Économie, société et politique aux deux derniers siècles de la République romaine - article ; n°5 ; vol.35, pg 895-911

Annales. Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations - Année 1980 - Volume 35 - Numéro 5 - Pages 895-911
What was the equestrian order The meaning of this term is now well-established thanks in particular in France to the work ofC Nicolet The precise manner in which he delimits the social content of this ordo does away with older interpretations which essentially boiled down to unwarranted confusion of knights with businessmen But the question remains open for the way in which past errors have been rectified is itself not neutral it implies more or less explicitly depending on the author primitivist conception of Roman society in the last two centuries of the Republic one whose specificity is thus concealed In my view it is necessary to make this specificity clear on the contrary and we can advance number of hypotheses flowing from one observation the orders by now completely at odds with the new social realities constitute blind alley for historians wishing to study the problems ofthat age To regard them as type of social organization apart from classes endowed with their own perfectly autonomous mechanisms ultimately makes the profound conflicts which marked the end of the Republic incomprehensible the roots of these conflicts in fact lay in the social structure world in the throes of far-reaching change
17 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.