Are We Rome?

by Cullen Murphy

  22 like the guides and hawkers: Casson, Travel in the Ancient World, pp. 262–291.

  “Historians tell us”: Freud, Civilization and Its Discontents, pp. 42–43.

  23 a psychic device: Ibid., p. 44.

  1. THE CAPITALS

  24 “Remember, Roman”: Virgil, Aeneid, 6.851–853.

  “the indispensable nation”: Quoted in Bob Herbert, “War Games,” New York Times, February 22, 1998, among many other sources.

  drew its last breath: Information about the events of 476 A.D. is drawn from Geoffrey Nathan, “The Last Emperor: The Fate of Romulus Augustulus,” Classica et Mediaevalia 43 (1992), pp. 261–271, and Ralph W. Mathisen and Geoffrey Nathan, “Romulus Augustulus (475–476 A.D.)—Two Views,” De Imperatoribus Romanis: An Online Encyclopedia of Roman Emperors. See also Bury, Invasion of Europe, pp. 166–183; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. 2, pp. 321–347; and Heather, Fall of the Roman Empire, pp. 427–430.

  25 “I can neither forget nor express”: Gibbon, Memoirs, p. 134.

  “Odoacer was the first barbarian”: Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. 2, pp. 344–346.

  26 in many ways a sad and lonely one: Martine Watson Brownley, “Gibbon: The Formation of Mind and Character,” Daedalus 105, no. 3 (Summer 1976), pp. 13–25.

  He observes gratuitously: Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. 2, p. 785 (fn. 63).

  27 “On Broad Potowmack’s bank”: David Humphreys, “A Poem on the Future Glory of the United States of America,” 1804. Quoted in Kenneth R. Bowling, “A Capital Before a Capitol,” in Kennon, ed., Republic for the Ages, pp. 36–54.

  settlement’s early years: For some of Washington’s Roman architectural antecedents, see Larry Van Dyne, “If These Stones Could Talk,” Washingtonian, October 2002.

  28 “shall not wholly die”: Horace, Odes, 3.30, line 6.

  reconstructing the landscape: See, for instance, Hare, Walks in Rome, passim.

  29 Several centuries as a monarchy: The basic outline of Roman history is available in any number of excellent modern surveys. Two relied on here are Goodman, Roman World, and Potter, Roman Empire at Bay.

  growth in maritime commerce: Keith Hopkins, “Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire (200 B.C.–A.D. 400),” Journal of Roman Studies 70 (1980), pp. 101–125.

  more than a million people: Lancon, Rome in Late Antiquity, p. 14; Carcopino, Daily Life, p. 65.

  30 Going back to those shipwrecks: Keith Hopkins, “Taxes and Trade in the Roman Empire (200 B.C.–A.D. 400),” Journal of Roman Studies 70 (1980), pp. 101–125.

  columns of colored marble: Dale Kinney, “Roman Architectural Spolia,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 145, no. 2 (June 2001), pp. 138–150.

  cattle were smaller: Ward-Perkins, Fall of Rome, p. 145.

  A racist theoretician: Jasper Griffen, “Greeks, Romans, Jews & Others,” New York Review of Books, March 16, 1989.

  “Let students of Rome’s decline”: Kagan, End of the Roman Empire, p. viii.

  In 1980, a German historian: The historian is Alexander Demandt. His 1984 book Der Fall Roms is cited in MacMullen, Corruption, p. ix; Ward-Perkins, Fall of Rome, p. 33; and elsewhere.

  31 “evils of a long peace”: Juvenal, Satires, 6.292.

  “There will never be an end”: Quoted in Jones, Later Roman Empire, p. 1025.

  “defend the empire by praying for it”: Origen, Contra Celsum, 8.73.

  “too many idle mouths”: Jones, Later Roman Empire, p. 1045.

  32 here’s Nixon on the subject: Quoted in Jasper Griffen, “Greeks, Romans, Jews & Others,” New York Review of Books, March 16, 1989.

  decline-of-Rome explanations: For concise summaries of the various theories about the Roman Empire’s decline, see (among many possible sources) MacMullen, Corruption, pp. 1–57; Jones, Later Roman Empire, pp. 1025–1068; Heather, Fall of the Roman Empire, pp. 443459; and Ferrill, Fall of the Roman Empire, pp. 10–22. Excerpts from the arguments of a range of historians are collected in Kagan, End of the Roman Empire.

  33 sack of the city by Alaric: Ferrill, Fall of the Roman Empire, p. 103.

