Civic Justice: From Greek Antiquity to the Modern World [1st edition] 978-1573929516

Table of contents :
Introduction
1. Kallipolis-The Beautiful City
2. Metron- The Common Measure
3. Kosmopolis
4. The Birth of Humanism
5 . The Commune
6. Kosmopoiesis
7. The Scales of Justice
8. The First Modernity
9. Commonwealth and Contingency
10 The Republican Empire
11. The City Beauliful
Conclusion

Citation preview

FROM GREEK ANTIQUITY I

TO THE MODERN WORLD

DiG 'zed by GooQIe

:rc.. 57 ?

.11$'1/ p {J0IPublh;~

2001 by Ilum.nily llooks . •

~ imprint of PI'Ofl\e!!>ou. llooks

Civic 1",/iC'e; f""" G-..k "'."quily '" tht Mo.Ir. Dimitris DirnirolJlis. John Ely. Ferenc Feher. Gerald Fitzgerald. Julie Fletcher. Claudio Fogu. Eduardo de la FU«J\te. Ron Gallagher. Andrew Giles-Pet..,... Lydia Coehr. Agnes Heller. Trevor Hogan. Paul Harrison. Michael James. Gregory Jusdanis. C.,rasimus K;.ts;.n. Peter Kirkpatrick. Artemis Leontis. Michael Lykoudis. Simoo Marginson. Blaine McBurney. Ted Murphy. Sigrid Muellcr. Christ0pher Race. AmblOse Ransley. Michael Riley. David Roberts. Gillian Robinson. John Rundell. Bernie Schedvin. lewis Sieglebaum. David Spratt. Fraru Timm~'1TruIn. Louis RUJ>1""'ht. Candice Ward. and John Winkelman. During the writing of Cit.;, Ius/ice. 3 .ha'l"'ning and deeJl""'ing of my ideas came from long discussions with Vas.ili. Lambrupoulos. This book is dcdicatd to Christine Mintrom in love. and Va .. ilis Lambropoulos in friendship.

_. ..-. pls of the sublime and of aesthetics. n.., Hellenism of Sh2Iftesbury, and all it rep..,. """Is, was no match for the e~pa"'ionary significations of emerging modern capitalism bureaucracy, and mercantile imperialism. A new nonclassical idea of the citizen as consumer is anticipal1>1< ""id< MY''''''' .... ,I>< A_ mto flow. 0/ mufl. 1.-.1 ntiS'"n" .

•,,,...-..1 'Q

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group. a. did ",sponsibili ty fN the actions 0/ members of the group. 'The group's activities were organized a.crording to a f~milial hieTaTChy_ The chief of the srnos w~s the clan member who. by male ,u"""",,,ion. traced his origin most directly to the divine ancestor. Significantly. though. the chief of the srnos-conlTary to the case 0/ many Middle and Far Eastern kingships-w~. regarded not a5 a deity, but os" priest of the d ivine ancestor. While exercising enormous authority over all household members, the chief at the same time interpreted and ""ecuted the lhem;,l.., the infallible dec,ecs (a kind of superhuman wisdom), 0/ the ancestor god. Such dec",es were revealed to chiefs through the medium of dreams and ora_ cles. and we ... handed down from father to son. The Ikm;$Its formed " sac"'" and mysterious cod .. of family justice (Ihn>t;,j) A clan member who violated the code acted against the dan,. and was ""pos.ed to divinely inspiTCd wrath _ to puni. hments meted out by the chid. or to ordeal. set by him.. that would ""piate the transgressions of the offender. 'The clans had a life largely independent of each oIher. and treated neighboring dans as enemies. Blood feuds. vengeance, vendettas, and raids against neighbors w""'" the norm. Yet for some purposes. especially fOT warring. dans would combine to form larger groupings, in the first insta"", brotherhoods or phratries (ph"",;,,;) , When larger warring ""PCditions "-"juired more than warrior band. (the phra/Qm; or plIT.lerts) providet. Still, diki is oot yet politics, for it does 001 ",f~.,. to the corrunon thing (10 loin",,) defin'-'c ....ated by ,uMiH.mos. Th.,... families wen> wealthy, and their position brought them land and n>venue; but it waS not their wealth a. families that legitimated their position a. rulers, but rather their thai traced their Tl'Sp begins that radically reshapes the Greek-speaking societi .... At that point thesesocieties had already passed through a number 0/ changes. but aU those changes had been played out within the frame of the patriarchal or familial_hierarchical principle of social organization. (J'hi$ age-old principle had provided the form 0/ all but the m ost elementary 0/ human societies.) A .hift, tantamount to a bn>ak in time. begins in the eighth century and lasts - to the ""tenlthat such a thing can be understood in temporal or narrative terms_through the sixth cenlury, What causes this upheaval is the riso': of a new orga_ nizing/ shaping principle of society, a new type of social form (..dos) that integrates t""'elementsof society ~round a newcore.1be patrimonial cuI. lure tha t was displaced was an • organic'" cullun>. Each tribal community was roo'~J 10 a particular pl""e, TIle new social form that emerg~-d in the eighth.. "",venth. and sixth centuri ... was, in contrast, ~Ie_ trans-­ portable across the seas, easily displaced and reborn in another place. In taking on board thiS new shaping principle of society. the Creek.peaking agri~ultural peoples Q/ the Aegun, in a practkal sense. had to

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learn the ways of seafaring and.. in a metaphysical sense, had to develop a univtrsal tlhos way: ethic, form of me) that was readily relocatable, or, morrily kin or brothers. Where there was assembly, there was contcst. AgQn, signifying both assembly and contest was the sign o! • society in which the strife of battle was being civilized into the rompetitive game, and in which the prowess of the warrior was being sublimated into the skill o! the performer (the Singer-poet, the athlete) whose "",r~ (excellence) in contest was displayed and honored in public.IS Thi. w"" a society aniTTUlted by contest in_ trigued by the skill o! the contestant yet at the same time del;>m>s) of the Mediterranean that was being opened up by coloniuhon in the eighth, sev~>J1th, and sixth centuries. COIoniZiltion was initiated by the council nobility ol horne cilies. One practirall"l'a5Ofl advanced for this is thai the nobility ol the period Wfl'Stled with the fact that there was not enough land to pass on to their children. (Pressure on Land was conditiontod by the fact that Greek inherita...,... required equal division between so ..... ) Yet.. ..... en if urly ""Ioniuhon was mssued by the need 10 ensure an adequate rommony to d~ants. the colonizing movemenl acquired its own raison d't'tre. and in doing so also funher und....-mined the rotrimoniaI C"OI"IC"eJ'Iion of things already starting to disappear from the Creek world. (The existeoc"e of a COIl,..,il nobility was itself a sign of this Iransfrm'ltion) Under Ionian alJl;pice$ especially. the Grcek ... peak,," shifted from being a rool.,d. agricultural people to \::eng a ""Ionizing selll ..... people caroble ol uprooting and settling dsewhcre." This shift of outlook perhaps Ol'o"ftl something to the origins ol the Crrek· speakers as a """"" people. wandering herders. In any case. the Creeks (in • planned. fashionl began to found cities-",..,wa (away.homes, emigrant rolonies. sellier soci~)-around the Mediterranean.n These cities were not in the main trading outposts of a mother city. as h;>y thai a public cullure did nol develop in Sparl • . On lhe conlrary, the Spartans wenl 10 at city-founding end~..>vor was a phenomenon 01 the Mali""]. set the ideal

