The Lessons of History; In a new book, British M.P. Boris Johnson wonders: why can't the EU be more like the Roman Empire?

Byline: William Underhill

Good news for Euro-skeptics: a spiritual forefather has been uncovered--an ax-wielding barbarian from the boondocks of first-century Germany, no less. Almost 2,000 years ago the tribal chieftain Arminius thrashed three Roman legions that had strayed into his forests--stopping the civilizing force of the Roman Empire from spreading east of the Rhine and changing the course of history forever. Arminius knew all about the delights of imperial civilization. But he wanted no part of it. In the words of Boris Johnson, the British M.P. and journalist: "He stands for the incorrigible desire of people to govern themselves."

As Johnson points out, however, the sovereignty-loving Arminius was no trendsetter. Plenty of his fellow barbarians were eager to ditch their trousers and slip on togas. And that leads directly to the question that Johnson, a Euro-skeptic himself, sets out to tackle in his new book, "The Dream of Rome" (200 pages. HarperCollins) : how did the Romans manage to bring centuries of stability to so much of Europe while the European Union remains an unloved and divided mess?

It's a quintessentially provocative subject for Johnson, who has built his career on a mix of talent and idiosyncrasy. In his six years as editor of The Spectator, which ended in 2005, he took circulation of the must-read journal of the British right to new heights. Television quiz-show appearances--and a mop of unruly strawberry blond hair--have won him the kind of national recognition that other middle-aged Tory M.P.s can only envy. His previous works include "Seventy Two Virgins," a satirical novel that tells of an adulterous M.P. and Islamic terrorism. A fling with a fellow columnist once cost him a post in the Tory leadership, although he is now back as the party's education spokesman.

To Johnson, the idea of Rome is lodged in European folk memory. Deep down, he argues, the continent yearns to re-create an Augustan Age, when 80 million people from Syria to Scotland enjoyed the benefits of Pax Romana. From Charlemagne to Mussolini, Europeans have borrowed the symbols of Rome; when the European Union's now dumped constitution was signed in Rome in 2004, the Italian government erected a marble plaque carved ...