Is history repeating itself? Not quite 2000 years ago, the Roman hegemony got its first black leader - a former senator whose father was African, mother was white, and married to an outspoken and determined wife.
Septimius Severus inherited a failed military campaign in Iraq and an ailing economy. He first resolved the situation in Iraq, undertook a number of new building projects, stamped out governmental corruption, persecuted Christians, and raised taxes to pay for wage increases. Ultimately though, it all might have only hastened the Empire's decline.
Source: Times Online. The parallels are discussed at length in Webster Tarpley's Unauthorised Biography of Barack Obama, p 409-412.
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