The article analyzes the key concepts of the political philosophy of the classics of ancient thought in the context of E. N. Trubetskoy’s philosophical views. The grounds for distinguishing the Platonic and Aristotelian traditions in the philosophy of state and law are discussed. According to Plato, as it was presented in Trubetskoy’s analysis, a state (polis) is the only possible way of human social existence in which human nature is realized. In the interpretation of Trubetskoy, the state of Plato turns out to be such a form of sobornost’ (collegiality) that prepares a person for salvation, and Plato appears as a prophet of the polis as a union of people, created for the sake of salvation, which can be attained only in another world. The state (polity) of Aristotle, according to Trubetskoy, is a union of people united for the realization of the cultural ideal in earthly human relations. In other words, the conflict, as Trubetskoy sees it, between Plato and his disciple Aristotle is “a conflict of theocracy and a cultural state”. In this context, Plato is the prophet of Christian theocracy, and Aristotle is the creator of the model of a modern European state.