Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 14 hours ago
The collapse of the Roman republic in the fourth century CE (AD) has haunted American political and social thought from the beginning. The dynamics that led to the collapse of the Roman republic are complex, and it is clear that the United States is not Rome and Rome is not a low-tech Mediterranean version of the United States. Still, many of the indicators of the decline of the Roman republic can be seen in America today: a swollen, costly global empire; an attempt to shore up a constitution designed for a very different American era; the rise of political violence; a society reliant on government benefits, etc.
Is there anything we can learn from Rome that will enable us to renew American civilization and stave off decline, and even perhaps our fall?
Join humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson and prize-winning historian and acclaimed author Edward Watts for this engaging conversation that takes us across time, contexts and geography to explore the question: What can America learn from Rome?
Chapters
0:00 Introduction: “Are we Rome?”
2:05 Founders, Rome, and America’s political DNA
6:10 Two Romes: Republic vs Empire (Gibbon shift)
10:35 Why Rome’s Republic failed: complacency + violence
15:05 Virtue in Rome: duty, legacy, and civic obligation
21:40 Wealth inequality and the “virtue confusion”
28:10 Caesar: principle, fear, and the civil war trap
35:05 Armies, loyalty, and the danger of force
41:30 Augustus: trading freedom for stability
48:10 Can America recover? What citizens can do
55:20 Q&A: Washington, slavery, and civic virtue
1:03:40 Q&A: Nazi Germany comparisons vs Roman parallels
1:10:30 Final takeaways
#Rome #RomanRepublic #AmericanHistory #CivicVirtue #Politics
The collapse of the Roman republic in the fourth century CE (AD) has haunted American political and social thought from the beginning. The dynamics that led to the collapse of the Roman republic are complex, and it is clear that the United States is not Rome and Rome is not a low-tech Mediterranean version of the United States. Still, many of the indicators of the decline of the Roman republic can be seen in America today: a swollen, costly global empire; an attempt to shore up a constitution designed for a very different American era; the rise of political violence; a society reliant on government benefits, etc.
Is there anything we can learn from Rome that will enable us to renew American civilization and stave off decline, and even perhaps our fall?
Join humanities scholar Clay Jenkinson and prize-winning historian and acclaimed author Edward Watts for this engaging conversation that takes us across time, contexts and geography to explore the question: What can America learn from Rome?
Chapters
0:00 Introduction: “Are we Rome?”
2:05 Founders, Rome, and America’s political DNA
6:10 Two Romes: Republic vs Empire (Gibbon shift)
10:35 Why Rome’s Republic failed: complacency + violence
15:05 Virtue in Rome: duty, legacy, and civic obligation
21:40 Wealth inequality and the “virtue confusion”
28:10 Caesar: principle, fear, and the civil war trap
35:05 Armies, loyalty, and the danger of force
41:30 Augustus: trading freedom for stability
48:10 Can America recover? What citizens can do
55:20 Q&A: Washington, slavery, and civic virtue
1:03:40 Q&A: Nazi Germany comparisons vs Roman parallels
1:10:30 Final takeaways
#Rome #RomanRepublic #AmericanHistory #CivicVirtue #Politics