si~

01 the city at five thousand citi:rens (whkh, including foreign residents. 81~ves. household membe,.,.. and SO on. amounted to a total population of around fifty thousand). Hippodamu •. the town planner who laid out Piraeu •. the port of Athens. said the ideal number of citizens w~ ten thousand. In practice only th"'" C"",k cities reao:hed population levels of over twenty thousand-Syracuse. Acraga. in Sicily. and Athens. At the O\Itbrea k of the Pc1oponnesian War. the population of Athens is estimated at thnoe kundred and fifty thousand. 01 wkkk o ...... tkird (a century later one-kall) lived in urban district •. )!; Coloni:r.ation_together witk the phenomenon of the dmr;o~rgm (traders and artisans working for the public). many of whom were trav_ ek.,-,., moving from city to city and weiromed as nnui-CTeated a new mobile wealth in opposition to the landed weallh (mines, farms) of the noble families. llIe dtmiou'l("i accumulald wealth to the point when> wealtk became a s.oun:e 01 a claim to power (k"'/os). This in tum touched upon the ~entral significations of Creek society. One of the things most prized in that society was f...,.,.jom. F...,.,.jom meant not being in the servile state typical of the subjects of monarchies and empires. Where patrimonies existed and kings had a claim on all of the property of society. everyone was in a condition of unfreedom. llIe C"",ks arranged things so that individual household. owned the land. Whether the hou ..... hold was great Or small. the proprietOT waS still free.llIe WOnlt fate that could ocrur to a C"",k was to lall into servitude. and those who did. and who accepted their f.te. became objects of srorn. regarded as rowards who had put life before independ....-.ce.J6 llIere we", many kinds 01 servitude.17To be forred to work ... wage labo",r was tantamount to slavery. In the Homeri;ingly. a slave-cwner could provide thecapitaJ to establish a slave in a business in the Qgoer.:e 0/ the .xtend~, clannish 8"""' . ..... can make no sense f Loter aristocratic lactional poIihcs_ it is no! p$5ible.o ""plain'he facti",,"1 power of. (e-8-) tl\ uS; "Marriage was lor .he upper d ...... on occasion lor c,"",,'ing poli.ic.l and social I;" bA/iM (s.::..ton; 8.ron !'reM. 1957). PI'. 51_5210. ~lwnberg, Tht Crttt 5101r ond PI'. 195-%. 18. The ront ..t.n ...."", - in the wonh of the Homeric Hymn /0 Drium ApoIk> add.........:! to the restival a udience _"mindful they give you pf ... u"" with bo. ing .nd d."'ing .nd """So • • oft"" they hofd their 19. 11ley could farm land., tenants. though. 20. 1ne most fa"""" • • ampfe L. Ari..totf., a citizen by binh in hi' ""ive 5Lageir. in Khalkidike, he lived his . dul, yea,.. in Athe-ns as • 21 . Finley. n.. A"Oml Crtd< Pmlan W. rs,.., li-.o-re is al.., no 10 Ihink Ih.II"" libo!,.y /""""Y di ... li .... lion wo. unho~ro of bof= A_ hyl ... and hi. g..... r•• Ion, )7, On II>< lubd" distinction of type< of 1Ir!'V;.udegt ~n all,rnati"" /1> tilt palria,,""1 lanihd tco"rnny.7 Likewise. making wealth the criterion for holding of/ice did not answer the question of legitimate rule. In truth. wealth by itself did no! possess moral legitimacy in Creek ey .... We ..... Solon struggling to take aerount of the illegitimacy of wealth wilen he makes income the qualifi_ cation lor holding o//ice but in the same breath he rewgni2.;t temple of Athena Polias, (It .1"", beg.n ronstructing one for Zeus Polias, but it was on such a scale that it was only eventually completed six hundred years later by the Roman emperor Hadrian.1:!) Th.....,•• was sponsored as a national hero in opposition to the Dorian Heracles13 In the interstices of this civic devotion emerged a cult of Athens that foreshadows SOme 01 the ailments of fifth century Athens, While the Peisistratid regime took the city further away from the old clannish p.>triarchy. il did so in the direction 01. civic potriotism. Under th....., conditions. the cily, instead of the household, became. kind of polria_a place of roots, 10 which its citizens could be tied in feeling and deed . This ~Iands in contradistirw:tion to the "apoikia ethos" that wherever one settles, one recreates the ethos 01 the poIi, . This in tum encouraged At ..... nians to become not primarily poli. dwellers but.tirst and foremost. Athenians; to become not travelers or settlers but imperialists. It is under the Peisistratid regime that Athens begins to """"mulate power in the Aegean_laying the groundwork of what waS to become the Athenian Empire of the tifth century-by conquering the Megaran port 01 Ni .. ia, gaining hegemony over the island of Naxos. and establishing links with the kingdoms of Thrace and Macedon.l. Ty"lMny Wnmental lonn but it waS at odd, with its .pirit. The problem wa, that this spirit was f~r from se1f, m.velers. and rolonists cri65Crossed the Mediterr."..... n and Black Seas. 1his littoral world prowd to be the cradle of an urban life quite unlike that of earlier patrimonial or imperial soci£"lies. "The life of the ... aboard C"",k city was not dominated by cnt social pWO!1": be it divine kings, pries~, bureaucrats, aristocr~ts, or men:han~.1n....,.., w~s not a single, um::otI'ts.d. fOTee in this city life. III ,"ucr, we""" the outline of a new formative power; a formative pw.... that dmv tostl/," a w,uty of Slrill form! and Mid Ihtm in a hlld of "Iuilibrium. The king'. palace, the empefOl"'S' forbidden city, the pries~' temple_none 0/ these dominate the cent.... '" the poIi•. "The poIi. center Was (symbolically at least) a pi"", through which diffen:nt social fOTCeS could pass. The life 0/ the city was composed of disparate activities lin ked, or dr~wn together, in what Pythagoras callro a • union of opposites.' The effl'Cl of this Hunion of "PP""itesH was to allow different parties to exe-rdse mutual restraint no one overwhelmed the other, as long as each balanced the other. No city 01 hieran:hy to give meaning. ""en to the most humble of people's lives. To ev~.., begin to imagine replacing a hierarchkally arranged socWI}', it is n.,,," S'ry first to be able to offer an alternative principle for tying together the disparate parts of society. If hierarchy is not to be the cement'" society, then what is to be the binding lactor? In the Mroiterra""~n of the period from the eighth century ~.C E. to the third century C.E .• two oIher ways 01 cementing society appear. The second, and later 0/ too.." was the principr, of 'l"J"IMsion - the principle of

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expansive """nge_ that proved SO disastnlusly sed...:tive in the case of the Attic Empire, and tho.t reappear-ed in the Helk",istk and Roman Empires, both of which. at least for a time, derived their meaning from their very movement, befo,.. collapsing back into the patterns 01 patrimony. TIle first, and earlier, 01 theo;e new ways of thinlom$ was tht: pri"cipk of />II.net. This principle lour.d as being destructive. But what ties the parts together. if not some kind of hieran:hical arrangement? TIle Miles.ian answ ... was to postulate an ;"""om;", or balance, of parts, and """'" specifically, a balance of apposing parts. This cosmology addressed the needs of the emergeot city fm the .... preseir encroachments represenled a denial of their finitude, an o,·crstepping of limits, and an invading of other clements, causing· destruction w or offense, A"" yet, for all of this, rivalry and strife we ... not the harbinger of formlessness and chaos. They were not inherently evil. Rather what was problematic was the tranSgn."Ssion of limits: when determinate things behaved as if they wen: indeterminate. What kind of arrangement was it where such things did not occur! 11 was an arrangement whe ... the ... waS a balance or equilibrium between opposites - whe ... neither was strong enough to domina\(' the other, to encroach on the other, at least without having to ma ke amends for the encn::>ara thell' were contests of pollers, hon;(' breeders. ,ingers, military companies, composc!"S, and dramotists.13 TIle city center was the place for exhibition. exposition. competition; the assembly (t kklisiiz) a place for the contest ol . tat ...""",·y conquered. The effect of coming under Persian hegemony was to rut off Ionian political evolution. The promise, lor eumple, of the moderate government that had emerged in Miletus (after ded s~k in the public .S Own nom of society.47 Thmugh the image 01 the constilutio""l order the members of the society were able to see tru,mselve< as part 0/ a whole. a whole thai was ordered through the balancing Or equilibration of those pans. "The bearers of different nomoi achi~wd thiS balance, in the first place, by entering public sl"'''''. In the diU.i", the assembly 01 the people. each citi""n had freedom of speech. ;"80";", to address the assembly. The days when only noble-srould speak publkly we .... oflidally over. The assembly, al Dei.the"",,' initiative, was confirmed in its responsibility lor voting war and peace, pas1iing d~"th sentences, and choosing military offi""rs. "The 1"1"\eeIings of the assembly took place in the city ""nter, where the

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bearers of \he diffe"",t nomoi gat ..... red togct ..... r. They entcred t..... public space. (al>'ti. virtue) - \he rourage of the soldier, \he ... IfsIhrnn (Oxford; BI""kwoll. 1991), P, 34. 38. Thomson, Slud;" in A"aml Gm-l Sori.!J; Mom,n. "oJ M/J,#!. (New York, r'utnam. 1'1(8), p. 94; J.mes Redf... ld, "Homo Dnosticu.; in Tht GrMI •• ed. Jea".r;.,-", V..-nont (Chicago; Univ.nity of Chicago Press, 1995). (5. Cartledge. n.. Gmt.. chop. 4. 46. "'ri,,,,,I • • n.. Atlo","," u,.,li,",io,,- 21..2; Politics. tra",. E.".,., Sak .. (Chford: Clarendon rre... 1946), 1l19a19. 47. Q, lhe nomoacopines's i..,nomic reforms, Athens inherited the mantle of the Ionian Ilnlighterunent. But IIw soul 01 AII;,;a, r>oIwilh. st.1nding the brill iande' horirons, it waS at the beh~'St of the I'cisistrotids, whose promo-

hon 01 arti .. nship and trade was inextricably conn«tw with a program 01 monumentaliring public works and the imperial control of trade routes via the domination of the Aegean. [saMmie Athens was heir to thiS ethos, and its influence on Attica was ptmliCious. AtherlS had participated little in the rolonizing dia.po•• of the archaic Hellcnic world . Athenians thus had little collcdive sense of the "a way home.- AUica, by Creek star>dards, posses"d a sizeable territory. and could in Ihe eighlh and sevenlh cenlu ri ... accommodale an expanding population al home. In IhiS Ihen: i. a p.:nalld wilh Sparta up 10 a "",rlain point: lhe Spartans, by conquerins the soulhw~""St Pelopon· nese, managed 10 avoid ove,.,..,as settlement. TIle Athenians, howev..... were noI motivated by a distrust of contact with the world as Iil Spartans were. Athenians traveled, and citizens of ,,,her cities settled in Athens . Vet they Were nOI a Ih.lassalened grain shortaS'" at the end of the seventh century. the first thought of Atheniaru; was to seize Sigeum al the

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enlry 10 Ihe Hettesponl (Dardanelles) in an effort 10 conlrol lhe Btack Sea grain trade. It was thi' same p"","ure on land lhat caused a swetting of number:!; ollandless poor. and lhat f~, in the midst of aristocratid from the imag.. 0/ society as expansionary. We see these forres aligned "Ilainst the classic dly in the Gn'ly th"'~tcn.,d by t"" build-up of At""nian naval pow.... and by its imperial proclivities. Sm.llcr citi..,. fearing their I""" of independe-no;:". a llicnian "..,Us pring. Thi, power is not pllblic power eittwr. It Is something diff"'"""t again. 1.0:'1 US caLL this power p/451ic-p1'OlMth"", potcan¥ " adVe personification of lhis pow .... of innovation_this dwnomiS_in Athenian politics WI, Akibiades (ca. 454l-1()4 I.(:.~). lhe brilliant. destructive ward of P~ridH. Akibiad"" was a "gnirlOOnl pLoyer in many of the irrational _ ",",II'.:trated by Athens during the ""Ioponnesian War, culminating In the Sicilw. ad ....... lure. He Wi>5. pri..... mov .... of, and had c:orrunancl of. the military forces Athenians sml in their unfathonwbie aUcmpt (in .IS 1.e.E.) to conquer Syracu5e at • time when Athens's EastenHtyIe bm.oovior as • ... ho ~,) was booing 5OR'iy tested by the Sportans and their allies. This adVd the Athenian A_mbly (ttll';";_) in

a

r" c,.,.".

