OPINION — The Roman Republic was formed in 509 B.C. and lasted 482 years, until 27 B.C. when Octavian crowned himself Caesar Augustus, Roman emperor. By comparison, the United States’ 250 years barely crosses the halfway point of republican Rome.
Aware of Rome’s longevity, America’s founders approached their project with remarkable ambition. They were not designing a regime to be a transient blip on history’s screen. They were building for eternity “a new order of the ages” — Novus Ordo Seclorum, as is inscribed on the Great Seal of the United States.
They recognized that founding a free society was a great challenge, but assuring its continuity was an even bigger one. The problem is not having an election, but having another one, and another and another, with the peaceful transfer of power following each.
