The Western tradition of a sovereign state, which roots go back to antiquity, inherited a centre vouching for virtuous moderation. The author compares this tradition with what it quintessentially objects to: political extremes. The terminological history of political extremes had been related for more then two centuries with the term mesotes used in the Aristotelian ethics and the theory of mixed constitution.The positions of moderation and extremes were not joined until the course of the French Revolution in the still existing distinction of right- and left-wing as it is still known today in the intellectual-political geography. Uwe Backes follows these developments from ancient times to the present.