The European Union’s “Roman Dream” and the Contemporary Meaning of Classical Civilization
The modern European search for identity has repeatedly turned to Rome as both model and mirror, yet the classical past offers not a ready-made template for unity but a critical vantage from which to examine Europe’s present dilemmas.
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Click “WeChat Friends” or “Moments” in the upper right; click the share button at the bottom of the browser to share with WeChat friends. In Safari, please tap the button. Source: Guangming Online, Guangming Daily, June 23, 2025, 05:10. Author: Kang Kai, professor in the Department of World History, Shanghai Normal University.
罗马帝国为西方文明提供了丰富的政治和文化遗产。从《罗马帝国衰亡史》中吉本对大国兴衰的沉思，到《联邦党人文集》里对罗马共和制的追摹，近代西方的政治家与思想家们带着深切的现实关怀，试图通过对罗马这一欧洲古典文明兴衰的思考来寻找应对现实问题的启示。这种对古典文明的现代诠释迄今为止从未中断，也并不仅限于象牙塔中的学术讨论，而且渗透进当代西方世界的现实思考中。
The Roman Empire furnished Western civilization with a rich political and cultural inheritance. From Gibbon’s meditations on the rise and fall of great powers in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire to the Federalist Papers’ emulation of the Roman republic, modern Western statesmen and thinkers, driven by pressing concerns of their own age, sought in the fortunes of Rome, that classical civilization of Europe, intimations of how to confront the problems before them. This modern interpretation of classical civilization has never ceased; nor has it remained confined to academic discussion within the ivory tower. It has permeated the practical reflections of the contemporary Western world.
2020年1月31日，时任英国首相的鲍里斯·约翰逊向全世界发表了英国脱欧演讲，宣布英国正式脱离欧盟。实际上，早在14年前约翰逊本人撰写的《罗马梦》一书中，他作为英国“脱欧派”旗手的形象已经借由对罗马帝国的讨论初露端倪：“我想知道在罗马时代的欧洲，罗马怀疑主义到底有多严重，就像现在的欧盟有欧洲怀疑主义一样。”鲍里斯·约翰逊毕业于牛津大学古典学专业，从政之后便利用自己的专业背景打造“古典学家”的人设，热衷于在公共活动中普及古代希腊罗马知识，也像近代以来许多西方政治家那样，喜爱引用古代希腊罗马的典故宣传自己的观点。在《罗马梦》一书中，约翰逊借古喻今，向读者阐述了罗马帝国构建“欧洲共同体”、塑造罗马帝国身份认同成功的原因。古代罗马文明的历史经验映射出当今欧盟在身份认同、文化差异与一体化进程中的深层困境，这再次让人们意识到对古典文明的研究与思考之于解决当代问题的丰富意义。
On January 31, 2020, Boris Johnson, then prime minister of the United Kingdom, delivered his Brexit address to the world, announcing Britain’s formal withdrawal from the European Union. In fact, as early as fourteen years before, in his book The Dream of Rome, Johnson’s image as a standard-bearer of Britain’s Leave camp had already begun to emerge through his discussion of the Roman Empire: “I would like to know how serious Roman scepticism was in the Europe of Roman times, just as there is Euroscepticism in today’s European Union.” Johnson studied classics at Oxford, and after entering politics he drew on that background to fashion for himself the persona of a “classicist.” He delighted in popularizing knowledge of ancient Greece and Rome at public events and, like many Western politicians since the modern era, was fond of invoking Greek and Roman allusions to promote his own views. In The Dream of Rome, Johnson uses the ancient world as a parable for the present, explaining to readers why the Roman Empire succeeded in constructing a “European community” and forging a sense of Roman imperial identity. The historical experience of ancient Roman civilization casts into relief the European Union’s present-day predicaments over identity, cultural difference, and integration, reminding us once again of the abundant significance that the study and contemplation of classical civilization may have for the resolution of contemporary problems.
