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Guodong, Xu --- "The word ‘constitution’ in western languages: how did it originate and evolve linguistically?" [2013] ELECD 695; in Shi, Jichun (ed), "Renmin Chinese Law Review" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2013) 1

Book Title: Renmin Chinese Law Review

Editor(s): Shi, Jichun

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781782544340

Section: Chapter 1

Section Title: The word ‘constitution’ in western languages: how did it originate and evolve linguistically?

Author(s): Guodong, Xu

Number of pages: 26

Abstract/Description:

As Chinese scholars often begin their discussion about constitution with the Latin word constitutio, there is both reason and necessity for us to clarify the origin of the special word in Greek based on the available materials, in spite of the fact that other western nations in ancient times also had experiences of group living. Homer (9 B.C.) was possibly the first Greek writer known for discussing constitutional phenomena. In Chapter 2 of his great epic The Iliad, he detailed the Mycenaean constitutional institution: the King, the Senate, the Assembly of Soldiers, and the Herald who contacted them. It is obviously a Spartan-like structure. Following him was the famous writer Herodotus (484 B.C.–424 B.C.), who in the name of two Persians, Otanes and Megabysuz, distinguished dictatorship, democracy and oligarchy. He then analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of the three regimes in his The Histories. How great these words were! The earliest types of constitution in the eyes of the power holders were put forward for future generations. In The Geography, Strabo (63 B.C.–24 B.C.) also discussed the constitutions of some other states like those of Sparta, Tarsus and Galatain.