Any civilization is a huge system engineering, and it is obviously beyond my ability to evaluate and demonstrate this huge system. However, in the spirit of seeking knowledge and exploring, the author finds that in the process of people's long-term exploration of civilization, especially ancient civilization, the importance of one civilization has been neglected for a long time, and that is the ancient Roman civilization. The reason for raising this question not only involves our re-understanding of Roman civilization, but also helps us to understand the development track of western civilization more clearly. More importantly, it involves our re-examination of the inherent characteristics of western civilization. Regarding the characteristics of western civilization, it can be said that different people have different opinions. The author believes that the characteristics of western civilization are mainly reflected in its two elements, namely, institutional civilization and social ethics civilization. These two elements are the unity of opposites. They were formed in the era of Roman civilization and penetrated into western civilization, forming the dual culture and political structure of western society. This dual structure is a remarkable feature that distinguishes western civilization from eastern civilization. For a long time, whether in the understanding of westerners or orientals, Roman civilization has been concealed in the light of Greek civilization. Especially in the era of "Greece is in charge", Roman civilization has become a replica of Greek civilization. It is true that Greek civilization has made great contributions not only to western civilization, but also to the whole human civilization. However, through the re-examination of Roman civilization, we find that compared with Greek civilization, Roman civilization is thicker and more mature. Hegel divided human history into four periods in Philosophy of History, namely childhood, youth, maturity and old age, in which youth and maturity represent Greek civilization and Roman civilization respectively. Although Hegel's historical division reflects a naked Eurocentric view of civilization, his positioning of Greek civilization and Roman civilization is in line with historical facts. In my opinion, the reason why Roman civilization is thicker and more mature than Greek civilization is that the above two elements of western civilization have begun to take shape in Roman civilization, and ultimately determine the future development trend of western civilization. In the long chain of western civilization development, Roman civilization has far-reaching historical significance than Greek civilization, and it is the most valuable civilization form in the ancient civilization system. In short, the value of Roman civilization is mainly reflected in the following aspects:
First, the Roman political system provided the most valuable constitutional form for later generations.
* * * and the political system were all created by the Romans. The English word "republic" comes from the Latin word respublica, which means "public cause". Cicero, a famous Roman politician and thinker, once defined Rome's * * * and regime. He said: "The Republic of * * * belongs to the masses of the people, and the collection of people who don't gather in any way is the same people, and the same people are people who not only have the same interests, but also have the same legal understanding. Rome's harmonious regime is a historical progress, it is a "mixed" regime, which is the product of mixing and balancing the first three traditional regimes. Before the Roman Republic, there were three forms of government, namely monarchy, aristocracy and democracy. Cicero believes that all three forms of government have their shortcomings: in a monarchy, citizens do not enjoy political rights and do not participate in public decision-making, so they cannot enjoy actual political rights. In the aristocratic system, people lack real and definite freedom, especially when they have no right to choose the local chief executive freely and no one can protect them from the abuse of nobles. In a democratic system, the equality of political rights itself is incorrect, because it does not respect human dignity and does not allow people to enjoy the due honor or power level above others. In Cicero's view, Rome's harmonious system is the sublation of these three regimes. Specifically, it is a wonderful combination of monarchy represented by Roman consul, aristocracy represented by Senate and democracy represented by people's assembly and civilian tribune. Scholars have different opinions about Rome's * * * and regime. Polibius, a Greek historian in the middle of the 2nd century BC, believed that the "sharing" of power in this "mixed system" was enough to maintain stability, because none of the three parts of the government had enough ability to monopolize power, and each part relied on the other two parts to perform its respective functions. However, some historians believe that this evaluation of Rome's political power is far from the political reality of Rome. In the real political life of Rome, a system of * * * with nobles as the main body is implemented. " Because although nominally sovereignty belongs to people in various parliaments, due to various economic, political, military and religious factors, people will listen to' better people', that is, aristocratic leaders. These, whether it is the "separation of powers" system or the aristocratic system, one thing is certain. Rome's political system set a precedent and principle: the internal power of politics or government must be checked and balanced. From the historical evolution, the Roman harmonious system experienced the process from the exclusive power of nobles to the sharing of power between nobles and civilians, which was realized through the long-term struggle between civilians and nobles. Since the establishment of the civil tribune system, the principle of checks and balances in Roman political life has been established. Tribune is a great invention of Roman politics and a remarkable feature of Roman political