How Did Rome Influence Greek Culture

The geography which had so graciously gifted the Greeks with rich resources and the politically powerful location was quickly starting to turn on the civilization. Although Alexander the Great united all of the Greek city-states under the title of the Corinthian League, he did not truly unite them as one single Greek power (“Alexander the Great”). To the individual Greek city-states, freedom meant the freedom to fight amongst other city-states. This dog eats dog view lends a great deal of itself due to the very isolating effects of the mountainous Greek landscape (“Ancient Greece Geography”). Although detrimental to the Greeks in their final few years of power, this was greatly favored by the Romans. The physical isolation meant that anytime
In fact, Greek continued to be the predominant language spoken in the eastern Mediterranean and eventually developed into a lingua franca used in trade between Italy and Greece (“Ancient Greece”). The Romans borrowed many aspects of Greek culture and were highly influenced by things, such as their mythology, religion, education, and art. Being a part of the Roman Empire was a generally peaceful ordeal, although several anti-Roman parties did exist. In 88 B.C.E, the city of Athens revolted against the Romans in what is known as: “The Siege of Athens”. The Athenian efforts were quickly squashed by the Roman general Sulla (Rickard). Slowly, the Roman and Greek cultures integrated tremendously and the differences between them were not
The Athenian Greeks believed it was very important that all male, non-slave citizens have an active role in the governing of their civilization (Cartwright). Under democracy, all male citizens had equal political rights, freedom of speech, an opportunity to be involved in the obligations of governmental institutions. During the founding of the United State’s constitution and government, the founding fathers found themselves returning to the Greek classics and looking back on the American landscape with starry eyes. On Athenian democracy, Thomas Paine wrote: “What Athens was in miniature, America will be in magnitude,” (Romeo). All American citizens today enjoy fairly equal political rights, freedom of speech, and the opportunity to participate in government. The founding fathers admired the ‘by the people, for the people’ setup of Athenian democracy. Recently, even more, nations have decided to adopt democratic governments with origins in Athenian