Greek historians of the fifth and fourth centuries BCE also intended their works to be political commentaries. This paper concentrates on the work of Thucydides, and his interest in fifth-century ideas of constitutionalism. Honing in on the political ‘opposites’, democracy and oligarchy, this paper argues that Thucydides collapses these categories, to show not only that they are unstable, but that, built upon the same political vocabulary, they naturally lead towards his new idea of the measured blending of the few and the many in a mixed constitution, which creates political stability and a positive political experience for the community. In this sense, Thucydides’ text, which uses historical narrative as a vehicle for political commentary, needs to be understood within the framework of historical contextualism, but also as a ‘possession for all time’.

中文翻译：

---

古代历史上的希腊政治思想

公元前五世纪和四世纪的希腊历史学家也打算将他们的作品作为政治评论。本文集中讨论修昔底德的工作，以及他对 5 世纪立宪主义思想的兴趣。本文深入探讨了政治“对立面”、民主和寡头政治，认为修昔底德打破了这些范畴，不仅表明它们是不稳定的，而且建立在相同的政治词汇之上，它们自然而然地导致了他的新思想。在混合宪法中适度混合少数人和多数人，这为社区创造了政治稳定和积极的政治体验。从这个意义上说，修昔底德的文本以历史叙事作为政治评论的载体，需要在历史语境主义的框架内理解，