History Teaches …

Extract

The history of ancient Rome has had a perennial fascination for statesmen and publicists in their search for clues to an understanding of the problems of the modern world. In France, whether under Louis XIV, during the Reign of Terror, or under Napoleon, Rome was the school of statesmen. As Britain and Germany drifted deeper into their fatal rivalry before 1914, the ancient struggle of Rome and Carthage was repeatedly recalled, and each of the rivals identified itself with Rome, its opponent with Carthage. Today again, we seek to learn the wisdom, and to avoid the fatal decisions, of the statesmen of ancient Rome.