Abstract

José Ribeiro Ferreira – The Republic in Greece and in Rome

The first part of this study tries to characterize the Greek polis – truly a way of life, created and developed by the Greeks and based on a regime that was almost always republican –, describing its main features and pointing out its most significant achievements. The second part offers a succint account of the so-called Roman Republic (c. 509-27 B.C.), including the history of its most significant institutions and a reference to the wars and the conquests that allowed Rome to hold sway over most of Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor.

This brief and by no means exhaustive survey allows one to conclude that a considerable portion of the institutional culture underlying modern states is a legacy of the polis and of the Roman Republic. In other words, it is the result not only of the structuring and of the experience of practical government in Greece and Rome, but also of the theories generated by their leaders and thinkers over the years. Such legacy is unquestionably also present in today's political vocabulary, which for the most part derives from Greek and Latin.