Interesting NY Times Op-Ed piece

The other day in the NY Times there was an interesting article concerning an piece of Roman history. It seems they had the equivalent of a major terrorist attack, in pirates attacking and burning Ostia, decimating the consular war fleet, and kidnapping two senators. The outcome of the attack was that power was granted to a single person, Pompey the Great, without checks and balances. This became the historical precedent which allowed it to happen again with Caesar, and most everyone knows what happened after that.