According to Roman mythology, Mars, god of war, and a [human woman] were the parents of Romulus, who founded the city named after himself.
A new system of government emerged in Rome in the 6th century BCE. The kings were expelled and their leadership replaced by a “republic” / res publica: “thing of the people”, rule by representatives chosen by citizens entitled to vote.
We should recognize that the Romans weren’t expelling the rule of a human dynasty.
They were expelling the supervision of a national divinity over humans via the god’s Prophet – Priest – King: Spokesman – Intercessor–Sovereign over Life and Death.
In other words, the democratic Greeks and republican Romans were Humanists, assuming jurisdiction over determining right and wrong, rewards and punishments.
Cicero, the great Roman orator, became the core example for the Humanists...a huge amount of classical Greek knowledge was now worked in to Roman politics and society.
Rome had no single constitutional office, title or rank exactly equivalent to the English title “Roman emperor”. Romans of the Imperial, i.e. conquering / expanding era, had a number of offices fixed by the pre-Imperial, Republican era.
When Octavian, as Imperator / Successful Commander-In-Chief of the Roman army ended not only the latest 14 years of civil war but a century of a series of civil wars between those for and those against dictatorial rule, as the winner he naturally focused on consolidating power. Successful generals – imperators – were regularly elected to the offices of consul and censor and granted permanent privileges as princeps senatus (leader of the Senate) and the religious office of pontifex maximus (chief priest of the College of Pontiffs).
However, Octavian achieved an extraordinary concentration of what had been separate powers and offices that were extant in the Republic, while maintaining the illusion that the Republic remained intact because these offices remained intact. His power – bequeathed to his successors – derived from his auctoritas. He had the right to enact or revoke sentences of capital punishment, could save any plebeian from any patrician magistrate’s decision. He could veto any act.
Does that ever sound familiar post-election 2025.
Unpacking the Titles of Augustus: Wordplay and Double Meanings
Octavian turned to his facility at propaganda. What he did was to take on not just one name or title, but a plethora of them, each of which individually didn’t seem that intimidating or autocratic, but which collectively bestowed unprecedented status and prestige upon him. All of these roles either had republican precedents or were based on long-standing cultural concepts, so that it appeared Octavian was respectful of tradition.
It had long been the custom for a general to be hailed with shouts of “Imperator!” / Victorious General after a notable battlefield victory, but Augustus took on this originally spontaneous acclamation as a permanent part of his formal name. It is the root of the English word “emperor”, “empire” and “imperial”.
When we speak of Roman emperors, we are picking one of their many titles and using it as a shorthand for all of their titles. After Octavian established the precedent all subsequent emperors claimed the same constellation of roles.
One of the most interesting of these was the title of Augustus, bestowed upon Octavian by a vote of the Senate. On the one hand, to describe someone as “augustus” simply indicated that he was a deeply pious individual who was filled with respect for the gods. On the other, Augustus had a distinctly religious connotation as it was applied to deities. Augustus wanted to be seen as a god and after his death was included in the Roman pantheon.
The duality of this term is typical of the extraordinary facility that Octavian possessed for manipulating words and images to promote himself and his reign.
Princeps is the root of the English word “prince.” The honorific princeps civitatis, like the word augustus, embodies contradictory meanings that can be viewed alternately as expressions of modesty or self-aggrandizement.
Augustus also had bestowed upon himself the title Pater Patriae, meaning “Father of the Country. This seems like a warm and fuzzy acknowledgment that he cared deeply about his metaphorical children, however, in Roman culture, the father was a figure of enormous authority and dignity who wielded absolute power over the members of his family—even to kill them.
Augustus absorbed the ancient title of Pontifex Maximus as the ultimate ruling title, indicating both religious and political power over ancient Rome. His successors also held this position until Gratian surrendered it in AD 382 to Pope Siricius.)
Augustus actively prepared his adopted son Tiberius to be his successor…Once in power, Tiberius took considerable pains to, like his predecessor, observe the forms and day-to-day substance of republican government.
After the fall of Constantinople the Roman cultural and imperial heritage was always subject to dispute. The race for prestige and legitimacy was forcing different eastern or European monarchies and dictatorships to declare themselves as the new Rome / 3rd Rome throughout the Middle Ages, with notable competition between the Germanic, Russian, and Ottoman Empires.
Following the Renaissance Movement during the 14th – 17th centuries Rome’s republican form of government was reborn starting with the the American Revolution against England (1775–83), followed by the French Revolution’s (1789) First French Republic of 1792-1804.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands.”
We need to recognize that “it is the US that came closest to the pedestal of the 3rd Rome, with its cultural, political, historical, geopolitical aspects.
The comparison we are building can be divided into two historical cycles,
- the foundation of the US is compared to the Roman republic
- and the modern US to Imperial Rome.
