The Founding Fathers and their Roman Pseudonyms

Why is this Relevant?

One comment I often hear about the advent of the internet and social media is how people behave differently when they believe they are anonymous when posting online. Whether it is crude comments, bigotry, or cruelty, some people seem to not be able to help themselves. And I think this is true. I would hope that a lot of the things you read on the platform formerly known as Twitter would not come out of someone’s mouth if you were to meet them in person. I think it is also worth mentioning that certain politicians seem to be pushing the bounds of what is appropriate to say in public. Shame is no longer an effective tool to prevent this sort of behavior.

But when looking at American history, this is nothing new. What if I were to tell you that anonymous posting is an old and respected pastime and that some of our founding fathers were prolific when it came to this form of disguised communication? Well, it’s true, and we don’t need to look any further than Alexander Hamilton.

This blog post is a bit different than the posts I have made before. But that is because I want to use this blog post as a bit of an introduction to a series of blog posts that will look at how our founding fathers used pseudonyms with historical or literary references that their contemporaries would have understood when they made arguments in favor of or against aspects of America’s early government.  This and certain upcoming blog posts will attempt to help the reader better understand the decisions that the founding fathers like Hamilton made by contextualizing the arguments they were making.

Alexander Hamilton the Unlikely

For those of you who have not seen the excellent musical titled Hamilton by Lin-Manuel Miranda, I will try to give a summary here. Born out of wedlock on the Island of Nevis in 1755, Hamilton is one of our more unlikely founding fathers. While men like Washington and Jefferson were born to the aristocratic planter class that immediately afforded them some status in colonial America, Hamilton was a displaced orphan who rose to prominence with the pamphlets he published in support of the revolutionary cause.  He and several other King’s college students eventually joined a local Militia after the engagement at Lexington and Concord and formed an early artillery corps primarily due to the fact that he and some other young men were able to steal some cannons.

But things truly began to change for Hamilton after being recognized as an able young man, when he was first appointed as aide to General Washington, before rising to serve as the Commander and Chief’s chief of staff. Hamilton was still a firebrand at heart and wanted the glory that came with military success, which led to his years-long push for a field command, which was only finally granted at Yorktown. During his time under Washington, Hamilton would have seen firsthand the difficulty that the Commander and Chief faced when trying to provision his men with the limited supplies granted by the Continental Congress. He shared Washington’s distaste for private militias, and it is this distaste for decentralized power that led to his longstanding efforts to push for a strong, centralized government.

Hamilton would be elected to the early Congress of the Confederation under the Articles of Confederation but quickly grew to doubt the practicality of the decentralized and limited government created by the Articles. Resigning his seat, Hamilton returned to New York to practice law and use his sharp wit to undermine the current government and push for a constitutional convention that would create what he hoped would be a strong, central government. In this, he joins a long liberal tradition of feuding with men whose views differ slightly from their own.

The Federalist Papers and Roman Pseudonyms

This finally gets us to the part of Hamilton’s life that is the subject of this article. In the 1780s, the primary form of communication between the colonies was newspapers. There is an excellent article that details the history of newspapers and the rise of papers that were associated with political parties that can be read here. What is important to take from that article is that certain papers were known to be aligned with specific political causes and parties and so would publish articles that supported the party line. Papers were unabashed in the criticism of individuals with different world views or beliefs, and the content printed in the 1780s could easily be mistaken for some opinion pieces that we see in televised news today. Included below is a snippet from one of the articles that Hamilton had published under the pseudonym Catullus:

“Disunion would not long lag behind. Sober-minded and virtuous men in every State would lose all confidence in, and all respect for a government, which had betrayed so much levity and inconsistency, so profligate a disregard to the rights of property, and to the obligations of good faith. Their support would of course be so far withdrawn or relaxed, as to leave it an easy prey to its enemies. These comprize the advocates for separate confederacies; the jealous partizans of unlimited sovereignty, in the State governments—the never to be satiated lovers of innovation and change—the tribe of pretended philosophers, but real fabricators of chimeras and paradoxes—the Catalines and the Cæsars of the community (a description of men to be found in every republic) who leading the dance to the tune of liberty without law, endeavor to intoxicate the people with delicious but poisonous draughts to render them the easier victims of their rapacious ambition; the vicious and the fanatical of every class who are ever found the willing or the deluded followers of those seducing and treacherous leaders.

