Marxism and classical antiquity
Marxism and classical antiquityHaving written his doctoral dissertation on the atomic theories of Democritus and Epicurus (1841, published 1928), Karl Marx retained a lifelong interest in classical antiquity, spicing his writings with a wealth of allusions to ancient texts.
The central concern of Marx's intellectual and practical activity was class conflict, but he never provided a definitive account of what he understood by class, and he applied the term to the ancient world in different ways. In the Communist Manifesto (with Engels, 1848), Marx spoke of the conflict between ‘freeman and slave’, but in the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte (1852) he stressed the struggle between wealthy and poor citizens in antiquity, with slaves forming ‘the purely passive pedestal for these combatants’. Later, in the first volume of Capital (1867), Marx stated that the class struggle in antiquity ‘took the...
[The entire page is 1095 words long]
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Oxford University Press Titles
