Balmaceda highlights a dichotomy between virilis-virtus (manly courage in war) and humana-virtus (moral virtues like justice and clemency). Book Details
The term virtus is famously difficult to translate, shifting between "military courage" and "ethical virtue". Balmaceda traces this progression across different eras:
Scholars of Roman history, historiography, and intellectual history, as well as advanced undergraduates. Virtus Romana: Politics and Morality in the Rom...
Adapts the concept for life under autocracy. Under tyrannical rule, virtus becomes less about public glory and more about "private" qualities like constancy, moderation, and endurance . Key Takeaways
Views virtus through the lens of decline. He argues that the loss of external threats ( metus hostilis ) led the Roman nobility to abandon true service to the state, replacing virtus with vices like avarice and ambition. Adapts the concept for life under autocracy
Definitions of political and moral terms are not fixed; they are reinterpreted by historians to fit or challenge contemporary political realities.
Catalina Balmaceda , Associate Professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press (2017). He argues that the loss of external threats
Reclaims virtus for the new imperial system, manifesting it in the person of the Emperor (Tiberius) himself rather than just the collective Roman people.