Republicanism
Mixed constitution
c.380 BCE Plato writes the Republic, outlining his ideas for an ideal city-state.
2nd century BCE Greek historian Polybius’s The Histories describes the rise of the Roman Republic and its constitution with a separation of powers.
48 BCE Julius Caesar is given unprecedented powers, and his dictatorship marks the end of the Roman Republic.
27 BCE Octavian is proclaimed Augustus, effectively the first emperor of Rome.
1734 Montesquieu writes Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and Their Decline.
The Roman Republic was founded in around 510 BCE along similar lines to the city-states of Greece. With only minor changes, it ruled for almost 500 years. This system of government combined elements of three different forms of regime—monarchy (replaced by the Consuls), aristocracy (the Senate), and democracy (the popular assembly)—each with distinct areas of power that balanced one another out. Known as a mixed constitution, it was considered by most Romans to be an ideal form of government that provided stability and prevented tyranny.
Roman politician Cicero was a staunch defender of the system, particularly when it was threatened by the granting of dictatorial powers to Julius Caesar. He warned that a break-up of the Republic would prompt a return to a destructive cycle of governments. He said that from a monarchy, power can be passed to a tyrant; from the tyrant, it is taken by the aristocracy or the people; and from the people it will be seized by oligarchs or tyrants. Without the checks and balances of a mixed constitution, the government, he believed, would be “bandied about like a ball.” True to Cicero’s predictions, Rome came under the control of an emperor, Augustus, shortly after Caesar’s death, and power was passed from him to a succession of despotic rulers.
See also: Plato • Aristotle • Montesquieu • Benjamin Franklin • Thomas Jefferson • James Madison
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