The Polybius National Polity Thought

Polybius is a famous historian who was born in Hellenistic Age. He is called'historian among historians' by later generations. He lived in Hellenistic Age in which it was an unprecedented development progresses. He witness Roman conquered the Mediterranean. He contributed his whole life to write The Histories. He started tradition of Universal history. This work not only reflects his character of writing history but also reflects his political thought. As a historians and a pragmatist he study the importance of constitution which decides the success of a country. Although his though was influenced by ancient Greece, his though was creative on the basis of predecessors. He discussed classification of constitution and pure constitution cycling and mixed constitution. The thesis make his political thought as object of study and analyse the background which influenced Polybius political thought, its connotation, feature, and significance.The thesis consists of four chapters, with the addition of instruction and conclusion six parts.The first chapter is about the reasons of his constitution thought. It mainly from subjective and objective angle to analyse the complex reasons. and also analyse the reason in a historical background. From objective angle ,he was influenced by ancient political thought of Greece. From subjective angle practical character of writing history and his pragmatism. And also his experiences also have impact on him. There are four reasons for explain the form of his constitutionThe second chapter is about the connotation of his constitution thought. His discussed classification of constitution and pure constitution cycling. He applied biological analysis when discussing constitution. He discussed three normal constitution which include kingship, aristocracy and democracy and three corrupt constitution which include tyranny, oligarchy,and ochlocracy. He put forward the theory of pure constitution cycling. He analysed the mixed constitution of Roman and put forward the theory of mixed constitution, discussed the right of senate ,consul, people and their checks and balances. He analysed the mixed constitution of Roman would decline one day. He analysed the custom of Roman such as religion and so forth. Then he compared Rome mixed constitution with other constitution Sparta and Carthage and took the Roman constitution was better than others.The third chapter is about feature of his constitution thought. The constitution thought reflects the feature of practical applicability. He applied the theory of constitution change to the history of Greece and mixed constitution. His constitution thought also reflects that he attach importance to morality. He analysed morality in the change of pure constitution and the morality in Roman mixed constitution. Not only that he expounded the constitution from psychology angle.The fourth chapter is mainly about historical significance of his constitution thought. He bring forth new ideas based on the previous and gone beyond main stream of Greece political thought to some extent. He provided reference on study constitution thought. He provided for later generations with sources and method. At the same time, his constitution thought had impacted western statesmen and thinkers of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. He provided theory foundation for Western political system.In the end,I summarize the main idea of the whole paper in conclusion. His constitution thought formed when great historical changes have taken place and had a place in history of western political thought. He realized integrate between truth-seeking and good -seeking in study history.