Recent contributions have underlined the ‘political’ significance of Schiller’s essay
on The legislation of Lycurgus and Solon – «perhaps the most political writing»
of the German poet, as it was argued. The concrete political significance of the
essay can be reconstructed considering this writing based on university lessons
held in 1789 in the context of the Quarrel of the Ancients and the Moderns in
the late 18th century and investigating the historical and cultural premises of the
preference accorded by Schiller to Solon and Athens to the detriment of Lycurgus
and Sparta. In the year of the French Revolution Schiller – the freedom-fighter
and the believer in human rights – draws a continuity line from ancient Athens
to modern Europe. On the other hand, some meaningful contradictions of his
argumentation reveal the fundamental difficulty that emerges comparing the
liberty of the Ancients with the liberty of the Moderns.
