification. Since the principle of forming relationships and the nature of interaction has remained unchanged for centuries, the reflections of ancient philosophers on management, on the structure of society, on the relationship between different groups in it, and on the interaction of interests, on the one hand, confirm the operation of this law, on the other hand, could be useful for modern management.

Parrhesia and the ethics of public service – towards a genealogy of the bureaucrat as frank counsellor

Foucault makes clear in his later lectures that the notion of parrhesia has a long and varied history, which he merely sketches in his investigations of ancient politics and philosophy. Recent research extends and modifies Foucault’s genealogy of parrhesia as an aspect of the practice of the adviser or counsellor of a monarch or prince, showing how parrhesia informed notions of counsel at other times: in later antiquity, the middle ages as well as early modern Europe. Here we seek to show that the ancient notion of parrhesia reappears as a graft in another domain of modern truth telling: that of bureaucracy in Britain, in the debates over the organisation of the offices of government, with the middle years of the nineteenth century a decisive moment of rupture. We consider the fate of bureaucratic frank counsel in our own era. Interpreters of Foucault’s later lectures on governmentality have analysed the consequences of neoliberal rule for the government of public servants during the era of Margaret Thatcher. Presenting a reappraisal of the era, we show how important counter-discourses also emerged in this era, bringing the ethics of office to the fore, as civil servants argued for the formal codification of bureaucratic ethics, including frank counsel, as they tried to defend their professional ethics. Our discussion therefore addresses a key, early moment in the emergence of the ideal of codifying frank counsel and bureaucratic ethics. We consider the consequences of codification, arguing that a deep ambivalence now characterises the way in which political authorities seek to govern this domain of ethical practice.

The Writings of Luke and the Jewish Roots of the Christian Way: An Examination of the Aims of the First Christian Historian in the Light of Ancient Politics, Ethnography, and Historiography. By J. Andrew Cowan

<i>The Writings of Luke and the Jewish Roots of the Christian Way: An Examination of the Aims of the First Christian Historian in the Light of Ancient Politics, Ethnography, and Historiography</i>. By J. <scp>Andrew Cowan</scp>

О проблеме аутентичного (неидеологизированного) восприятия античной политико-правовой мысли

О проблеме аутентичного (неидеологизированного) восприятия античной политико-правовой мысли

“WHAT IS NOT TO BE DONE”: INTELLECTUAL POLITICS AND ANCIENT TRADITION

The article presents a critical study of the attempts of modern scholars to analyze the theoretical and historical aspects of the role that intellectuals play both in modern politics and in the political processes of more distant eras, including classical antiquity. The author demonstrates, as a case- study, criticism of the theoretical position of the St. Petersburg philosopher A.V.Dyakov, trying to interpret the evolution of the political philosophy of Plato and his aspirations to implement his pro- ject of an ideal state through the prism of Michel Foucault's theory of governmentality and a very original interpretation by the French philosopher of the Greek tradition of parrhesia (freedom of speech). Attracting a large array of the latest foreign scientific literature on the problems of mod- ern and ancient politics and the participation of intellectuals in it, the author clearly demonstrates that the A.V.Dyakov's refusal from investigation of the latest international analytics of intellectual policy deprives his concept of heuristic significance. Referring to authoritative scientific literature, devoted to the analysis of the interpretation of ancient politics in the philosophy of M.Foucault ( for example, the work of T.B.Dyrberg and others), the author proves the inconsistency of Dyak- ov's analysis of Platonic political philosophy, in particular, the Seventh Platonic Letter. The article consistently refutes the false thesis that, in M.Foucault's works, parrhesia and the figure itself of parrhesisastes are interpreted solely in terms of extreme “life risks” to which intellectuals must necessarily expose themselves in order to confirm their right to follow the politics of truth-telling in all cases.

What is Ancient Political Thinking?

This paper examines the origins of ancient political thinking from (roughly) 750 to 348 B.C. The analysis of authors who had been discussing political questions over this period shows that ancient political thinking can be classified into three discourses: political thought, political theory, and political philosophy. The purpose of this paper is to define the characteristics of each discourse and to illustrate them with specific historical examples which show how these discourses interacted with the Greek political experiences and how political thought transformed into a theory and philosophy.

