– Really Joe?

In an interview broadcasted the 15^th of October 2023, when asked if the US could take at the same time its support for both wars, in Ukraine and Israel, President Biden answered “We’re the United States of America for God’s sake, the most powerful nation in the history — not in the world, in the history of the world”[1].

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_{^{[1] https://x.com/JoeBiden/status/1713924134885904577?lang=en}}

This assertion, filled with hubris, brings to not a few people, like me, a comparison that has been frequently made between the United States and Rome. When thinking of the U.S. there are many things that recall ancient Rome beginning with its power and influence all around the world but not only. There are some other details, although maybe minors, that resemble the old superpower. The former has its Capitol Hill (the seat of the U.S. government, on Jenkin’s Hill, in Washington D. C.), the latter had its Capitolium (the temple of Jupiter); the first mentioned became a Republic once achieved its independence, the second one became a Republic after eliminating the Monarchy (from Etruscan lineage); the U.S. is, de facto, an Empire, Rome was, by law, an Empire; the influence of the U.S. worldwide seem to equal that of Rome, politically, economically, militarily and culturally. Even in its characteristic national symbol, the American Eagle looks very much like the Roman Eagle.

In the “Unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united  States of America”, in the 4th of July of 1776, it is written: “When (…), to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them”, that “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights”, that “We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, (…)”, and “for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, (…)”. The invocation of the Supreme Maker is all along and profoundly present in the conscious and faith of the representatives of the thirteen States and, very important, their acts and pledges are in accordance with their faith. It is such their creed that they have been even printing it in its currency bills:

As for Rome, “the peculiar thing is that, contrary to what happened in other peoples, religion appears after the Law, as if to express the Roman feeling that the State is first and religion is second”[4].

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[4] Von Jhering, Rudolf; El Espíritu del Derecho Romano; Marcial Pons, Madrid; p. 57.

There are many other aspects amongst both nations that cannot be compared because of the distance in time but, nevertheless, the few words above expressed – by the way, all written in Latin alphabet – combined with the fact that our whole world is the heir of the Roman Law, internationally and internally, while the U.S. aspires to promote/impose a sort of Rules based international order, for me it’s all more than enough to have an approximate conclusion in the sense that it was Rome and not the United States the most powerful and the one and only exceptional nation that has inhabit our planet.

Marco Rodríguez-Farge Ricetti