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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