Question

What parallels do you see between the role of thinkers, scientists, and artists in ancient Rome and in America today? Why do you think this is?

Answer 1

I discovered that a key moment in Roman history was a very little-discussed raid by pirates on the Port of Rome at Ostia.

Rome was at that point the dominant world superpower, and there was no state in the world that would ever have dared to attack Rome. But the Romans were attacked by a group of stateless desperados who set fire to the Port. The flames may well have been visible in Rome itself. And this sent a shockwave through Rome, because if pirates could strike that close to the imperial capital, nowhere was safe.

And in this panicky atmosphere - an atmosphere of panic, I might say, which was deliberately whipped up by ambitious politicians - the Roman people took a series of fatal steps, surrendering some of their liberties and some of their control over their government. And in doing so, they sewed the seeds of the destruction of their own democracy.

And the more I looked at that event, the more it seemed familiar to me and the parallel with 9/11 - and in particular the response to it.