Rome, you guys, it’s a theme! Remember when Rome popped up earlier in this sumptuous season?

Sally lisps adorably over this passage from The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Edward Gibbon’s master work on the ancient society:

“The Praetorian bands, whose licentious fury was the first symptom and cause of the decline of the Roman empire…”

The Praetorian were body guards, plucked out of the Roman army, to protect the Emperor (You may know one of these men by the name of Mark Anthony). It’s a bit of a stretch to call the Sterling Cooper employees “soldiers”, but they have already taken a casualty this season (poor Guy!), and they have the ego to consider themselves shapers of the masses. Didn’t turn out so well for Rome. Let’s see how it turns out on Mad Men.

• footnote - by Natasha Simons

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   It’s interesting to note that Gibbon also points to...civic virtue (hello, Betty),

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