POW".

hiS'''''''' ("""

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into ur.deflaking. and Ipress] lorward in them without ..,.nection, like a wint.,,- to,.,.,n!."tJ Yet this, again, wM less a qu .... tion 0/ democracy per se, than an incisive description of the heady, inciting power 01 dunamis. nu. is a power that the early Roman Caes.rs- Julius and OquiR'd an an to "'v~ them from death - oorrwthing like a pilot'. an that can $;I"'" the liv"" and the goods 01 the pa m ngers traveling on the ship 01 , ... ~ fmm the gr.oVCSI doongrn. w....... would , uch a pilot COITIIi' from? Plato ptoposed thai such a pilot would COrl ... from the cradle of philosophy. 1lw Qrm;;" would be a philosopher-otdoin, and in thai role, like tho! captain of a ship. would be a """,-an:hon. Whya philoephcr? Firsl, bec:IU.., the philosopher has knowledge of lho! forms. the "'ll~. nizing 1'"1_ 01 things that underlie the world of aPl"'arallCti. Just as the idea of the V.OII: pl'\'Cedes any particul., i",'onco! oIlhe Vise. "" the idea 0/ justice preeN", any partkul., inslance 01 juslire. When we look., an

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of artist who made il or by the region in which it was produced ~ that is. according 10 genre type. We are able 10 do this~identify an object by type~because we can classify the object by common "'CUmng shapes, lines. and plastic le.>ture5_Such identifications.", what make the world an orderly place~when we view a va"". we do not ask ou..,lv"" each time, "What is trusT Ukewise. when we view a just deed. a graceful action. or a beautiful countenance, we recognize the thing in question by bringing to mind the form (the idea) 0/ iust""" grace, or beauty "The forms an: what give shape, which is to say, meaning. to e>:i!tence_ Ordinary existene stamp 0/ a balanced person is that all the elements of this person' , makeup are brought together in a well -proportioned way. 1hcy bear the marl: 0/ compo;;ure. Thus knowledge, truth. goodr>l'Sli. justice, and ~l!iiL"Irbft;ooglo

"ltima~ly ON!

and the s.ame. 1his conclusion should not MI' p' . u,," For PLaIO is ro..ee, n"d with the order dholders, artisoons, at>d men:hilnts rontributed arms.. taxes and I«hnologies, public u lilities and monuments to tM city. Had the ancient philosopher supposed simple (arithmetical) equalily in lhe Slat.., then the artisan wou ld have been expected to die I'JT the city and the !!Oldi..,. would hav .. been e xpected to accu mu lale wea lth fo r public purpoernJpted. The tradition of isonomic politirn w .... for micropublics to substitute themselves for the greater public of the polis. Pemaps this happened in a spirit of consolalion. but it was not without significance. i1Jgos, the speech of reason thai draws people together outside of their households, found forums other than the ag'" in a reTlain kind of a'sociationallife. (Thi. was a kind of public life that among other things, was more open to women than the public life of the classical poI;s had been.)38 This new associalionallife included \he spread of philosophical circles and schools throughout the Hellenistic world. Epicurus's garoen is one example of the way in which.. in this age, ml,n and women galh_ ered togethe r to talk about things thai mattered. 1hcy did not do so (fig_ uralively) a. brothers or siste..; rather they did so a. friends, phi/ai, wl>o assembled to hear each other speak, and who gained pleasure and enjoymenl from that talk, and whose imaginations were stimulated by that talk,)'; A. well as philosophical circles, all kinds of nonpolilkalassocialions and dubs flourished in the Hellenistic age- aSSOCialions 0/ tr.de .. and foreign nationals, and \he n'Rnoi and the Ihiosoi _ the guilds thai

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served the combined functions of friendly society, dining dub, and burial dub. tO Another example of the "new publics of the Hellenistic age was the public schools. Oassical GR'l'Ce was a liter.1te society, but higher forms of education remained private and largely aristocratic. Public (gymnasium) education,. by contrast. was widespread in the Hellenistic cities and. supported by the contributions of the wealthy. Again,. symptomatic of the expanded conception of the public. women as well as men parli no competitions because there could t... no ebullient Or Iotnelactor). "' rtlt, as in the case of courage, ""metimes ""luired standing up to one'. particularistic I.... lings (espocially Ihooe of lear) occasioned by threats to what was "ol"'le·sown.w In the kos-

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mopolis. fear is e!lpecially the fear of unknown others_the lear of the displared. migrants, travelers. pilgrims.. those 0/ other faiths, and those with olher habils, languagl'S. cusloms. or appearar.!>it. is not a set of rulC:5. Moreover. the .... "", variuus kinds of Accommodation of lhese dille ... nt excellences requires justice. Thus also in the kosm"l"'U" justice is not strict./ustice lays each 01 the virtuC:5 (the v.rying powers and qualitie!l that create the common human possession) side by side. taking e.ch into aceoun!./ustice arises out of a process of give and lake. adjustment or "blending" 01 the many fon:es and qualities that make up the nrmwi of Ihe kosnwpo/is. The vehicle of such adjustm""t was what the Stoics caJlM ",.son (logos). The binding lorre of the Hellenistic kosmos was not agonistic con_ flict but synthetic ... ason The Stoics arguM th.1 the governing principle (higml6nihm) of the kosmos is the logos thai makes the world an orderly structu .... (kosrnos). This logO$ is universal. It is common to all things, din!Ct. all things; it is the cause of all happenings. It din!Cts all events ulti_ mately to purposginning. /und."""'tol caus«. the supre"'" principle that governs. and 50 /CIlh. ::eo. Plato. Gorx"'d p laces when! "sacrilegious" comment. could be m.de abovt the cult

J(osrnopolis

91

'" Alr..-n... 5oerti .... a oc...l 301/XO • .c."- ano began to ~ .. p and down in the Pain"'lcourse lhert-; lantions. 1lle ensmtitution "",bodied w .... acrording to Chro. "a fair (""IunbiJi,) balance of rights. duties and furrtions. SO that magistrates had enough power ip>teslatisl. the rounselsof the eminent citi:rens (in princip"'" COlIs.'lio) enough in/l~ (ouctoritati.), ar.d. the peop\c Creeks experimented with these in the fifth century B.C.Eo bul seldom very successfully, partly bo..'Caus-e the civic characte< 01 the C"",k pol";, was undermined by the lendency to forge federations on a shared ethniC b..is. 1l>c Delian League Ihat Alhens led was (initially) Ionian; lhe Peloponnesian League. largely Dorian; the Achaean League claimed a (mythical) Mycenaean basis.XI In these leagues, civ ility was often la.cking.. as one city would dominate oth~"" (exlrocling tribute, """rc alternati ve way lor a city to expand was to colon;", other cities. eith~.,. by lounding s ubject cities or conquering other cities. When the aristocracy of Rome. in the name of glDria, pursued this imperial strategy, it had grave consee patrician antechambers. This decline was compounded by the fact that the Republic drew its soldiers. crucial \0 its ""pansionary ambitions. from its citizen or free farmers. The republican anny was not a professional but a citizen anned fOrn>. The tributepaying citizenry bore arms as part of theic citizen duties. During long periods of campaiw>ing. Iheir farms might be stolen.. encumbered by debt. neglected, o. ruinedP The senatorial class ,,,,ated no arrangements 0/ compensation or redress for this. Indeed amongst their number we", land grabbers. The consequence of thiS was to make soldieT$ susceptible to the promises of generals 10 settle them on the land, and thus loyal to the generals rather than the Republic . The generals set about creating colonial towns, many of them in Italy, which had the further destabilizing consequence 0/ diSpl...:ing existing landholdeT$.28 All of this unde.lines the fact that bonds of rotIcordia (union. concord) were neve. the only bonds binding Roman to Roman. Those of "dienlShip: cJiml.-/a, also played a key role. The lower ranks of citizen society we", often bound 10 great hou .... and noble families in a relationship of mutual "benefit: Patrons "protected" their clients; clients "supported" their patrons in various ways (including VOles).1\> Such chents w~ by no means automatically compliant tools of their patrons.J() The outright purchase of votes wOS illegal, Clients were often patroniwd by compl'ting great households, diluting the polilical significance of the client_patron relationship and causing d ivided loyalties, Still the clienl system represented ti'>e latent persist"""'" of ti'>e patrimnnial model 0/ a " beneficiary" state that constantly threatened to erode the civic order and "'place a condition based on an impersonal concordiA with a hiec~TChical model of personal dependence, Rome in the 5d refonn (1lJ---12I) Invot.it>S II>< IO e/f",,~ but hi> ....orm4m w .. on l>y h" brulhey w~>re not the only answers, It was rerognized that it was a duly of the state to supply lhe necessities of li/e,""l Bul the Romans sought to do so in a manner that made the best of the moral q uality of ...IfSaf\Ce and beyond. From the Theater 01 Marcellus (13 •. (.E.), which provided the model lor Michelangelo' s design of the inner court of the Fa .......... Palace at Rome. to the Roman temple at Nlmes known as the Maison Carn!e, which inspired Jefferson's design for Ihe Virginia Capitol building. the architecture of the Principate and its symbolic associations (including lhe latently republican ones) was to affect V~'f}' deeply the civic architecture and politics of all subsequent ages that have regarded " the public thing" a. the central signification 0/ society. During the Principate, Rome i"",11 Wa5 transformed from a city of brick to a city 01 marble.!iI! Artisls lrom Crel'structure. The scribes and the librark.. of these landowne ... were crucial to the transmission of learning through the days of the disintegration of lhe Empire." In the fourth and fifth centuries, the foundations were laid for a reno ovated hieran:hical conception of government. Christianity played Ihe key role 0/ giving this new arrangement moral validation. n Landlords found legitimati"" for their actions in the fourth"ious «,ntury it had be, 1949). p . 4$; Bruni. Tht foil of tItt Roma" Rt-r>ublic o"d Rrlattd £ss.Iys. pro 331 -34. 10. Brunt. Tht Fall cf IN RomAn Rt-r>"b/ic ond /kiattd Eosoyo. p. 331. 11 . Ibid, p. 328Plln! Polili"" Thldi,io. of R"",,", p. 123.

."d

16. C~ro, RlpuOlichiaveliL Tht rn"""",",. !'.d ;t.,J with a n in.roduction by Bernard Crick, Ir,ns. LesI;" J. Wall=, rev;,.,d by Brion RicharJ""" (Harmon,J,wonh: Penguin. 1'170), Iloo« I, Oi"""" .... 11, 139. 44. Co:..ro, On Vu"", II. ~ 5 . Lewis M~mford, Tht Cily i~ Hj>to.y (IiarmonJ,worth: Penguin. 1961), pp.264-73.