1 欧盟的“罗马梦”？
1. The European Union’s “Roman Dream”?
欧洲历史上许多统治者都曾试图借助罗马帝国的历史与文化元素进行政治宣传，为自己塑造理想的政治形象，当今的欧盟也不例外。2004年10月29日，当时欧盟25个成员国的总统或外交部长齐聚罗马城卡皮托利山，共同签署了《欧盟宪法条约》，旨在进一步推动欧洲一体化的进程。卡皮托利山曾经是罗马帝国的政治和宗教中心，如今成为罗马市政府的办公地点，与卡皮托利博物馆毗邻。从《欧盟宪法条约》签署现场的新闻照片上可以看到，英国时任首相布莱尔、德国时任总理施罗德、法国时任总统希拉克、意大利时任总理贝卢斯科尼等各国政要一起站在充满古罗马风格的拉丁语条幅“EUROPAEAE REI PUBLICA STATUS”（欧洲国家共同体）下方。他们的背后是罗马女神雕像，左边是君士坦丁皇帝巨像的头部和断臂，右边则是一块如今看来别有意味的铭文，其内容是罗马的元老院与人民称颂克劳狄乌斯皇帝在公元43年首次将不列颠纳入罗马帝国行省版图的功绩。除此以外，欧盟领导人也仿效罗马人的惯例，用一篇拉丁语铭文纪念这一重要时刻。铭文如下：“公元2004年10月29日，在这神圣无比的卡皮托利山上，在这丰饶的罗马城和全世界之巅，在这庄严辉煌的议事大厅里——它得名于霍拉提乌斯三兄弟和库利阿提乌斯三兄弟的故事，欧洲联盟的最高领导人聚集在一起。他们以宪章的形式签署了条约：欧洲各民族应该以同一个意志、同一个愿望和同一个目的合为一体。”
Many rulers in European history have tried to make use of the historical and cultural elements of the Roman Empire for political propaganda, shaping for themselves an ideal political image; today’s European Union is no exception. On October 29, 2004, the presidents or foreign ministers of the EU’s then twenty-five member states gathered on Rome’s Capitoline Hill to sign the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe, with the aim of advancing European integration. The Capitoline Hill had once been the political and religious center of the Roman Empire; today it houses the offices of the Rome municipal government and stands adjacent to the Capitoline Museums. News photographs from the signing ceremony show Tony Blair, then prime minister of Britain; Gerhard Schroeder, then chancellor of Germany; Jacques Chirac, then president of France; Silvio Berlusconi, then prime minister of Italy; and other national dignitaries standing together beneath a Latin banner in an ancient Roman style: “EUROPAEAE REI PUBLICA STATUS” (“the polity of the European commonwealth”). Behind them stood a statue of the goddess Roma; to the left were the head and broken arm of the colossal statue of Emperor Constantine; to the right was an inscription that now seems laden with a special irony, praising, in the name of the Senate and People of Rome, Emperor Claudius’s achievement in first bringing Britain into the provincial territory of the Roman Empire in 43 CE. In addition, the EU leaders imitated Roman practice by commemorating this important moment with a Latin inscription. It read: “On October 29, 2004, on this most sacred Capitoline Hill, on this summit of the fertile city of Rome and of the whole world, in this solemn and splendid council hall, which takes its name from the story of the three Horatii and the three Curiatii, the supreme leaders of the European Union assembled. In the form of a constitution they signed a treaty: that the peoples of Europe should be joined together with one will, one desire, and one purpose.”
