Crisis and constitutionalism Roman political thought from the fall of the republic to the age of revolution Straumann, Benjamin creator author. text bibliography Electronic books. History nyu 2016 2016 monographic eng remote 1 online resource (xii, 414 pages) This unique study makes both a substantial contribution to our understanding of Roman political thought and a major contribution to the reception of Roman ideas about politics. The book demonstrates the development of a very vigorous tradition of constitutional thinking that arose in response to the crises of the late Roman Republic. The study then proceeds to reorient the discussion of the debt of early modern political thought from the familiar claims about republicanism and republican virtue to the rediscovery of this tradition of Roman constitutionalism. In the first part of the book, we learn how a Roman concept of constitution emerged out of the crisis of the Republic. The increasing use of emergency measures and extraordinary powers in the late Republic provoked the politician and thinker Cicero and some of his contemporaries to turn a hitherto implicit, inchoate constitutionalism into explicit constitutional argument and constitutional theory. The crisis of the Republic thus brought about a powerful constitutionalism and convinced Cicero to articulate the norms and rights that would provide its substance; this typically Roman constitutional theory is described in the second part of the study. The third part discusses the reception of Roman constitutional thought up to the late eighteenth century and the American Founding, which gave rise to a new, constitutional republicanism. Special attention is paid to the French political theorist Jean Bodin, who emerges as a key thinker in a tradition leading up to Montesquieu and, eventually, the Federalist and John Adams. This tradition was characterized by a keen interest in the Roman Republic's decline and fall and an insistence on the limits of virtue. The crisis of the Republic was interpreted as a constitutional crisis, and the only remedy to escape the Republic's fate--military despotism--was thought to lie, not in republican virtue, but in Roman constitutionalism"-- Introduction: The fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of constitutional thought -- Part I: Inchoate constitutionalism in the late Roman Republic -- 1. "Not some piece of legislation" : the Roman concept of constitution -- 2. Infinite Power? : emergencies and extraordinary powers in constitutional argument -- 3. "The sole bulwark of liberty" : constitutional rights at Rome -- Part II. A hierarchy of laws : Roman constitutional thought -- 4. Cicero and the legitimacy of political authority -- 5. Greek vs. Roman constitutional thought -- Part III. The limits of virtue : the Roman contribution to political thought -- 6. The Roman Republic as a constitutional order from the Principate to the Renaissance -- 7. Neo-Roman interlude : Machiavelli and the anti-constitutional tradition -- 8. Jean Bodin and the fall of the Roman Republic -- Epilogue : Constitutional republicanism, the "Cant-Word" virtue and the American founding. Benjamin Straumann. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. e------ aw----- ff----- Constitutional history Philosophy Roman law Influence Constitutional history Rome Rome Politics and government 265-30 B.C Republicanism History Political science History Histoire constitutionnelle Philosophie Droit romain Influence Histoire constitutionnelle Rome Rome Politique et gouvernement 265-30 av. J.-C Républicanisme Histoire LAW Constitutional LAW Public Constitutional history Constitutional history Philosophy Political science Politics and government Republicanism Roman law Influence Rome (Empire) 265-30 B.C. fast K3161 .S767 2016eb 342.37 HIS002020 9780199950935 0199950938 9780190491154 0190491159 9780199950928 0190614005 9780190614003 http://proxy.library.tamu.edu/login?url=https://academic.oup.com/book/11886 N$T 160128 20260319161728.0 in00005712766 eng