The Founding Fathers gathered in the summer of 1787 to draft a new constitution for the young United States after America’s independence was won in the Revolutionary War. While Enlightenment ideals of many European political philosophers influenced the drafting of the Constitution, another key influence on the Founding Fathers came from classical antiquity. The large scopes of the Roman Republic and Empire as well as the Athenian Empire largely shaped the Europe that the Founding Fathers were born and reared in…[shaping their] political thought from the establishment of the Twelve Tables circa 450 B.C.E. to the fall of the Republic under Caesar by 46 B.C.E.
Outside of the Constitution Convention, the Founders used classical rhetoric to foment the American Revolution…to portray the British Empire as dictatorial…From the 1760s until the Revolution, Americans would characterize the British as “the Rome of the corrupt tyranny of the most hated Caesars” in a process of Nerofication of the British Empire.
Founding Fathers and the Roman influence on them
In their book published by Yale University Press, a distinguished historian and a political economist unravel the “uncanny parallels” between ancient Rome and the modern West. In a frank parallel, the property that became the capitol of the United States was originally called Rome, with the express intention of establishing Rome’s legacy in the New World, which has been realized, as Washington is being considered the New Rome by some parties at this time.
Jefferson…noted… “I am immersed in antiquities from morning to night. For me the city of Rome is actually existing in all the splendor of its empire [as the capitol of the United States of America.].
All of the the founding fathers were well educated people and the classical education was almost fully based on the Roman and Greek studies. Their heroes were the Roman republicans and defenders of liberty. All of the Founders’ Roman heroes lived at a time when the Roman republic was being threatened by power-hungry demagogues, bloodthirsty dictators and shadowy conspirators. The Founders’ principal Roman heroes were Roman statesmen: Cato the Younger, Brutus, Cassius and Cicero — all of whom sacrificed their lives in unsuccessful endeavors to save the republic․
The political vocabulary they used — republic, virtue, president, capitol, constitution, Senate — had Latin etymology. The legislative processes they utilized — veto, sine die — were Latin.
The Founders’ and Framers’ noms de plume were Roman…They were consciously identified with Roman models of republican virtue. So:
- George Washington: others were calling him American Cincinnatus. While he preferred to call himself Cato the Younger,
- John Adams was called Cicero, the greatest attorney of the ancient world,
- Besides their differences with Adams, Thomas Jefferson was called Cicero too,
- James Madison was known as Publius (Valerius Publicola),
- Alexander Hamilton was most surprisingly identified with Caesar.
- John Jay, the first Chief Justice of the United States, was identified with Publius (Cornelius Tacitus).
The Ciceronian school of political thought has been studied for two millennia and found its culmination in the American Constitution…There can be no doubt that Cicero’s republican ideology found its way into the American Constitution and that the liberties people enjoy today have their roots not in an inspired gathering of the Founding Fathers, but in a more ancient time, in the Republic of Rome…Cicero gave Adams the idea of “a mixed constitution of three branches” each restrained by a delicate equilibrium of checks and balances.
- Executive Branch: In times of peace, the executive branch of the ancient Rome comprised two consuls, elected by Roman landowners for 1 year terms. At all times, the executive branch also contained various bureaucrats who were in charge of arranging festivals and conducting censuses. The same system was used in The USA, President, & Vice President similar to the two consuls and the government similar to bureaucrats.
- Legislative: The most influential members of the legislature in Rome were those in the Senate. This large body of elected land owners decided how state money was spent and what projects were viable for state funding. The Senate also took control of foreign policy in particular, the many wars Rome was engaged in as it expanded its territory. In this case similarities are more than obvious, the modern US Senate generally speaking has the same role and rights as the ancient Roman, even the name of this institution was not changed. By the way, today very often Senators are nominated and elected as presidents just like it was with the counsels in Rome.
- Judicial: The judicial branch of ancient Rome was very similar to the modern US courts…particularly the Supreme Court of modern-day America. Six judges were elected on an annual basis to administer the law of the land to those who broke it…the Roman judiciary could actively create sentences and punishments instead of merely following the past precedent or the sentencing law handed down from the legislative and executive branches, however the right of the constitutional court to interpret the constitution and the laws is somehow the transformed form of the creational jurisprudence of Rome.The citizenship and professional armies are another remarkable similarity. The Citizenship of Rome was the prototype for the “New” idea of equal and free citizens in the US. The citizens in both places have rights that are differentiating them from the rest of the world in the eyes of the state. And last but not least, the first model of the professional army much before it was created in the US was the Roman Legion.
The educational system of the new nation was based on classical texts like Ovid’s De Tristibus and Metamorphoses and Cicero’s Orations – beginning in a grammar school student’s fourth year, continuing into the American colleges and universities established where one-third of the curriculum was devoted to the classics. The admission requirements for Williams, Brown, King’s College, Yale, and Harvard were identical from 1790 to 1800; students needed to read Cicero, Virgil and the New Testament in Greek…
There is a direct parallel between writing amendments to the Constitutions that strengthened, through centralization, the power of the existing Republican governments in both Rome and Washington during
- the Roman Conflict of the Orders resulting from the wealthy Roman aristocratic landowners claiming the right to enslave indebted plebeians
- and the American Civil War resulting from the wealthy plantation owners claiming the right to own slaves.
