The Greeks and the Romans Civilizations - Research Paper Example

Comparison between the Greeks and the Romans Civilizations Introduction Both the ancient Greek civilization and the Romancivilization started their journeys as city-states. While the Greek dwelt in a mountainous landscape of present Greece surrounded by irregular coastline to the south, the Romans lived on a plain with mountainous border on the east and the Mediterranean Sea on the south-west. Because of her geographical position, the Romans’ city-state was open to “the migrations and invasions of people from the Po River in the north and Sicily in the south” (Comparisons, par. 1). Obviously, these geographical factors played important roles in shaping and determining the socioeconomic, cultural and political traits of the Roman civilization. Having its origin in the Etruscan ethnicity, socio-cultural traits of the city-state of Rome had been greatly influenced by the north. Also, in the south, it was exposed to the influence of Greece. The Greek influence had already spread along the Mediterranean Sea centuries before the Romans established their city-state. Due to the geographical nature, Greek cities were highly isolated from each other. As a result, Greek influence surrounding the Mediterranean Basin was merely the extension of their isolated city states. Indeed, the geographical features also contributed to the “fierce exclusiveness of the Greek city-states from one another, stemming from their geographical isolation” (Comparisons, pars. 2). Moreover the Greek Polis maintained a strict prohibition on the extension of citizenship, since the citizenship of any of the city-states was determined by the socio-cultural uniqueness of the people of a particular land. Patterns of Greek and Roman History Whereas the Greek polis began around 750 BCE, the Rome as the Republic started around 400 BCE. The Greek civilization reached its peak point around the 15th century, when the Roman Empire was at its twilight. Meanwhile, the Romans were expanding both westward and eastward under the leadership of Alexander the Great in the late 300s BCE. After Philip II, Alexander’s father conquered Macedonia, Greek philosopher Aristotle was appointed the tutor of Alexander the Great. The influence of the Greek culture on Alexander was overwhelming; as a result, Hellenism as the conglomeration of the Roman and the Greek civilizations began to emerge. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans were more liberal to absorb the people under their control. Though the Roman civilization began to expand in response to their effort to mitigating the threats from neighboring countries, the foundation of the Roman Empire was further boosted up by the Romans’ inclination to grant citizenship to the people of the conquered states. On the contrary, the Romans brought “other communities on the Italian peninsula under their control, first by conquest, and then by extending Roman citizenship to elements of the conquered peoples” (Comparisons pars. 3). This success on the Roman part to pull the conquered people into a Roman identity helped the Roman to survive even during the fierce Punic war. But in comparison with the Romans, the Greeks failed to lately build their empire due to their reluctance to give the conquered people an imperial identity. Though they endeavored to establish their own empire by dominating the Delian League, it was marred during the Peloponnesian Wars. By the time of the Punic War, the Roman had been able to unite all the city-states on the Italian Peninsula under the Roman identity. It is commented on this success as following: There are, therefore, two key components in the success of the Romans in building an empire. One surely was their military prowess, and the other was their organizational/political/legal skill in extending their governance over the conquered peoples into the empire. (Comparisons pars. 3) Greek and Roman Political Institutions Both the Greek and the Roman civilizations included a variety of political institutions, systems and forms. Though these two civilizations commonly emphasized the aristocratic rule in their political systems, Roman political system had greatly been influenced by the Greek. By the time the Romans outweighed their Etruscan origin and started to establish the foundation of the Roman civilization, the Greeks had already established more one hundred city-states. Though geopolitically “divided and sub-divided by hills, mountains and rivers” (Freeman 34) the nature of the Greek political systems existing in those city-states was almost the same because of a common culture, language and religion. Being resided particular tribes, the Greek city-states were fierce in defense of their sovereignty and independence. Around the 750s BCE, the Greeks were occupying more than fifty city-states on the Italian Peninsula. Consequently, when the Romans established their Republic under the magistracy of Lucius Junius Brutus in 509 BC, they inherited most of the political norms of the Greeks. The Roman political systems inherited the democratic zeal in their political system from the Greek. By overthrowing the Etruscan Monarchy, Brutus established a political system of “electing magistrates annually and various representative assemblies” (Freeman 23). Whereas the Greeks failed to compose political constitution for their states, the Romans under the reign of Brutus had been able to prepare