‘로마 문화 혁명’과 노 플리니우스의 『자연사』 (‘Roman Cultural Revolution’ and Pliny the Elder’s Natural History)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국서양사학회
· 수록지 정보 : 서양사론 / 102호 / 41 ~ 67페이지
· 저자명 : 안희돈

초록

This paper studies what so called ‘Roman Cultural Revolution’
means and in what political and cultural environment Pliny the
Elder’s Natural History was written.
Ancient Roman society experienced a radical change during the
period of late republic and early empire. What the ‘Roman Revolution’
meant was not merely a political change. It was a total and radical
change in the whole Roman society.
The antiquarians at the end of Roman republic deplored the evils
of the time and asserted that they were restoring the ‘mos maiorum’,
that is, custom of fathers, which in those days was at the crisis of
being buried in oblivion. They blamed the nobiles for the oblivion of
mos maiorum and claimed that they were new interpreters and
keepers of the Roman tradition. Augustus supported the antiquarians’
intellectual activities and utilized their practical knowledges and
intellectual authority in securing the legitimacy of his political power
and reigning the Roman empire.
Pliny the Elder was one of the new intellectuals in the early years
of Flavian dynasty and his NH was written in such a historical
environment. He was of equestrian order and served various official
positions in the City of Rome and in the provinces. During that
period he acquired various knowledges which were connected with
managing the Roman Empire directly and indirectly. Therefore the
content of NH reflected his political viewpoint.
The ‘nature’ in the NH was not the nature in modern natural
science. It was all the things in the world or universe that man
needs or manages to know in order to live. The man who Pliny puts
at the center of his story in NH is not a natural man, but the Roman
citizen.
We can estimate his imperialist and nationalist attitude in the NH
as natural result when we remind the fact that Pliny the Elder
maintained friendly relations with the Roman emperors and served
them all his life.

영어초록

This paper studies what so called ‘Roman Cultural Revolution’
means and in what political and cultural environment Pliny the
Elder’s Natural History was written.
Ancient Roman society experienced a radical change during the
period of late republic and early empire. What the ‘Roman Revolution’
meant was not merely a political change. It was a total and radical
change in the whole Roman society.
The antiquarians at the end of Roman republic deplored the evils
of the time and asserted that they were restoring the ‘mos maiorum’,
that is, custom of fathers, which in those days was at the crisis of
being buried in oblivion. They blamed the nobiles for the oblivion of
mos maiorum and claimed that they were new interpreters and
keepers of the Roman tradition. Augustus supported the antiquarians’
intellectual activities and utilized their practical knowledges and
intellectual authority in securing the legitimacy of his political power
and reigning the Roman empire.
Pliny the Elder was one of the new intellectuals in the early years
of Flavian dynasty and his NH was written in such a historical
environment. He was of equestrian order and served various official
positions in the City of Rome and in the provinces. During that
period he acquired various knowledges which were connected with
managing the Roman Empire directly and indirectly. Therefore the
content of NH reflected his political viewpoint.
The ‘nature’ in the NH was not the nature in modern natural
science. It was all the things in the world or universe that man
needs or manages to know in order to live. The man who Pliny puts
at the center of his story in NH is not a natural man, but the Roman
citizen.
We can estimate his imperialist and nationalist attitude in the NH
as natural result when we remind the fact that Pliny the Elder
maintained friendly relations with the Roman emperors and served
them all his life.

참고자료

· 없음