A Summary Of The Ancient Greek And The Byzantine Empires

When analyzing Romans Sarcophagus Depicting a Battle between Soldiers and Amazons (Warrior Women)” The artist used a multitude of visual elements to grab our attention. One great powerful example that caught my attention was the four corners of the roman sarcophagus. The four corners of the sarcophagus stood out the most to me be it depicted the battle's outcome while maintain a balance of each side. It shows us trophies, weapons, kneeling Amazon prisoners and hands bound behind their backs, but directly at the corners we men and women kneeling with their heads down which is unusually because through all of the weapons and trophies and chaos we see the after math of the battle. Showing us the true feeling of sorrow, forgiveness and possibly

follow. That was the first goal of icons. The second goal was to form an

Though both had similar roots, they both took these similar bases & formed it into their own way. Both the Byzantine Empire and Ancient Roman have similar aspects, but each one made it unique. To better understand the similarities and differences of the Byzantine Empire and Ancient Romans one must look at each civilization’s cultural ideas, religion, & dependence on lower class.

Various pieces of art found thousands of years ago depict characters based on certain events and legends. I will be analyzing two works of art: The Sound Box of the Great Lyre, a wooden music box (33 x 11 cm) found in present-day Iraq c. 2600-2500 BCE, and Lapith Fighting a Centaur, a high metope relief (1.42 m) on the side of the Parthenon in Ancient Greece c. 447-432 BCE. The former represents a bull with a low relief under its head, depicting animals mimicking the lifestyle of humans. The latter exemplifies a nude man struggling against a mythical creature that is half-man half-horse2. Although these works are from across the world with completely different cultures, they both have similar

The Byzantine Empire and Western Europe originally were part of the Roman Empire, but by the middle Ages(medieval times), they were very different, even though they did share some common traits, but by the 300's, the Byzantine Empire had far surpassed Western Europe in trade and economics and political unity, while both empires were having arguments over religion.

The ancient civilizations had very different ways of running their empires throughout their time. The Persians and Greeks held very true to this statement. They both had different sources that contributed to the power they held. The Persians had a very large empire and had a specific way of controlling it. First lets see how the Persians came to be. Cyrus, the son of the Assyrian king, was supposed to be killed as a baby. He was instead taken to a village that soon became called Persia. As Cyrus matured, the people could tell he had the characteristics of a king. He soon became just that. He didn’t want to be just a ruler though, he wanted to be different. His tactics were based on mercy, forgiveness, and compassion. Cyrus did go to war still

     The ancient Greek and Roman civilizations of Europe began to progress toward a more civilized order of society. As there were no previous establishment to base their ideals on, it was understandable that there were some difficulties in their progression as a society. Although the ancient Greek and Roman governments fell, both had similar paths of creation, conquest, and destruction.

There were four great multicultural Empires in our world’s history Ancient Greece, The Roman Empire, Persia and China. I am going to focus on Ancient Greece and the Persian Empire, what geographical features did each region offer to help the people build these great empires, what were some of the cultures of this empires, and what changes did they have over time? Going further into details on the Persian Empire, who were two of the leaders and what contributions did they make to Persia, what methods did they use to expand the region and gain power? How did the political system change over time?

Following the decline of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, a new empire rose up in the ashes. This new empire, the Byzantine Empire, was a culmination of Western Roman cultures and tradition, yet, it also contains many distinctive features. Originating from the same empire, the two empires display similar cultural roots.

After reading the text book about the Roman Empire. I found that the Roman Empire was divided into two parts. The Western half, ruled by Rome, fell to the tribal Germanic peoples in the 5th century. The Eastern half, known as the Byzantine Empire, until it began to decline in power, the Byzantine Empire was one of the leading civilizations in the world. The first Christian emperor became sole ruler of the Roman Empire. He set up his colony of Byzantium. The city, renamed Constantinople after its founder, It became the capital of the Byzantines after the Roman Empire was formally divided.

In ancient times, the Greek and Roman Empires were the leading figures in their world. In these civilizations, the world saw continuous new inventions of items, thoughts, and ways of living. As ancient Greece and Rome grew, the characteristics of culture grew as well, with cities, arts and architecture, technology and science, social structure, government, religion and philosophy, and writing and literature becoming more diverse and modernized. Though they began nearly 3,000 years ago, the Greek and Roman Empires’ advancements still impact the modern world in all areas of culture, particularly in government, religion and technology.

Although they bear some superficial similarities, the differences between Greeks and Persians during the years 1000-30 B.C.E are clear. The thought that the Greek empires are better than the Persian empires is one that I believe in.

Greece is one of the four multicultural empires that occurred around 600 BCE to 600 CE. Ancient Greece had so many different geographical features that helped brand the outcomes of the empire. One of the key features was Greece’s rugged mountains with deep valleys. With the mountains and valleys being rugged, it produced poor rocky soils (Acrobatiq, 2014). Also, there were narrow coastal areas as well. With this being a living environment for the Greeks, the production of food crops was unfortunate because of those factors. The Greeks had to find other ways to gather foods to their city-states because of the low production of food crops. With this being a bittersweet situation, Greeks recognized more about trades. They eventually became more knowledgeable and respectable at it. Greeks would find other places that would trade with them for food crops and other resources. Greeks built colonies that were decent areas for finding foods and resources. Through this time, Greeks expanded with trading and traveling to enhance their empire.

In Homer’s great work, the Iliad, Achilles is given a set of armor, including a glorious shield which allows him to return to battle and carry out his revenge against Hector. Likewise, in Virgil’s Aeneid, Aeneas is sent a shield for the purpose of aiding him in defending Rome from invasion. However, these shields are made special not by their military value, but by the engravings that decorate their surfaces.

On one side there is Augustus Caesar leading Italians with the senate and “mighty gods” and “on the other side comes Anthony with barbaric might and motley arms” (109). He describes Egypt as “all the might of the East and Bactra, the end of the earth” in order to one more emphasize the grandness of these countries. It sounds similar to the first passage because Virgil wants to show how important the Battle of Actium was for Augustus. “All rush at once” he writes as he describes the war. He uses an analogy of “high mountains clashing with high maintains” in order to express the scale of this event (109). He even mentions the gods who are also pinned against one another. It is Egyptian god Anubis against Roman gods, Venus, Minerva and Neptune. Once Apollo sees this event he bends his bow from above and “In terror at all this all Egypt and India, all Albanians, all Sabaeans turned to flee” (111). He describes Cleopatra’s reaction as “the queen herself—you could see her calling, tempting the winds, her sails spreading and now, now about to let her sheets run free” he wants to show that even this great fearless woman had to flee out of fear. When he describes her image on the shield, he writes that the God of Fire was the one who depicted her, as “pale with imminent death” (111). While the queen was