My: Machiavelli was an American of 1789, just as America is Rome.Good suggestion. I'll let you know if it ever works.
Your: That is a puzzling sentence, to say the least. Do you use it to break the ice with the girls? Does it work as an opening line?
When you next visit Washington, D.C., check out the buildings of substance in town, the Capitol, the White House, the Washington Monument, etc.
You will note a theme to the architecture: hommage to the ancients. The Founders constantly looked back upon the Romans and the Greeks for justification and reason. Those buildings I mention are meant to display the American resuscitation of the greatest civilizations ever. We are they, here and now.
Another thing you will note in classic DC architecture is that memorials, statues, and freizes frequently display allegorical figures of liberty, freedom, or America on top of globes, such as "Freedom" who bestrides the Capitol building. The reference was literal. My favorite is the freize above the old House chamber, with the figure, "history," riding a chariot across a globe.
We are Rome.
I only know this because Machiavelli taught it to me.
I really think that, when you look at modern Western Civilization, you are seeing a relatively think layer of Christianity over a foundation of Roman civilization. Islam fails to understand that, to its peril.
The visible layer promotes tolerance, "love thy neighbor", "turn the other cheek". But when our civilization itself is threatened, the fundamental layer shows through -- the Roman layer.
When Carthage fundamentally threatened Rome, Rome responded with an army that utterly destroyed Carthage. They took Carthage and killed all the men. The women and children were enslaved and dispersed throughout the Empire. Then they leveled the city so that not one stone stood on top of another, and spread salt on the ground so nothing could ever grow there again. Rome did not have any further trouble with Carthage.