– Catullus No. 3, Published under the name Catullus (a.k.a. Alexander Hamilton) on September 29, 1792

Hamilton, being a young, energetic, and ambitious attorney, was an avid personal contributor to many papers at the time. But arguably his most influential early writings were a series of papers that have already been referenced on this blog before, the Federalist Papers. As a member of the recently formed constitutional convention, Hamilton, working with James Madison and John Jay, published eighty-five articles in support of a strong federal government created by the newly from Constitution to replace the weak and ineffective government created by the Articles of Confederation. What might not be as well-known today was the name the Hamilton and his trio published under, Publius.

The Roman Obsession

I have to stop the narrative here to talk a little bit about the time period these men were writing in. Throughout the 1700s, Americans were receiving a litany of published works from liberal European nobles who were either members of the Enlightenment movement, such as Voltaire, or a part of the Anti-Enlightenment movement, such as Jean-Jacque Rousseau. This also aligns with the Renaissance, which comes from the Italian word for “rebirth.” The Renaissance specifically was aimed at the rebirth of classical cultures in Europe, and if you don’t know, two of the most prominent of those classical cultures the Renaissance wanted to rebirth were Roman and Greek culture. Whatever side of the enlightenment you were on, a significant part of your early education as a liberal noble at this time would have been spent studying the classical masters. And this meant they were often studying Rome.

Consider a section of the quote I referenced above from one of Hamilton’s later publications:

“… the tribe of pretended philosophers, but real fabricators of chimeras and paradoxes—the Catalines and the Cæsars of the community (a description of men to be found in every republic) who leading the dance to the tune of liberty without law, endeavor to intoxicate the people with delicious but poisonous draughts to render them the easier victims of their rapacious ambition;”

– Catullus No. 3, Published under the name Catullus (a.k.a. Alexander Hamilton) on September 29, 1792

Emphasis added.

When referring to his political opponents, Hamilton casts them as born again versions of Roman populists. And this was commonplace, as references to Roman society, culture, and governance were prolific at this time. What sort of structure of government did the Founding Fathers form? A republic.  What did they call the upper house of Congress? The Senate. What did they refer to General Washington as? The modern Cincinnatus. The founding fathers would have looked to the old Roman Republic for inspiration, seeing similarities in the classical government which was founded by an elite patrician class that overthrew a tyrannical monarchy. And they would have hoped that the government they created would, like Rome, eventually become one of the most powerful and long-lasting empires in the world.  Assuming it did not collapse into anarchy or regress into monarchy.

This meant that when writing, the Founding Fathers often used allusions to Roman history in support of their arguments. This brings us back to our trio of Hamilton, Madison, and Jay. When arguing for a strong, centralized government at the heart of the new republic, they took on the persona of Publius, in reference to the Roman Patrician Publius Valerius Poplicola.

Publius Valerius Publicola

Publius Valerius Poplicola was born to a wealthy, elite Roman family at the end of the Roman monarchy. He predated our old friend Cincinnatus by a generation, and so was an active participant in the overthrowing of the last Tarquin King of Rome after the King’s son raped the noble Lucretia. Publius acted as one of the four leaders of the revolution and was central to its success. While he did not serve as one of the original two consuls of the Roman Republic, he did lead the prosecution of a number of traitors who plotted to overthrow the early republic as the traitors preferred the status and benefits they previously received from the monarchy. Publius was eventually elected the third consul in the history of Rome to replace one of the two consuls who had been expelled for his purported monarchical sympathies and lead the vanguard against another attempt to reimpose the Roman Monarchy.

The last story I will relate from Publius is one that came later in his life. As consul, he began construction on a house atop a hill that would overlook the newly created senate house. This led to rumors that Publius intended to make himself king. In response to these rumors, Publius immediately stopped constructing the house, demolishing the structure that very day. He then addressed the people of Rome, reaffirmed his support for the republic, and built his house at the foot of the hill instead of on top of it.

The Purpose Behind Publius

We should take a moment here to consider why the trio used the name Publius when publishing the Federalist papers. Like the Roman aristocracy, the trio argued that the American republic should be governed by the educated elite members of each of the former colonies. As the trio were arguing for a strong central government, they faced accusations of secret monarchism just as Publius did. And the trio hoped, that like Publius, they would prove these monarchical claims were unfounded, showing to all that they were the true defenders of the republic.

