ABSTRACT
Montesquieu applied in his own way the conventional principles concerning the combination of elements in a mixed constitution. Montesquieu, however, works out of a different framework, using the three terms republic, monarchy, and despotism. The republican element may itself be subdivided into two different forms, democracy and aristocracy, while monarchy is presented as the strong antidote to despotism. Monarchy and despotism are bound to form an antithetical conceptual pair if, in a monarchy, the monarch and the corps intermédiaires assume the positions befitting them. Pliny the Younger's Panegyricus plays a role in Montesquieu's antithesis of monarchy and despotism, as will be shown later. In the Panegyricus, people find the principatus/dominatio antithesis that is reflected in Montesquieu's work, but this has not been noticed by even the greatest interpreters of Montesquieu in our century. That antithesis is also found in those books of Tacitus's Annals that Montesquieu quoted frequently.
