L'esclavage et la crise des institutions à Rome. La Conjuration de Catilina de Mérimée

摘要

In 1844 P. Mérimée adds a development dealing with Catilina's consipiracy to his "Essai sur la guerre sociale". In fact, he intended these two texts, published together under the title "Études sur l'histoire romaine" to be a vast introduction to a history of Julius Caesar, which he never wrote. Because of the method, the point of view chosen, the interpretations put forward, this text offers an original approach to what Mérimée considered as a global crisis of society. The dissolvent action exerted by slavery upon social relationschips holds the most important place in this analysis.