ABSTRACT
The Federal District of Columbia, both in its formal character as a capital and also in its self-conscious attempt at a certain visual splendor, is, a reminder that the analogy of ancient Rome had a formative effect upon those who conceived and designed it as their one strictly national place. Probably the best way to understand how the Roman Republic came to be is to consider the place occupied in its development by the Twelve Tables of the Law (449 B.C.). The old Roman of good family had about him a continuous visual reminder of the history by which he had been personally defined. A general distribution of property, in at least thirty-one of the thirty-five tribes, was the strength-giving backbone of the Roman Republic. It is a commonplace that the Roman Republic was ruined by success, both in the Punic Wars and in the East (Macedon, Parthia, etc.).
