Cicero denounces Catiline, who sought to overthrow the Roman Republic, in a fresco by Cesare Maccari, 1889. (Wikimedia Commons)Classical history has often served as a touchstone for modern Western governments, both in times of crisis and in periods of growth. It has become a cliché to suggest that recent crises recall the last days of the Roman Empire, but a more plausible analogy would be to the Roman Republic, when the divide between ordinary folk (plebeians) and the elite (patricians) became an enduring source of political conflict.
Of course, the tremendous advances in the freedoms and opportunities available to ordinary people demands the exercise of caution in comparing contemporary divisions with the classical world. Nevertheless, there is a certain element of resonance in contemporary European politics and the classical world.
