Liberalitas
Liberalitas (lat. Generosity ) is the personification of generosity and charity and their willingness to give without being obliged to do. Their most important attribute was the cornucopia (the cornucopia).
In the early Roman Empire , the term developed into a concept of value and one of the virtues of the principate , on which the concept of liberality is based.
Origin and meaning
Liberalitas was the Roman personification of generosity and generosity. The virtue of unselfish action was one of the typical Roman moral concepts and had a long tradition.
In Republican times, a distinction was made between the terms liberalitas and largitio , with the latter placing the focus on giving.
The development of the term in the direction of the Congiaria distribution under Hadrian is documented for the first time .
Liberalitas principis
With the emergence of the rulership structure of the principate in the early Roman imperial era , liberalitas became a symbol for the important virtues of the Princeps , namely imperial generosity and the organization of Rome's grain supply ( annona ), which gave them elements of libertas . Initially, liberalitas referred to the imperial grain donation ( congiarium ) alone; from Antoninus Pius also the donative for the soldiers. Finally, the meaning expanded to include debt relief, tax relief, disaster relief, construction activities for the common good and the organization of games. From the 3rd century onwards, according to Körner ( Philippus Arabs ), the ideas of libertas and liberalitas increasingly merged.
Under Caesar , the term first gained political meaning, as he placed this virtue in the foreground. He was consciously opposing those people from the past with whom he was compared, such as Sulla . The meaning of the word was accompanied by the merging of virtue and gift, with the ethical background remaining present as the trigger for action. Only from this time on can one speak of an actual personification in the sense of symbolizing an idea of Liberalitas. Liberalitas was thought to have the cornucopia as an attribute .
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Caesar's contemporary Cicero , who had an ambivalent relationship with Caesar, also devoted himself to the term. From his point of view, beneficentia (benevolence, charity) and liberalitas belong together and unite to form the social virtue ( virtus ) of iustitia
With the empire Liberalitas became a characteristic of the rulers. Accordingly, the frequent depictions of generosity on coins always show the distribution of grain - either Liberalitas with a cornucopia or the emperor at the act of distribution.
In late antiquity , under the influence of Christianity, the term was transformed into Liberalitas Dei (God's grace), which was also of legal significance (mentioned in the Codex Iustinianus , among others ).
The Free State of Bavaria has chosen Liberalitas Bavarica as its top priority. Later this was even changed by Georg Lohmeier to Liberalitas Bavariae . Not as a guiding principle, of course, but as an expanded requirement.
Coins
On Roman imperial coins, Liberalitas is represented as the personification of generosity with a cornucopia in one hand and a counting board ( abacus ) in the other. The abacus points to the congiaries , the imperial donation of goods to the people. On coins from the imperial era since Emperor Hadrian , she is also depicted as a standing figure in a long robe, usually as part of a distribution scene with the emperor and entourage.
literature
- Hans Kloft : Liberalitas principis; Origin and meaning. Studies on the ideology of principle. Böhlau Verlag, 1970. ISBN 3-412-61570-6
- Armin U. Stylow : Libertas and Liberalitas. Investigations into the political propaganda of the Romans . Dissertation Munich 1972.
- Axel Brand: Moral values in the Res gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999. ISBN 3-525-25219-6
- Mireille Corbier: Liberalitas, largitio. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 7, Metzler, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-476-01477-0 , Sp. 140-144.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kloft. P. 94
- ^ Christian Körner: Philippus Arabs. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2002. ISBN 3-11-017205-4 . P. 110.
- ↑ Stylow p. 178 ff.
- ↑ Stylow p. 70.
- ^ Eckard Lefèvre: Panaitios' and Cicero's doctrine of duties. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 2001. ISBN 3-51507-820-7 , pp. 110-111.
- ↑ The new Pauly Online. Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin ( Memento of the original from December 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ^ Egon Johannes Greipl: Liberalitas Bavarica. In: Historical Lexicon of Bavaria
