[Wonder Warthog]

The cultural idea of the rights of free men IN ENGLAND (and by extension the US) originated with the PLINES, not Greece or Rome. That they were later supplemented and modified by similar Continental ideas doesn't change that. The independent ORIGIN of those ideas owes nothing to Greece or Rome.

[Tin-Legions]

Please provide a scholarly source that backs up your claim that the "rights of free men" (creator driven rights-even Magna Carta is not a solid source of such rights)was a solid idea in Anglo Saxon culture. I'm finding nothing before Magna Carta.

Further study has revealed to me that the first Model Parliment of Edward the First-1297, and subsequent creations of Parliment to it's present form today probably has no connections with the Icelandic All-thing. It developed independently, with influence from AS England, the Latin Church, and continental influence. A reading of the English bill of rights of 1689 shows it as the definite father to our own Bill of Rights.

We may have to concede that we agree to disagree. However, without a solid scholarly source, subjected to peer review (that means no internet drivel from the likes of us), I remain steadfast in my claim that the US government and legal systems are more influenced by Roman and Greek methods than by purely Viking methods of governance. I agree that the Germanic influence is large (as it must be, seeing that the English are of Germanic stock), but not dominant as you say.

I have enjoyed this, as it as made me do some further research into an enjoyable field. thanks, TL