Dl!Jitizad by Googlo

TIlt Birth of Human;,m

121

46. Ed ... ard Gibbon. Tht [J,dior"rut fatl of /Itt Rom.v! E"'pi" . .d. D. A. Soun_

d"", (Harmondsworth: P""guin. 1981[1776-1788)). p. 107. 47. On thi . .... ,"'" Ort"lla y Go ....... ·Concord and Liberty; in Gmrord ""d Li~

(Now York: Nonon. 1946) . 48. Stobort The C ..." ...... , That W.. Kcmt. chap. 4; Michael Grant. The F",mil", of IN wr.tmt 10\\),11$ (New York: Scribners, 1991). p. 119. 4~ . Ibid. 50. And.".,.,... P....gr< from Anliquif)' til f ... dali,,,,. p. 71 . 51. Stoba.n. Tht C ..." ...... , 'IhI1 10\\), Rom.-. pp. 234, 238; Mkha.el C,an,. Tht

Climu of iWm. (London ' l'I>oeded what they de5troyed or what they brought that was new," Roman provinces,,~ rran,formed into Germanic I.:ingdoms_l1he Vandals w~>re inslall~od in Afriin. the Burgundians in the Valley 0/ the Rh6ne. the Ostrogoths in Haly. I'irerme arguro that while decline accompa_ nied the invasions, there was preserved a ph~y _or. I think more properly speaking, a topogtaphy_ tha t wiI$ .~Il distinctively Roman, J Look at the ~ of the conquests, he suggests. " It includes only M~-diterronean countries, and little more i, needed to.row that the objrdives of the c0nquerors, f"-,,, at lasl to settle down where they pJeaSCO, Sardinia, and Sicily. 'The ""'"luest of Sicily in the ninlh century brought a typical change of focus: until that time the ntine firms lived and worked in Rome, Ven;a" Paris. london. Constantinople, and DamallCU,.lJ Something of the old C"""k ,..IIM of """"ki~i-in Ihi, ca,.. a remarkable ca~ ty 10 live and work abowd -ls "vid""t in the Florenline merrantil" eHIined a key sour«' of identity in the revitalized cities. City dwelJ.-rs were thus often tom between family and dty. AUegiance to family over city meant lactiousness, lawl"",,-. uncivil rivalry, 1U,'potism _ as powerful households fought each other for p....,mi· r>er'ICe and grea\eT power, or as they attE'mptM to buy influ""",", office, even relea.., from punishment lor their waywaTd affiliates. Even if ideal· ized medieval notions of chivalry were loregone- a. hou..,holds became mo,.... aM more commercialized - patrician famili ... w ..... still liable to defend family t (a kingship) ba ...d "". """mO" lang~.g•. A5 it happen",t no"" of the Italian monarchies, including Milan and Napl..,.. we .... powerful enough to lay effective daim to the p inrorporalilm of dM i"/o 110. V./ialtl St.tt. The church had ambitions to rule Italy, and it int~rvened aggn,..iveJy in the po"''''" polihc. 01 the peninsula. From the time of Cregory VII (ll173-1085). the papacy appealed to all Italians against the pretensions of the German emperors.JO (4) Swm""'plitm wnokr Iht: (Holy) RoomIn f.mpm!r. The Holy Roman Empire was a sernifictionallegacy of O1arkmagne' s effort 10 revive the scope of the Roman Empm. on a wnlinnoW basis. What was actually a medieval Ger_ manic empire was Ver the factiousness of the citi",,; other times in order to playoff One power again.t another and gain b ...athing space for the city. One notable casualty of this .. xtremely internecine politics was Dante Alighie-ri, RONnee's g ... at philosophical poet.

1M Commun,

137

It happmed that the P"rl, Gudfo was the dominant parly in Florence (indeed until 1280 it was part 01 the city's constitution). But, signifying the decline 0/ the imp9. 34. Ibid" pp. 23. \10. 35. Ibid" p. 116. 36_ ley are a thinking through. poetically, of how a good order might arise in an Italy that existed only in the mind 0/ exiles. And yet, like the checkerboard pol. itics of his time, his knsmC$ is a hybrid-part-Christian but antichureh, part-Roman but imbued with a ChrisHan desire for a mystical' oneness" that was quil un-Roman. TIte first of the srea! Italian humanists, Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), exhibits the deep ambivale~ of a humanism that is at the Solm" time Christian, and of a learning that has Pythagorean-Platonic roots and Virgilian ... pic ambitions. yet lak... its cue from a Nroplatonic and Christian disgust with the dty. The classical sense 0/ forging accord out of the .go" of oontending p.'I rlk'S was difficult to square with Christian disdain for the disroTd of the city-its sense thot disrord equated m~yhem" murder, or parricide, Christianity offered. vision of a unified society. hiera",hically organized and anchored in the transcendental. The protagonist of the ~rb< saw the form of society arising 0~1 of its divicir concern is only with spiro ituallife; they stay out of matters of earthly government_ Dante has a strons sense of the diff"",ntiation of human capacities and roles. Thi' places him squarely in the humanist tradition Yet the question he has to answer is: What ",.k.., ,lit "",rld? What is the binding force/power that draw. aU those di]ffrent roles, capacities, and offices together in order to make a rohe",nt meaningful whole? What gives form to an otherwise formless differentiation? In the classical humani.t tradition. thiS binding fom.' is the power of the public_ TIu,> public pl...:e/s.,.ce i. the common thing that makes of a diversity, a union. So in Dante, also, the .... i. a place - the heavenly garden ~ where all the differenl functional traits and tend""",ies, roles and offices_ all the diversity of a good human society-come together_The passively accepting soul, the active glory seeker. the warrior, the ""holar, the ",Ier, the religiou.each with different talent. and ca.,.dtil's are drawn together. Jew. and Christians, men and women, children a nd adults, are all alike "'presented in this diversity. Variety i. central to human existence. TIu,> society of Poradise is based on diffen:ntiation_ Metaphnrically, the garden 01 Paradise i. a gathering together of individual nowcrs. Unequal voices make .weet to",," down there. Just so, in OUr life, these unequal stations make a s weet harmony from s phere to sphere.:\
power ol a prince. For. long Ii"",. ""en the most egali larian olltalian ci ties had rnrog_ ni~ the di plomatic role ol the patrician. Through a combi""tion of s kil!. wealth. ar.d fortu ....... thc, ".rly Medicis parlayed this inlo political influ · ero:e. Init ia ll y Ihi, did not Int."n" ronstitut i"",,1 oount"r ...."olution - the erection of an oligan:hy or anything of it< kind. In.t.....t. lhe ronstilulion of Florence was outwardly J'1'.'5""'ed and inwardly com..rpiee del~gated powers of taxation and """urity. The Gmdlio lasted for two terms, from 1438 to 1441 and from 1443 to 1458, and then having grown unpopular (or rather the Medici. having grown unpopular) was "'placed by a weaker Council of One HundTed (loyal .upport~-rs of the M~.,jicis), the Ce>ttv. Cosimo's owrriding desire for Flo",,,,,,, was ' peace and leisure" (pnce twist. Ficino's major philosophical work, PIQloMk ThroIogy (1474), emphasized the ",markable ambit and mediational qualities of the human

The Salles of Justiu

169

being.ll AnS with tortured topiary work-yd. for all 0/ this torporous d""a· dencc. their architects. as McCarthy notes. re,n.lined true to the old way of building.).! And somehow F10re-nce itsell resisted their lurid fantasies. When Goethe. then aged thirty-seven. finally visited Italy in 1766. he observed of Flo","'e thai it "vprli, in leonardo the equa", i!r no I""gSS"SI .... "(,he) .,.,." is just tw;"" a. high •• it is ",ide. Cround floor and d~""tory ore of equ ol height. 'The . i, 1eo ,,"ve square b.!ys. again half .. wide os ,hey are ~igh . , , WAlking 'hrough .he c hun:h. one may no::>I a' """" CMSd that city cu iture thriv..:l on the watcry margins - that the roasts of the Mediterranean and the wakl'ways of Europe had kept city life vital. '{ct, at the same time, Harrington' 5 #new oceana" was rooted in the gothic tradition of England, and id"ahzcd the...-med l.nd~xI freeholder (the y~'Qn\a n) as the SOurce of dtiz.eru;hip and republican vi rtue_l His chief device to guarant .... a s tmng political balar.:e

w""

194

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JUSTICE

was an agrarian law that had as il$ aim the turning of the "whole people" into landlords (by means of ",les limiting the amount of property any person could acqui~ or else leave to a child). A parallel ambiguity afflicted late sixteenth-eentury and early seventeenth«ntury Dutch ~publicanism, although in the Dutch case the attempt was made to blend the idea of the watery city not with the heritage of the independent gothic warrior_fann."., but with the legacy of Mormed Christianity. Dominated by il$ waterways and the omnipresent sea, the Neth.".lands enjoyed a powerful Civic tradition going hack to the twelfth century. Although impeded by the rule of the Spanish Habsburgs (the Netherlands had become a province of Spain in the early sixteenth century) the Dutch nonetheless developed a strong late Renaissance strand of classical humanism. Among the notable figures contTibuting to this dyked cia.sicism was the Flemish humanist Justus Upsius (154716(6), who produced editions of Tacitus and Seneca, and who wrote a theory of politics, Politironus brlgid. (Annals and History of the 8tIXIit [i.e .. the Dutch)) that was modelled on the work of Ta.:;tus. He edited the PfuJmommJl - a work on astronomy by the third century D.C.E. Greek Aratus of Soli-a. well as the work of the Roman epic poet Lucan. Groiius published a Lalin t,anslationo! the Greek pastoral poel Theocritus. He also wmtea volume o f sacred poems (54r,a), a commen tary on the Bible (Anno/a/iones in libros roangeliorum). an introduction 10 the history of the jurisprude""" of Hol_ land. and a history of the Goths. Vandals. and Lombard •. For all its far-ranging intellectual interests. Dutch humanism la.:ked the strength of its Italian Renaissa""" predecessors to absorb all the conIlicting currents of ils environment into a 'yslmtalir vision of the world. While it influ..-nced events, it did not nce at this time. In plays like /lo",,,, (1640) ar.d Ci"MQ (1641). with their Roman settings, ComeUlc lionized strong charactcI":'l that aclt.-d with lucidity and courage to overcome enormous obstacl .... But with the consolidation of Louis XlV's regime-and the end of challenges to the baroque state-Comeille's drama declined in popularity. lis sense of moral greatness was at odds with the official grandiosity of Louis's so);,r absolutism. But it set a precedent for the employment of classical themes as a critical measure of modern governa""".

BAROQUE ART AND SOCIETY The dominant mood of the ba"-'"lue age_whether e~p","ed in democ_ ratic movements or in the aspirations of monarchical absolutism-was hOStile tv any kind of clas6ical temper. Both the puritanical extremes of the English Revolution and the political archit,,,,ture of Loui. XlV's Ver... illes p.>lace, the grand extravagance of F",nch absolutism, a", testaments to the interior spirit of the baroque: its contempt for limits.

