Anthony Scaramucci: America's billionaires and presidents have forgotten the lesson that destroyed Rome | Fortune

"We are living through an era in which a small number of individuals have accumulated influence that rivals or exceeds that of sovereign governments. Think billionaires who control vast technology platforms, media empires, and financial networks. At the same time, presidential authority has expanded to a degree that would have alarmed the framers of the American Constitution."

"Cicero, writing in the final tumultuous decades of the Roman Republic, wrote that 'We are slaves to the law in order to be free.' It's profound in its simplicity. Freedom does not come from the absence of constraint; it comes from our willingness to suborn a certain degree of individual will to a broader, shared process."

"Structures like the law, the constitution, and regulatory frameworks are not obstacles to greatness - and they are not the domain of a shadowy 'deep state.' They are the architecture within which greatness can thrive, free from tyranny. Cicero understood this because he watched, in real time, as Rome's elites began to treat the Republic's institutions as inconveniences rather than sacred obligations."

Ancient Greek tragedies reveal a pattern where successful leaders, intoxicated by power, abandon rules and face collapse. Modern America exhibits similar hubris through concentrated wealth among billionaires controlling technology platforms and media, combined with expanded presidential authority. This convergence creates dangerous arrogance where personal wealth or political office is mistaken for infallible wisdom. Cicero's Roman experience demonstrates that freedom depends on voluntary submission to shared legal and constitutional processes, not their absence. Institutional frameworks like law and regulation enable greatness rather than obstruct it. Rome's decline began when elites treated republican institutions as inconveniences, systematically eroding constraints on power.

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