PEASANTS, PROPHETS, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY: THE HEBREW BIBLE AND SOCIAL ANALYSIS. By Marvin L.Chaney. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017. Pp. xix + 295. Paperback, $37.00.

Religious Studies ReviewVolume 45, Issue 3 p. 369-369 Short Reviews of Recent Publications: Ancient Near East PEASANTS, PROPHETS, AND POLITICAL ECONOMY: THE HEBREW BIBLE AND SOCIAL ANALYSIS. By Marvin L. Chaney. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017. Pp. xix + 295. Paperback, $37.00. First published: 19 September 2019 https://doi.org/10.1111/rsr.14167Read the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume45, Issue3Special Issue: Jessica Johnson's Biblical Porn September 2019Pages 369-369 RelatedInformation

Between Justice and Accumulation: Aristotle on Currency and Reciprocity

For Aristotle, a just political community has to find similarity in difference and foster habits of reciprocity. Conventionally, speech and law have been seen to fulfill this role. This article reconstructs Aristotle’s conception of currency ( nomisma) as a political institution of reciprocal justice. By placing Aristotle’s treatment of reciprocity in the context of the ancient politics of money, currency emerges not merely as a medium of economic exchange but also potentially as a bond of civic reciprocity, a measure of justice, and an institution of ethical deliberation. Reconstructing this account of currency ( nomisma) in analogy to law ( nomos) recovers the hopes Aristotle placed in currency as a necessary institution particular to the polis as a self-governing political community striving for justice. If currency was a foundational institution, it was also always insufficient, likely imperfect, and possibly tragic. Turned into a tool for the accumulation of wealth for its own sake, currency becomes unjust and a serious threat to any political community. Aristotelian currency can fail precisely because it contains an important moment of ethical deliberation. This political significance of currency challenges accounts of the ancient world as bifurcated between oikos and polis and encourages contemporary political theorists to think of money as a constitutional project that can play an important role in improving reciprocity across society.

대구지역 고대정치체의 형성기반과 달성토성의 위상 - 고고자료를 중심으로 -

대구지역 고대정치체의 형성기반과 달성토성의 위상 - 고고자료를 중심으로 -

Philosophy and the good life

This paper considers the implications for education of a reworked ancient Greek ethics and politics of flourishing (particularly as found in Plato), where ‘flourishing’ comprises the objective actualisation of our intellectual, imaginative and affective potential. A brief outline of the main features of an ethics of flourishing and its potential attractions as an ethical framework is followed by a consideration of the ethical, aesthetic and political requirements of such a framework for the theory and practice of education, indicating the ways in which my approach differs from other recent work in the field. I argue that the teaching of philosophy in schools and philosophical approaches to the teaching of other subjects are ideally suited to meet the pedagogic requirements of individual and communal flourishing so understood, contributing greatly both to the understanding of what a well-lived life might be, and to the actual living of it. I further argue that these requirements are not only derived from ancient Greek philosophy but are in turn especially well-served by the teaching and deployment of Greek philosophy itself. My claim is not that Greek philosophy has all the answers, or that other philosophers and philosophical approaches should be excluded; it is simply that Greek philosophy offers rich resources for those seeking to introduce children and young people to philosophy and to foster thereby their flourishing in both childhood and as adults.

Зарождение концепта демократии в античной политико-правовой мысли

Зарождение концепта демократии в античной политико-правовой мысли

Античный скептицизм и политическая деятельность

Античный скептицизм и политическая деятельность

Hitler in Rome: A journey between ancient history and politics

Il 6 maggio del 1938 Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini e alcuni esponenti dei governi nazista e fascista visitarono la Mostra Augustea della Romanita, presso il Palazzo delle Esposizioni di Roma. L'episodio avvenne nell'ambito del viaggio che il Fuhrer svolse in Italia in quei giorni, e rappresento un momento simbolico di estremo interesse nel processo che dall'Asse Roma-Berlino sfocio nel Patto d'Acciaio. In quell'occasione, infatti, Hitler dimostro una rispettosa ammirazione nei confronti dell'antichita romana, che ribadi poi il giorno successivo quando decise di tornare nuovamente alla Mostra Augustea e quando, durante la cena d'onore a Palazzo Venezia, valorizzo la funzione altamente propagandistica dell'incontro tra romanita e germanesimo.