霍拉提乌斯三兄弟和库利阿提乌斯三兄弟的故事是罗马历史上一个流传甚广的传说：在作为一个城邦国家刚刚兴起的过程中，罗马曾经与邻近城邦阿尔巴隆加发生过战争，由于交战双方都无法打败对手，于是决定各选出三名勇士决斗以定胜负。罗马人的人选是霍拉提乌斯三兄弟，而阿尔巴隆加人的代表则是库利阿提乌斯三兄弟。虽然霍拉提乌斯三兄弟和库利阿提乌斯三兄弟分属不同阵营，但这两家兄弟中都有人娶了对方的姐妹为妻。所以对这两个家族来说，无论哪一方获胜，都意味着会失去自己的亲人。霍拉提乌斯三兄弟最终搁置了亲情，代表罗马人战胜了库利阿提乌斯三兄弟。这个故事体现了罗马人为集体利益牺牲的精神，是古罗马文化和价值观的重要象征，被广泛传颂并作为诸多艺术创作的题材。法国新古典主义画家雅克-路易·大卫完成于1785年的名作《霍拉提乌斯三兄弟的誓言》便取材于这一故事。《欧盟宪法条约》签署地点的精心安排寓意着在此聚集的欧盟各国将会为欧洲的整体利益而努力。然而，现实并没有铭文中所展望的那么美好。《欧盟宪法条约》在2005年先后被法国和荷兰的全民公投否决，以英国为首的其他一些国家则无限期推迟了公投或议会审批通过宪法的日程。时过境迁，在如今看来，这篇铭文非但没有成为欧洲一体化实现的先声，反而成为欧盟危机开始的标志。
The story of the three Horatii and the three Curiatii is a widely transmitted legend in Roman history. In the early rise of Rome as a city-state, it once went to war with the neighboring city-state of Alba Longa. Since neither side could defeat the other, they decided that each should choose three warriors to fight a duel and settle the outcome. The Romans chose the three Horatii brothers, while the people of Alba Longa were represented by the three Curiatii brothers. Although the Horatii and the Curiatii belonged to opposing camps, members of the two families had married one another’s sisters. For both families, therefore, victory for either side meant the loss of kin. In the end, the three Horatii set aside family feeling and, on behalf of the Romans, defeated the three Curiatii. The story embodies the Roman spirit of sacrifice for the collective interest. It became an important symbol of ancient Roman culture and values, was widely celebrated, and served as the subject of numerous works of art. Jacques-Louis David’s famous painting The Oath of the Horatii, completed in 1785, draws on this story. The careful choice of the site for the signing of the EU constitutional treaty implied that the EU countries gathered there would strive for Europe’s common interest. Yet reality was not as splendid as the inscription had envisaged. In 2005, the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was rejected in referendums in France and the Netherlands, while Britain and several other countries postponed indefinitely their referendums or parliamentary timetables for approving the constitution. With the passage of time, that inscription now appears not as the herald of European integration’s realization, but rather as a marker of the beginning of the EU’s crisis.
2. From “Roman Citizen” to “European Citizen”: The Predicament of Identity in Contemporary Europe2 从“罗马公民”到“欧洲公民”：当代欧洲身份认同面临困境
罗马帝国盛期的领土由如今的近30个独立的民族国家组成。但与这些现代民族国家不同的是，在罗马帝国境内，从西部的不列颠到东部的叙利亚，人们最看重的往往并不是各自的族群、地域或者宗教身份，而是自己的罗马人身份。这种强烈的罗马人身份认同在现存的古罗马文物中有着直观体现。比如，现存于里昂的古罗马剧场建于公元19年，它的赞助者是一位名叫盖尤斯·尤里乌斯·鲁弗斯的富人。虽然他有着典型的罗马名字，但是从留下的铭文中可以看到，他的父亲、祖父和曾祖父都有着日耳曼人的名字，他实际上是日耳曼人的后裔。公元1世纪美因茨的一对凯尔特夫妇的墓碑上有着丰富的凯尔特文化符号，但他们的儿子已经用罗马人的名字称呼自己，并且遵循罗马人的习俗，用拉丁文刻下纪念文字。以弗所的塞尔苏斯图书馆建于公元2世纪，是当时的罗马执政官阿奎拉为了纪念其父、前小亚总督塞尔苏斯而修建的。塞尔苏斯家族来自叙利亚，母语是希腊语，但他们在雕像和铭文中乐于展现自己罗马人的形象，体现出罗马人这一身份认同的吸引力。
At its height, the territory of the Roman Empire consisted of what are now nearly thirty independent nation-states. Yet unlike these modern nation-states, within the Roman Empire, from Britain in the west to Syria in the east, what people most valued was often not their ethnic, regional, or religious identity, but their identity as Romans. This powerful sense of Roman identity is vividly embodied in surviving ancient Roman artifacts. The ancient Roman theater still standing in Lyon, for example, was built in 19 CE and was sponsored by a wealthy man named Gaius Julius Rufus. Although he bore a typically Roman name, surviving inscriptions show that his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all had Germanic names; he was in fact of Germanic descent. On the tombstone of a Celtic couple from first-century Mainz there is a wealth of Celtic cultural symbolism, but their son already called himself by a Roman name and, following Roman custom, carved the commemorative text in Latin. The Library of Celsus at Ephesus was built in the second century CE by the Roman consul Aquila in memory of his father, Celsus, former governor of Asia Minor. The family of Celsus came from Syria and spoke Greek as its mother tongue, yet in statues and inscriptions they gladly displayed themselves in Roman guise, revealing the appeal of Roman identity.
