Historical Studies (Chinese Edition)

No.1, 2014

 

Eunomia: Solon's Ideal Political System                      

(Abstract)

 

Zhang Wei

 

The series of economic, political and legal reforms implemented by the early Athenian legislator Solon were aimed at realizing eunomia, an ideal state order. The eunomia praised in Solon's "To the Polis" represents a state political order of "distributive justice." But in specific poetry performances, the concept of eunomia goes beyond the reach of political activity so that its realization is ultimately at the level of heart and mind, thus achieving a combination of mental order and the ideal political order. Thus Solon the poet and Solon the legislator complement each other. Solon’s poems were not tools of political propaganda; their poetics spring from a deeper level of mastery of politics.