  “The brightest light”: Quoted in Ward-Perkins, Fall of Rome, p. 28.

  took a toll on Rome’s water supply: Lancon, Rome in Late Antiquity, pp. 14–15; Robert Coates-Stephens, “The Walls and Aqueducts of Rome in the Early Middle Ages, A.D. 500–1000,” Journal of Roman Studies 88 (1998), pp. 166–178; Llewellyn, Rome in the Dark Ages, pp. 78–108.

  began to plunder itself for spolia: Dale Kinney, “Roman Architectural Spolia,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 145, no. 2 (June 2001), pp. 138–150. See also Joseph Alchermes, “Spolia in Roman Cities of the Late Empire,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 48 (1994), pp. 167–178; Beat Brenk, “Spolia from Constantine to Charlemagne: Aesthetics versus Ideology,” Dumbarton Oaks Papers 41, (1987), pp. 103–109.

  34 The process of reversion: The vegetal reclamation of some American inner cities has been chronicled in numerous press accounts. See, for instance, Naomi R. Patton, “Green Idea in Wayne County,” Detroit Free Press, February 28, 2006; Bill McGraw, “Nature Restakes Its Claim as Trees Grow on Rooftops in Downtown Detroit,” Detroit Free Press, May 17, 2001; Rochelle Riley, “Vacant Lot Blooms into Good Example,” Detroit Free Press, July 21, 2003.

  a sentence sagging with judgment and resignation: Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. 2, p. 438.

  35 “I shall scarcely give my consent”: Quoted in Craddock, Edward Gibbon, p. 114. See also Eliga H. Gould, “American Independence and Britain’s Counter-Revolution,” Past and Present, no. 154 (February 1997), pp. 107–141.

  introduced to . . . Benjamin Franklin: Swain, Edward Gibbon the Historian, p. 83.

  36 steeped in the Roman code of virtus: Richard Brookhiser, “A Man on Horseback,” Atlantic Monthly, January 1996. Brookhiser’s book Founding Father discusses George Washington and the colonial view of Rome at length. See also L. R. Lind, “Concept, Action, and Character: The Reasons for Rome’s Greatness,” Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association 103 (1972), pp. 235–283.

  as one historian sums it up: S. E. Smethurst, “The Growth of the Roman Legend,” Phoenix 3, no. 1 (Spring 1949), pp. 1–14.

  The Roman who epitomized republican ideals: Plutarch, Lives, vol. 8, pp. 237–411.

  37 stamped indelibly on the rhetoric: Addison, Cato, 4.4; 2.4.

  looked to preimperial Rome: Gummere, American Colonial Mind, pp. 173–190.

  38 epitome of America’s Roman ideal: Richard Brookhiser, “A Man on Horseback,” Atlantic Monthly, January 1996.

  obsessed with surveying: Dilke, Greek & Roman Maps, pp. 87–101.

  an order from an English dealer: Gummere, American Colonial Mind, p. 15.

  At Valley Forge: Brookhiser, Founding Father, p. 153.

  39 As the story goes: Livy, History of Rome, 3.26.

  “In two days”: Quoted in Wills, Cincinnatus, p. 36.

  a massive marble Washington: Ibid., pp. 67–72.

  stock form of public presentation: Michael Lind, “The Second Fall of

  Rome,” Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2000.

  Thomas Cole’s allegorical series: Stephen L. Dyson, “Rome in America,” in Hingley, ed., Images of Rome, pp. 57–69.

  40 a pirate attack on Rome’s port: Robert Harris, “Pirates of the Mediterranean,” New York Times, September 30, 2006.

  postpone national elections: Michael Isikoff, “Election Day Worries,” Newsweek, July 19, 2004. See also Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, “Few Will Discuss Postponing Vote if Terror Strikes,” Los Angeles Times, July 22, 2004.

  enter homes without knocking: David Stout, “Court Ruling Signals New Conservative Tilt,” International Herald Tribune, June 16, 2006.

  leaks of classified information: Adam Liptak, “Gonzales Says Prosecutions of Journalists Possible,” New York Times, May 22, 2006; Stuart Taylor Jr., “Dumb and Dumber,” National Journal, May 27, 2006.

  “unitary executive theory”: Christopher S. Kelley, “Rethinkin
g Presidential Power—the Unitary Executive and the George W. Bush Presidency,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 2005. See also Paul Starobin, “Long Live the King!” National Journal, February 18, 2006, pp. 18–27; Christopher S. Yoo, Steven G. Calabresi, and Anthony Colangelo, “The Unitary Executive in the Modern Era, 1945–2004,” Iowa Law Review 90, no. 2, pp. 601–731.

