Rzymska gens: konstrukt antropologiczny czy realny byt społeczny?

Abstract

(Roman gens: anthropological construct or a real social being?): The gens (clan) was one of the key social institutions in archaic Rome. It has given rise to much controversy in modern scholarship. The history of the Roman clan is one of those areas in which the volume of scholarly literature is out of all proportion com- pared to the limited evidence. The obscurity of the institution has not prevented imaginative reconstructions. A critical analysis of the sources runs counter to the well-entrenched theory that the gens originated as a prepolitical organisation, which collapsed after the rise of the state. Contrary to the views of numerous scholars that there was once a time when only patricians has clans, there is no evidence for this proposition: the clan system extended to all classes of Roman society. In the past, many descriptions of early Roman agriculture focused on the gentilicial ownership of land. The concept of gentilicial land has, however, fallen out of favour over time, rightly as it seems.

Keywords

• archaic rome
• binominal system
• clan
• gentilicial ownership
• patricians
• plebeians
• pre-political organisation
• roman society