In this study, an attempt was made to reconstruct the ideas of the ancient Romans of the early principle principle on time and space based on the works of the classic of ancient historical literature Cornelius Tacitus. His writings were often used by scholars in conducting various historical studies, but they were rarely used to study the mental characteristics of ancient Romans, while the study of values and concepts constitutes the paradigm of modern humanitarian knowledge. In addition, of particular interest is the application to such traditional sources as the written heritage of ancient intellectuals, the approaches of the «new» cultural history – one of the most dynamically developing areas of modern historical science.
The structure of time in the understanding of man of the modern information society is expressed in a linear sequence of past, present and future, which is characterized by uniformity, unidirectionality, continuity. However, time in its mythological vision is characterized by qualitative conditionality of perception, heterogeneity, unevenness, discreteness, eventful fullness and concreteness, perception in close connection with space. Space, in turn, being an abstract and infinite continuum for a modern person, for a person with a mythological type of thinking, possessed the properties of discreteness, subject fullness, limitation, isolation, qualitative heterogeneity.
These attributions of time and space are clearly presented in the picture of the world of the Romans I – the beginning of the II. In our opinion, the concept of «Chronotopus of Principatus» can be applied to this epoch – a system of spatial-temporal coordinates of the political, social, cultural, ideological levels of existence of the Romans of the early Empire era, welded with the idea of «Pax Romana». With the help of this term, our observations on the inseparable unity of time and space, their inseparability from each other are most accurately expressed.
Emphasizing the integrity of the mythological type of thinking of the Romans and the integrity of the picture of the world inherent in their consciousness, we did not leave without analysis the main ontological parameters of the existence of time and space, specifically developed by the consciousness of the inhabitants of the Eternal City. The direction of the flow of time in the collective understanding of the ancient Romans was cyclical. In the heritage of Tacitus, we found cycles of different lengths, the shortest of which was equal to one day. Also among the manifestations of cyclicity can be called characteristic for the descendants of Romulus orientation in time in connection with the consulate, the annual oath to the emperor, the festive culture and similar phenomena repeated with enviable regularity.
It is impossible to deny the existence in the minds of the Romans of the idealization of the past, the psychological orientation primarily on the mores and traditions of the ancestors, the ideals of the Republic. The Romans, who are not capable of changing the present, were much more concerned about the future, which is why there were many ways to gain it in their arsenal.
In the era of the Empire began the process of politicization (nationalization) of time. This is evident from the fact that the calendar years were designated by the names of the consuls. The princeps and the senate claimed the management of the qualitative characteristics of the time, and through this the subordination of the psychological state of the subjects.
The proximity of the Roman understanding of time to modern is the presence of a temporal orientation to cosmic phenomena. The essential difference, however, was that the Romans deified and animated the world of nature, perceived themselves inseparably from it, therefore the world of nature had a strong influence on the motives and patterns of their behavior. The desire to make at least partially controlled unpredictable natural force made the Romans respect the predictions, signs, dreams, and also introduce new means of influencing the space of nature – measures designed to create the illusion of managing space time.
Inherent in the mentality of the Romans, curiosity and practicality prompted them to be interested in the world around them. The earth was represented to them by a circle that washes the Ocean on all sides. Rome was considered the sacred center of the earthly circle, while the periphery of the world, which was in opposition to the center, was perceived as an alien, dangerous space and was inhabited by folk fantasy as fairy-tale creatures. The priesthood of Rome-city was given, above all, by its aegis – the Capitoline Triad of the Gods, which was the leading channel of communication between the heavenly and the earthly levels of the world. The sky and the world of wildlife, therefore, were under the vigilant control of the Romans.
Following the archetypes of their ancestors, the Romans sought to delineate the images of time and space in accordance with the binary oppositions formed in the process of their everyday practice: «one’s own – another’s», «military-peaceful», «public – private», «sacred – professional».
