CLASSICISM AND THE FRENCH REVOLUTIONCivilization was a new word, for it had only been incorporated into the
French and English language in the mid eighteenth century (Patterson 1997:
41). It indicated the level of perfection of a society. To be a nation was an
achievement that only the most civilized states could accomplish. During the
Enlightenment, intellectuals regarded the classical world as the source of
civilization; much in the same way again during the later years of the
eighteenth and early decades of the nineteenth centuries. Priority was given
to classical antiquity over national past. The main model selected by the
French revolutionaries was ancient Rome. As an heir of the Enlightenment,
the power of the classics was immense in revolutionary rhetoric. From ancient
Rome came terminology, iconography and models to follow, and the prestige
of the classical past inXuenced the inclusion of archaeology in the university
curriculum.
Much French Revolutionary vocabulary had classical roots, but meanings
were shaped by the idiosyncracy of the time. Nation, for example, was a
Latin word which remained in use in the Romance languages. However,
during the French Revolution its meaning acquired the political connotation
of ‘a body of associates living under one common law and represented by the
same legislature’ (Sie`yes in Kedourie 1966: 15). Another Latin-derived term
was citizen (Jenkyns 1992: 6). It came to mean an inhabitant of a free country,
a member of an organized political community (Dupre ́1972: 443). Even the
names of the periods by which the revolution was divided—Republic,
Directorate, Empire—reveal the search for roots in the Roman past. As
an antonym to monarchy, the revolution used the term republic, which in
Latin meant state, to refer to a form of government in which power was held
by a group of individuals representing the people. Finally, by proclaiming
himself emperor, Napoleon made France the successor to the Roman
Empire.
The French Revolution also made wide use of classical history and icon-
ography. As early as 1789, engravings, such as those representing ‘The oath
of June 17’ and an allegory of ‘Liberty’, displayed toga-clad people set in
classical urban landscapes (Furet 1996:Wgs. 2.3 and 2.5). Architecture also
followed classical patterns: monuments designed in this period and inspired
by the antiquity of Rome and Greece include the Arc de Triomphe in
Paris, the Greek-inspired temple of La Madeleine, and the new Bourse in
Paris. Classical symbolism mixed with Egyptian attributes even reached the
home in the form of furniture, china, and jewellery. It also dominated
the many street charades organized in Paris and elsewhere. Just as in the
The French Revolution 67