What you see in the picture below are pieces of what is left of “The Forum,” a major political center within the ancient Roman Empire. Most people often associate ancient Rome with the likes of that is the Colosseums and often forget that Ancient Rome has left us with more than just cultural and historical artifacts. In fact, almost all modern western democracies are largely considered the direct descendants of the ancient Roman Empire. It is true that Ancient Rome went through several iterations of political systems, which included autocracies and absolute monarchies. But what is more important, though, is that it is also widely accredited as one of the pioneers and forerunners in its creation and establishment of a representative democracy political system among its citizenry, perhaps one of the earliest ever documented in history. Furthermore, this progressive and transparent nature of governance further promoted a robust commodity-based economy, which fueled and led to the technological advancements that cemented their territorial and political influences around the surrounding regions during that time. Similarly, due to the various state-of-the-art reforms promoted by Augustus, especially in its fruitful military reforms, Rome was able to secure itself against external and internal threats by repelling several civil unrest incidents and preventing hostile aggressions through military deterrents. Quite frankly, if we were to relate and compare the greatness of ancient Rome to our modern civilizations and countries, the closest resemblance would have to be us, the United States.