Ancient uses of authority

Abstract

This essay analyzes uses of authority in the Greco-Roman world, emphasizing,as a general hypothesis, that the formation of the Roman auctoritas resulted from thecapture of a set of Greek precepts that go back to epic discourses and the Aristotelian--Platonic corpus. Methodologically, a normative perspective is provided in order to definea general concept of authority that allows the work of comparison, assuming that certainhistorically defined features can be related to transcendental structures. It is concluded thatthe ancient architectures of authority were based on the attribution of legitimacy to ethesocially able to govern and/or distribute “truth” to their peers and future audiences, whichin turn drew from them paradigms of conduct regarded as exempla worthy of emulation.