Abstract

The purpose of this essay is to reconsider the naturalness of politics in medieval thought by attempting to demonstrate the existence of lines of thinking not necessarily ascribable to Aristotelianism (or Ciceronianism). Two ambiguously political figures will be used to develop the analysis: Cacus, a semi-man described by Augustine as the illusory image of impoliticness, and Nimrod, the violent biblical character that even Dante seems to understand as the embodiment of the political.