  41 the president has added signing statements: Charlie Savage, “Cheney Aide Is Screening Legislation,” Boston Globe, May 28, 2006; Jane Mayer, “The Hidden Power,” The New Yorker, July 3, 2006.

  couldn’t get access to materials: Cassius Dio, Roman History, 53.19.3.

  its undercover operatives: William G. Sinnigen, “The Roman Secret Service,” Classical Journal 57, no. 2 (November 1961), pp. 65–72.

  a vignette of entrapment: Epictetus, Discourses, 4.13.5.

  a program known as Echelon: Susan Stellin, “Terror’s Confounding Online Trail,” New York Times, March 28, 2002. A number of Web sites purport to offer lists of key words the Echelon program listens for. See, for instance, www.ratbags.com/loon/2002/06echelon.htm and www.freerepublic.com/forum/a3bi842da7942.htm.

  42 Some of them . . . are self-explanatory: Kieren McCarthy, “What Are Those Words That Trigger Echelon?” The Register, May 31, 2001.

  which bore the name Carnivore: Susan Stellin, “Terror’s Confounding Online Trail,” New York Times, March 28, 2002.

  sifts tens of millions: James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, “Bush Lets U.S. Spy on Callers Without Courts,” New York Times, December 16, 2005; Leslie Cauley, “NSA Has Massive Database of Americans’ Phone Calls,” USA Today, May 11, 2006.

  as James Madison observed: Madison, Letters of Helvidius, p. 36.

  “The debates in the convention”: Irons, War Powers, pp. 3–4, 11–27.

  no president has ever sought: Leslie Gelb and Anne-Marie Slaughter, “Declare War,” Atlantic Monthly, November 2005.

  43 “I’m the commander”: Bob Woodward, “A Course of ‘Confident Action,’” Washington Post, November 19, 2002.

  44 originated in the study of old maps: J. B. Harley, “Maps, Knowledge, and Power,” in Cosgrove and Daniels, eds., Iconography of Landscape, pp. 277–312. For the application to Rome, see C. R. Whittaker, Rome and Its Frontiers, p. 78.

  today would be considered “branding”: William L. MacDonald, “Empire Imagery in Augustan Architecture,” in Archaeologia Transatlantica V (1985). A full-length and meticulously illustrated treatment of the subject is Favro, Urban Image of Augustan Rome.

  in the very center of Rome: Diane Favro, “Pater urbis: Augustus as City Father of Rome,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 51, no. 1 (March 1992), pp. 61–84.

  a sundial the size of a football field . . . “The whole universe”: John R. Patterson, “The City of Rome: From Republic to Empire,” Journal of Roman Studies 82 (1992), pp. 186–215; Favro, Urban Image of Augustan Rome, pp. 260–264.

  an oration in the Athenaeum: Aelius Aristides, “Regarding Rome,” in Behr, Aristides in Four Volumes, vol. 2, pp. 11–13.

  Vitruvius took up the same theme: Williams, Romans and Barbarians, p. 85.

  45 cartloads of garbage: Favro, Urban Image of Augustan Rome, p. 255.

  mountains of brick: Scholarship on the Roman brick industry is extensive. See Shawn Graham, “Ex Figlinis: The Network Dynamics of the Tiber Valley Brick Industry in the Hinterland of Rome,” British Archaeological Reports, 2006; Shawn Graham, “Of Lumberjacks and Brick Stamps: Working with the Tiber as Infrastructure,” in MacMahon and Price, eds., Roman Working Lives, pp. 106–124; Janet DeLaine, “The Baths of Caracalla: A Study in the Design, Construction, and Economics of Large-Scale Building Projects in Imperial Rome,” Journal of Roman Archaeology, Supplementary Series 25 (1997); Meiggs, Trees and Timber; and Adam, Roman Building Materials.

  single burn of a limestone kiln: Hughes, Pan’s Travail, p. 126.

  The docks at Ostia: Ibid., p. 84. See also Meiggs, Roman Ostia, pp. 8–10; plate 1.

  The biggest component of the city’s prodigious intake: For a comprehensive general description of the annona and its operations, see Rickman, Corn Supply of Ancient Rome.

  46 “The desired spectacle”: Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. 1, p. 81.

  near the Porta Maggiore: Favro, Urban Image of Augustan Rome, p. 94.

  work force required for the baking of bread: Jones, Later Roman Empire, pp. 699–701; Rickman, Corn Supply of Ancient Rome, pp. 204–209.

  When Alaric laid siege to Rome: Ferrill, Fall of the Roman Empire, p. 103.

  47 they erected large public maps: Williams, Romans and Barbarians, pp. 83–84. Dilke, Greek & Roman Maps, pp. 39–54.

  At regular points along every roadway: Casson, Travel in the Ancient World, p. 173; Adkins and Adkins, Handbook to Life in Ancient Rome, pp. 182–183.

  A monument in the capital: Everett L. Wheeler, “Methodological Limits and the Mirage of Roman Strategy: Part II,” Journal of Military History 57, no. 2 (April 1993), pp. 215–240.

  steady traffic in artwork: Casson, Travel in the Ancient World, pp. 247–251.

