Footnotes to Montesquieu, Principles of Democracy.

Some background on historical events and characters Montesquieu uses to illustrate his principles.
Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix, or Sylla.

Sulla used his armies to march on Rome twice, and after the second he revived the office of dictator, which had not been used since the Second Punic War over a century before. He used his powers to enact a series of reforms to the Roman constitution, meant to restore the balance of power between the Senate and the Tribunes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucius_Cornelius_Sulla
Translation from Plutarch's Lives. Annotations on the left give a good summary.
http://www.bostonleadershipbuilders.com/plutarch/sylla.htm

Demosthenes.

Demosthenes led the Athenian opposition to Macedonia, ruled by King Philip II. Most of his major orations were directed against the threat of Macedonian conquest of the Greek cities. The theme of his first speech against Philip, known as the “First Philippic” (351 bc), was preparedness.

In 336 B.C. the orator Ctesiphon proposed that Athens honor Demosthenes's service with a golden crown. This proposal was made a political issue, and in 330 B.C. on a legal technicality, Demosthenes' enemy Aeschines prosecuted Ctesiphon for his proposal. Demosthenes defended his friend with the speech “On the Crown,” a masterpiece of oratory. As a result, Ctesiphon was acquitted and Aeschines forced into exile.

In 324 B.C. Demosthenes was convicted of allegedly accepting a bribe. A year later, Antipater, ruler of Athens, quelled all Athenian resistance and demanded that the city turn over patriots for execution, including Demosthenes, who then escaped and committed suicide. http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761579005/demosthenes.html

Philip V.

Philip V was the last Macedonian ruler with both the talent and the opportunity to unite Greece and preserve its independence against the ever-increasing power of Rome. He brought conflict between Macedon and the Greek leagues to an end, and controlled all of Greece except Athens, Rhodes and Pergamum.

In 215 BC, however, Philip formed an alliance with Rome's enemy Carthage, which drew Rome directly into Greek affairs for the first time. Rome then formed alliances with Rhodes and Pergamum, and regarded Macedon as an enemy.

In 202 BC Rome defeated Carthage. Philip's allies in Greece deserted him and in 197 BC he was decisively defeated.

Luckily for the Greeks, the conquering leader Flamininus was a moderate man and an admirer of Greek culture. Philip had to surrender his fleet and become a Roman ally, but was otherwise spared. In 196 BC, Flamininus declared all the Greek cities free, but it was an illusion. All the cities except Rhodes were enrolled in a new League which Rome ultimately controlled, and democracies were replaced by aristocratic regimes allied to Rome.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellenistic_Greece

Hannibal and Carthage.

Summaries at: http://www.phoenician.org/carthage_hannibal_barca.htm
Also http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/hannibal.html

For the junior set, there is also a downloadable game called "Vengeance of Carthage" at
http://www.hannibalgame.com/hannibal.html