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Οι διατάξεις της Πολιτείας κατά τον Ζήνωνα τον Κιτιέα
El Khouly , Hoda
Zeno΄s Republic constitutes an important work in which Zeno envisions a very different society from those that existed not only in his era but also today. We can say that this work constitutes a dialogue with a mirror, where in the place of the idol is Plato΄s Republic, and Zeno may have wanted to criticize the platonic Republic, or may have wanted to supplement it with the new circumstances that resulted from historical and political changes. According to Plutarch, Zeno΄s Republic is a dream, a picture, a Utopia and a model of political life. Unfortunately, extracts from the Republic of Zeno are so few that it is not possible for us to form a complete opinion. This work constitutes a Utopian proposal that was difficult to apply, since it already sets impossible terms for the era, and does away with the individual city-states by linking them to a wider state, a kind of city-world in which (a) the education system that included three thematic cycles: letters, music and gymnastics and which constituted the basic system of education no longer offered anything of importance, and consequently was useless (b) only wise men were friends with each other (c) wise men should have women in common in order that anyone could couple with anyone they met. Love was the god of friendship and the author of concord, so that it was an accessory to the salvation of the city (d) neither holy temples nor law-courts, nor gymnasia should exist because temples were nothing other than works of builders and wise men did not need the existence of enacted laws in order to administer justice (e) neither currencies for trading nor for travel abroad should exist because everything belonged to everyone (f) and that both sexes should wear the same clothes. What linked everyone in the cosmopolis was not the strict laws, but the wisdom that was a consequence of «live in accordance to nature», so that all persons were equal to each other without differences existing between men and women, Greeks and barbarians, the free and the enslaved, without courts and money existing that rendered persons greedy and villainous. Taking into consideration the positions of the theorists of anarchism of the 19th century, we are able to proceed to the bold assertion that Zeno and his Republic was in a way, exclusively as to his political philosophy, (in all else he was a rationalist who accepted the hierarchical structure of the world), an idiomorphic anarchist of the ancient world.
Academy of Athens
