Claude Nicolet (15 September 1930 – 24 December 2010[1][2]) was a 20th-21st century French historian, a specialist of the institutions and political ideas of ancient Rome.
He made a short political career as a member of Pierre Mendès France's cabinet in 1956. He was secretary, then editor-in- chief of the Cahiers de la République, and assigned to the office of Jean-Pierre Chevènement, between 1984 and 2002, on civic education.
He showed anxiety throughout his life to articulate his republican commitment and his career as a historian. This contributed to the originality of his work, straddling between ancient Rome and contemporary times, especially around the functioning of society and political institutions. As Catherine Virlouvet pointed out, "it is the same questioning that unites Le métier de citoyen dans la Rome antique (1976) and L'idée républicaine en France.[3]
The republican idea in France
According to Céline Spector,[4] Nicolet's work L'idée républicaine en France (1982) contributed to the return of the Republican idea in the 1980s. According to him, it was Rousseau who provided the theoretical basis for the notion of a republic as it is understood in France. In particular, it resumed its concept of sovereignty and its theory of law to the citizen of Geneva. Nicolet writes:
The great affair of the Republicans is, of course, Rousseau. The man and his work have been, by themselves, so intimately connected, and they are, moreover, so contradictory in appearance, and so coherent in reality, that we can not be surprised that Rousseau was, century-long - and perhaps more - both the inevitable reference and the most striking sign of division among the French republicans, as well as some others.[5]
1959: Pierre Mendès France ou Le métier de Cassandre, Paris, Éditions Julliard
1966: L'ordre équestre à l'époque républicaine, 312-43 av JC, thèse d'État (2 vol.), Paris, coll. BEFAR
1967: Les Gracques : crise agraire et révolution à Rome, Paris, Éditions Gallimard
1976: Le métier de citoyen dans la Rome républicaine, Paris, Gallimard
1976: Tributum, Bonn, Habelt
1978: Rome et la conquête du monde méditerranéen 264–27 av JC (2 vol.), Presses universitaires de France, series "Nouvelle Clio", ISBN2-13-035850-0.
1980: Insula sacra : la loi Gabinia-Calpurnia de Délos (58 av JC), École française de Rome
1982: L'idée républicaine en France : essai d'histoire critique (1789-1924). 1982. Gallimard, series "Bibliothèque des histoires"; reprint Gallimard, 1994, series "Tel".
1988: L'inventaire du monde : géographie et politique aux origines de l'Empire romain, Fayard, ISBN2-213-02020-5
1992 : La République en France. État des lieux, Paris, Le Seuil
1998: Rendre à César : économie et société dans la Rome antique, Gallimard, series "Bibliothèque des histoires".
1999: Mégapoles méditerranéennes : géographie urbaine rétrospective, actes du colloque de Rome (May 1996), Rome, École française de Rome
