« Un modèle d’une belle république fédérative » ? Montesquieu et le système politique des Lyciens, de la genèse de l’Esprit des lois aux découvertes épigraphiques les plus récentes en Asie Mineure méridionale

Abstract

“ Un modèle d’une belle république fédérative” ? Montesquieu and the political system of the Lycians, from the genesis of l’Esprit des Lois to the most recent epigraphic discoveries in Southern Asia Minor. In the work published by Montesquieu in 1748, the reference to the Lycian model (IX, 3) turns out to be a late addition, since the manuscript in the Bibliothèque nationale de France does not contain it. Probably following a (re) reading of the book XIV of Strabo (through La République of Jean Bodin at first ?), this choice of Lycia instead of the “ société des Achéens” – thus vaunted by Polybius – seems to come from the fact that the brief description of the Lycian systema gave an image both simpler and more positive of an authentic federal state. This does not, however, save Montesquieu from a partially faulty interpretation of the text – Latin rather than Greek – of its source, an institutional misunderstanding that compromised the success of the Lycian model in the eyes of the Fathers of the American Constitution. On the other hand, as we can foresee today thanks to a significant increase in the epigraphic documentation, the fate of the Lycian Confederation – from the time of its formation (early second century BC) to the reduction of Lycia into a Roman province (in 43 AD) – has finally been equally dramatic than those of the Achaean Confederation. Nevertheless, the Lycian example remains one of the most interesting of all the history of ancient federalism. (English translation by A. Rufin Solas and W. Pillot.)