system. Although the tribune has no administrative power, it can balance the power of the nobility. Roman law gives the tribune two privileges: the "veto power" to the resolutions of the aristocratic parliament and the "personal protection right" of the tribune. The establishment of tribune and its power are the result of mutual compromise between Roman civilians and nobles, which in itself embodies the spirit of checks and balances of social and political power. Since then, from the time when civilians served as consuls to the time when the resolutions of civilian meetings became law, the power of civilians was further increased and the principle of checks and balances of power was further established. This principle of balance of power, initiated by Rome, has become a universal principle of western political development in the future, and its significance and value are immeasurable. In the western society, which is increasingly pursuing democratic life, why not choose the Athenian-style democratic political system, but widely learn from the source of the Roman political system? The fundamental reason is that in the practice of western political culture, the harmonious system based on power balance is the most dynamic political system so far. In today's western political system, whether it is a constitutional monarchy or a country, the principle of power balance is the first essence and soul of its political development. Yang Xiaokai, a famous economist in China, recently put forward a shocking view. After investigating the history and present situation of capitalism, Yang Xiaokai came to the conclusion that capitalism is not equal to economic success. Yang Xiaokai thinks, as a capitalist country, why are some economies developed and others backward? The main thing is whether there is a suitable political and legal system. Taking the development of Britain and France in the18th century as an example, Yang Xiaokai thinks that the fundamental difference between Britain and France at that time was the institutional gap. After 1688, Britain implemented a constitutional system, that is, the * * * system, and Britain's success was due to this * * * system. Because "only with this system can the opportunism of those in power be restricted. Only by restraining the opportunism of the government can the economy develop. This is a fundamental reason for the development of Britain. " The key to the failure of "bad capitalism" in Yang Xiaokai is that these countries have not achieved the balance of power, which leads to government corruption and opportunism. The harmonious system founded by the Roman people, like the legal system they founded, has far-reaching historical significance to western civilization and even the whole human civilization, and its historical value will become more obvious with the passage of time. The famous Roman law historian Luigi? Professor LuigiLabruna summed up Rome's * * * and system. He said: "The strength and originality of this constitutional system lies in that it is not an abstract creation of political thoughts, it is not a creative achievement of one person or a generation, but a constitutional system put forward, created and experienced by a large number of people in a long historical period." However, just as Roman civilization has long been covered by the light of Greek civilization, the value of Rome's original * * * and political system has not been discovered or valued by the world under the great aura of its legal system. This is an important reason why we need to re-understand Roman civilization.
Second, the Roman legal system laid the foundation of western legal civilization.
If the harmonious system is a great invention of the Roman people, then the legal system can be said to be a miracle created by the Roman people. Some scholars pointed out: "In almost all other fields of intellectual creation, the Romans are devout students of the Greeks, but they are teachers of law. In their hands, law became the theme of science for the first time. They extracted principles from the subdivided rules as legal raw materials and carefully constructed them into a system. " Roman legal system is generally called Roman law, which covers all the legal systems in the whole historical development period of ancient Roman slave countries and is the most complete legal system in the ancient world. In the development of Roman civilization, law occupies a primary position, just like Giuseppe, the greatest Roman jurist in Europe in the 20th century. Giuseppe Grosso pointed out: "The law is the highest embodiment of the genius of the Roman people" [5]( P. 1). Roman law is a huge system. Broadly speaking, Roman law is divided into public law and private law, that is, public law system and private law system. Because the value and high development of Roman law are mainly reflected in the field of private law, the narrow sense of Roman law refers to Roman private law. The highly developed Roman private law is precisely the advanced nature of Roman law. The ancient laws of all countries in the world are heavy penalties and light people, and civil issues are included in criminal laws and regulations. Only Rome made civil issues independent of criminal issues and private law independent of public law, which led to the first division of law into public law and private law. The development of Roman private law, in addition to the high development of simple commodity economy in Roman society at that time, is one of the more important reasons that Roman politicians and Roman citizens regard private rights higher than public rights. This also reflected a universal value of Roman society at that time. Because the formation process of Roman law is also the process of all Roman citizens participating in creation. The magic of Roman law is not only that it created the best and most complete legal system in the slavery era, but also that it provided a ready-made legal form for later capitalist Europe. 