Paradigmi dell’antico e libertà moderna. La legislazione di Licurgo e Solone di Friedrich Schiller

Abstract

Recent contributions have underlined the ‘political’ significance of Schiller’s essay on The legislation of Lycurgus and Solon – «perhaps the most political writing» of the German poet, as it was argued. The concrete political significance of the essay can be reconstructed considering this writing based on university lessons held in 1789 in the context of the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns in the late 18th century and investigating the historical and cultural premises of the preference accorded by Schiller to Solon and Athens to the detriment of Lycurgus and Sparta. In the year of the French Revolution Schiller – the freedom-fighter and the believer in human rights – draws a continuity line from ancient Athens to modern Europe. On the other hand, some meaningful contradictions of his argumentation reveal the fundamental difficulty that emerges comparing the liberty of the Ancients with the liberty of the Moderns.