The First Modernity

197

The effect of tlli. on tile visual arts was profound. The great",t art_ hlstorical description of the interior spirit of the baroque _ tltat of Heinricll Wolfflin (18M-1945) in lIis Renllis5Ima ond Bomqwr (1S85), Classic Art (1899), and Prindp~ of Art Hi,tory (1915) _ brilliantly depicts the spirit of an age that was compulsively restless. In baroque art. WOlfOin observro, light and shadows dominate pictorial spaC(', not the line.8 This is so as to create an impression of p!ll5tirity. The died is quasi-indeterminate. Baroque art lacks the classical Sire$/! on boundaries. Unlike classical art or architecture. the form of the baroque artwork no longer involves inter_ play, or movement, bttw.>m distinct parts. Rather, in the baroque artwork, fonn is movement. Each part shad,'!I into another part. Each part is a tran_ sition to another part, and everything is enlivenro and animatro by tllis shifting. This is dynamic form p"r txed/mer. The whole of the artwork takes on the semblance of a movement that is ceaselessly emanating. and never ending. Ewrything in the artwork is endl=ly deferred. The atti_ tude of the baroque is subjective rather than objective. Unde, its auspi«'5 pictorial fonn becoTTl port had to be respected, and that the building as a whole was an ~"IuiJjbrium of parts. The baroque archi tect did not work through individual fTmS, figures, and motifs, but via large masses.IS Buildings were composed in terms not

1k First ModntIHy

199

of contours, but of areas of light ~nd shade.19 This determined the visual effect of the composition on the viewer, and thus the meaning of the building. The eye of the viewer could IlOt rest on speci fic parts because parts we", not definitively bounded and because composition in terms oi a mass nl lighttel>ds to a movement of dis~l-the eye is k-d to and fro. The eye registers the building as elusive. It no longer absorbs specifics, but rather the generalities of motion. The eye is caught up in the motion oithe building. and that motion is unending. Feelings oi movement and Iransi· tion were simubted by the ooroque architect by the use of ellipses rather than circles or semicircles,211 or the oblong rather than the squa",,21 and by replacing sharp edges and hard angles with opuk..,t and curved lines, and the use oi soft and fluid moldings, conv"", and concave walls, and luxu riant and ur.contained omamir Renaissance predecesso.... J8 Gianlorenzo Bernini's fountain-obc-lisk (1657), with its Egyptian markings, gave Rome's Piazza Navona its uncanny ••,,'-'" of infinite space, producing the illusion thai it receded beyond the limits of lhe surrounding buildings into the hcavem. Bernini's design of the Piazza of St. Peter' s (1656) intimates a grandi~ space: ova! rather than square, it is surround~>d by monumental rolumns rather than by tho> embrace of lived_in buildings. Such space was brilliant and majocstk, but not especially convivial-a .pace to wal k through but not to linger in.

Tht Firs' Mbdernity

203

lP.c English in II> age of II> baroque also I'l'COncepluaJiZI.'d public space_ Numerous squares laid out by English oommen:ial devel~­ including Covent Garden (1631), Leicest.... Squ",", (1635), and Lincoln Inn's Fields (1638)-were intended as purely residential developments, and ones reserved to an upper dass. This was typical of t..... modem imperative to decenter, and thereby ~rate, work and resid~, business and hearth. pleasure and home. and 10 segregate dasses and other social groups spatially_ The English were not alone in this _Henry IV's development of t ..... Place Royale (Place des Vosges) was also dl'dicatl'd to upperclass residences_ The repetitive palalial f..cades of Hardouin-Mansart's l'Iace Louis Ie Grand (Place Vend"'me) in Paris (1699) epitomiZl.'d the grand n.-sidential development and ilS baroque one-dimensionality_ Still, the intention of designers is one thing; usage is another. Ov.... time, behind the facades of such buildings, residen«.-s were converted into businesses, offices, and hotels, or in the Covent Garden case, used as a marketpl..ce. [n Aveline's ~~ght"""th- a vista markl'd at lhe opposite distant end by some monument (oN-lisk, triumphal arch, commemorative column) or by the lantern of a public dome, which provides

zo.t

CIVIC JUSTICE

the eye with a "vanishing point" on the horizon. and an entree into infinity beyond. 1ne st"';ghtntss of the radials and the repetitive regularity and uniformity of dimensions of the accompanying urban block provide a material critique of feudal irregularity - the pa!t~rn of irregular growth ("organic" growth) of feudal urbanism and the feudal body (corpu.)- while the dwgotUl/ity of the radials is at odds with the symmetry of lhe dassical grid pattern of streets of Greco-Roman origin. The facl thai baroque radials cwt acros;S the urban fabric is significant in another way. The angular slash of the radial symbolizes the rolling of lime by using the most direct (quick .... t) TOUte a~ross the city. It is a symbol of modemityof the desire to speed up travel, to communicate immoediately. Unsurprisingly, in pursuit of such Spl-ed it is the urban planners of the baroque age who separate traffic thoroughfares from ~estrian ways ..o In the baroque ~onceplion the city b.,roTru."S subordinated to the vehicular thoroughfare. The beauty of the building that the passerby admires d""lirIes in value and significance in rontrast 10 the functional value of quick passage through the city. In the spirit of great avenues, streets Ix-gin to take up more and more of the spac" of urban areas. Th~ physical dominance of the s treet moreover has a p"ychologicaJ correlate. The d .... ire for speedy passage-no longer a journey-is best satisfied by grand avenues or thoroughfares where the passenger glimpses nothing more than Ihe horizontal lin .... of comk1""';' was also grand. Grandeur was created by virtue of the monumental scale of radiating avenues (their comparatively great width) and the imposition of uniformity along these radials (uniformity of facades Or trees lining avenues. uniformity of pavements. romices. and string courses). and by the u"" of such avenues as ceremonial thomughfares for the great rituals of state. Baroque planners typically were military rnginCe incomplet~>J1""" of the artwork); "n"morp/wsis (leaving the viewer to complete the picture): 1m, leaving of imperfe-1639) on the ceiling originally of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome. Dun.mi. fills the scene. The eye is ca ught up in a restless, swi rling cascade of ceiling figures, many of which reach oul and over lines that frame Ihe sections of I..... painting. Similarly, dunami. is what the greal Flemish artisl Pel.". Paul Rubens (1577- 1640) paints in Chrisl Bea.ring I/o! Cro:;s, with its motif of an agonizing, upward movement-a procession of figu ..... Ihal overlap and meld into an almost undifferentialed plastic power of slr"CSS and strain. This is t ..... spirit of the age. The surs of lhe asocial. After fleeing the oppression of Egypt's patrimonial rulers, the old tribal bonds of the Israelites no longer suf/iced for social cohesion. "file confrontation wilh God in the wilderness provides the crucible in which a new kind of society is created. In the covenant story, everyo",,'s natural right in the wilde .......... is freely and equally transferred to a community based on biblical law. In the covenant made between this community and God, God promi ..... the Israelites a bounteoos land and they promise to obey the mor.'ll law. A community of God's beloved children is formed oul of the covenant, a "we" committed to God and God's commandments. The covenant is a founding act that creates, in pla.:e of old tribal affiliations, a new nation composed of willing members. As Michael Wal7.er argues, the Israelites in Egypt w..... a people only insofar as they shared tribal memories, or mOre potently the e">Cperience of oppression. Their identity before del iverance was something that happened to them. Only with the covenant do they make themselves inlO a people in the s trong sense, capable of both resistance and obedience.5O Covenantal politics functioned in the seventeenth centory as a model for the creation of an abstract commonity_a nation or a commonwealth - in a manner analogous to the way the ancient Hebrews became something more than tribes. Freedom from dynastic rule was equated with freedom from Egyplian rule. 1bc Hebraic covenant. notably, was not a pact in the Roman sense. It was not a pact between tribes /0 rom. /08.,lI£r - "Ihe unily of two altogether different ~>J1 tilies"51 - bul rather the willingness of all the people, and each individually, /0 anSWl'l" I08.,~5l to promise that what God has spoken, "we the people" will do. In return for doing what they promise, God confers the be""fits of freedom and plenty on "a people." The mosaic trek of deliverance, de picted in the E~odus story, is through tk d~rl, quite unlike the classical odyssey amJSS 111£ sell. The promise of exodus is not the hll/jpoljj of lhe Greeks Or the refoonding of Troy as Rome_lhe work of kosmopoiisis _but a land of bounty and of freedom from lhe oppression 01 pharaohs and maste"'. The promise of God is la"d that can be freely larTtWd. In the biblical conception, the first founder of a city was a murderer, and the city (o..vidic Jerusalem) w aS the seat of the

monarch . ~ kings ru~ justly (~in the D.widian cue). th.y doso by maintaining laws tN t are tribal in spirit and a way of life thot is predominateLy agriolllur~ 1 and pastor~~ not commercial and urba ...... Con· ~uently, a city that is separated from the !!Oil un never be just. The promi~ land will be re.lched as long as those who have promised to obey God's law do so. II divine Jaw is not fulfilled, God's promise is defer~, and the search for bounty and freedom hal to be ",newed. In the seveniJnds ol the ",odic community too much to bear, 50 fiercoe was tt-er iU1tinomLanism. III the C"OUt"!le of rime, dissenting communities split apart; rnurche!o brokle down into _ _ EwntuaJly individuak,. by uoe"ign states it was not only their ability to crush rival powers that counted; what also maHered was their new way of conducting the business of the stale. The stale became moderni~ing or rationalizing. This was expressed in a number 01 ways. It set aboul destroying the pced by a " nobility oIlhe robe" lhat owed its place in the world more to its ability to carry out the functions of its office (and the commands 01 the sovereign) than to its inherited status. Decisive in the French case WaS Cardinal Richelieu', use oIthe inlrndanl system of offices - appoinled din>mll aspect of the sovereign state. Liberals could sympathize with this side of state building that put a squeeze on the old "natural" hierarchical order. with its paternali sm, patriarchy. and parochialism built in. Yet the soven>ign state was not a liberal construct by any stretch of the imagination. Liberals like the English philosopher John Locke (1632_1704) found themselves at odds with both lhe old pl control 01 the stale, .nd built his re:5idential pal""" al VClsaill ..., the building ol bureaucratic offices was firmly in Irain ..'fITIIe modern J;(>vereign could no\ admini.t,.,. the stale with a household staff alone. Thus, gradually, and sometimes with difficulty, household and public responsibilities-tho: purse of the king and the public treasury - were sepill'aled. Eventually, in the course of the eighteenth and ninet"'-"'th Ctmturies, sovereignty waS impersonalized, and the most powerful fo""" in the state came to occupy public offices thai we", institutionalized. Such public offices w"'" oot the bureau. ol clict-.!-.Iow and dilatory. If they carne tOsel'm so, or we", satirized as such, it is because of the under_ lying cultural demand lor d"nam;s in all rnOO''1'Il societies. "It is not done quickly enough." In truth, the sovereign state (and later on, the bureaucralic compilny) moved wilh sp.:ed and concentra ted 10"'''. Dunamis is the modern 1000chstone. Modems conceive of themselves and their arrangements as dynamic. Moderns obsessively strain 10 push beyond the limits 01 their ..,.,iety. They experience the arrangements of Ihings as unjust because these arrangem,,,,ls are limiting. Modems lind the limits ol wealth or income, time or spilce, power or ability, esteem or """"b'llitinn to be sufl~>]"anres that they do not want to live with. From antinomian dissent to liberal "hoice, from the images of crossing the Jordan to the dTt!ams of endless opportunity, moderns imagine an inlini'" horizon of life. Moderns resent boundaries. TIley want to exc",-"" them selves. So they creale movements that promi"" to change the world, "to tum the world upside down." Bul they find always that these movements ""haus! lhemselves and arc sub.;umed by bureaucracies which, in their own peculiar way, aTt! also driven by the need for expansion and change. TIle stale institutes offi""", organizations, and ruies in answer to the demands for change. Liberals and dissen!~.... alike find reason to object to this, for it conflicts with their purer antinomian impulses. And yet lhey seem unaware of the n,ore troubling irony that all of this ",pre-