不过，与当今欧洲各国存在质疑欧洲一体化的“欧洲怀疑主义”一样，罗马帝国所征服的地区也始终存在反抗罗马征服的反罗马主义情绪。在近现代民族国家兴起的过程中，反抗罗马人的地方领袖往往成为民族身份认同的重要象征。比如，公元前9年日耳曼人在部落领袖阿尔米尼乌斯的率领下，在条顿堡森林打败了瓦鲁斯率领的罗马军队。这一历史事件的意义在19世纪德意志民族主义运动中被放大。1875年，阿尔米尼乌斯的铜像在条顿堡森林战场的遗址上被修建起来，成为德意志民族抵御外族侵略者的精神象征。公元前52年，凯撒的军队在阿莱西亚打败了维钦托利率领的高卢人联军，将整个高卢纳入罗马人的统治。在近代法国，维钦托利被视为民族英雄，他的一座雕像于1865年落成于阿莱西亚考古遗址，雕像基座上镌刻着一段铭文：“统一的高卢，形成一个民族，怀着同一精神，足以挑战世界。法兰西皇帝拿破仑三世，纪念维钦托利。”公元60年在不列颠起兵反抗罗马人统治的凯尔特部落女首领波蒂卡自16世纪以来就被视为英国抵御外族入侵的象征，她最著名的雕像于1902年落成，一直矗立在伦敦市中心的议会大厦旁。对于这些民族英雄的纪念和卡皮托利山上的铭文，分别代表民族主义和欧洲主义这两种理念。如何妥善处理民族国家身份认同和欧洲身份认同之间潜在的张力，是今日欧盟需要面对的一个关键问题。
Nevertheless, just as today’s European countries contain a “Euroscepticism” that questions European integration, the regions conquered by the Roman Empire also always harbored anti-Roman sentiments that resisted Roman conquest. In the rise of modern nation-states, local leaders who resisted Rome often became important symbols of national identity. In 9 BCE, for example, the Germans under the leadership of the tribal chief Arminius defeated the Roman army led by Varus in the Teutoburg Forest. The significance of this historical event was magnified during the German nationalist movement of the nineteenth century. In 1875, a bronze statue of Arminius was erected on the site of the Teutoburg Forest battlefield, becoming a spiritual symbol of the German nation’s resistance to foreign invaders. In 52 BCE, Caesar’s army defeated the Gallic coalition led by Vercingetorix at Alesia, bringing the whole of Gaul under Roman rule. In modern France, Vercingetorix was regarded as a national hero, and a statue of him was completed in 1865 at the archaeological site of Alesia. On its base was engraved the inscription: “Gaul united, forming a single nation, animated by a common spirit, can defy the world. Napoleon III, Emperor of the French, to the memory of Vercingetorix.” Boudica, the female leader of a Celtic tribe who rose in Britain in 60 CE against Roman rule, has since the sixteenth century been regarded as a symbol of Britain’s resistance to foreign invasion; her most famous statue was completed in 1902 and still stands in central London beside the Houses of Parliament. These commemorations of national heroes and the inscription on the Capitoline Hill represent, respectively, the two ideas of nationalism and Europeanism. How to handle properly the potential tension between nation-state identity and European identity is a crucial question facing the European Union today.
