A More Exact Apolcalyptic Parallel with Rome

NPR's Morning Edition had a story on a historian who tells of a raid by "stateless desperados" who attacked and set fire to the Port of Rome, sending Roman society into a panic and causing them to hand over many of their liberties to Roman politicians who whipped up and exploited the fear by taking more power. "They sowed the seeds of the destruction of their own democracy." Sounds familiar.