greek-politicsfeatured in 12 works
The Mixed Constitution
Blend monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy so each checks the others — and the state stays standing.
The mixed constitution is the idea that the most stable government combines monarchic, aristocratic, and democratic elements so that no single power can dominate. Anticipated by Plato's Laws and by Aristotle, it was fully theorized by Polybius (2nd c. BCE), who credited Rome's staying power to its balance of consuls, Senate, and popular assemblies — and Cicero later took the idea up. This theory of balanced powers is a direct ancestor of modern checks and balances and the separation of powers.
How it traveled
- RepublicAthens · -375explains
- LawsAthens · -348explains
- PoliticsChalcis · -322explains
- HistoriesMegalopolis · -118explains
- De RepublicaFormiae · -54explains
- Ab urbe conditaPadua · -27explains
- LycurgusChaeronea · 120explains
- Civil WarsAlexandria · 165applies
- Historia RomanaRomeexplains
- Antiquitates RomanaeRomeexplains
- Epitome HistoriarumConstantinople (Istanbul)explains
- Orationes 14Smyrnaexplains
Key passages(20)
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Antiquitates Romanae · Dionysius of Halicarnassus
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