Part of the reason is that the Rennaisance scholars had high regard for the Romans, and that passed along to the modern age. Much that was created since then, for example some Shakespeare plays and English rhetoric, was influenced by the Romans.

> Classics such as Marcus Aurelius have arguably been co-opted into the alt-right pipeline.

What else from Rome (or Greece) is used this way? Is this related to why some SV leaders embrace the Stoics?