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John Quincy Adams employed the pseudonym “Marcellus”—a reference to a leader of an ancient Roman army—in political essays he wrote in 1793, a choice that accomplished far more than simply concealing his authorship. ______ it wasn't an arbitrary pen name but rather a complex rhetorical strategy through which Adams aligned his political views with the venerated republican ideals of the ancient world, thereby bolstering the authority of his writing.