Abstract

VALENCIA CONSTANTINO, Genaro. Benito Juárez and his Studies of Latin Culture. Unpublished Notes on Tacitus and Virgil. Estud. hist. mod. contemp. Mex [online]. 2026, n.71, pp.211-240.  Epub Apr 13, 2026. ISSN 0185-2620.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iih.24485004e.2026.71.78035.

The aim of this work is to edit and comment on some unpublished notes by Benito Juárez on Tacitus and Virgil preserved in the National General Archive (México). These documents have not yet received historical or philological attention -as they were not included, for example, in Jorge L. Tamayo’s extensive compilation of Juárez documents (1975)- nor have they been appreciated as a hermeneutical key to understanding the complex intellectual articulation of the Benemérito’s political and legal ideas. The recovery of these notes, through the theory of classical reception, illustrates how Juárez’s classical readings, especially those of Tacitus, considered an author who promoted freedom, influenced his thinking to some extent. Thus, this study is part of a broader project on the reception of Greco-Roman antiquity in 19th-century Mexican liberalism. These pages serve as a prelude to support that line of research.

Keywords : Benito Juárez; Latin; Tacitus; Virgil; classical reception; liberal thought.

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