Ancient Greece In
Ancient Greece, several philosophers and historians analysed and described elements we now recognize as classical republicanism. Traditionally, the Greek concept of "
politeia" was rendered into Latin as res publica. Consequently, political theory until relatively recently often used republic in the general sense of "regime". There is no single written expression or definition from this era that exactly corresponds with a modern understanding of the term "republic" but most of the essential features of the modern definition are present in the works of
Plato,
Aristotle, and
Polybius. These include theories of
mixed government and of
civic virtue. For example, in
The Republic, Plato places great emphasis on the importance of civic virtue (aiming for the good) together with personal virtue ('just man') on the part of the ideal rulers. In Book V, Plato asserts that until rulers have the nature of philosophers (Socrates) or philosophers become the rulers, there can be no civic peace or happiness. A number of Ancient Greek
city-states such as
Athens and
Sparta have been classified as "
classical republics", because they featured extensive participation by the citizens in legislation and political decision-making. Aristotle considered
Carthage to have been a republic as it had a political system similar to that of some of the Greek cities, notably Sparta, but avoided some of the defects that affected them.
Ancient Rome Both
Livy, a Roman historian, and
Plutarch, who is noted for his biographies and moral essays, described how Rome had developed its legislation, notably the transition from a
kingdom to a
republic, by following the example of the Greeks. Some of this history, composed more than 500 years after the events, with scant written sources to rely on, may be fictitious reconstruction. The Greek historian
Polybius, writing in the mid-2nd century BCE, emphasized (in Book 6) the role played by the
Roman Republic as an institutional form in the dramatic rise of Rome's hegemony over the Mediterranean. In his writing on the constitution of the Roman Republic, Polybius described the system as being a "mixed" form of government. Specifically, Polybius described the Roman system as a mixture of monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy with the Roman Republic constituted in such a manner that it applied the strengths of each system to offset the weaknesses of the others. In his view, the mixed system of the Roman Republic provided the Romans with a much greater level of domestic tranquillity than would have been experienced under another form of government. Polybius argued, the comparative level of domestic tranquillity the Romans enjoyed allowed them to conquer the Mediterranean. Polybius exerted a great influence on
Cicero as he wrote his politico-philosophical works in the 1st century BCE. In one of these works,
De re publica, Cicero linked the Roman concept of
res publica to the Greek
politeia. The modern term "republic", despite its derivation, is not synonymous with the Roman
res publica. Among the several meanings of the term
res publica, it is most often translated "republic" where the Latin expression refers to the Roman state, and its form of government, between the era of the Kings and the era of the Emperors. This Roman Republic would, by a modern understanding of the word, still be defined as a true republic, even if not coinciding entirely. Thus,
Enlightenment philosophers saw the Roman Republic as an ideal system because it included features like a systematic
separation of powers. Romans still called their state "Res Publica" in the era of the early emperors because, on the surface, the organization of the state had been preserved by the first emperors without significant alteration. Several offices from the Republican era, held by individuals, were combined under the control of a single person. These changes became permanent, and gradually conferred sovereignty on the Emperor. Cicero's description of the ideal state, in
De re Publica, does not equate to a modern-day "republic"; it is more like
enlightened absolutism. His philosophical works were influential when Enlightenment philosophers such as
Voltaire developed their political concepts. In its classical meaning, a republic was any stable well-governed political community. Both
Plato and
Aristotle identified three forms of government:
democracy,
aristocracy, and
monarchy. First Plato and Aristotle, and then Polybius and Cicero, held that the ideal republic is a
mixture of these three forms of government. The writers of the Renaissance embraced this notion. Cicero expressed reservations concerning the republican form of government. While in his
theoretical works he defended monarchy, or at least a mixed monarchy/oligarchy, his beliefs put him at odds with notable figures such as
Julius Caesar,
Cleopatra,
Mark Antony, and
Octavian, who sought to realize such ideals in Rome. Eventually, that opposition led to his death and Cicero can be seen as a victim of his own Republican ideals.
Tacitus, a contemporary of Plutarch, was not concerned with whether a form of government could be analysed as a "republic" or a "monarchy". He analysed how the powers accumulated by the early
Julio-Claudian dynasty were all given by a State that was still notionally a republic. Nor was the Roman Republic "forced" to give away these powers: it did so freely and reasonably, certainly in
Augustus' case, because of his many services to the state, freeing it from
civil wars and disorder. Tacitus was one of the first to ask whether such powers were given to the
head of state because the citizens wanted to give them, or whether they were given for other reasons, for example, because one had a
deified ancestor. The latter case led more easily to abuses of power. In Tacitus' opinion, the trend away from a true republic was
irreversible only when
Tiberius established power, shortly after Augustus' death in 14 CE, much later than most historians place the start of the Imperial form of government in Rome. By this time, too many principles defining some powers as "untouchable" had been implemented. By AD 211, with
Caracalla's edict known as the
Constitutio Antoniniana, and although one of the edict's main purposes was to increase tax revenue, all of the empire's free men became citizens with all the rights this entailed. As a result, even after the
Fall of the Western Roman Empire, the people who remained within the lands, including Byzantium, that the empire comprised continued to call themselves
Rhomaioi.
Hellenes had been referring to pagan, or non-Christian, Greeks until the
Fourth Crusade. Through attrition of Byzantine territory in the preceding 400 or so years, from perceived friends and foes alike (Crusaders, Ottoman Turks, and others), Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire (the Eastern Roman Empire) fell to the Turks led by Mehmed II in 1453. There is a perception that these events led to the predecessor of
Greek nationalism through the
Ottoman era and even into modern times. == Religion ==