Revolutionary Americans considered that Rome had achieved the greatest level a state can hope for. Washington, a military genius, identified with Cato, a figure known for their virtue and for not giving in to the aristocracy, but rather fighting against corruption.

Washington strived to become such a figure and take America to the highest forms of a republic. To defeat the British, he imprisoned some of the great Roman generals, Fabius and Cincinnatus. He studied their strategies and tried to implement them, almost by impersonating them.