Trace specific modern government words, institutions, and legal ideas directly back to their ancient Roman origins.
Ancient Rome's influence on modern government runs deeper than most people realize, often hiding in plain vocabulary. The word "republic" itself comes from the Latin res publica, "the public thing" or "public affair." Many modern legislatures include a body directly named after Rome's Senate, and the practice of dividing power to prevent any one person or branch from dominating -- separation of powers and checks and balances -- traces partly back to the Republic's consuls-and-veto system from week 28, later studied closely by Enlightenment thinkers such as Montesquieu, who read Roman history directly while developing his own influential ideas about government.
Everyday legal language still carries Latin directly: habeas corpus, veto (Latin for "I forbid"), subpoena, pro bono, and alibi are all Roman legal terms still used in courts today. The idea of a written, published law available to ordinary citizens traces a long thread across this entire year: Hammurabi's code (week 4) to Rome's Twelve Tables (week 28) to modern legal systems. Even architecture carries the legacy forward -- the dome on the United States Capitol, like many government domes worldwide, descends from designs the Renaissance revived directly from Roman buildings like the Pantheon (week 33). Tracing these threads is the same legacy-hunt skill practiced with Greece in week 26, now aimed specifically at government and law.
Mastery looks like: They can trace at least three specific modern government words or practices back to a named ancient Roman origin.
Common stumbles: Treating Roman influence as limited to architecture or vocabulary alone, missing the deeper structural ideas like separation of power.