The aim of this dissertation is to explain the meaning of concordia surveying the historical context in which it emerged. The thesis concentrates on the period 63--43 B.C. because it is in this crucial period that the concept achieves its most articulate and influential defence by the Roman orator, statesman, and philosopher, Marcus Tullius Cicero. My intention is to review the important writings and speeches of Cicero and to situate them in the political struggles in which he was implicated. / By placing the concept of concordia in this political context, a clearer picture emerges than is available in the current literature about how Cicero promoted, defended, and skillfully redefined the concept of concordia in order to achieve his political aims. What emerges are three identifiable meanings of the concept of concordia . The first is the longstanding conventional Roman republican idea of concordia as unity, friendship, and agreement. The second is what Cicero called the concordia ordinum, an innovative idea of concordia as a harmony or coalition of the two Roman orders of the senate and equites. The third is the idea of concordia as a consensus omnium bonorum---what Cicero called concordia civium or concordia civitatis . This idea represents an important shift in the thinking of the Roman orator who began to see the survival of the republic as depending on a consensus that went beyond the coalition of the senate and equites.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.38422 |
| Date | January 2002 |
| Creators | Temelini, Mark A. |
| Contributors | Richardson, T. Wade (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Doctor of Philosophy (Department of History.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001872531, proquestno: NQ78783, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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