  48 replace the heads with their own: Balsdon, Romans & Aliens, p. 178.

  its Augustan phase began only in the twentieth century: Relevant studies of the creation of modern Washington include Abbott, Political Terrain, and Ricci, Transformation of American Politics. The source for economic and demographic data on the capital region is Stephen Fuller, director of the Center for Regional Analysis, George Mason University.

  49 “Only the residents of Washington”: Garreau, Nine Nations of North America, p. 101.

  the Great Game of foreign affairs and espionage: Abbott, Political Terrain, p. 137.

  50 analysis of Washington phone books: Ibid., p. 153.

  Ads for one Washington bank: “Background on Riggs Bank,” washingtonpost.com, February 17, 2005.

  Washington’s power-lunch restaurant: Tucker Carlson, “Power Host to Power Brokers in the Power Capital,” New York Times, June 5, 2002.

  a four-part series: Allan Fotheringham, “Honeymoon May Be Over Before Clinton Says Vows,” Financial Post, January 19, 1993.

  time obeys: Monte Reel, “Where Timing Truly Is Everything,” Washington Post, July 22, 2003.

  “Once within the confines”: Greenfield, Washington, pp. 28–29.

  51 new buildings behind old façades: Paul L. Knox, “The Restless Urban Landscape: Economic and Cultural Change and the Transformation of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 81, no. 2 (June 1991), pp. 181–209.

  Washington’s wounded riposte: Shaw, Caesar and Cleopatra, p. 121.

  Petty’s seventeenth-century Political Arithmetick: Alonso and Starr, Politics of Numbers, p. 14.

  program known as Total Information Awareness: Shane Harris, “TIA Lives On,” National Journal, February 25, 2006.

  52 In locations throughout the city: Anita Huslin, “If These Walls Could Talk . . . ,” Washington Post, May 28, 2006.

  53 as much as 30 percent of the nightly network news . . . Of the 414 stories: Andrew Tyndall, Tyndall Report. New York: ADT Research (www.tyndallreport.com/).

  “luxury-skybox view”: James Wolcott, “Mighty Mouths,” The New Yorker, December 26, 1993-January 2, 1994.

  the political week in Washington: James Fallows, “Did You Have a Good Week?” Atlantic Monthly, December 1994. See also James Fallows, “The New Celebrities in Washington,” New York Review of Books, June 12, 1986.

  54 when Rome still had functioning electoral elements: Andrew Lintott, “Electoral Bribery in the Roman Republic,” Journal of Roman Studies 80 (1990), pp. 1–16.

  thought of Washington as an island: Abbott, Political Terrain, p. 4.

  Eisenhower complained: Ibid., p. 3.

  how isolating Washington is: Evan Thomas and Richard Wolffe, “Bush in the Bubble,” Newsweek, December 19, 2005.

  Dick Cheney’s travel requirements: Elisabeth Bum
iller, “Cheney’s Needs on the Road: What, No NPR?” New York Times, March 23, 2006.

  antibacterial gel: Mark Leibovich, “In Clean Politics, Flesh Is Pressed, Then Sanitized,” New York Times, October 28, 2006.

  55 “the off-scourings of the city”: Livy, quoted in Emily Gowers, “The Anatomy of Rome from Capitol to Cloaca,” Journal of Roman Studies 85 (1995), pp. 23–32.

  the drains of the Colosseum: John R. Patterson, “The City of Rome: From Republic to Empire,” Journal of Roman Studies 82 (1992), pp. 186–215.

  “They contend with each other”: Gibbon, Decline and Fall, vol. 2, p. 140. See also MacMullen, Roman Social Relations, p. 106.

  the grandeur sought by . . . Kim Jong Il: Sang-Hun Choe, “North Korean Leader’s Many Titles,” Associated Press, March 8, 2004.

  during the Kennedy administration: Cullen Murphy, “Feeling Entitled?” Atlantic Monthly, March 2005.

  the quest for gloria: Cicero, De Re Publica, 5.7.

  Romans spelled out their achievements: Robert K. Sherk, “Roman Geographical Exploration and Military Maps,” Aufstieg und Niedergang der romischen Welt 2, no.1 (1974), pp. 534–562.

  56 a statement of good taste: Anne Leen, “Cicero and the Rhetoric of Art,” American Journal of Philology 112, no. 2 (Summer 1991), pp. 229–245.

  “Its spectacular glass and columned façade”: Paul L. Knox, “The Restless Urban Landscape: Economic and Cultural Change and the Transformation of Metropolitan Washington, D.C.,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 8i, no. 2 ( June 1991), pp. 181–209.

  applause in the law courts: W. G. Runciman, “Capitalism Without Classes: The Case of Imperial Rome,” British Journal of Sociology 34, no. 2 (June 1983), pp. 157–181.