This article affirms that Enlightenment philosopher Montesquieu produced a historical
and political theory based on the history of Rome. The main focus of this text is the
association contained in the idea of a similarity between the Roman Empire and
Oriental Despotism. For Montesquieu, corruption destroyed the spirit of freedom and
virtue of the Roman Republic and founded an empire based on fear, which is the
principle of despotism. The main source of analysis here is the book The spirit of the
laws.
