> * - We might partially have borrowed this from China.
The British deliberately sinofied their civil service starting in the very early 19th century, and the US didn't properly get a civil service system until late in that century, so I'd be pretty surprised if that's not the case (at least, second-hand, by way of observing and imitating Great Britain)
As for the ancients, I'd buy that our connection to either Athens or the Roman Republic is largely superficial and was mostly upper-class ego-stroking affectation, but I definitely think it leans much heavier toward the latter than the former. Our symbols like the fasces and eagle, Washington's famous and surely-self-conscious imitation of Cincinnatus, that kind of thing.
The British deliberately sinofied their civil service starting in the very early 19th century, and the US didn't properly get a civil service system until late in that century, so I'd be pretty surprised if that's not the case (at least, second-hand, by way of observing and imitating Great Britain)
As for the ancients, I'd buy that our connection to either Athens or the Roman Republic is largely superficial and was mostly upper-class ego-stroking affectation, but I definitely think it leans much heavier toward the latter than the former. Our symbols like the fasces and eagle, Washington's famous and surely-self-conscious imitation of Cincinnatus, that kind of thing.