Barry Strauss, chair of the Department of History at Cornell University, editor of “The Princeton History of the Ancient World” series and author of 11 books on military history with a focus on Greece and Rome, comments on speculation that the lessons of ancient Rome show the current U.S. government shutdown crisis is a sign of the American republic at its end.
Strauss says:
“The analogy with the Late Roman Republic is striking but, fortunately, we're not nearly that bad.
“The Romans had decades of state-sanctioned violence, coups and counter-coups, and military dictatorship before they reached the standoff between Cato and Caesar. The current standoff is more a case of ineptitude and jockeying for the next election.
“Ours is a case of ‘this too, shall pass.’ At least, that's how it seems to me.”
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