The image of Rome in medieval Europe (the fall of the Roman Republic in the "History of Spain" by Alfonso X the Wise)[Образ Рима В Средневековой Европе (Падение Римской Республики В «Истории Испании» Альфонсо Х Мудрого)]

The paper focuses upon the specific way in which some key events of classical history are presented in medieval Western historiography. This specifics is demonstrated by analyzing the description of Roman Civil war in the medieval “History of Spain” written under the auspices of Alfonso X the Wise (1252-1284), king of Castile and Leon. In the chronicle the main attention is paid to the conflict between G. Iulius Cesar and Gn. Pompey the Great, who were competing for the highest supremacy over the Roman Republic. The chronicle treats the conflict (which had no connection with the local history of Spain) as an important achievement in the history of the united Spain, and the participants of the conflict are represented as important characters of this history (if not its heroes). The paper combines formal and historical approach emphasizing the links existing between the literary forms and political message of the text that is deeply related to the initial phase of the development of the unified Spanish state that finally came into existence by the end of the Middle Ages - beginning of the Modernity. The first part of the paper focuses on the contents of chronicle’s chapters 91-100 and explores the perception of the civil political institutions of the antiquity by the medieval author, who tried to describe it in the terms of medieval political agenda stressing the relations between lords and vassals. The second part deals with chapters 106-120 dedicated to the culmination and the last stage of the conflict. The main attention is paid to the description of the political history of Roman kingdom and Roman Republic and the characteristics of particular political institutions (origin, functions etc.).