Yes. But Madison and Jefferson both studied Greek history in the process of forming our government.
There is much of ancient philosophy that was wrong, but some of them were amazingly astute.
Our constitution was pretty spot on.
But it's over ever since 19th amendment was enacted into law.
Oh they studied the Greeks. And they decided Plato was dead wrong. He wanted an elite of “Guardians”. They were to be raised in a communist collective by professional child raisers and then elevate to rule over society. Then halfway ok people called auxiliaries to watch out for the interests of Guardians, and then the lowly “producers”.
Plato. Plato is the direct reason for the Jefferson Quote about some people not being born with saddles, nor other born to ride.
Cicero was a much bigger influence on our founders.
“the form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. all eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. the general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view. the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of god. these are grounds of hope for others. for ourselves”
The problem comes from people quoting ancients in Greece and Rome and thinking they won the argument. There was a wide variety of opinion, ranging from flat out evil, to wise.
I can imagine someone 2000 years from now trying to sound smart by dropping quotes from Hillary Clinton, Reagan, and then Bernie all in the same paragraph, having no clue how they were not all the same.
I would bet VDH would have some great examples of ridiculous references to Greece by people today trying to sound smart.