Sen. Marco Rubio on Wednesday invoked the fall of the Roman Empire in speaking about the decision of his Senate colleague Jeff Flake to retire.

“I’m not saying America is Rome, but if you look at the history of Rome, … one interesting thing about Rome at its peak, one of the things that Rome did very well was it was able to include people,” the Florida Republican said. “In essence, at the peak of the Roman Empire, they had Britons, Spaniards, North Africans, Greeks, Egyptians, they were very good at integrating people.”

Rubio identified two factors that led to Rome’s collapse, including what he described as “kind of a recalcitrant Senate that refused to address the issues of the day.”

Comparing the U.S. Senate to the Roman Senate isn’t new. West Virginia Democratic Sen. Robert C. Byrd gave 14 floor speeches, starting in 1993, about the history of Rome, imploring his colleagues to reject the line-item veto proposal pushed by President Bill Clinton.

The measure was ultimately determined to be unconstitutional, but it did become law. Byrd’s warning was against a weakening of the Senate relative to the executive (the emperor, in Rome’s case).