Romans in America

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 20 January 2025

⏱️ 38 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why was there once a fashion for styling your hair like Brutus, the most famous of Julius Caesar's assassins? Why are there so many neoclassical buildings in the United States? And how was the Ancient Roman Empire once used as a justification for the system of enslavement?

Find out in this episode, as Don is joined by Caroline Winterer, William Robertson Coe Professor of History and American Studies at Stanford University. Caroline is the author of five books, most recently 'How the New World Became Old: The Deep Time Revolution in America'.

Produced by Sophie Gee. Edited by Aidan Lonergan. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	In the North Carolina State Capitol, light streams through the windows of the Central Dome,
0:07.0	illuminating a marble figure, reclining with quiet dignity on a nearly six-foot-tall plinth.
0:13.9	The figure, carved in Roman military armor, displays toned legs, arms, and an exposed navel, partially draped in a heavy robe
0:24.4	cascading over his left arm. In his right hand, he holds a marble pen, poised above a tablet
0:31.6	in his left. Inscribed upon the tablet are the words, George Washington, to the people of the United States, 1796,
0:40.7	Friends and Citizens.
0:43.1	It is the first president of the United States,
0:45.8	immortalized in stone,
0:47.4	as he drafts his 1796 farewell address.
0:51.1	Yet his attire, a style
0:53.2	two millennia outdated, was not of his choosing. This romanized
0:58.5	vision was the directive of Thomas Jefferson, who commissioned the Italian sculptor Antonio
1:04.0	Konova for the original work. Jefferson, favoring classical ideals, dismissed contemporary
1:10.6	fashion, writing,
1:12.7	As to the style or costume, I am sure the artist and every person of taste in Europe would be for the Roman.
1:20.5	Our boots and regimentals have a very puny effect.
1:35.9	Yeah. puny effect. Hey there, nice to have you with us. I'm Don Wildman, and this is American History Hit.
1:40.7	The Roman Empire lasted for about 500 years, from 27 BC to 476 AD. It reached from northern Africa,
1:49.2	around the Mediterranean, including the Balkan, Italian, and Iberian Peninsula all the way to the
1:54.4	British Isles. It was not the largest empire in human history, but for Western civilization,
2:00.1	it was certainly the most influential.
2:02.3	What happened in Rome, lessons of civic governance, among others, did not stay in Rome. It spread
	...

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