After the Napoleonic Code riveted France, architecture in the 18th century was influenced as well. The style, heavily based on the architecture of the Roman Empire, was hugely popular at the time with architecture in the United States of America, specifically with government structures, such as the Capital building. It was said, just as Napoleon had liberated the people of Europe with his new code, so did the architecture liberate buildings from the overly ornate Rococo of the 1700s. Classicism or Empire style was seen as the architecture of the people, not overly pretentious but balanced, serious and sober, architecture to enlighten drawing on inspiration from Greek and Roman symbols and ornaments.