Roman Legacy in the United States Capitol

Last month, my boyfriend visited Capitol Hill in Washington D.C.. While unfortunately the Capitol was closed to visitors while we were there, I was still surprised at how many legacies of Rome linger in the United States Capitol. The name alone seems a direct descendant of the Capitoline Hill, as the United States Capitol itself stands atop a large hill- we even saw a sign that said the upper balcony on the capitol building was added in part to add horizontal platform above the sloping front steps to make sure the building didn’t look like it was sliding down the hill from afar! I’ve been to Capitol Hill several times before, both as a protester and a visitor to the Capitol and the House and Senate galleries, but coming back with a greater understanding of the legacies the Senate and Capitol pull from made me notice different aspects of the Hill. Seeing the large barricades on the Capitol Building itself (in addition to the many layers of security to get into or even around the building) made me think about how much access I had to the Senate vs how much ancient Romans would have had to their Senate, and the histories of violence upon the people and even building of both Senates. Though as a United States citizen I can visit the offices of my state’s senators and ask for free passes to get into the Senate Gallery, affording me much more access and transparency to the goings-on of my government than it seems a Roman citizen might have had to their Senate, I have to go through layers of security at every step to keep the kind of violence by citizens against their own houses of government that plagued the Roman Senate away (with good reason considering the violence at Capitol last year). While the United States Capitol was burned once by an invading army in 1812, the Roman Senate House was burned down several times by its own citizens. While my boyfriend had never visited the Capitol building before, he studied abroad in Rome and offered interesting comparisons to our Capitol and modern-day Rome, especially noticing the way the layout of Capitol Hill incorporates large green spaces, perhaps for visitors and congresspeople’s enjoyment, perhaps to provide a place for large protests that wouldn’t interfere with daily life, or to reinforce a separate, removed quality of government from the hustle and bustle of the city.