Unlike a modern capitol building, the Roman Forum had no security perimeter. On any given morning, a Senator could be elbowed by a butcher, a general could give a speech while standing over a sacrificial altar, and—most dangerously—a mob could watch a politician get clubbed to death (see: Tiberius Gracchus, 133 BCE). The open architecture meant that politics was always street politics. When the space becomes a stage for violence, democracy dies in the piazza.

Motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus — The Senate and People of Rome. Master the State. Master the Exam.

Render unto the test what is the test’s. Next week: "How to Survive the Punic Wars (Without Getting Eaten by an Elephant)."

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