Preamble: the meanings of humanitas

The meaning of humanitas is dogged by a controversy that troubled the ancients. The antiquarian Aulus Gellius, writing in the second half of the second century AD, puts it as follows:

Correct Latin speakers do not give humanitas the meaning that it is commonly thought to have, namely what the Greeks call philanthropia, which is a sort of correctness and goodwill towards all men.

(Cell. NA 13.17.1)

Gellius has confused cause and effect. Paideia, training and education, is as important to humanitas as it was to philanthropia. It promotes a mindset, a behavioural pattern that distinguishes civilised man from savages and beasts, a pattern that predisposes him against committing acts of brutality. But paideia itself is not that mindset. That role is (largely) filled by philanthropia/humanitas. It can no doubt be claimed that Gellius’ idea still enjoys some currency, for a liberal education is still said to be â€?in the humanities’. But modern lexicographers do not hesitate to credit humanitas with similar values to those credited to philanthropia. According to the Oxford Latin Dictionary, humanitas covers â€?human nature or character; the quality distinguishing civilised man from savages or beasts; civilisation, culture; humane character, kindness, human feeling’. And the adjective humanus embraces â€?human (both absolutely and as distinct from the divine or the animal); proper to man; characteristic of human beings; civilised, cultured, cultivated; morally worthy of humanity; kindly, considerate; befitting the dignity of man; merciful, indulgent’.¹

In order, however, to understand human rights on the Roman scene it is necessary to probe deeper. In the first place, a large area has to be identified not by any particular label, but by its content.

The duty to conserve maiestas populi Romani involved the use of both the carrot and the stick, of morality and severity. As such it is almost the mirror-image of the special perception of humanitas to which the more specific label of humanitas Romana has been given. Humanitas Romana is seen as an amalgam of Greek philanthropia and the austere traditional values making up Roman virtus. Humanitas Romana is thought to epitomise the entire concept of humanitas as perceived and practised by the Romans. The formation and significance of this concept are the subject of the present chapter.