The kingly man : an examination of the monarchical theories of the Hellenistic and Roman Empires

Abstract

This thesis examines the attitudes to government common to Greek and Roman writers who lived between the advent of the Hellenistic Age and the heyday of the Roman Empire in the second century A.D., and who wrote theoretical works dealing directly or indirectly with monarchical government. This was, for most of them, the only form of government worthy of serious consideration. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the extent to which the term 'political* is a misnomer for the works of these writers. The writings are examined to discover the views of the theorists on the position of the individual in relation to society, on law and the ruler., on the characteristics deemed kingly, on the imagery of kingship, on the connection of the ruler with the divine and on his position vis-ä-vis the philosopher. The conclusion reached is that the true concern of most of these writers for most of the time is not to set out how a ruler should relate to his subjects as a head of government, but to present an individual who is the model of the perfect man and for whom most dealings with his subjects are simply opportunities for him to demonstrate those social qualities which he shares with all outstanding men. For these writers, religious, moral or philosophical, rather than political concerns have suggested this picture of the ruler, and their king has taken over and embodied the impersonal elements of government described by Greek theorists of the points. Thus we can see that for these writers, political life does not have an independent existence, any more than it did in the days before the concept of citizenship had been developed in Greece.