3. The Illusion of the “Roman Dream” and the Contemporary Significance of Classical Studies3 “罗马梦”的幻象与古典文明研究的当代意义
自文艺复兴时期以来，对古代希腊罗马的研究便被贴上精英主义的标签。在近代西方贵族教育传统中，荷马、柏拉图、维吉尔等古典作家作品中的英雄人物是人类理想中高贵的形象，古代先贤所生活的时代在政治制度和政治道德上也是垂训后世的典范。爱德华·吉本在《罗马帝国衰亡史》中将公元2世纪的安东尼王朝的五贤帝时代看成是人类历史上最幸福的时代，《联邦党人文集》的作者用罗马共和国第一任执政官普布利乌斯·普布里可拉作为笔名，讨论了古代希腊罗马的政治得失，并表达了对罗马共和制度的倾慕。雅克-路易·大卫在法国大革命时期也创作了多幅展现罗马共和国时期爱国主义精神的画作。罗马人的政治品德和政治制度被视为西方国家的崇高理想。
Since the Renaissance, the study of ancient Greece and Rome has been marked with the label of elitism. In the modern Western tradition of aristocratic education, the heroes in the works of classical authors such as Homer, Plato, and Virgil were noble figures in humanity’s ideal imagination, while the age in which the ancient sages lived was also a model for later generations in political institutions and political morality. In The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon regarded the age of the Five Good Emperors of the Antonine dynasty in the second century CE as the happiest age in human history. The authors of The Federalist Papers adopted as their pen name Publius, after Publius Publicola, the first consul of the Roman republic, discussed the political gains and losses of ancient Greece and Rome, and expressed admiration for the Roman republican system. During the French Revolution, Jacques-Louis David also created several paintings displaying the patriotic spirit of the Roman republic. Roman political virtue and Roman political institutions were regarded as the lofty ideals of Western states.
然而，欧洲历史上统治者的“罗马梦”未必是对古代罗马的真正憧憬。马克思在《路易·波拿巴的雾月十八日》中已经犀利地指出了这一点：“卡米耶·德穆兰、丹东、罗伯斯比尔、圣茹斯特、拿破仑，同旧的法国革命时的党派和人民群众一样，都穿着罗马的服装，讲着罗马的语言来实现当代的任务……但是，新的社会形态一形成，远古的巨人连同复活的罗马古董——所有这些布鲁土斯们、格拉古们、普卜利科拉们、护民官们、元老们以及凯撒本人就都消失不见了。”马克思的洞见揭示了这种历史扮演的本质：历史上一些欧洲统治者“精神罗马人”的外表往往只是他们达成政治目的的临时伪装。
Yet the “Roman dreams” of rulers in European history were not necessarily genuine longings for ancient Rome. Marx had already pointed this out sharply in The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte: “Camille Desmoulins, Danton, Robespierre, Saint-Just, Napoleon, as well as the parties and the masses of the old French Revolution, performed the task of their time in Roman costume and with Roman phrases... But once the new social formation had arisen, the antediluvian giants disappeared, and with them the resurrected Roman antiquities: all the Brutuses, Gracchi, Publicolas, tribunes, senators, and Caesar himself.” Marx’s insight reveals the essence of this historical role-playing: the outward appearance of “spiritual Romans” assumed by certain European rulers in history was often only a temporary disguise for achieving political ends.
要塑造欧洲身份认同，是否必须要做一场“罗马梦”？如今也有很多学者认为，现代欧洲的雏形产生于中世纪，欧洲民族国家的起源和西方文明的基本规则都是在中世纪形成的。早在1965年，欧洲议会在德国亚琛赞助举办的查理大帝时代展览中就将查理大帝称为“欧洲之父”，认为他是“第一位希望将欧洲各民族团结起来”的统治者。但无论是罗马帝国还是中世纪，它们实际上和如今的欧洲并不相同，并非必然的模板，而只是具有一定参考价值的历史镜像。当代欧洲不是源于某个单一的历史模板，也不可能完全复刻过往的成功。研究过去也是为了提醒人们在借鉴、汲取古典文明的遗产时保持清醒的反思，而这正是古典文明研究的意义之一。
Must Europe dream a “Roman dream” in order to shape a European identity? Many scholars today believe that the embryonic form of modern Europe arose in the Middle Ages, and that the origins of Europe’s nation-states and the basic rules of Western civilization were formed in the medieval period. As early as 1965, at an exhibition on the age of Charlemagne sponsored by the European Parliament in Aachen, Charlemagne was called the “Father of Europe” and described as the ruler who was “the first to wish to unite the peoples of Europe.” Yet whether we speak of the Roman Empire or of the Middle Ages, they were in fact not the same as Europe today. They are not inevitable templates, but only historical reflections with a certain value for reference. Contemporary Europe does not derive from a single historical model, nor can it wholly replicate past success. To study the past is also to remind people to maintain sober reflection when drawing on and absorbing the legacy of classical civilization; and this is precisely one of the meanings of the study of classical civilization.