Abstract

At the end of the Republic and early Empire, some authors have questioned the origin of the physical world and that of the city, through stories describing the origin as a foundation the primordial "concordia". These stories included three consecutive phases. Before the origin of nature and the city, the world was a chaos, characterized by "discordia" and confusion of its elements. From this raw material, the founder effected a division in differentiated and stable elements. Then he connected these elements to each other to achieve establish concord between them. These links through which a fragmented world became a cohesive unit, consisted of rules established by agreement or by law. The law was the basis for harmony, and therefore the city. "Concordia" appeared in the works of these authors as a mean to overcome the inherent conflict in the ordering of chaos through division.