Eternal Rome - Eien no Roma

Japanese: 永遠のローマ - えいえんのろーま

...What grows grows old," Horace predicted the end of the state due to civil war and moral disorder. For this reason, the end of the civil war and the establishment of the Papacy by Augustus led to the celebration of the idea of "Eternal Rome," but the view of Rome's decline continued even during the Imperial period. Seneca likened his own era to the old age of humans, saying, "All that is done by mortals is destined to be mortal," and the 2nd century historian Florus recognized the transformation of the Roman state in the period from the burning of Carthage to the reforms of the Gracchi brothers.

From the Roman Idea

...Its spokesman, Symmachus, asserted that the present aging of Rome, which was supposed to be eternal, was due to the unjust persecution of paganism, and called for respect for the ancestral religion. In response to this attack from the pagans, Prudentius sang that Rome, which had repented to the belief in the true God, was now given eternal rule as the new holy city protected by the holy apostles Peter and Paul, and by incorporating the traditional idea of "eternal Rome," he completed the Christian idea of Rome that had existed since Eusebius. This was shattered by the sack of Rome by the Visigoths in 410.

*Some of the terms mentioned in "Eternal Rome" are listed below.

Source | Heibonsha World Encyclopedia 2nd Edition | Information

Japanese:

…成長せしものは老いる〉と述べ，ホラティウスは内乱と道徳の乱れに国家の終末を予見した。それがゆえにアウグストゥスによる内乱終結と元首政樹立は〈永遠のローマ〉理念の謳歌を生み出すが，ローマ没落観は帝政期にもなお存続した。セネカは〈すべて死すべき者がなせし事は死すべき運命にある〉と述べて自らの時代を人間の老年にたとえ，2世紀の歴史家フロルスはカルタゴ炎上からグラックス兄弟の改革までの時期にローマ国家の変容を認めた。…

【ローマ理念】より

…その代弁者シンマクスは，永遠であるはずのローマの現今の老齢化は異教の不当な迫害ゆえと断じ，父祖伝来の宗教の尊重を訴えた。この異教側からの攻撃に応えてプルデンティウスは，真の神信仰へと悔い改めたローマは，今や聖使徒ペテロとパウロに守護された新聖都として永遠の支配を与えられたと歌い，伝統的な〈永遠のローマ〉理念をも包摂して，エウセビオス以来のキリスト教的ローマ理念を完成させた。これを粉砕したのが，410年の西ゴートによるローマ市略奪という事件であった。…

※「永遠のローマ」について言及している用語解説の一部を掲載しています。

出典｜株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について | 情報

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