The own time of politics. History, memory and kairology

Abstract

If Titus Livy had already realized that history could depart from facts for aesthetic purposes, the life and work of the greatest exponent of classical republicanism, Marcus Tullius Cicero (106 – 43 B.C.), indicates that he shared with the great roman historian the conviction about the need of beautify history in order to achieve the movere of the audience. From a perspective that dispenses with moral concerns about truthfulness of the facts that are related, the present article will focus on the political consequences that arise from the manipulation of the complex network of institutions, knowledge and interests that crystallized behind what we call now roman history. At the same time, and considering the fact that the history of Rome has marked the institutional and symbolic forms of law and the western politics, we will try to elucidate the relationship between the virtuous man who leads the destinies of the fatherland, the voices of the ancestors and that what we call the own time of the politics.