This is kind of interesting ... an online book that was just posted yesterday is a transcriptish thing of a pair of lectures given by Daniel de Leon back in 1902 under the auspices of the Greater New York Socialist Labor Party. Both lectures -- dubbed Two Pages From Roman History (pdf) take as their theme the example presented for socialists by Romans, specifically the 'struggle of the orders' and the Gracchi. A bit long winded (70 pages!), but kind of interesting to see its application to political trends at the beginning of the 20th century.