Claude Nicolet
| Claude Nicolet | |
|---|---|
| Born | 15 September 1930 Marseille |
| Died | 24 December 2010 (aged 80) Paris |
| Occupation | Historian |
Claude Nicolet (15 September 1930 – 24 December 2010) was a 19th–20th-century French historian, a specialist of the institutions and political ideas of ancient Rome.
A former student of the École normale supérieure, agrégé d'histoire and a member of the École française de Rome from 1957 to 1959, he was a professor of ancient history at the University of Tunis, Caen then de Paris-I Panthéon-Sorbonne, and emeritus director of studies from 1997 at the École pratique des hautes études. Elected a menber of the Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres in 1986, he was director of the École française de Rome from 1992 to 1995.
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.
According to Céline Spector , 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:
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