The Greek Tradition in Republican Thought

Abstract

The Greek Tradition in Republican Thought, by Eric Nelson (Cambridge: Cambridge U.P., 2004; pp. xv + 296. £45). The Greek Tradition in Republican Thought counterposes to two prominent interpretations of the history of republicanism which privilege Rome to varying degrees, a third which restores centrality to a long-term engagement with the vision of Plato's Republic. Eric Nelson does not seek to challenge or displace the genealogies traced out by J.G.A. Pocock, Quentin Skinner, and the many scholars who have followed in their footsteps. The key contrast which he draws falls between a Roman political tradition which assumes a priority of private property rights over the design of political authority and a Platonic assumption of the primacy of a collective good, and virtue effectively devoted to its service, over any private entitlements. This way of seeing the contrast is clearly indebted more to Leo Strauss than to canons of...