http://hauensteincenter.org/american-founding-10-roman-influence/
The Founders’ and Framers’ noms de plume were Roman — Publius, Cicero, Cincinnatus, Cato, Brutus. They consciously identified with Roman models of republican virtue. So:
- Washington: Cincinnatus (to others), Fabius the Delayer (to history), Cato the Younger (to himself)
- Adams: Cicero, the greatest attorney of the ancient world.
- Jefferson: Cicero
- Madison: Publius, to our Founders, the first great republican leader in world history, a model republican.
- Hamilton: Caesar originally, according to Donald D’Elia, then Publius
- Jay: Publius
- John Dickinson (conservative, headed up Articles of Confederation): Fabius in Letters from a Farmer in Pennsylvania
The Founders’ political ideas were largely informed by Roman republican and imperial ideas. They sought to create a mixed constitution that balanced monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy. (This is why our nation is not technically a democracy.)
The political vocabulary they used — republic, virtue, president, capitol, constitution, Senate — was based on Latin words. The legislative processes they utilized — veto, sine die — were Latin. Many of their political symbols — the eagle, the fasces, the image of a leader on a coin — were Roman in inspiration.
The architecture of the American Founding also showed a predilection for the Roman aesthetic sense. It’s not too much of a stretch to assert that the buildings and monuments lining the National Mall in Washington, DC — with its stately, classical architecture — might resemble a Roman colony; the new additions constructed in the 1930s continued the Roman theme. The Capitol was inspired by Renaissance models that, in turn, were loosely based on the Roman Pantheon. Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello, looks like a Roman temple. The Founders’ sculpture and painting were also inspired by Roman precedents. It is not unusual to see George Washington adorned in a toga.
The Founders were fascinated by the fall of the Western Empire and took the lessons from that fall and applied those lessons to the American cause. They were especially concerned that luxury would lead to the undoing of republican virtue.
Moreover, the Romans went through a dramatic passage from a somewhat “foreign” monarchy (the Etruscans) to the republic — just as Americans did at our Founding, when we separated from an increasingly foreign and tyrannical British monarchy. (The Georges, recall, were Hanoverians.)
The Founders had ideas of what a good empire could be — e.g., Jefferson’s Empire of Liberty — that borrowed from the universal ideals of the Roman Empire. But our Founders also warned that empires can injure freedom if there are few checks and balances. The dictatorial or absolute rulers who emerged during the Roman civil wars and Roman Empire provided antimodels, examples of the Hell we should never descend into.
Many Southern aristocrats identified with the ancient Romans because of the institution of slavery. Many Northern yankees feared that slavery hurt the development of a middle-class economy, so they took away another lesson from ancient Rome.
Bread and circuses — today’s bridge cards and ESPN — may also be relevant to our experience as Americans, as they tend to keep civil unrest to a minimum because unemployed and underemployed people are fed and entertained and even have a vicarious outlet for frustration, anger, and violence.
The Roman Eras
