The Founding Fathers seem distant and mysterious to us, not just because of time but because their education and their whole view of history was so profoundly different. All the Founding Fathers except Washington were educated at small colleges like William and Mary or Dartmouth, where the main business of education was to teach the classics – Greek and Roman history, literature and to some extent philosophy. Roman history in particular provided a vivid model of what a democratic republic had once become, and how the rise of the emperors in the first century BC destroyed it. The Founders were obsessed with this great historical drama. The architectural legacy of their fascination with Rome can be seen very clearly in Washington, D.C. London and Paris don’t look like ancient Rome. Even Rome doesn’t look like ancient Rome. But Washington, D.C., does.