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sents. Mod~-ms seem able to effect o nly o ne kind of social cha.nge: 1M N't~tion of nrw officn and orgoniZlltians. In the end. no matter how anlinomian lheir s larting point. no matter how fie ry or furious their rhetoric. no matler how powerfullhe dun~mj, they summon up. the road of change • •,..'TT1.S to lead modems eventually, inexo rably, to ~ and different, larger and newer, publk and privaleofficesand bureaus. more strenuously modems assert themselves, the m ore conclu sive is their fate.

n.e

NOTES 1. Haning''''' insisted .hat the doctri,.., of. bal;uxo., was the prir>eiple that makes politics. s"., Felix Ka.b. T1tt english Fila of M.ch...... (London: Routledge, 19(4), p. 201. 2. James Harri~gton. Wo,*,. ed. Joh~ Tola nd (london.. 1771), pp 35-72. 3. marrying 0/ the "Polybian dty" with the countryside .... to innu"""". a cen'ury I.'er. lboma, Jeff• ....,..·•• grarian.inflected republicani,m. 4. J.C. A. Pocock. P/Ililirs. u.ngu.gt aod 11rM (Chicago; Univ"",ity of Chicago rre.., 1969), p. 113; Paul A. Rohe, Rt-p"b/iao AnOmI and Modrrn. vol. 2 (Chapel Hill: University 0/ Nor1h C.roIi"" 199-1), pp. 179-96. 5. Peter Gay, Tht Enlighlromrnl; An Inltrptl!I.IiIm. Tht Ri", of Mod"" Pagon;,;", (London: Woldenfold and Nicolson, 1966), p. 300. 6. For. dj""ussion 0/ Althu,ius's work. ...., John Ely, "Librlarian Faler· alism and Green Politic>: A Perspective On European Federation." in Tht Uft in s",fCh of a Cntltwi_~"...J p. 'I1. 35. Ibid .. p.91 . 36. Ibid .• pp. 1;\6-38. 37. Mumfl"-ftnIury Noh&ooL de",o"SIr.~ ... IW ... ",". of ............... ' ... .......1 for the 'i ...... I~ 01 rioing. f.lUng. ""p"ndlng. ....-oIving. dragging. flowing. ebbing. pouring. .nd I""'"irating abound in his wri'in~. Ie_in. '"" F"""'ri"~ e thrust 01 Be"",l". work in BIad< .... ,""'" i. to reit .... te. with the oid 0/ tw""~",,entury scholarMip. the """""teenth....:entury tum to Egypt. 48 Ibid, p. 166 49. On the natun> 0/ H.braic rovenant politic!, ~ Michatlow", H""'}" Vlt (14$5-1509): \!""Y VlIt (15E)j...15017); EH.... bdh 1 (1)5'J_I600); 0Ia,"" 1 (1~1 " 9); Ch.,"" II (J660-1685); 1....... 11 (161l~1688); WolI .. O\ LIL (1689-1702); . nd II""" (1702_1714).

m

222

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very ambiguousness of this state 01 affairs had ronsequenc ...: by the time of the death of Elizabeth L Ireland had b cootrot. J...... was "'" King 0/ Britain lrom 1685 '" 16S8.

eo",,,,,,,,,,,ndlh «nd Conl;ngnrry

225

AerIII vItw of 81.111.....1m P.t.c;., Oxfonhhir., UK from it. The Iosic of mod....,ity is to build bu"''''lM.T.ltk institulions. and this modernizing pnxcsa W~5 difflC\l1t 10 Ihwart. The ""~ionary sig_ nir.c~tions of mod.emity 5urvi...,.j the simple change of monan:h. Indkati ..... oIlhis, the ~1"5 btotW«"fllhe Glorious Revolution and the death of Quem Anne (17I4) .'" the heyd~y of t.... English baroque. So..,.,... wha t mon: n:5trained th.>n the ronti"""u.1 b.aroque, il ....nected simulta_ neously the ",A" ,tion of the ""pansionary I""'"CT of the Crown.nd the obstacles that it fxed. The precarious romprom~ between lhe two is

226

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JUSTICE

reflected in the architecture of Christopher Wren (1632-1723), who!.'re· atJ"Ce­ naries) who w,,", subject to codes ar>lions beneficial to the whole. Vu1ue is a relationship to the whole; virtue is synonymous (in a manner of speaking) with order. A human being is capable of natural affection. a love of harmonious wholes. Conven;ely, if natural affections are absent, dishannony results. (c) Nature is reason in action, feeling. and n..of1ection. All human beings have a SCsts and ~alues a~ put together SO they do not clash violently and resolve into chaos. This dOl'S not obUterate diff~ or conflicts or antipodal natures; rather. it orders them 9Q they do not end up alienating each other,,;o that diffi;,,, o::es and ronflicts do not end in violent estrangement.

TH E AU G USTAN AGE Shaftesbury's importance is his prepared~ to take seriously the legacy 0/ Hellenism and its understanding 0/ the importance 0/ kf'Smopoirs; •. Shaftesbury's contemporaries and sucnt ~nd the disord .... ly in rultun.. and the political and ... ligious counterpart of this: fanaticism, The ulm .p;travagance of Vanbrugh's an:hiledu"" "Something I~ is mo", n.....:lful than eXP"fIS"/And something p",vious even to taste-'tis s-ense":n T"sle and sense encapsulales the spiril of the Augustan age. Conservalives and radicals alike drank from the same well - a well not of enthusiasm or inspiralion, but of Cilulionary balance and moderation . Yet il was also a spirit la.:king in gt"atness or immortality, In the language of the age, Il25le ",p~ted the mean between ext",mes; the union of antitheses. Taste never conceded much 10 agonizing OT ecstatic intensities. The Augustan attitude, unlike its baroque pl'l.'decessor. was objective. not subjective; re(]ective. not passionate; urbane and nuenl, not hectoring and a ngry; a59ul'I.'d and judicious, rather than dissat_ isfied and turbulent. Consequ'-"'Uy anything colossal, unlimited. or onesided was not in "good taste" What Wo2S tasteful was the balancW, symmetrical presentation of different states - values, emotions, and deeds. To achieve "good taste: the artist or the politician had 10 be an ~ or sptdalor 0/ the "div....... natures" 01 humanity,Z! And for such laste 10 be possible. it required the artisl Or politician to possess common """se. Althe beginning of the eighl .... nth cenlury, common sense was closely allied to reason, Common ~ WOOS" ",,,,fry liull formed Or ~ things. It Was a sense that ordered the diverse impressions provided by the external senses. Jt arranged impressions into a coherent whole. It did the work of reason (or 0/ rational intuition). In this view, common sense was a cognilive faculty-a sense Ihat we have for apprehending and ordering the diversily (and complexity) 0/ the world by "",ating patterns. On the simplesl level. an inward or common sense combir>es lhe information we have from our differenl outward senses. What we s« in the world around uS is oftcn conlTary to what we hu,. We constantly "cheo: k and balance" the in/ormation 0/ one of our senses against the information of some olher. The combination and checking fOf consistency

eomm""'.....:dlh and Gmlingmcy

243

of sense data is a primitive (everyday) version of the operations required to ·check and balance" different sets 0/ norms, values, and feelings that are encounterai in the wOTld. The s.:nsible person is the one woo can move judiciously among countervailing expectalions and practices. Common sense oriel/n/ts uS in a comple>< world, l1>c cognitive (y~'S/no) judgments that we make on the basis of common sense register relations amongSllhings, events, and actions in the world. n,.,.., judgments make sense of the WOTld by discovering its patterns, its systems, AI the core of such systems is reason, The common _ is lhe OTgan for perceivingm-ognizins - lhe connective (formative) power of reason in the world. We judge something positively because it corresponds to a pilttem or shape of things. We approve of an action because it fits an order of things. When our action is consiseen t with other actions ehae we undertake, our life (ov their masters in trepidation, and their masters worried about riots and the power 01 crowds, Society was h.lunted by images of political turbulence and rebellion, and the sovereign's sword was wielded against the internally cnlMized Irish and Jacobites to ensure a pacified Uni ted Kingdom. And iI dn>ad remained socially prevalent, so did fantasy. n... commemal revolution_the shilt from marketp/lICt' 10 market :«Jci~'y_ that the seventeenth C\"ntury had ushered in was not reversed, Augustan humanism waS ultimately at a loss as to how to deal With modem commerce, which stressed the need fnr economic endeavor to be linked to happiness. As far as the individual was concerned this meant that those in business lived in the present, and looked to the pleasures of the present, TatbeT than to the ecstasies of the imagination. This did not mean that the ideal Augustan personality was uninterested in change or development; nonetheless, this was an age thM spoke of -""ppy changes" and ·pleasing improv~"""'>J1ts.· Commerce was thought of as a vehicle for bTinging nations into cooperation and harmony, a vehicle for universal peaC\", a way of fostering a cosmopolitan interchange between states, Yet, in truth, the discontents of modernity were never dispelled, "or its expansionary significations contained, An apostle of the market society like Adam Smith (1723--1790) saw no contradiction betw~""" the stoicism he defended and the id"li .... tion of market duna",;s.

