The Metamorphoses of "Traditionalisms" in Ancient Worlds

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We have explored how "traditionalism" might have been emerged, focussing in particular on ancient Athens, late Roman Republic and early imperial Rome, and also early Judeo-Christian society. We have also proposed a depiction of how those "traditionalisms" metamorphsed when encountering with others. The gist of this study can be summed up in four points.(1) First, we may suggest that there was a clear contrast between Rome and Athens in regard to their attitudes towards "ancestral traditions". The traditionalism in Rome, originally a sort of patriotic reaction against the pervading Hellenism, was nothing but a mere moral code : it was never enforced upon their citizens in terms of laws. The classical Athenians, by contrast, codified ta patria as the normative principle. And, since their self-understanding as "Hellenes" was a generic-cultural one, their claim to be and demand to act as genuine "Athenians" might have been motivated by political considerations. This is the reason why the A … More thenian traditionalism were ephemeral and could not be transmitted to posterity. (2) Secondly, based on the contrast mentioned above, we have explored why Athenians in the fifth century B.C. were intolerant to certain kinds of thoughts apparently alien to them: the Democrats at that time regarded the charge of impiety as an efficient instrument for combatting their political enemies. It was, however, not the case in Rome, where the government allowed both citizens and provincials to practise their own religions freely. (3) Thirdly, we have dealt with some problems of the "traditionalism" relating to Judeo-Christianity and suggested that the Judeo-Christian "traditionalism" which consisted in social and cultural exclusiveness (corresponding to Moses' second commandment) continued to be vital among the Church leaders and intellectuals. They were, however, confronted with the syncretism which prevailed in the life of ordinay laymen, and began to give way to it, even in the fourth century when Constantine the Great attempted to integrate the Church into the Empire and a severe tension still existed between the two political entities, the Church having had a consciousness of being "soldiers of Christ".. (4) Fourthly, we might suggest that those metamorphoses of "traditionalisms" could also be observed in the transmissions of Greek scholarship. We have provided several examples how Greek scholarship might have been inherited, focussing on Athens in the late fifth century B.C., Hellenistic Alexandria and also the early imperial Rome. Less