I had the advantage of having an excellent professor for my Roman history courses as an undergraduate at Florida State in the late Sixties/early Seventies, Dr. Richard Summers. He had been a student of Frank Bourne at Princeton and not only knew his Roman history, but made sure we did as well.

I recall the fun of watching him gleefully dissect the more idiotic liberal students' comparisons of the Gracchi with the Kennedys. Unfortunately, this was too much in fashion back then among the more superficial minded advocates of the "We are Rome" crowd.

Of late, this attitude seems to have had a resurgence, albeit without the Gracchi, since nobody but history wonks like us even know who the Gracchi were. What are your thoughts on this trend of late?