250

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He saw no contradiction between his profession 0/ the rational ordering of the stoic and the nervous ordering of the ge""ralized market that inc ... asingly stn'tched C1'OSS continents as well as across the seemingly endless oceanic expanses occupied by the world system (the modem mercantile empire) 0/ the English type.24 As the century progre55ed. speculative venturing came more to the fo .... in episodes like the South Sea Bubble (1720). Expansionist, imperial appetites were whetted by tm, explorations of Samuel Wallis (1766-1768), Captain Cook (1768-1771, 1772_1775, 1776-1779), and others. This exploralion was e,,,,cuted in tm, spirit of enlightened curiosity, but it stimulated a romantic fascination with the exotic and the strange. Dutifu!1y the explorers took their copies 0/ Homer's Od)IS5'Y with tm,m; but. far from sailing by the shoreline like the ancient GTft " Exc=ises- in Benjamin Rand (ed.). TIt< Lift,

w"

Ex""""

U"p".JjWJ ~tI""' ""d PIti/osophk1i1 ~ ...... of A","""y, uri ofShs>ftin. 1900), and Shaftesbury. " A Lett.,- C""""rning the Art or ~ of Design- in 5cford: O>cford Uni"~rsily Press, 1990 11757]). 24. n.., former in Tht ThftJty of Moral Srnlim.."t< (1759) and the I.Her in 11." l"'Iuity 1"1e I~ Nol." a"d Ihe c.u", of lilt ~Ilh of Nolie", (1776). 25. In thi< otmospho>re, it easy for Whig politicia'" to abandon old Whig

p""",

w.'

idea, about countervailing po......,... , and bewme, over lime. i",,"'.singly . ubj«t to the pat"""'s. of the Crown. Symbolic of tlti. shilt, Col"" Campbell wa< di.· mi....-d before the building of Walpole', hou .. was completed. and he "'placed by the baroque architect J.mes C ibb (1682-1754). who promptly erected baroqu ....tyle high oct.gonoJ do""," On the unfinished end tOWers oilioughton Ha l ~ i"'te.d of the g.bled ·hou,...· Compbell had proposed_ 26. Christoph"r Hill, Rtjo""oll"" o"d II~ Indu,trial Rn"Ju,io" (Hormondsworth: Penguin. 1969 (1967]), 250-52; Ma x Wew, Tht ProIt:!IO"1 [liIi< and lilt Sriri' of upilaii.", (London: All.." .Old Unwin. 1976 [1930]).

w.,

10

THE REPUBLICAN EMPIRE A CHRISTIAN SPARTA

I

n pursuit of its baroque ambitions, the English Crown during the eighteenth century buill a mercantile empire around the Atlantic basin. lis ~ions stn:tched from Newfoundlligion. But once he ~gan n>ading Plutarch, Cicero, '"The "0 of !"\'Sislance against the English,. and later the Revolutionary War. ~uired living in straightened cirnnJls\ances. Reformed theology invested ",belUous and sacriftcial political strategies with meaning. and fortifted the coloroists to persevere in the face of hardships. Yet of """""'ity this theological spirit was fon:ed. to take on a secular fonn. When the Oilvinist n.'Sisted Oiesar. it could not be in the guise of a Calvinist - for lots of reasons. For one thing. many of the colonists we", not Oilvinists. Calvinism itself was divided into n\lJTlCJ"OUS sects. Furthermore. the antinomian substratum of Prot.-.;tantism rejected the idea of a suite religion. Its covenantal politico-theology could justify the creation of congregational and communal bodies. but not a body politic. Thus. reformed theology had to take on a neutral fonn_so it wrapped itself in the robes of a classical republicanism of an ascetic kind. Ascetkal republicanism was not an invention 01 the eighteenth century but had a long historical lmeage. It formed part of a broader palette of "'publican ideas that had accumulated over the centuries. As already stated. among the Creek states it was not Athens that caught the attl'fltion of Americans but Doric Spart.1i.4 The example of ~ (similarly Dorian) was also invoked .5 E".d both. model of the lu ture (in thoe _ cia working pnoadenl o r analoguf for a non· monarchic:al form 01 gov...-runent) and , basis lor undwstanding why the eruting arrangflTloCllla of gov"""",,nt and ~y were ItIOnllly flawed. They Wen! .110 drawn to the classic:'l because thectassics seemed 10 p"'" vide models of moral hei""OeS .""ssling against a world gone wrong. The theological assumptioT15 of American Ca lvinism encourag1 ex/rnt and land bordmo, whereas thoc cha racter of the city was defined by its crnt~r - or in the ease of the portJ"e coastal dwellers_living along. or close to, the P"'''' of the Atlanlic_the ambition of subsequent setllers was continental. and they rould not be limited to the seaboard. Symptomalically, when the American colonies joined together in rebellion against England, they organized themselves in a amlinmlal Congress_whose name betrays unmistakably the scale of American ambition •. Even in the prerevolutionary period there was a persistenl movement of settlers westward, across the mountains into the Ohio Valley, over the "Indian Lands. and down toward the Mississi ppi River. Whal was already envisaged, however ur.::ertainly, in the midst of the War of lnde.,.,ndence agaillSt Britain.. was the political orga ni""tion not of city dwellers but of farmer-setllers. Montcsquieu (1689-1755) had argued that republicanism was suitable only for the cityP and that monal a state _in their constitu_ tional conventions of the 1780s-thi.')" invoked the no!ion of a constitutional halance 01 powers borrowed from the ancients. Ou twardly the Amrican constitution looked quite Rornan-a Senate oII..,t a prople's assembly (the House of Representativ ... ); the legislative branch was a counk'fWeight t the exocutive (the Pn,.idency): the power of states halanced a federal power, and so on. But the ultimate purpose (ralio) of the constilll tional arrangement w as no! the augmentation of the city and its brilliant shining lortk. "The offices of tke 1789 constitutional union of stales did not ... rv~ a civic ~,d. There waS no "final end" of the city to anchor instilll tions and oIlires. Citizenship, in the classical sense, was tke life 01 the city dweUer-a life th~t included office·holding along with many other public roles and activiti .... In the 1789 Constitution, oHi citizenship bcame

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little mo..e than the right to select key officeholders The «>nsequence was that citizens had to spend little time in the public.pace and o/f>eehold""" had few ..esponsibili lies In augment or enrich that publicamples of the Amphictyonic centers of religious worship (Delphi and elsewhere) that organized the sac...d truces and periodic games between Greek city-states were invoked as well as ex~mpl"" of Ach~ean, Lydan. Aetolian, and other Hdlenic city leagues,06 A g .... at interest was shown in how the common councils of the leagues worked, and in questions such as whether each city had an equal voke in the workings of these common councils, Commentators like Jolm Dickinson and James Madison we .... dear..,yed and frank about the defects of the ancient confederacies as well as their beauties. aut the point of their """,arch was to find parallels and suggestive examples of a way of uniting existing states politically without destroying their distinctive cap;oeities, rather th~n slavishly following a set historical pallem, 1be image 01 polilics underlying this conception was of an orde...d arrangement_i,e .. a Shaftesburyian unity in diversity, a system of inter_ locking parts. Citizens, in acting responsibly, rntrgiwJ the arrangement. But the dynamism of the actor (or association of actors) was not the nub of politics. Rather, politic. was a systematic 8lTangement for checking and balancing the power and dynamism 01 each part 01 the system so as to ....alize a harmonious equilibrium. This understanding of politics was republican, but not in the Catonian sense, 11 was republican in the metricizing sense, This was the idealized republic of Polybius and Cicero, 11 "". a ""ublir af artln, not ""rotS, an ordv that WIIS a/most mathemancal in conapnrm. 1be intell'-'Ctual root of this idea goes back to the pre-Socratks, and had ente...d the Roman world via the Scipionk ci,de and Polybius. 'The ethico-political conceptions of the Scipionic circle were quite distinctive from those of their Catonian opponents, and what they understood by a .... public Was not a self_sacrificing dti:JS voted for repre"""tatives who no longer acted on behalf of a distinctive class. So what then did it mean to act liS a representative? n.e answer to this came to depend on wiIIIl offi"" the rep"""",tative held in which institution. n.e Americans created a series of representative institutions_ the most important at a national k'Vel being the presidero;:y and the two HouS;i~tence or limitation 0/ them either. A jusl union ,uPr tOOlJr C'OOJnlIy. Riches giv". fX>WS. as w.s the co"". t Rome and Athens, when magnifker.ce and prom.ion arose from the vtroi,: Way"" Stale Univ~rsit y Press, 1964), pp. 97, 156; Cordoo S. Wood, 111< C"",ion of'N A...nr.n RLpubli. 1776_1787 (New Vorke Norton, 1972 [1969]), p . 118.

w"

S. Ibid .. p. 145. 6. See. ~ . g .. McDonald' , desctipnon of this puritanical "'publicani.m in Noou, OrJo 5«Iorum, pp. 72_73. 7. Reinhold. CfJl»ic. A""ric""". p . 96; Bernard El.>ilyn. TIlt I~i",f Origin, of ,Itt A""ri('dn RtroI",ioo (Carnbrid&,-" M...., Han'ard Univ .... ity Press, 19(1), pp. 4:l-44.

m

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8. Rtinhold, Ct.m;", ,o.mtri",,,,", p. 96. 9. EOT. ge...".ol aerount. ""'" Wood, "IN C....1ion chap . ) .

of "" ,o.""";"an

1VJ1"b1ir.

