I’m currently reading Rubicon - The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Repulic by Tom Holland. It’s a fascinating book that causes you to reflect about actually how far we in the West have, or have not, advanced culturally and politically in the last 2000 or so years. Although the implied comparisons with today might seem to relate specifically to the USA, that’s not entirely the case. For instance, the discussion on the class system that operated in Rome illustrates one thing - we in Britain didn’t invent it.