Religion, Politics, and Revolution in The Ancient City
October 15, 2025
Gavin House
This three-part seminar explores Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges’ The Ancient City, a classic study of how ancient religion shaped law, property, family, and politics in Greece and Rome. Supplemented by comparisons to ancient Hindu texts, Coulanges reconstructed the basis of ancient Greek and Roman society. Participants will discuss the domestic cult, the rise of the city, and the revolutions that transformed ancient society.
Life in the cities of ancient Greece and Rome was full of paradoxes: property was private but could not be sold, celibacy was forbidden, marriage ceremonies blended ritualized force with denunciations of ancestors, and politics permeated every aspect of existence. At first glance these customs appear strange—until one realizes that ancient religion provided the key to the entire social order.
This is the central thesis of The Ancient City, the seminal work of 19th-century French historian Numa Denis Fustel de Coulanges. Drawing on primary sources from Greece and Rome and comparisons to Hindu texts, Coulanges traced the origins of law, property, family, and politics to religion and the domestic cult. His reconstruction of the foundations and transformations of the ancient city not only reshaped historical understanding but also anticipated major 20th-century advances in anthropology and the sociology of religion.
Participants will read and discuss selections from The Ancient City, exploring Coulanges’ insights into the beginnings of religion, the birth of political life, and the nature of human society.
Schedule
Each session will include approximately 15 pages of assigned reading, with an additional 30 pages of recommended material.
Oct 15 – Week 1: The Family and the Domestic Cult
Oct 29 – Week 2: The City
Nov 12 – Week 3: Revolutions
A full syllabus with detailed reading assignments is available here, and PDFs of the first session’s readings can be found here.