10. M. C. I. CreVok 8, Section 16!p 120 01 the lnndon: 1-Wner Press, \9-19 ed.1) 23. \\'00s. 1987). Derrid ... imp.>gies as corrupt. J\lS'~ (goOO law) is ,he I.w (,he lawyet) ists.he ron\Iptiom of the wc.rld. The et>d of this good law" ""'Justice. bu. onllnonUc fn>during thread in American poIitic,,1 thinking. One 01 the in",,,,.tiono th.11 Hamillon introduced w .. the regularizing 01 public bomlwing by guar.nl -li.urgy" derives). 1he city ossigned to w ... lthy p11'SOI"IS "liturgical" tasks, for .... mpid for tho honor 01 .... ving """""pIished a great or memorable work. On thi5 see. M. L Finley. Tht A..oml fmtoom~ (London: Penguin, 1992 [1'I73!), p. 151 41 J. G. A. PoctIi.II Mi..J""" tht a"",;",' Tnolition. Pr. 179-83. 47. For. v"'Y good oc _iety..... Gordon S. Wood. nor ~i,,"i'm of 1M AmI.'ion {Ne w York: A. A. Knopf, 1992) . 48. 1he 8"'" .. ven' ...... th-«n.ury .rgument for this is pro/fereJ by"11>om.l. ,Iobbos in itvUl,,,,,,", 49. 1he fifteenth .mendment to the us. Constitution in 1870 guarant.....t that no one could be denied the right ." vle because '" r""" or I Ql:tension of lhe (theatrical, arti .. ",,!. athletic, rhetorical. and philosophical) conies· talion (ag61l) that was a recurring lea to.., 01 classical civic cultu",_ To be courageous was to be prepan.>d to die for something more important than life itself - viz. public things (m< publi=). The citizen did not d ie to '-""Sure the survival of the tribe. Nor did the citizen die "sacrificing" what he took to be the higoc"St good (viz. life) in the name of the sacred representation of that good (God), and thereby playout a theological paradox. "The citizen both lived and died for til, city, for it was the city that gave form (and thus meaning) 10 each city dweller. "The city formed thecitizen through the ethos of, and participation in. the public festivals, drama, music and dance, philosophiung, rhetoric, and athletics nf the city. Yet the American republic. as it was conceived. was a ""l'ublic witl\outthe rtS publica. How could its citizens then be formed? One answer was through tho: ",.ding 0/ the Bible. When th~ antinomi3n Pmte>;tant did this, the ef(cd was to be the conqucst 0/ space (in the name 01 the promised land) and a perpetual protest against government and MOItll. When the more con'·cntional church·going Pmt~"St:mt (e.g. the Episcopalian of Vir· ginia) did the same. the dfl'Cl was a cerlain neighborli .......,; and law-abid·

'"

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ingness. Yet neither was the stuff of civic greatness nQl'immortality. What a "''Public without the ..,. pub/;.... promised was republicaIl gove"",""'" without civic etiloo, and ""hi;" institution. without public lif. America waS fouoded on the rook.' The Pilgrims began wilh the rook (the Bible). n,., Al1"Ie newcomer to the upper reaches of Roman sorsn relied extensively on Palladio's rou, Books of Am.itectuu in the execution of Monlicello. t9 Robert Morris' ~Ird ArrhilrcluN! (1755) was also influentiaL Notably-and for the understandable reason 01 its a.!Ciation with English dominion - the Anglo-Palladianism of Burlington and his followers, and of Colen Campbell's ViII1l~ius Britannicu., was rejected by Jefferson. (More idiosyncralically, perhaps, Jefferson also often employed the lreatises of lhe baroque a",hit«t James Gibbs.) Jefferson was, 10 say the least, a complex character. He was obsessed wilh the description 01 minute physical details and with the design of gadgel!>-both trail!> of an Enlightened rational .... scctic_ Yet he dis.pla)'ed liltle of the saving mentalily of that Iype. He had a classical love of s pending money on cultivated pursuils {music, gardening.. math· ~'lII.tics, architectural drawing. s~'Omctry, astronomy, natural philosophy); his mechanical experimenting occasioned the same kind of ralional pleasure he gair.ed from building_ Like the best of the anck..,ts, it was not pi'ssion Or enthusiasm that animated him, bul the ralional--emotional involvement (joy, delight) in ordering. patterning. and constructing. [n one resped -againsl all dassical precept_on top of a mountain. Neither Palladio nor the Roman writers had evcr suggesled a moun lointop as an ideal site for a villa . Jefferson 's choice of site was. romanti· cizing Ira""lalion of Palladio'. recommendation (in his fou, Books) to build on a small hill.~ Notably also, Jefferson ignored Palladio's preference for the s iting of. villa by the banks of a river. From the summil of

1k City !Wulifu,

287

his small mountain. the countryside spread out majestically. llle view was sublime. and Jefferson often remarked on the constant stimulus this ,.;ene gave to the imagination. 21 The dfcet of taking in the grandeur 01 surrounding nature was to elevate and e ~pand the soul. 22 The mle of cultivated nature (the garden) was meant to ronspire in this. In his gardening practice, Jeffrian smaliholder.lO He proposed smallholding as an a~"""" to th. ""ils of poverty, along with exempting from taxation e""ryone below a certain income level and taxing the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they ro:5e. l1 Where the", w~"" uncultivated lands in • country, Jefferson ""'. soned, the unemployed poor ought to be allowed to appropriate blocks of land . While the equal division 0/ land was impracticable, he recom· mended that legislators all the same should e>ee 01 the ge"uilied world of the villa depe"ded on lorced labor. Slaves maintai"ed the little philosoph;';al republic-the garden 01 friends. 1l!e South.crn gentry, in the longer tenn. were unable to justify .lavery against the Calvinist abolitionists, although try they did, invoking pmong otheT thi"gs both lederalist arguments arId a roma"tic reading of Aristotle and the Creek poii•. 1l!e relationsltip between master arId slave was brutal and despotic. Slaves could not share in common humanity. 1hey had no p""""",lliberty, They were subjef\ te>Ce from whkh has been clearocl the private dwelling. the domicile. It has boundaries that rnark it out from the private. The sp.>Ce that is opened up at the """ter is shared by aU (of those who are not in a condition of servitudf,). Poor aro rich, notable and unnoted, officehold"", and household"", aUk can ~'fIter the public space. It is shared by being maintained. by aU - through the efforts of governments and the sense of collective responsibility of civioc-minded individuals and ase boundaries of the world of the city are Ih........:limensional. Boundari ... are material significations. They exist in the world. They contpnSa ord his .ssociates. Polis: Tht GIn'k Amitmnrnlond Its Ajtnm.tlh (Stuttgart Franz ~ineT Verlag. 2001). pp. 207-32.

,

12

CONCLUSION CONCLUS ION We h.ove t.~veled a long way in the course of this voh",,.., and, I' d like to think. some way in the spirit of theC..".J,:; nwtk and Roman ..... grini. If ~ is a 1(1'''' 10 be Iram.d from what " '. ","",encountered along the way. it is that IN history of nopubJic& is not ju51 lhe history of citiumh.'p. or 01 civic vi~, IX politic... p;lrtidp;llion, or of COUntry partil'!l and their fartnf'f vIrtues. The I'ti!!tory oI.."..blics is also the Ilory 01 denittnshipthe tale of t"'- who make things. nolle~sl of alJ public things. and who trade in !how aclS of Cl'eillion. and who often do SO a. ' Irangen. standing ou.side the bounds of citizenship, living as denizens .mid~1 the hustle a nd bu.stle of pori cili('!l, matk~t pla(..s. entrepity

s.........,

-

Barnes, Jon.otho~, 1987. u')y C m!< PIIiWscp/tJ/. Harmondswortlt: Penguin. BaTOl\. lIa .... 1966. Thr eri,,, oj ,'" u./y Ita/ion ~""n". l'rinceton. N .J.: Princeton Unive";.y Pres, Barrow, R. H. 1949. 11rt Ito_n •. Harmondsworth : Penguin.

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".,,,.1..

ero,...

----_._..

GLOSSARY OF GREEK AND LATIN TERMS

agriludo equ.bilis aoqu.olum ~ lempn"alum agalh05

..... .""

ag~thoJ

agOOiJrna agora agmi kos

."'"

akropoH. al~ho;oia

amlcili, and rapodon antapodosls aorgfsia apori"""

apoikiol _",hai

....

the vktory of one opposing power over another, injU~I;c., distress rair

and modenW: the val ian' (one)

b;o]anced

W"",,,

('Spartan) upbringing

contest, ilS5embly lhe meting of fon:e from an opposi te direction, that wi, h which one CQI'I1~5 assembly, market of or in the country cu ltivated field high town. dtadeL Kropohs divine ..."elation, truth politk.aJ friendship, .lIi~ chilttel5lave. sIa"" t.oken in war R'Ciprocal giving $piritlessnes boundleos" ..s away. home, ...... igrant dty, colony priociple initiative, beginning.. principle, origin. first prir.::ip le, magist. ;ocy, offic:e

.rc...... ;n

10 rule

= hlOlek loni koIS •• hoo

builder, maker. fo under chief magistrMe, to Ix-gin, to lead the way, to rule. 10 govern obsequiousness

--

CIVIC JUSTI CE

astei.,. asty atonia auctoritas autar~ a~ia

barbaropMnoi basileus bibn~ boul~

carita. civis civitaS

chente!;. comitia romitia centuriata comitia tribula concilium concordia

""""lIence. virtue witty, "citified" lo ....er tOWn, opposite to an acropolis a"""""e of tl'nSion authOrity, innuence ""If-sufficient, independent, having ~'f1ough nis of the earth, like the axle of a wheel non-C"",k speakers, barbarians king, chief two scales of a balance council aff~'Ction.love.

esteem citizen, city dweUer the condition of a citi zen, Cititenship. fN'edom of the city. membership in thccom· munity dient.mip council, meeting, assembly general assembly of the whole Roman people a'!sembly that elected lower magistrates. including tribunes a m..,eJing, rendezvous an agreeing together. union, hannony. co ...

ro.d consortia constantia

protque, 196-2(6, 225-26

loosil&s•.liI beauty. 31, ~ Th 130. 163, ;:.E Bernini, G;'mlorenzo. 197, 2Il2

.

""' '"

Brown. Arthur, .JIIl Brunelle.du, Filippo, 163,m Bruni, L:onardo, ll5.. 157_59 bu",.uIn. 296 •.Jill Lipoiu,. , ........ l94. Livy, ~

log.... 1Q, M, ZMLM, ill..ill

lovo, D. m

HolI~. m

Homer. 2!i H""... 0/ Rep .........taHv .. (US.) • .M

;m household. Th 1Z 33. 35. 57. l03.ru h"briU IIl humani,m. .llI. 1tb-1Ql!. i l l 153-6Q. 163, 17l_no 193-95. 2J11-42. 282.

'"

Hume. David. 2liZ Hunt. Richard Morn. •.Jill

imperialism, lOt . 1M 37.2l8. indu~, . .9.JQ.li. 139-60. 1411. 156. l;ll. W -42

Ody-.... ~ l"I8 oligarchy.1i, 15:

landholsellas. Michael, liO p"blk, ~ .lIl

p"blk borrowing, 13O p"bli< things. 1!!. 11 4,.2lI3 Pythagor.... 53, 58, 147, 150. 169, 26Il radi.ls, 20\..2fH

12J.-24, 238-39. 2SO

.ko>pli