And consider who Hamilton would have seen as his opponents during the constitutional convention. Hamilton despised the weak, decentralized government that was created by the Articles of Confederation. The primary supporters of a government created under the Articles were men like Thomas Jefferson, who believed that the point of the revolution was to give power to local and state governments, such as his native Virginia’s House of Delegates. A weak central government meant a stronger state government, and that was good news to men at the helm of strong states.

Hamilton in private believed that men like Jefferson were similar to those Roman traitors that Publius prosecuted. Imitating Publius, Hamilton believed that men like Jefferson secretly pined to create an American monarchy after the American Republic was founded. And like Publius, Hamilton hoped that he would lead the charge to expose their secret monarchism and prove his own dedication to the republic.  

The pseudonyms employed by the founding fathers also had a practical purpose. While these men were actively debating ideas like freedom of speech, these pseudonyms prevented their writers from recourse, whether legal or extralegal. Duels were not uncommon in this day and age, and men like Hamilton would have heard of publishers like Eleazer Oswald, who in 1786 challenged a fellow printer to a duel after the fellow printer published a scurrilous poem that insulted Oswald. Oswald left his opponent with a hobbled leg, and his honor “restored.” Maybe Hamilton should have done a better job hiding his pseudonyms, as Hamilton himself would later die in a duel with Aaron Burr, another target of Hamilton’s sharp pen.

The Context Behind the Federalist Papers

Serving as the most junior member of the New York delegation to the constitutional convention, there was very little Hamilton could do to push the discussion in the room in the direction he wanted it to go in. In fact, his desire for a strong, central federal government would have been against the interests of the state he was supposed to represent. This is because New York, like Virginia, was one of the most prosperous, populous, and powerful of the states which would have led to its outsized influence under the Articles of Confederation. But Hamilton would not be dissuaded in his beliefs and was the only signor from the New York delegation to the newly created constitution at the end of the convention as the other two New York delegates withdrew before the end of the convention.

With the convention finished, nine of the thirteen original colonies had to ratify the constitution as proposed. George Clinton was leading a movement at the time to compel the adoption of certain amendments to the Constitution prior to ratification, as each state had to ratify the Constitution through its own state conventions before the constitution would be adopted. In opposition to these amendment push, Hamilton recruited Jay and Madison to help him write what would become the Federalist Papers, which defended the newly drafted constitution to the general public after being published in those early local and national newspapers. Hamilton wrote the largest portion of the eighty-five articles and was the member of the trio who first used the name Publius when publishing the works.

For brevities sake, I will not go into detail about the ratification process, which led to the Bill of Rights, the first ten amendments to the constitution. That can be found in articles from the national archives and heinonline. For now, we will end by noting that Hamilton’s long-running feud with Thomas Jefferson began to form during this period. This is due to the fact that Hamilton received word from confidants that Jefferson while serving as Minister to France, wrote letters that supported the idea of amending the constitution. Hamilton being the firebrand he was, believed that Jefferson secretly supported the reconvening of a second convention to undo the strong central government created by the Constitution. This feud would continue and eventually lead to the formation of the first two political parties; the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans.

Why does this Matter?

You might have read this blog and said big whoop. This is only one founding father using a Roman pseudonym. Was Rome (and Greece) really as relevant as the author of this blog is making it out to be? Well, all I can say is to look at this list I have pulled from a few sources online just to see how prevalent this practice was during the constitutional debates of 1787 and 1788.

