Scipion Circle
The Scipionenkreis is a name that apparently emerged in the 19th century and denotes a circle of friends that was (re-) constructed around the Roman statesman and general Scipio the younger . Reference is made to two writings by Marcus Tullius Cicero ( Laelius de amicitia and De re publica ), in which the author describes a group of high Roman nobility around Scipio and lets them have their say in “Platonic dialogues” .
The term is likely to go back to a passage in the work Laelius de amicitia , where Cicero lets the eponymous politician Gaius Laelius speak of a grex Scipionis (“Scipio's herd”) - ut ita dicam (“to put it like that”) . In addition to the people mentioned by Cicero, Lucius Furius Philus , Publius Rupilius and Spurius Mummius of modern research, the stoic philosopher Panaitios , the historian Polybios , the satirist Gaius Lucilius and the comedy author Terenz are also assigned to this group.
Modern scholars have suspected that this group of high-ranking Romans had a significant influence in communicating Greek ideas in their city. Friendship with Greek culture ( philhellenism ) and the idea of a politics shaped by humanitas are said to have played a special role. In this concrete form, however, the historicity of the “Scipion Circle” is controversial; there is no concrete evidence of its great social influence in the ancient sources.
literature
- Hermann Strasburger : The "Scipionenkreis". In: Hermes 94, 1966, pp. 60-72.
- Karl-Ludwig Elvers : Scipionenkreis. In: The New Pauly (DNP). Volume 11, Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-476-01481-9 , Sp. 298.