How the Greeks and Romans influenced the Founding Fathers

Note: This blog post quotes from some historical documents, which contain words that would now be considered offensive. These words are only in quotation, and do not represent the views of this blog.

Did the Greeks and Romans influence the Founding Fathers? Personally, I believe that they did indeed do so, but I should nonetheless first acknowledge the only contrary quotation that I have yet found. Specifically, in 1782, Alexander Hamilton wrote that “We may preach till we are tired of the theme, the necessity of disinterestedness in republics, without making a single proselyte. The virtuous declaimer will neither persuade himself nor any other person to be content with a double mess of porridge,* instead of a reasonable stipend for his services. We might as soon reconcile ourselves to the Spartan community of goods and wives, to their iron coin, their long beards, or their black broth. There is a total dissimulation in the circumstances, as well as the manners, of society among us; and it is as ridiculous to seek for models in the simple ages of Greece and Rome, as it would be to go in quest of them among the Hottentots [his word, not mine] and Laplanders.” (Source: His writing entitled “The Continentalist No. VI, 4 July 1782”) As Wikipedia informs us, Hamilton’s chosen term of “Hottentots” (again, his word, not mine) was once used to refer to a particular tribe in South Africa, but the term is now considered a little offensive. By contrast, the term “Laplanders” refers to a group in Northeastern Europe, located in and around Finland. Thus, Alexander Hamilton thought it “as ridiculous to seek for models in the simple ages of Greece and Rome” as it was to “go in quest of them” among these other groups.

Alexander Hamilton

The Roman Republic attained to the “utmost height” of human greatness

However, in the Federalist Papers, Alexander Hamilton would later write that “the Roman republic attained to the utmost height of human greatness.” (See the quotation at the beginning of this link for the details.) Thus, Alexander Hamilton still had some admiration for the “simple ages of Greece and Rome” (as he had earlier put it), even if he had some reservations about “seek[ing] for models” among them. What evidence exists, then, that the Ancient Greeks and Romans did indeed influence the Founding Fathers? In this blog post, I will try to answer this question. As I will show here, the evidence is massive, and shows that the Founding Fathers gratefully acknowledged their debt to both Greek and Roman society.

Greek philosopher Socrates

Some of the credit for “separation of powers” should go to Polybius

“It is well known that in the Roman republic the legislative authority, in the last resort, resided for ages in two different political bodies not as branches of the same legislature, but as distinct and independent legislatures, in each of which an opposite interest prevailed: in one the patrician; in the other, the plebian. Many arguments might have been adduced to prove the unfitness of two such seemingly contradictory authorities, each having power to ANNUL or REPEAL the acts of the other. … And yet these two legislatures coexisted for ages, and the Roman republic attained to the utmost height of human greatness.”

– Alexander Hamilton, in the Federalist Papers (Federalist No. 34)

In the second century BC, there was an armed uprising against the rule of the “Roman Republic,” by an alliance of Greek states known as the “Achaean League.” There had been close military and religious ties between the two groups before this time; but they were soon cast aside in a conflict known as the “Achaean War.” This was a bitter conflict, in which the Romans quickly crushed the Achaean League; to make sure that all of Greece would soon be under their control. Greece was quickly annexed by the Roman Republic in 146 BC, the same year that Rome was laying siege to the city of Carthage in faraway North Africa. When the city of Carthage was finally sacked in the spring of that same year (after three long years of siege), the last of the three Roman wars with Carthage finally ended. The Roman Republic now controlled much of the Mediterranean.

Roman villas built on the site of Carthage

Polybius was present at the Fall of Carthage in 146 BC

One of the men present at the Sack of Carthage was a Greek historian named Polybius, who would later write an influential work called the Ἱστορίαι (“Historiai”), or “The Histories.” This famous work would cover the history of the Roman Republic from 264 BC to 146 BC, and conclude with his eyewitness account of the fall of Carthage in 146 BC. This work was originally written in his native Koine Greek as 40 different “books,” but only the first five of these “books” have survived in their entirety. The rest of these books survive only in bits and pieces, and it is the surviving portion of the sixth book that I will be focusing on today. (This is the book in which he talked about separation of powers in the Roman Republic.) His analysis of checks and balances in this republic that had conquered his homeland would have a powerful influence on men like Montesquieu and Madison. By extension, it would thus eventually influence the United States Constitution as well.

Polybius