January 6th may yet be known as the second civil wars “Fort Sumter.”
In ancient Rome, the Gracchi Brothers led a populist movement of the Plebian Class against the Patricians. They gained power by having the Plebians withdraw from Rome during the annual celebration of the Feriae Latinae where they elected their own leaders called Tribunes. They passed a law that anyone harming a tribune was to face death. They forced the Roman Senate to approve Plebian officials partly because of their dependence on the Plebes for military service. Trump apparently may have committed a mistake to draw his followers to Washington DC instead of withdrawing them like the ancient Plebes. Historian Mommsen stated the Plebes were “a state within a state”.