Even though the ancient Romans had democracy wherein consuls were elected to the Senate, England was still a feudal monarchy, where birth & wealth determined a person's status in society. King Arthur's Round Table, mentioned first in Wace of Jersey's "Roman de brut" (1155), ensured that none of the King's barons could claim precedence over the others, as in the case of a rectangular table, which had a head & bottom, and had people seated on the two long sides according to precedence.
If this was the first attempt to reduce the impact of hierarchy, it led to the logical conclusion of completely destroying all privilege, ironically conceived in the hallowed portals of the British Museum. Yes, Karl Marx developed his monumental work "Das Kapital" in London. Interestingly, his mother, Henriette, was a Dutch Jew, whose family later founded the (now) multinational Philips Electronics! In one giant leap of sociological vision, Marx elevated the workers from their sub-altern state to being the kingpins of the "Dictatorship of the Proletariat." Now a large portion of the human race are living in two giant nations built on Marxist philosophy.
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