Rome idea

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As idea of Rome in historical research a variety of ideas is called, after which the city of Rome plays a universal primacy in the political, cultural and religious area.

In antiquity , the Rome idea initially represented the ideology of rule of the Roman Empire , according to which Rome was destined by providence to bring leadership, peace and a permanent order to the world. Since late antiquity , it has been increasingly reinterpreted as Christian and nourished z. B. Concepts of Rome as the Christian head of the world. In the Middle Ages in particular , several currents of the Rome idea can be distinguished from one another, for example urban, imperial and ecclesiastical.

Development up to late antiquity

Rome first became a world historical mission in the 2nd century BC. Attributed to Polybius by the Greek historian . In his main work, Historíai , he described the growing together of the Oikumene under the Roman leadership. The Roman poets Horace and Virgil gave this political conviction a quasi-religious character in Augustan times. In the late Imperial Era, the Rome idea formed an integral part of the ancient Roman belief in gods. The Dea Roma was considered the divine personification of the city and the entire Roman Empire.

The supporters of the idea took a teleological view of history. After that, the Pax Augusta was the culmination and conclusion of a long development that could no longer be developed, but only maintained. This also included the correct execution of the state cult, which was seen as a prerequisite for the lasting goodwill of the gods. This promoted an ahistorical worldview and a certain conservatism of the city-Roman senate nobility, interested only in maintaining the status quo . Its non-Christian members were therefore among the most vehement advocates of the Rome idea in late antiquity, especially after the loss of the capital city function of Rome to Constantinople , as it was expressed in the dispute over the Victoria Altar. The idea of ​​Rome was also very pronounced in Ammianus Marcellinus and Claudian , although Ammianus at least was not a Christian. Even with the Christian and famous poet Prudentius , the idea of ​​Rome, now handed down as a Christian, can be grasped.

Christian reinterpretation

In contrast, the Christian emperors also adhered to the principle of the importance of the empire - not necessarily the city of Rome itself. The emperor Constantius II, who is considered a devout Christian, was still impressed by the splendor of the old metropolis when he visited Rome. However, Rome increasingly became a metaphor for the size and importance of the empire, which was ultimately no longer tied to the city itself. Especially Eusebius of Caesarea is of great importance when formulating the Christian idea of ​​Rome. With the privilege of Christianity by Constantine , the idea of ​​the universal empire and the universal religion entered into a symbiosis that shaped the Byzantine idea of Rome. Here took Konstantin Opel now a place to Rome. After the fall of Constantinople , the idea lived on in Orthodox Russia, for example by viewing Moscow as the “ third Rome ”.

Development since the early Middle Ages

Pope Leo the Great laid the foundation for a Christian Rome by declaring that Rome became the head of the world through the seat of Saint Peter. This was the beginning of a development which ended with the papal principle that Rome exercises a primacy of faith over all Christian believers. In the Middle Ages, this led to violent disputes with the kings of the Holy Roman Empire , who, due to the Translatio imperii idea, saw themselves as the successors of the Roman Caesars. Otto III. , in whose conception of rule the Rome idea played an important role, made the city his imperial residence for a short time. Frederick I Barbarossa as well as his grandson Frederick II continued to regard the city of Rome as belonging to the empire and thus denied the popes' claim to sole control of the city. In this context, there were also conflicts between individual popes and the Commune of Rome, which - represented for example by Cola di Rienzo - represented an urban Rome idea.

The ideological exaggeration by the Catholic Church is expressed to this day in the characterization of Rome as an "eternal city".

literature

  • Art. Romidee . In: Lexicon of the Middle Ages . Vol. 7, Col. 1007-1011 (on the late antique and medieval idea of ​​Rome).
  • Manfred Fuhrmann : The Rome idea of ​​late antiquity . In: Historical magazine . Vol. 207, 1968, ISSN  0018-2613 , pp. 529-561.
  • Michael Matheus : Rome. In: Pim den Boer, Heinz Duchhardt, Georg Kreis, Wolfgang Schmale (eds.): European places of memory. Volume 2 (The House of Europe). Munich 2012, ISBN 978-3-486-70419-8 , pp. 263-279.
  • Jürgen Petersohn : Empire and Rome in the late Salian and Staufer times. Rome ideas and politics from Heinrich V to Friedrich II Hahn, Hanover 2010, ISBN 978-3-7752-5762-6 . ( Review )
  • Michael Seidlmayer : Rome and the idea of ​​Rome in the Middle Ages . In: Saeculum . Vol. 7, 1956, ISSN  0080-5319 , pp. 395-412.
  • Jürgen Strothmann: Emperor and Senate. The power of the city of Rome at the time of the Hohenstaufen . Böhlau, Cologne et al. 1998, ISBN 3-412-06498-X ( Archive for cultural history supplements 47), (At the same time: Bochum, Univ., Diss., 1996).

Remarks

  1. ↑ Cf. on this briefly summarized Richard Klein : Symmachus . Darmstadt 1971, p. 99ff. and p. 140ff.
  2. ↑ Art. Romidee , Sp. 1009f.
  3. ↑ Art. Romidee , Sp. 1010f.
  4. ↑ Art. Romidee , Sp. 1008f.
  5. ↑ Art. Romidee , Col. 1008.
  6. ↑ See in general Strothmann (1998). For more on Friedrich I. see Kurt Zeillinger: Kaiseridee, Rome and Rome politics in Friedrich I. Barbarossa . In: Federico I Barbarossa e L'Italia . Edited by IL Sanfilippo. Bullettino dell'istituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo e Archivio Moratoriano 96 (1990), pp. 367-419.