Ours is a Roman state, modeled on the Roman Republic, and our Republic subject to the same stresses that destroyed its model in the second and first centuries before Christ. The names "Capitol" and "Senate", the classical style of the building set upon the hill, are Roman in form, but so is the horrifying spectacle of a mob whipped up to violence by a ranking politician, and of the three highest ranking politicians in the Republic after the president all hiding from the mob. But the parallels are not immediately clear.