A classic work-system of reading from the Greco-Roman era. The history of the political and social institutions of antiquity is not only a well-known textbook in the scientific world with multiple reissues, but also a work where Michel Humbert, far from presenting a narrative description of a historical landscape, attempts to make the reader a companion and participant in the idea and vision he has for Greco-Roman antiquity.
The evolutionary perspective in which the author places the comparison of the institutions of Athens and Rome is reflected in a dynamic view of the institutional events and the political-economic situations that correspond to them, while the search for the causal connection between them encounters the penetrating study of the mechanisms through which the ambiguous relationship between rulers and ruled is built and expressed in various areas of public life: making political decisions, administering justice, maintaining public order and state repression, tax system, and, more broadly, fiscal organization. At the same time, the interdependence of these elements with the horizontal social stratification and the various vertical distinctions that separate the Athenians from the rest of the Greeks and the barbarians, the Romans from the non-Romans, and men from women is highlighted.
The extremely dense writing style of M. Humbert and the nervous composition of the text support a clear thought. The work presents a remarkable internal coherence due to the impeccable integration of its thematic elements, as well as the achievement of an almost ideal balance between analysis and synthesis.
Therefore, this treatise is multifaceted and multi-layered, but not overly complex or incomprehensible. It has such comprehensiveness that it obliges the potential criticism and reservations of the reader, regarding the author's individual perspectives, interpretations, and positions, to yield to the progressively developing awareness that this book offers a system of reading Greco-Roman antiquity, as well as a key to understanding the transition from the latter to New Rome, the Byzantine Empire. These two characteristics alone would suffice to classify it among the most significant contributions to modern historiography.