La res publica et sa décadence De Salluste à Tite-Live

This study explores in a comparative perspective the historical presentation and the philosophical interpretation of the decadence of the res publica in Sallust and Livy. In the first part, it is shown that Sallust and Livy are the first authors who have chosen the progress and decline of a State as the central theme of their works. Through a precise examination of the stages of decadence in both writers, it is observed that Livy constantly proposes corrections to Sallust’s theory. Neither author’s pattern conforms to a cyclical or a linear vision of time. The organicist representation of the body politic also shows that men are solely responsible for the disease of decadence in both authors. However, the resumption of progress according to a cyclical conception and the healing of the body of the State are considered as potential prospects only by Livy. The second part is devoted to the causes of the disease of decadence, and the third one to the healing of the res publica. Three factors are discussed in detail: the "divine" factors, the metus hostilis and the human nature. Livy reverses the increasingly pessimistic analysis of Sallust, and reintroduces man as the most important factor in history and as responsible for the decadence. In the third part, their different view of the future of Rome is brought into focus, through the study of the political position and the exemplary function of the two historians’ works. It is concluded that Livy adopts Sallustian categories of analysis, but he conceives his own presentation and interpretation of the decadence in response to his predecessor, whose theories he challenges.