L'antiquité romaine durant la Révolution française et le premier empire napoléonien (avec étude de la colonne Vendôme)

Résumé du document

FRENCH REVOLUTION AND ANCIENT TIMES During the French Revolution and the First Empire, the Ancient history, and particularly the Roman times, seemed to have largely impacted many aspects in France.French revolutionaries were largely inspired by the philosophy of the Enlightenment which was influenced by the Ancient times like Roman and Greek antiquity. They brought to the fore the good side of these periods of time while hiding the bad ones.

Extraits

[...] (Consulté le 23 mars 2018) DOUSSET-SEIDEN, Christine, « La Nation française et l'Antiquité à l'époque napoléonienne », Anabases [En ligne] 2005, mis en ligne le 01 septembre 2011, http://journals.openedition.org/anabases/1288 ; DOI : 10.4000/anabases.1288. (Consulté le 25 mars 2018) FONDATION NAPOLÉON (2016). « Napoléon législateur », Napoléon magazine, [En ligne]. https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/iconographie/napoleon-ier-legislateur/. (Consulté le 25 mars 2018) RASKOLNIKOFF, Mouza (1990). « L'« adoration » " des Romains sous la Révolution française et la réaction de Volney et des Idéologues Des Anciens et des Modernes, Paris, Publications de la Sorbonne p [En ligne]. [...]

[...] Then, as time passed, the references to Rome were only used when necessary and when in accordance with politicians' principles, otherwise they were eliminated. Other references were also taken into account by Napoleon. The Empire was looking for an idea to unify the country, which the Roman heritage was not able to do. Thus, scholars were going even further in History to find a unity through their Celtic ancestors, but the power centralized around Napoleon did not permit to go too far with this, as Celts were scattered tribes, not an interesting model of unification of a nation. [...]

[...] Paris was the new Rome and French were the true successors of Romans but considered themselves even better as Rome also represented tyranny and decadence to a lot of French citizens. The fascination for Rome and Ancient times will not stop to these two important periods of France and will remain alive through politics, architecture, paintings and literature not only in France, but in other great countries like England. BIBLIOGRAPHY FONDATION NAPOLÉON (2016). « Colonne Vendôme Paris », Napoléon magazine, [En ligne]. https://www.napoleon.org/magazine/lieux/colonne-vendome-paris/. (Consulté le 23 mars 2018) BOUDON, Jacques-Olivier (2016). « Napoléon organisateur de l'université », Napoléon magazine, [En ligne]. https://www.napoleon.org/histoire-des-2-empires/articles/napoleon-organisateur-de-luniversite/. [...]

[...] However, this will lead French revolutionaries to see the world in black and white. Trough Roman times, French philosophers made a difference between Christians, considered as obscurantists to fight, and pagans, seen as models. For example, Voltaire and Diderot did use publications from Roman philosophers to pull back Christian religion and bring more diversity. Nevertheless, these philosophers were not preaching for atheism, they wished to transmit other ideas, like the existence of a Supreme Being. French revolutionaries used famous Roman writers `publications to criticize the Old Regime but also to brought new ideas and rethink the world. [...]

[...] The discovery of some archaeological Roman sites like Pompeii just before the French Revolution led to the return of classicism particularly in theatre plays that had to talk about Roman times. Furthermore, focusing on Roman story bring the possibility to really break up with the French Old Regime. First names and surnames were Romanised at this time and constitute an example of this break up, even though some revolutionaries did not like that trend. The whole society, except for the countryside, was following the romanisation of the society. [...]