The Ancient City, by Fustel de Coulanges

Fustel contrasts ancient with modern religion: the former was about ritual, not doctrine. It was secretive and fearful. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/-AcMLqaSF6I

In this long chapter, Fustel catalogs the roles religion played in the institutions of the ancient city in its prime. These include the sharing of meals prepared on the altar, the festivals and calendar, the census, and the military. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/ZgwkGNLlby0 https://youtu.be/-D8qdPAKMAE https://youtu.be/NgCMOvR1n50 https://youtu.be/lN-ti_HfSyI

Each city was held together by common worship of its particular gods. Different cities worshipped their unique gods under the same names: thus there were many Athenas, many Jupiters, et cetera. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/XgKCJJeP4fc

Each city worshipped its founder as the man who had called down the gods to dwell in the new city. The dominant virtue of a founder, says Fustel, is piety. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/aiWiU0Qi9uw

Ancient cities were very unlike ours. A city was not built up in stages, but founded all at once in a solemn religious ritual. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/MQdkIaLTEw8

An ancient city was not an association of individuals, writes Fustel. It was a confederation of several pre-established societies, which continued to exist in the city. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/b8E4p7a7dPw

In this chapter Fustel describes the twofold nature of ancient religious sentiment. Some gods were drawn from human intelligence and experience of the soul, and other gods were identified in external objects and physical forces in nature. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/jeDpijYOdUI

Book 3, The City, begins by tracing the expansion of religious ideas and rituals from the family level to larger social groups. The phratry, the cury, and the tribe each had their own altar, their own priests, and their own sacred meals. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/dUbmzIR1DHk

In this long final chapter of Book 2, Fustel addresses the historical problem of the gens, its character and foundation. The gens, he tells us, was not an association of families; it WAS the family. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/YydNy__d3U4

The ancient religion fortified man's moral sentiments and gave them greater authority. In this chapter, Fustel describes the religious roots of chastity, love of home, and other domestic virtues. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/3-V94JUlDS0

In this chapter Fustel describes the nature of the paternal power: the authority of the father and of religious law in the household. At first, all law was private and familial -- not arbitrary, but rather structured by and in support of the family's religious worship. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/3Mat18OAgmA

Because worship of the ancestors must never end, property rights naturally led to religious laws of succession and inheritance. Fustel describes how property was entailed from father to eldest son, along with the priestly office. Based on: https://youtu.be/H9b-zbL-YQk

The institution of private property was founded, not by labor or by common consent, but by religion. In this chapter Fustel details how the sacred nature of the hearth spread to include the house and the land, which resulted in familial property rights that were sacred and inviolable. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/_Yp1glXSRjY

Kinship in the ancient religion was governed by common worship, and so extended family relationships were traced through fathers and male cousins only. Recognition of relationship by birth, Fustel says, arose later and coexisted in tension with this system. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/LlVoHu-ELV0

In this short chapter Fustel connects his picture of the ancient religion to the institutions of adoption and emancipation. Due to the family's religious character, certain rituals must be carefully performed to admit or expel a family member. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/jeSFknIXgI8

Fustel describes various practices ensuring the continued existence of the family, and so the perpetuation of the sacred worship. Among these are celibacy, divorce, and the importance of sons. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/9GJdUaKwHb8

Marriage was one of the first institutions of the ancient religion. In this chapter Fustel reconstructs how women took part in the worship of their father's ancestors, and then in that of their husband's ancestors. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/h9BMJqsRJeo

Fustel begins Book 2, The Family, by arguing that the domestic religion of ancestor worship and the sacred fire established the ancient family order. Families were made not by generation, nor by affection, nor by force, but by sharing in a common worship. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/T2Lbi_4b-ZM

Because worship of particular ancestors was confined to their family alone, families were religiously independent of each other, and were firmly attached the soil where their dead ancestors lived. Worship was hereditary through the male line, from father to son, which made the priesthood of the father a defining feature of the ancient family. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/HtSZCRdQpFs

Fustel describes the practices surrounding the sacred hearth fire: its purity and its importance as a locus of worship, meals, thanksgiving, and pleas for help. He notes similar practices in India and Central Asia, and connects worship of the sacred fire with worship of the subterranean dead. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/2K0GY5mlV9k Music: Into Oblivion, by Darren Curtis Thumbnail Image: Parthen...

The souls of the dead became the first gods, whose happiness depended on regular offerings from the living. Fustel speculates that this ancestor worship was the European peoples' first inkling of the supernatural. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/VJ2TDGG4ibY Music: Into Oblivion, by Darren Curtis Thumbnail Image: Parthenon. Image by nonbirinonko from Pixabay, https://pixabay.com/photos/greece-pa...

Fustel begins by introducing the key doctrine of the ancient religion: that the souls of the dead continue to exist after death, and live under the ground. This belief helps explain the ancients' burial rites, and their intense fear of being denied a proper burial. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/em7ruK_mCOc Music: Into Oblivion, by Darren Curtis Thumbnail Image: Parthenon. Image by nonbirinonk...

In his Introduction, Fustel describes the errors modern historians have made in studying ancient European peoples, and the harmful consequences of these mistakes. He will reconstruct the key religious beliefs of the ancients, from which all their familial and legal institutions follow. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/CT3oRQszbcY Music: Into Oblivion, by Darren Curtis Thumbnail Image: Parthenon. Ima...

The title page reads The Ancient City: A Study on the Religion, Laws, and Institutions of Greece and Rome . By Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges. There is an unsigned two page Introductory Note to the Anchor Doubleday edition. --- Based on: https://youtu.be/CAY3yj6xXUU Music: Into Oblivion, by Darren Curtis Thumbnail Image: Parthenon. Image by nonbirinonko from Pixabay, https://pixabay.com/photos/gre...

The Ancient City: A Study of the Religion Laws and Institutions of Greece and Rome by the French historian Fustel de Coulanges is a book a lot of people are talking about. In recent years scholars and public intellectuals have praised its insights and encouraged people to read it. The Ancient City Podcast contains every chapter of Fustel's book, with brief introductions. It's perfect for a...