Pseudonym	Purported Author	Brief Explanation of Roman/Greek Reference
Agrippa	James Winthrop	A reference to Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa, the general, statesman, and son in law of the Emperor Augustus.
Americanus	John Stevens Jr.	A latinization of “American” using the suffix -us.
Aristides	Alexander Contee Hanson	A reference to Aristides, a Greek statesmen known for his honorable character.
Aristocrotis	William Petrikin	A latinization of “Aristocrats” using the suffix -is.
Brutus	Robert Yates, Melancton Smith	Could either refer to the Patrician Lucius Junius Brutus who helped overthrow the Tarquin kings and served as one of the first two consuls, or his ancestor Marcus Junius Brutus who participated in the assassination of Caesar.
Candidus	Benjamin Austin	A reference to Tiberius Claudius Candidus, the Roman general who played an important role in the Year of the Five Emperors.
Cato	George Clinton	Could either refer to Cato the Younger or Cato the Elder, who were both conservative Roman statesmen who were a part of the Optimates during the late Roman Republic who found to preserve traditional Roman values.
Cincinnatus	Arthur Lee	A reference to the Roman patrician and consul Lucius Quinctius Cincinnatus who twice served as dictator before relinquishing absolute power back to the hand of the elite.
Crito	Stephen Hopkins	A reference to Crito, which is the name of one of Plato’s dialogues concerning justice.
Helvidius Priscus	James Warren	A reference to the educated member of the Roman Senate and an avid republican during the early Roman Empire who was twice banished.
Marcus	James Iredell	A likely reference to the first name of the famed Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero, the orator and consul who exposed the Catilinarian conspiracy.
Philo-Publius	William Duer	“Philo” is the greek word for loving or liking, and is often used to mean a friend. So it could reference “a friend of Publius” (see below), or it could refer to the jewish philosopher who lived in the Roman province of Egypt.
Publius	Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison	A reference to the consul and early member of the Roman Republic, Publius Valerius Publicola, who rejected the dominant monarchical sentiments of the age.
Phocian	Alexander Hamilton or William Loughton Smith (Disputed)	A reference to the people of the region of Phocis, a central region of Ancient Greece.
A Plebian	Melancton Smith	A term used to refer to the hereditary class of mostly landless, free peasants that made up the majority of Rome.
Senex	Patrick Henry (Disputed)	A latin word for an old man.
Timoleon	Unknown	A reference to the Greek statesman and general who purportedly fought against despotism by killing his brother during an attempt by his brother to seize control of the Acropolis.
Tullius	George Turner (Disputed)	A likely reference to the second name of the famed Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero, the orator and consul who exposed the Catilinarian conspiracy.

Now that you have seen the pseudonyms, I want you to look at one particular book. And that book is Parallel Lives by the ancient historian Plutarch. In Parallel Lives, Plutarch details short biographies of the most prominent and influential Greek and Roman statesmen, comparing and contrasting certain common traits between them throughout the work. The book proves to be a who’s who of the ancient world and was widely circulated even a millennia later. Take a look at how many names from the list above correspond with individuals that are covered in Parallel Lives: Publius, Cato the Younger, Phocion, Timoleon, Aristides, Brutus, and (Marcus Tullius) Cicero.

It is also interesting to think about what this means. To take part in these elite, high-level discussions about forming a new government, you would not just need an education in contemporary government or politics, you would need an advanced understanding of the classics. The classics of course were an integral part of elite education, but the emphasis here should be on “elite.” Copies of Cicero’s letters, or his orations against the Catilinarian conspiracy, were available to those with means, but often not to those without. Which is what makes Hamilton such an interesting character. He did not come from an elite background. He was a baseborn son born in the Caribbean, not the prominent son of Virginia magnates who grew up in a plantation. And yet, he educated himself and made efforts to understand the classical references that could have been used by the elite men he was arguing with to gatekeep him from the conversation. I think that should be admired.

And if you think that the discussion our founding fathers were having over whether to form one large, centralized federal government instead of many independent, decentralized, strong state governments is antiquated, then you would be mistaken.

What comes next?

In doing this research, I found there was plenty written on the Federalist Papers, but not as much written on the plethora of other articles written under Roman pseudonyms. So going forward, I will dedicate an article here or there to analyzing the arguments made under Roman pseudonyms by the founding fathers. Understanding their references, considering the political discussions being had during that time, and trying to make sense of them.

Hamilton himself is confirmed to have used the following Roman pseudonyms: Publius, Catullus, Pacifius, Horatius, and Philo Camillus; and he purportedly published under the name Phocion. Hopefully, after reading these forthcoming posts, you will be able to better parse through these classical references and understand the context behind many of the works published in newspapers by our founding fathers. The next post on this topic will continue with Alexander Hamilton. It will pick up where we left off, with a growing feud between Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson. Following a curious incident involving the potential purchase of American loans owed to the French by speculators, Hamilton accuses Jefferson and his defenders of being traitors and snakes under the Roman pseudonym of Catullus. I would be remiss to not note that these articles were in response to articles published defending Jefferson under the pseudonym Aristides, one of the Greek statesmen referenced in Parallel Lives. As opposed to this article, the following blog post on this topic will take a closer look at the language used by Hamilton himself.

I hope you enjoy it.