The Ancient City: A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Ancient Greece and Rome

One of the most remarkable historical works of the 19th century came from the pen of French historian Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges, a native of Paris. This amazing analysis of family and religious life among the ancient Greeks and Romans is the key to understanding ancient Mediterranean civilizations. The story begins in the misty period of the Bronze Age as the Indo-Europeans began to filter down into the Italian and Greek peninsulas. They brought with them a patriarchy that was based on ancestor worship and the veneration of hearth gods...the sacred fire which bonded family and state. As time passed, this hearth worship became codified and extremely complex. For thousands of years, there was no distinction whatsoever between religion and law. They were one and the same, even after the establishment of cities. By the sixth century BC, the forces of societal evolution began to slowly erode this system. When citizens began to demand that laws be put into effect for the benefit of men instead of for the benefit of gods, it set in motion one of the world’s great revolutions. It transformed classical civilization, and eventually led to the destruction of the hearth gods. When Roman power and wealth expanded across the known world, it provoked a moral crisis. As a result, paganism decayed amid a general decline in religious authority and belief. This in turn led the Greeks and Romans to the realization that there could only be a single god. Thus, the way was eventually paved for the introduction of Christianity. Read more