On Monday, January 20th, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt delivered this third inaugural address to the nation. In his speech, he stated that “The democratic aspiration is no mere recent phase in human history. It is human history. It permeated the ancient life of early peoples. It blazed anew in the middle ages. It was written in Magna Charta” (Roosevelt). As a president living in the modern era, it was surprisingly to hear such statement from him considering that the time span between 1215 and 1941 is 726 years. Whether it might seem strange or unconvincing, there is no denial in saying that the Magna Carta demonstrated some sort of democratic hopes in world history. In 1215, the barons wrote the Magna Carta and demanded King John to agree to their concessions if he did not want them to rebel. The word Magna Carta also meant the Great Charter and it was truly a great one. Likewise, the word baron has the meaning “a member of the lowest grade of nobility” according to dictionary.com (“baron”). At the time, the barons took a step to safeguard their rights after many challenges England had to face such as the involvement in the Third Crusade or the ransom of King Richard I. The nobles felt that their rights were being violated and they did not want the king’s power to jeopardize their privileges (“Magna” 197). The inscription of the Magna Carta and the bold decision to contest the power of King John laid a foundation for human rights protection against violation from the ruling party; in this case, the English barons demanded civil safeguards from the king’s power and arbitrary rule. In addition, even though the time gap between the medieval England and the Ancient Roman Republic was a long period of time, the English Magn...
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The Magna Carta was the first document in which English subjects to force English king into power; granting and protecting the subjects’ rights. This was important since the king at the time could do anything that he so desired. However, in practice, this English legal charter did not limit the king’s power. The Magna Carta is the beginnings of American freedom. It is also the foundation of the American Constitution, reflecting English freedom and the power of the English government.
Livy’s The Rise of Rome serves as the ultimate catalogue of Roman history, elaborating on the accomplishments of each king and set of consuls through the ages of its vast empire. In the first five books, Livy lays the groundwork for the history of Rome and sets forth a model for all of Rome to follow. For him, the “special and salutary benefit of the study of history is to behold evidence of every sort of behaviour set forth as on a splendid memorial; from it you may select for yourself and for your country what to emulate, from it what to avoid, whether basely begun or basely concluded.” (Livy 4). Livy, however, denies the general populace the right to make the same sort of conclusions that he made in constructing his histories. His biased representation of Romulus and Tarquin Superbus, two icons of Roman history, give the readers a definite model of what a Roman should be, instead of allowing them to come to their own conclusion.
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