Abstract

In 1856, Mommsen responded to the increased interest in primitive German communism sparked by Marx and Engels by showing that the early Romans did not lag behind the early Germans in their collective attitudes. Fustel managed to have the property structure of the Roman gens as the archetype of primitive private property; whereas Mommsen, Maine, and Bonfante identified the gens with the primitive communist village. This was possible because we know little about the nature and function of the early Roman gens. Compared to these writers, Weber was much more interested in historical times than in the origins of private ownership in Rome. Where Mommsen saw the origins of Roman civilization in the fight of sturdy peasants to keep their own fields, Weber depicted these same Rornans at a later stage where they had degenerated into greedy landowners and were prepared to separate themselves from the cities they had created