one to dictate various affairs including law, governmental structure, etc. “With the Etruscan monarchy at an end”, as Steven Kries notes, “the dignity of the Senate and the Curiate Assembly was restored” (2). Governments and Laws of the Roman and Greek Civilizations The Greek political system had undergone changes and descended from monarchy to a basic democratic form by the time the Romans inherited much of the Greek governmental and judicial policy in the 500s BCE. From 1050 BCE to 750 BCE, Greek political culture had been marked by a type of kingship which later turned into aristocratic oligarchy. Later by 750 BCE, lifelong magistracy or archonship and by 683 BCE an annually elected archonship had been introduced in the Greek political culture. As a result, the aristocratic Greek families were provided with more scopes to play important roles in the political. But the aggregation of wealth and monopolization of power caused much unrest in the Greek social sphere. Around this time, tyranny began in the most of the Greek polis. Therefore, democracy was introduced to keep aristocracy away from the political power in the 550s BCE. Draco’s judicial reforms introduced Ecclesia, a citizens’ assembly which was elected by the common Greeks to decide the state’s policies and laws. Though in Solon’s reform, the poor Greek were allowed to attend the Ecclesia, after the introduction of democratic reform, people from all strata of the Greek society could attend it freely. This innovation of Athens in their political culture was warmly embraced by other city-states except Sparta (Freeman 78-81). The Spartan retained a form of diarchy permitting two monarchs simultaneously who was assisted by “a council of elderly people of the society called the Gerousia and magistrates, called the Ephors, specifically chosen to observe the kings” (Hynson 4). In essence, the Romans patterned the Republic after this very Greek governmental structure. Since the Romans were much experienced with the bitter experience of tyranny, Brutus chose a democratic governmental form to prevent any tyrannical presence in the power of his newborn state. Roman political power structure resembled mostly the Spartan diarchy. Two consuls or men from most powerful families of Rome were elected to work in collaboration with an advisory council of Patricians. In this regard, Kries comments on the efficacy of the system to prevent tyranny: “The reason the Romans opted for two executives was an obvious attempt to prevent tyranny. Both consuls possessed the highest military and civil authority in the state. They could only serve for one year at a time” (1). Along the two Imperium consuls, the Republic also included “other magistracies such tribunes, quaestors, aediles, praetors and censors” (Freeman 45), who were assigned to do various decision-making jobs in the Republic. Religion and Culture of the Greek and the Roman Civilization Though Greek and the Roman Civilizations shared almost the same political features, the individuality of their national identity had been shaped mainly by their language, culture and religion. The religion of Ancient Greek differed from the Romans’ on a number of aspects. First, the Greeks’ religious culture primarily depended on mythological stories that tended to personify the gods and goddesses. The Greek gods and goddesses are humanly figures with the extension of supernatural and extraordinary power. Moreover, they are blessed with immortality. They also become inflicted with human emotions like anger, greed, appetite, conspiracy, hatred, love, sex, etc. They also have enemies, friends, fathers, mothers, lovers and other relatives. Therefore, a Greek god or goddess with immorality as well as immortality appears to be perpetually harmful for human being. Such view of immoral gods and goddesses with immortality has been expressed in early Greek literatures like Iliad, Odyssey, etc. (Hynson 48-52) The Greeks traditionally believed that Olympia is the heaven where main twelve gods and goddesses live. “Zeus, his wife Hera, Poseidon, Ares, Hermes, etc” (Hynson 56) are some of the Greek gods. The Greeks’ belief in these Olympian creatures was the sole source of Greek religious cultures, practices, rites and rituals. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans believed in non-personified sacred deities called ‘numina’. Having no written form, Roman religion appeared to be the complex relationship of men with those deities during the early years of the Roman civilization. After the establishment of the Republic, Roman religion took its institutional form. In an organized religious system, people of senatorial status populated different religious ranks. For example, the Pontifex Maximus would serve as the head of the “College of Pontifices”, the main body of the Roman religious system. Again, the “Flamens” and the “augurs” were assigned with the taking care of various rites and auspices respectively. (Freeman 73-6) In the Republic, the King or the Emperor would be characterized as a heavenly figure. Such tradition helped Alexander the Great a lot to organize his people and set for the outward world. But as the Roman civilization began to expand outward, the Roman religion underwent a lot of changes by absorbing the Greek as well as other mythological gods and goddesses in their own religious system. (Thomas 59-60) Before being converted to Christianity, the Roman Religion assumed much of the