From The Founding Fathers & the Classics.

by Dr. Joe Wolverton II

Ancient history provided the Founders with examples of behavior and circumstances that they could apply to their own circumstances. Their heroes were Roman and Greek republicans and defenders of liberty. All of the Founders’ Roman heroes lived at a time when the Roman republic was being threatened by power-hungry demagogues, bloodsthirsty dictators and shadowy conspirators. The Founders’ principal Greco-Roman heroes were Roman statemen: Cato the Younger, Brutus, Cassius and Cicero–all of whom sacrificed their lives in unsuccessful attempts to save the republic–as well as the celebrated Greek lawgivers Lycurgus and Solon.

Cato the Younger was a Roman of sterling reputation who lived from approximately 95 BC ro 46 BC. He is described as being “unmoved by passion and firm in everything,” even from his youth. He was renowned for finishing whatever he started and for hating flattery. He embraced every Roman virtue, and he was especially appreciatef for his sense of justice and his even temperment. As a senator, Cato was always in attendance when the Senate was in session. A no-nonsense legislator, Cato was hated by Pompey and Caesar for his integrity and for his refusal to aid them in their corrupt plans to usurp power. Although they imprisoned him, the public clamored for his release and Caesar reluctantly complied.

Unable to squelch Cato’s attacks on their corrupt policies, Caesar and Pompey sent him to Cyprus. Finally, Cato aligned himself with Brutus against Caesar, a decision that would eventually cost him his life. George Washington admired Cato so greatly that he had Joseph Addison’s play about Cato performed in Valley Forge to boost the troops’ morale.

Roman heroes very dear to the hearts of the Founders also included Brutus and Cassius. Brutus was admired by his contemporaries for his pleasant disposition and virtuous temper. Even those who opposed his attack on Caesar believed that Brutus was motivated by a genuine concern for the republic and not by personal animosity toward Caesar.

Marc Antony himself said that Brutus was “the only man that conspired against Caesar out of a sense of the glory and justice of his action; but all the rest rose up against the man, and not the tyrant….” America;’s Founders looked to Brutus and Cassius as role models because their only aim to overthrowing Caesar was to restore the constitutional Roman government and republican liberties.

The most popular Roman hero of the Founding Fathers was Cicero, the silver-tongued Roman orator. Cicero lived from approximately 106 BC to 43 BC. John Adams, in his Defense of the Constitution, said of Cicero: “All of the ages of the world have not produced a greater statesman and philosopher united than Cicero….” First as a lawyer, then as a consul and senator, Cicero boldly defended the republic against the rise of dictators. Cicero delivered his greatest speeches in defense of the republic against the Catilarian Conspiracy.

The Catilarian Conspiracy was a plot to overthrow the republic, hatched by aristrocrat Lucius Sergius Catiline with the help of a cabal of aristocrats and disaffected veterans. In 63 BC, Cicero exposed and thwarted the plot, and Catiline was forced to flee from Rome. For his service in saving Rome, Cicero was given the title “Father of his Country” by his countrymen. Like Brutus and Cassius, Cicero’s courageous defense of republican liberty in the face of designing conspirators made him a logical model for emulation by our Founding Fathers.

Regarding the Greek classics, the American Founding Fthers greatly admired lycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta, Lycurgus lived in the 9th century BC and reformed the centire Spartan commonwealth. His most important reform was the establishment of a senate equal in authority with the monarchy in matters of great importance. Prior to Lycugrus’ innovation, the Spartan government swayed between monarchy and democracy, depending on whether the king or the people had the upper hand. The senate served as a check on the excesses of both king and subjects. The biographer Plutarch called Lycurgus’ institutions “one of the greatest blessings which heaven can send down.”

Another Greek famed for his reform of the law was Solon, born in Athens about 638 BC. Solon achieved glory as one of the “Seven sages of Greece”. Around 390 BC he was given the task of reforming the Athenian constitution. Solon’s improvements included the right of trial by jury and the division of society lines into several bodies that would balance and check each other in governing Athens. After finishing his constitutional reform, Solon left Athens for 10 years. While he was away, Pisistratus, his former friend, usurped control of the government and fastened tyrannical controls on Athens. Both Lycurgus and Solon appreciated the need for incorporating checks and balances into government, a need that the American founders understood just as acutely.