17, 18 When European countries established capitalist system, capitalist society had the requirement of establishing a unified legal system. However, European thinkers and jurists were surprised to find that the rules of the unified market they sought had provided a ready-made form in Roman law. Because the legal system created by the Romans "gave almost the whole of Europe a treasure house of legal concepts and the grammar of legal thoughts, and provided many * * * same legal rules in an ever-changing but not underestimated scope." On the historical position of Roman law, many western thinkers have discussed it in modern times, and Marxist classical writers have also given high praise. They believe that Roman law is "the most complete legal form based on private ownership" and "the first worldwide law in the commodity production society", and "even all subsequent laws cannot make any substantive changes to it". A notable feature of western civilization is legal civilization. This is a solid foundation for the stability and development of western society since the establishment of the capitalist system. The origin and cornerstone of western legal civilization is the legal system created by the ancient Romans. There are two legal systems in the modern west, namely, the continental legal system and the Anglo-American legal system, which are deeply influenced by Roman law. Civil law system is a legal system based on the ideas and principles of Roman law, adapted to the needs of capitalist economic development, based on the ready-made legal forms provided by Roman law, and marked by written law. The Anglo-American legal system originated in Britain, based on the concept principle of Germanic law, reinterpreted and reformed according to the needs of the development of capitalist economic relations and referring to Roman law, especially the contract principle, creditor's rights principle and inheritance system, with case law as the main symbol. These two legal systems constitute the foundation of modern western legal civilization. From this, we can imagine how much contribution Roman civilization made to modern western civilization more than two thousand years ago. In the society based on market economy, the role of legal civilization is becoming more and more important. A mature market economy is inseparable from the legal system. In this sense, the market economy is the legal economy. After several generations of efforts, especially today when China joined the WTO, China finally understood the true meaning. However, in the process of this historical exploration, we also paid a very heavy price. It goes without saying that the Roman legal system has played a great role in laying the foundation of western civilization. This role also reflects the historical importance of Roman civilization. As a pre-existing legal system, why did the Romans create such a highly developed civilization? This is also an important reason why we need to re-understand and re-analyze Roman civilization.
Third, Christian civilization has laid the direction for the development of western civilization.
Christianity is a new religion that rose in the Roman Empire in the first century. It is a new religion, because unlike the traditional Roman polytheism, Christianity is a monotheistic religion, which regards God as the only belief. The formation of Christianity is not only a process of integration with the traditional Greek culture, but also a process of integration with Roman culture. It is in this historical process that Christianity has completed the construction of its own civilization foundation. Christianity was born out of Judaism in Hebrew civilization, but it was constantly transformed by Greek and Roman culture during the spread of the Roman Empire, and finally completely broke away from Judaism and formed a brand-new religion. After the transformation of the Paul School, the doctrine of primitive Christianity got rid of the limitations and exclusiveness of Jewish culture and began to form doctrines adapted to all ethnic and cultural backgrounds, which led to Christianity truly becoming a world religion. Since then, through the efforts of Latin godfathers, Christianity has continuously enriched and improved its own teachings and ideological system, and finally laid the foundation of Christian civilization that determines the future development direction of western civilization. In the process of integration with Roman culture, Christianity experienced a long and painful period from constant confrontation with Roman culture to gradual integration with Roman culture. The 4th century was an important turning point in the history of Christianity. With the support of Constantine's religious policy, Christianity not only completed its own internal integration, but also completed its integration with Roman society, and gained the status of Roman state religion in one fell swoop. This historical transformation process is of decisive significance not only to the development of Christianity itself, but also to the transformation of Roman society from traditional culture to new culture. Christopher, a famous western historical philosopher and cultural historian in the 20th century? ChristopherDawson keenly captured the significance of this historical change, pointing out that "the conversion of the Roman Empire to Christianity, and the process of Augustus and Nero's countries becoming the countries of Constantine and Diodosius had an extremely important relationship with the rise of this new culture. Historians have never fully realized this. This is because of the strange separation between ancient and modern history, which makes British education, still influenced by the ideals and prejudices of Italian humanists, completely ignore the study of the transitional historical period of the 3 rd and 4 th centuries. " In Dawson's view, the importance of this historical change is mainly manifested in: Christianity unconsciously spread "a new principle with infinite possibility of change" to the static civilization of the Roman world. Christians "turned the world upside down, and they elected another king besides Caesar-Jesus." ..... This creative revolutionary action marks the history of the world. First of all, western history has entered a new era. "The real success of Christian civilization is mainly