Greek religious essence. Indeed, both the Romans’ and the Greeks’ religion provided little moral and ethical basis to the common people. In this regard, in an article called “Classical Civilization in the Mediterranean: Greece and Rome”, it is said, “Greco-Roman religion tended toward an of-this-world approach with lessons that illustrated human passions and foibles but offered little in regard to modeling ethical behavior” (Classical Civilization 2). Economy and Social Structure of the Two Civilizations Both the Greek and the Roman Civilization depended on a self-sustaining agricultural economy. Such agriculture-based economy shaped the social structures in the similar fashion. Men were the main economic force of this economy, and women were considered to be the possession of their male counterparts in both civilizations. Women’s social roles were home-centric, though some poor Greek and Roman women took part in agricultural production. Their main duties were to raise children and maintain the house and hearth. Referring to the gender role in the Greek and the Roman societies, the author of an article on the topic comments, “Greek society was patriarchal, or dominated by men. Women’s ranks in society were based on those of their fathers and husbands. However, they generally did not enjoy all of the same rights as their male relatives” (TCI). In these two patriarchal societies, women did not enjoy the right to vote. Both economies and social structures depended on slave-labors. Though the slaves were allowed to have families and children, they did not have any social status. Also they could not vote. Though the Roman borrowed a rich coinage system from the Greek, the Roman coinage underwent significant changes as the civilization progressed. Military and Diplomatic Strategies of the Two Civilizations The foundation of the Roman Civilization had been established on the basis of the Republic, an organized state which could, to a great extent, be able to maintain peace and harmony among their citizens and enabled the Romans to build an army to mitigate the threats from their neighbors. Also, the notion of belonging to a prosperous state provoked the Roman to adopt diplomatic skills to maintain strategic relationship with their neighbors. The Romans had been able to achieve their diplomatic skill primarily from their experience in dealing with antagonistic city-states on the Italian peninsula. Also the tolerance for the opponents, people of other religions, and foreigner grew during this time. This experience in home helped them a lot on their expeditions to show tolerance to the conquered people and countries. Unlike the Greek, they could easily absorb the positive aspects of the conquered culture. Kries notes that the Romans earned this embracing habit from their increasing trade with foreign countries. Indeed, Rome itself gained the momentum to turn into the Republic from its embracive values, which were induced by their massive trade with other nations. In this regard, he comments, ..and thanks to their trading interests, the city began to grow. By the mid-6th century, temples and public buildings could be found throughout the city. The Capitoline Hill became the religious center of the city and the Forum, formerly a cemetery, became a public meeting place, thus serving a similar role as the agora had at Athens. (Kries 1) On the contrary, the Greeks were deprived of this opportunity to grow a harmonious relationship and intimacy among themselves as well as with foreign countries because of their mountainous geographical features. Since they were virtually hindered from outside world’s contact, they failed to achieve a tolerant and embracive view of other peoples. Yet their culture, philosophy, and art were more sophisticated and more influential than the Romans’. Conclusion The Roman civilization was far more powerful in terms of military, political and economic power than the Greek. The Romans invaded, crushed and broke into their enemy lines with sheer bravery. Eventually they learned to rule the conquered. They also conquered the Greeks. Obviously, they did it physically, but culturally they were conquered by the Greeks. The Grecian culture was enormously rich with art, literature, philosophy, etc. Being inspired by cultural riches of the Greek, the Romans also tried to mimic them. But they never could outweigh that culture. Rather, they themselves became absorbed into it, as the Roman poet Horace marked the Greco-Roman relationship as following: “Greece, the captive, took her savage victor captive and brought the arts into rustic Latium” (Greece and Rome). Works Cited “Classical Civilization in the Mediterranean: Greece and Rome.” Pearson Education. n.d. Web. 23 November 2012. “Comparisons Between the Ancient Greeks and Romans.” Suffolk Community College Department, n.d. Web. 23 November 2012. Freeman, Charles. Egypt, Greece and Rome. Oxford University Press. 1996 “Greece and Rome.” Canadian Museum of Civilization. 16 July 2009. Web. 23 November 2012. Hynson, Colin. Ancient Greece. Milwaukee: World Almanac Library, 2006 Kries, Steven. “Early Roman Civilization, 753-509BC.” The History Guide. 28 February 2006. Web. 23 November 2012. TCI, “Ancient Greece and Rome and Their Influence on Modern Western Civilization.” Teacher Genius. n.d. Web. 23 November 2012. Thomas, Carol G. Paths from Ancient Greece. Leiden, Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1988. Read More