Tacitus as a carrier of the picture of the world inherent in ancient Roman civilization was at the same time a representative of its intellectual elite, transmitting through its historical works the original interpretation of the categories «time», «space» and «history». His view of the history of Rome was based on the conclusions he made from contrasting images of the past and the present, as well as on understanding the contradictory tendencies of the development of Roman society in the first and the beginning of the second centuries.
The main content of the works of Tacitus is socially and politically oriented. These are reflections on the historical role of Rome in relation to the surrounding nations, the collapse of the old republican foundations and the triumph of imperial power, patriotic bravado about the power of the Empire, turning into dramatic descriptions of the decline of the moral foundations of the population of Rome.
Time was estimated by Tacitus from the point of view of his political context; therefore, it is represented by segments consisting of consular periods, military campaigns, and stories about social and political life, and all this is woven together by one common thread – the formation of the Roman World and its romanization. Peace time for him is the time of enjoying the «benefits of peace», public time is the time of hard work in the name of the glory of the Empire. War for him is a drama, but it was the war that promoted the formation of the «Roman World».
In the perception of space, Tacitus is skeptical about the fantasies of his people about the periphery and the cosmos. The sacred center of the world – Rome – was perceived by the historian ambivalent. On the one hand, Rome, as the center of the world, connected the world of the gods with the space of people (vertically) and pushed to itself the whole space of «Pax Romana» (horizontally). But this is his «universal» mission did not correlate with the unworthy manifestations of the space of everyday life.
Time in Tacitus has the following properties: the ability to roll back, dynamism, eventful saturation. He has a tendency towards individualization of time, and his orientation is carried out according to the years of the reign of the consuls.
In the works of Tacitus, the action of the two main driving forces of the historical process is observed. First, these are individual interests and aspirations, in which the individualization of time is expressed. He recognizes the fundamental role of the individual in history (which is completely inconsistent with the polis republican ideology). The second driving force behind his story is the influence of the will («anger») of the gods and the inevitability of fate.
The consciousness of Tacitus as an erudite historian, who had the opportunity to compare the past and the present, which belonged to his time and his civilization, reflected a specific refraction of Roman history, expressed in its complex and contradictory historiosophical concept.
The perception of the past was carried out by Tacitus through the prism of two opposing trends: the attainment of the greatness and glory of Rome and the degradation of public morality. The first tendency was expressed in the idea of «Pax Romana», the essence of which was to spread Roman influence throughout the known world; it is, in other words, a kind of prototype of modern globalization. The idea of «Pax Romana» received its final design under Augustus, and, accordingly, the «Roman World» was conceived by Tacitus already existing in the present tense. The second, the opposite, is a tendency embodied in Tacitus in full acceptance of that formed in the first century. BC. the concept of «moral damage», which implies an assessment of Roman history from the point of view of moral degradation of society. In the past, there were examples of moral virtue, military prowess and just government. In the present, sacred laws and customs were violated all the time, the sanctity of the territory of Rome itself was desecrated, the fall of piety, one of the main components of the republican virtus, occurred.
The ideal for Tacitus was the admirable Roman past. It was there that were samples of morality, military valor, civil virtues, only the past should have been admired. Therefore, it was in him, and not in the present and not in the future, that the so-called «golden age» of Roman history was located. The desire to preserve the traditional Roman morality, the intention to revive republican ideals and values with the help of his writings were for Tacitus the most important tasks of the historical narrative.
So, the comprehension of the concepts of «time» and «space» by the inhabitants of the ancient Roman civilization was complex and controversial, closely related to the general characteristics of their vision of the world. Among the results of this understanding, there is a significant number of features that are related to it with generally accepted ideas about the space-time structures in the consciousness of the peoples of antiquity. On the one hand, the general principles of constructing these concepts were typical of ancient peoples, but, on the other hand, the very course of the history of the Romans predetermined the specifically Roman content of their perception of time and space of their social reality. The space and time of war, filled with the idea of world domination, an intense and attentive perception of public life, a rational and politically biased understanding of the sacred coordinates – these are truly Roman features of understanding the world.