The Ancient City, by Fustel de Coulanges

The rise of Christianity completed the destruction of the social order based on the ancient religion of ancestor worship.

In this final chapter of the book, Fustel catalogs the changes in politics, in worship, in law, and in self-understanding that the new religion produced.

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Based on: https://youtu.be/cEx0tT0jHb4

In this long chapter Fustel tells the stages of Rome's conquest of the ancient cities.

In every city they conquered, the Romans destroyed whatever remained of the municipal system connected to the old religion.

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Based on:

https://youtu.be/4YQKkJTnNPM

https://youtu.be/U6IMsJWKbI8

https://youtu.be/mKlhPB8S7BQ

https://youtu.be/s-sRs_720QI

Book 5, The Municipal Regime Disappears, begins with this chapter on the role philosophy played in social change.

With Anaxagoras and others came new ideas of divinity, and new principles and rules for political life.

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Based on: https://youtu.be/78LOM37iv0s

Book 4 ends with Fustel's account of the path Sparta took through oligarchy and democracy.

In all of Greece, Sparta was the city most torn by revolutions.

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Based on: https://youtu.be/lYR1_CsZpjM

Democracy and equality made the gap between wealth and poverty more noticeable, without redressing it.

The conflict between rich and poor ended in the seizure of property by popular tyrants.

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Based on: https://youtu.be/X71ZKp9eGuk

In this chapter Fustel examines steps the new Athenian democracy took to protect against innovations in the law.

Democracy was a very demanding and time consuming practice as well.

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Based on: https://youtu.be/1Vp1ieC6hJ8

An interim stage between the old order and democracy, Fustel says, was the attempt by the wealthy class to rule the cities.

Weakened by war, this new aristocracy fell to the fourth revolution and democracy.

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Based on: https://youtu.be/wIqCDqOnZ_Y

Fustel relates the social reconstruction that followed the overthrow of the old religion and its laws.

Religious sanction for authority was replaced by the new principle of the public interest, and the end of government changed from performing of religious duties to securing peace and order.

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Based on: https://youtu.be/dw2UIbFxkzY

The plebians' victory over the old religion led to changes in the definition of law itself.

Law went from being a religious institution, revealed and commanded by the gods, to a human institution, serving human ends.

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Based on: https://youtu.be/aTZbHoc6fBE

This chapter about the third wave of revolutions is by far the longest chapter in the book.

Fustel first tells the general history of this drive for civic recognition, and then the specific histories of Athens and of Rome.

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Based on:

https://youtu.be/kW1rECKL7SQ

https://youtu.be/EXPWjg8w11U

https://youtu.be/kNwsLiFj0Ks