  urlLink Dionysius of Halicarnassus , the Greek historian of Rome, living in the first century before the common era, personifies the ancient Greek term, pistis , in his great multi-volume history of Rome, as pistis demosia , equating it to the Latinate, fides publica .
Now, so far from his time, but certainly perhaps not from his voice, his essential historicization, we have come to understand the Roman fides as: trust in a person or thing, faith, confidence, reliance, credence, belief (syn. : fidelitas, fiducia, confidentia). We define the Greek pistis in much the same way: trust in others, faith , persuasion of a thing, confidence , assurance . Plato describes pistis ( Republic , Book VI, 510b-511e) as being in the lowest category of knowledge, that of opinion ( doxa ), and only just above the lowest form of knowledge, which is illusion ( eikasia ).
Eikasia is regarded as mere ignorance, a belief in shadows and illusory things, while pistis ranks just beyond this. It seems that for both Plato and Dionysius democracy is constituted by a form of pistis . God Bless America ! Thus, according to men’s opinions, did things come into being, and thus they are now. In time (they think) they will grow up and pass away. -Parmenides of Elea, " On Nature " backBlog('100503','Apotropos') urlLink Feedback 
