My #romanhistory students are very interested in the role of #furniture in the work of the #historian #Appian – first the public assembly benches broken up and weaponized against Tiberius #Gracchus and his allies; and today, chairs from the old Senate house nabbed by a mob for the cremation of the populist #Clodius, which burned the building down in the process. In both cases, the basic infrastructure of the #RomanRepublic is used in its unmaking