How was Rome able to defeat all its powerful enemies in the Mediterranean world? Why did Rome decline and fall? What is Rome's influence on the world today? What lessons can we learn from it? In this talk to his Chinese high school students, Jiang Xueqin argues that it was Rome's distinct cultural system (which focused on liberty, public virtue, and piety) which permitted it to triumph over its rivals. But after Rome became an empire, this cultural system made it difficult for it to govern. Because America intentionally modeled itself after Rome, we can make certain predictions about America based on our reading of Roman history.