![]() ![]() As the nation reeled, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in the role of a magister militum addressing the legions, issued an unprecedented advisory that put the sitting ruler on notice, condemning “sedition and insurrection” and noting that the inauguration of a new ruler would proceed. Outside, a pandemic raged, recalling the waves of plague that periodically swept across the Roman empire. Headlines referred to the violent swarming of Capitol Hill as a “sack.” Commentators who remembered Cicero invoked the senatorial Catiline conspiracy. The invaders occupied the Senate chamber, where Latin inscriptions crown the east and west doorways. ![]() Some of the attackers had painted their bodies, and one wore a horned helmet. Photographs of the Capitol’s debris-strewn marble portico might have been images from eons ago, at a plundered Temple of Jupiter. T he scenes at the Capitol on January 6 were remarkable for all sorts of reasons, but a distinctive fall-of-Rome flavor was one of them, and it was hard to miss. This article was published online on March 11, 2021. ![]() Illustration by Nicolás Ortega Joseph-Noël Sylvestre, The Sack of Rome in 410 by the Vandals (1890). ![]()
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