reflected in its establishment of the development trend of western nations and western culture. An important feature of western history is that it has no political tradition of central absolutism from the beginning, so it is difficult for a country developed from a city-state to unify multiple nationalities and regions for a long time under a political system. However, Christianity unites all western nations and countries with one belief. Just as Islamic civilization unified the Arab world after the 7th century. After the fall of the Roman Empire, barbarians destroyed all the advanced things built by the Romans for a long time, and the western sky changed from "bright" to "dark". However, it is in this "darkness" that Christianity took the lead in spreading to western civilizations. Dawson once pointed out: When the Roman Empire perished, "the Christian Church inherited the tradition of the Roman Empire. As an emissary of Gao Wenming class, it came to barbarians with the prestige of Roman law and the authority of Roman name. The collapse of the Roman Empire's political system left a huge gap that no barbarian king or chieftain could make up, and this gap was made up by the church as a mentor and legislator of emerging countries. "As a result, Dawson put the Latin godfathers of Christianity such as Ambrose and Augustine? Leo and Gregory are called the real fathers of western culture, "because only when different nationalities in the west are integrated into the spiritual groups in the Christian world can we obtain the culture of * * *". "The most important thing is that this is the difference between western development and other world civilizations." [8] If the development of ancient Roman civilization in the ancient world was accompanied by the majesty of political power, then on the contrary, in the Middle Ages, Christianity conquered political power by relying on the power of civilization. In the barbarian world that advocates force, Christianity has transformed western nations and countries in one direction through its perseverance. It was in the process of conquering barbarians that Rome-centered Christianity gradually got rid of the factors of oriental culture and began the process of pure westernization. Another success of Christian civilization is that it has established a spiritual, ethical and cultural ecology in western Europe, which is juxtaposed with the political and cultural ecology, thus establishing a dual structure in which secular power and spiritual power in western society are opposed and influenced each other. In Western Europe in the Middle Ages, the secular regime never appeared as strong and unified as the Roman Empire, but the Roman Catholic Church, as a symbol of religious spiritual strength, became the center of churches in Western Europe, making it difficult for secular forces to establish authority on religious strength. On the contrary, religious power has repeatedly tried to build this authority on secular power, and the "Canossa Incident" is a manifestation of religious authority. However, even in that middle age known as the "dark age", "the religious unity for by the church never create a real oriental theocracy". This dual structure of western society is a remarkable feature that distinguishes it from the unitary structure of eastern civilization. In several forms of oriental civilization, either theocracy is subordinate to universal rights, such as ancient Egyptian civilization and two river basin civilization; Either common rights are subordinate to theocracy, such as Arab civilization in the Islamic world. After the establishment of modern capitalist civilization, Christianity did not interfere with secular power as strongly as in the Middle Ages, but it still influenced secular society and politics in the form of social spiritual ethics. Weber is regarded as the most influential thinker in the contemporary west, and he discussed this influence in detail in his masterpiece Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Capitalism. Weber thinks: "The spirit of modern capitalism, as well as a fundamental element of all modern cultures, that is, reasonable behavior based on the thought of duty, was born together with Christian asceticism", "Because when asceticism came out of the secret room of monasteries and began to dominate secular moral concepts, it played its role in building a huge universe of modern economic order." Thus, under the influence of this religious spirit, "a unique bourgeois economic ethics has been formed. Realizing that he is favored by God as a whole and obviously blessed by God, as long as he is within the boundaries of correct form, as long as his moral conduct is impeccable and he is blameless in the use of wealth, bourgeois industrialists can pursue monetary interests at will and feel that this is an obligation that must be fulfilled. In addition, the power of religious asceticism has prepared a group of gentle, conscientious and diligent workers for him. They regard labor as the social purpose that God wants and devote themselves to their work. " In fact, the influence of Christian ethics on modern western civilization is not only reflected in the order of economic construction, but also in all aspects of social life. The religious moral principle established by the Ten Commandments in the Bible has become a universal principle to regulate the life of modern western society. It is in this sense that some people equate western civilization with Christian civilization.
Law and morality are two weapons used by modern western countries to maintain social stability and development. Coupled with the political system based on balance of power, the western civilization with capitalist civilization as its core has developed into an extremely stable and mature civilization system after centuries of tempering. The foundation of this civilization system was originally determined in the civilization of Roman times. Mature legal system, advanced regime model and social ethics system with Christian ethics as the core can all find clear answers in Roman civilization. —— Excerpted from Literature by Lan of Hunan Normal University.