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In Rome. The first book of foundations, Michel Serres analyses history in depth, starting from a free and creative review of the first book of Titus Livius's Ab Urbe condita. In his book, Michel Serres recalls René Girard's famous theories on violence and sacrifice and openly declares to have learned from him the "true ideas developed here." He then uses these ideas in an independent and original way in order to describe history as it is usually conceived – that is, as the history of the foundation and thus of the sacrificial violence from which one must emancipate and free oneself. Serres' reference to the two versions of Remo's death summarizes Girard's lesson: "The hatred between brothers goes to the point of murder. This hatred between twins grows like ivy in the group; it goes toward extinction, and there is no foundation unless, stopping the reciprocal throat-slitting, the crowd turns against one of them. René Girard's lesson, the schema he has proposed makes these two contradictory stories compatible; it even makes them complementary. The fight between twins is an operator; the death in the middle of the mob is a point of articulation. The former is a motor force of a time and the latter is the end of a time and the beginning of another. Hence the reference point for the foundation."

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-52812-0_10

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