Roman symbolism in USA
It is not too much of a stretch to assert that the buildings and monuments lining the National Mall in Washington, D.C. with their stately, classical architecture might resemble a Roman colony.
Some perfect examples are listed below:
- Perhaps the most obvious example of this lies in the Supreme Court building. Cas Gilbert’s design draws its inspiration from Roman temples. The staircase, raised podium and the columns would not be out of place in the Roman Republic.
- Similarly, the white marble on the Supreme Court and throughout Washington, D.C., was consciously selected to mimic the architectural splendor of ancient Rome.
- The Capitol, White House, Thomas Jefferson’s memorial were loosely based on the Roman Architecture.
The same logic works not only in architecture but also in arts and symbols of the time of young American republic:
- The Founders’ sculpture and painting were also inspired by Roman precedents. It is not unusual to see them adorned in a toga.
- The Roman Eagle was transformed into the great seal of the USA.
The US Capital is identified even with Rome’s geography. In Washington, D.C., Capitol Hill alludes to one of the Seven Hills of Rome. Almost all political and law terminology was also copied from the Latin roots.
At the end another aspect should be mentioned – the Law.
After the fall of Rome, the US became the first state to be fully led by laws. After the fall of the ancient world the idea of the rule of law was forgotten and the Term “right” was used only with some religious context. The US became the first modern state to be fully governed by elected authorities. The idea of a civilized society where no one is higher than law, where all interpersonal relations can be regulated by law where the state was not affiliated with certain people but rather with a system (together with above mentioned) was the renaissance of Romanism…
Therefore, the American Republic is hardly a new idea and is in fact a mere innovation of a far more ancient political system: The Roman Republic.
The federal government grew enormously in power and prestige, particularly the office of the President. Abraham Lincoln’s assertion of the “war powers” of the President has been used (abused) consistently by his successors to spread American “democracy”. And which red-blooded American can argue against that most noble of objectives.
The Pax romana or the Roman peace was the eventual product of the international relations in antiquity, and one of the key factors for the followers to dream about. The role of Rome as the Global Dominant in the international relations forced all the political issues to be solved under the auspice of the Republic.
This was transformed into what many scientists call Pax Americana or American peace.
“Imperialism” is an accurate description of the trajectory of US history, starting with the country’s expansion across North America, stealing territory and resources from Indian nations, killing and starving out entire nations. What we are seeing in 2023-2025 in Gaza Strip is simply a replay of the past.
The 1803 Louisiana Purchase from France – in reality a political pay-off to stop the Appalachian French and Indian War from expanding west – effectively doubled its territory from the Gulf of Mexico north into parts of the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan, west to the Rocky Mountains for unrestricted holocaust of the native peoples who lived there.
In 1819, Florida was acquired from Spain and, in 1845-46, Texas and part of California were forcibly annexed from Mexico. All lethal acquisitions accorded with what became known as the country’s manifest—that is, clear and obvious—destiny to control the entire continent.
The country went on to gobble up the Philippines, Hawaii, the Panama Canal Zone, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the Mariana Islands, the last five of which remain US territories to this day.
US economic, military, and political influence has long extended far beyond those internationally recognized possessions and various presidents have enunciated a series of “doctrines” to legitimate such an imperial reach. In 1823 the Monroe Doctrine warned the nations of Europe that the United States would not permit the establishment of any new colonies in the Western Hemisphere.
In 1904 Theodore Roosevelt established America’s right to exercise international police power to justify US occupations of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Nicaragua.
In 1947 Harry S. Truman’ Doctrine required the “containment” of existing Communist states and the prevention of the further spread of Communism anywhere on Earth, leading to interventions in the internal struggles of Greece and Turkey, underpinning Washington’s support for dictators and repressive regimes from El Salvador to Indonesia, justifying US-backed coups in places like Iran, Guatemala, and Chile, and leading this country into a futile war in Korea and a disastrous defeat in Vietnam.
From a biblical perspective we can identify any ruler of Daniel’s Fourth Empire by his role at Jerusalem as a foreign overlord on whose military alliance the current ruler of Israel depends for power, overriding YHVH’s authority as ruler and peacemaker.
Since then, Israel has become, and remains, America’s most reliable partner in the Middle East. Israel and the United States are bound closely by historic and cultural ties as well as by mutual interests.
The U.S.-Israel bilateral relationship is anchored by over $3 billion in Foreign Military Financing annually, by far the largest to any nation. In addition to financial support, the U.S. participates in a high level of exchanges with Israel, to include joint military exercises, military research, and weapons development.
The U.S. is Israel’s largest single trading partner. The U.S. and Israel also coordinate scientific and cultural exchanges through the Binational Science Foundation, the Binational Agricultural Research and Development Foundation, and the U.S.-Israeli Education Foundation.
Again, we find this is a continuation of Roman history. Judaea, now part of modern day Israel, had been a Roman ally since the second century BC, incorporated into Rome’s empire as a province in 6 AD.
Kingdom Come 