Rome and responsibility

According to Jan Patocka, the Roman order represents a new stage in the history of responsibility because it represents a single entity toward which all are responsible: “the Roman principality presents the problem of a ne responsibility, founded upon transcendence in the social context as well, a responsibility towards a State that can no longer be a community of persons who are equal in respect of their freedom. From then on freedom is determined not by relations among equals (compatriots) but by a relation to the transcendent Good . . . . In the final anlaysis the social problem of the Roman Empire is also consolidated on grounds made possible by the Platonic conception of the soul.”