Oct. 15—With the sun-splashed Acropolis behind him, providing a majestic background, which is any public relations agent’s dream, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented an argument that the deployment of American power under President Donald Trump is a realization of the ideals of classical Athens. Rubio’s theme was that under Trump, the United States is reasserting leadership through an “unapologetic pursuit of national power,” having learned from the ancient Greeks that “relentless ambition,” taking on “risk and glory” with “an impatience with the notion of impossibility, chafing at all boundaries and limits,” is necessary for success as an empire.

His praise of Greek culture was centered around the ability of leading citizens to assert strength and power in all fields, through organizing “all of civic life around contest, ambition, competition: in philosophy and poetry, in sculpture and drama, in athletics and art, in war and statecraft.” The classical Greek city, according to Rubio, “was an arena for great men to test and prove themselves, to hone their potential through perpetual struggle—to be the best, the strongest, the most beautiful…. This thumos, as the ancient Greeks called it—the fire of passion, strength, courage, pride—is the heart of great civilization…. Without thumos,” he continued, “nations lose their will to fight, to strive, to survive.”