historical and political thought in the seventeenth - RePub - Erasmus ...

Chapter 7. The mistress of life
befallen that eternal city? Although formally not a historical work, in what
follows it will become clear that these sixteen dissertations can be seen as
forming a more or less coherent narrative that gives us an interesting seventeenth-century
view on the history of Rome. A view that, as will be argued
here, was influenced by Boxhorn’s understanding of Dutch history and the
working of Dutch society.
The Dissertationes politicae de regio Romanorum imperio can be divided into three
parts. The first seven dissertations discuss the reigns of Rome’s seven kings,
beginning with Romulus and ending with Tarquinius Superbus. The next six
dissertations treat the history of Rome from the establishment of the consulate
after the expulsion of the last king, Tarquinius Superbus, to the instalment
of the censors at the end of the fourth century BC. Together, these first thirteen
dissertations form a descriptive narrative, constructed in a chronological
order, in which one event leads to another. In the last three dissertations, that
all carry the same head title, Boxhorn takes on a more analytical approach. 129
In these last three dissertations Boxhorn’s main aim is to explain the fall of the
Republic and the rise of Julius Caesar, Octavian (63 BC-14), and Tiberius as
sole rulers of Rome.
Following Livy, Boxhorn begins with the foundation of Rome by Romulus,
the son of the Vestal priestess Rhea Sylvia and fathered by Mars, the god
of war, a fable that Boxhorn contributes to the custom common among the
ancients to sanctify the beginnings of their Commonwealths and princes in
made-up stories. 130 Romulus instituted a monarchy since this was more in
conformity with the rather wild nature of the people, who until then had lived
in a state of ‘complete license’. 131 Under Romulus, Rome became a sanctuary
for all people, providing safety for both the good and the bad. 132 The effect
129 ‘De mutatione reipublicae, sive initiis Monarchiae Caesarum’ (‘On the change of government, or
the beginnings of the monarchy of the Caesars’). The first part of this title is from Florus’s Epitome, I.3.
Florus, however, used the title to refer to a precisely opposite change, namely the change from the reign
of Rome’s first seven kings to the establishment of the consulate.
130 Boxhorn, Emblemata politica: accedunt dissertationes politicae de Romanorum Imperio et quaedamaliae, I.2,
p. 140. ‘Primus id habuit Romulus; Rhea Sylvia,virgine Vestali, & Marte, ut ferunt, genitus; callidè recepto
inter veteres more, ut narrationibus in miraculum corruptis initia Rerumpublicarum ac Principum consecrarent.’
This critical approach towards such fables is maintained throughout all sixteen dissertations.
131 Ibidem, I.1, pp. 139-40. ‘… primam ejus formam Monarchiam sive Regiam fuisse, apud omnes in
confesso est; et hanc potius, quàm Aristocraticam aut Democraticam, illius tum ferocioris populi ingenio
convenisse. Minor enim libertas, quod in Monarchia usu venti, concedi illis debuit, qui per omnem
licentiam hactenus vitam egerant; & ad constituendam novam Rempublicam vocabantur.’ The same
reasoning reoccurs in Boxhorn’s dissertation on the Achaean league. Boxhorn, “De Veteri Achaeorum
Republica”, 2, p. 569. This theme can also be found in the Institutiones politicae, I.2, p. 12, and II.2.1, p.
264. Thus, Romulus seems to have adapted his plans to the nature of the people.
132 Ibidem, I.4, p. 143. ‘Conditâ urbe deesse visus est, idoneus civium numerus, ac iccirco Asylum
apertum. Ad quod, impunitas praemio propositio, undique plurimi confluxere, boni, mali, servi, debi-
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