Greek And Roman Civilizations : Greece And Ancient Civilizations

The Greeks and the Romans were among the most influential societies in the history of the world. Evidence of Greek or Roman influence can be found in almost every culture or country that has ever existed. Though both cultures were different in practice and incredibly competitive with one another, their politics and their beliefs set the stage for future civilizations, including those of the modern world. In particular, the values and practices of Greek and Roman citizenship and politics, more than any other cultures, influences American policies today in terms of values, government, and self-image.

Throughout the ancient world, the aspects to which a successful society thrive under have been skewed, except for that of religion. Although a universal religion has never been adopted, most empires tend to follow a basic outline similar to one another. In relation to Greeks and Romans, this ideology still holds true. Religion between these two societies have had their differences, but for the most part they have kept the same values held high. Women and their impact on Greek and Roman religion is what shaped these regions to flourish and is what held the empires together through all war and turmoil that came their way.

The past centuries saw a clear distinction between the Western civilization and the non-western culture. The western civilization composed of Greece, Romans, Byzantine Empire, and the European while the non-western civilizations included East Asia, Egypt, Persian Empire, Sassanid Empire, African Societies and Kingdoms, Incas, Mayans, Aztecs, and Mongols. For a long period, the western civilizations prevailed around the world. They influenced, lead and controlled others in various sectors such as medicine, clothing, business orientations, religion, and government. In this paper, I will be affirming my conviction that the western civilizations had unique attributes that made them more powerful than the non-western civilizations. I will also show how the western cultures were influenced by the spread of Christianity, and how the western cultures have maintained their great influence and power over the other societies even in the modern era.

     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.

In western ancient world, there were kings who tried to bring the world come together ideologically, culturally and politically. This caused lots of cultural exchange between people and help them understand and respect each other’s ways of life. On the other hand, politically, it created a lot of major wars. It took a large amount of resources and decades to end these wars. As a result of these wars, most kingdoms suffered from both economical and political problems. Therefore, it is fair to say that Greek/Hellenistic civilization could be characterized as being a period of intellectual and cultural achievement but political failure.

1. During the Mycenaean civilization, who was the great poet and what were his two important literary works that influenced the Greeks and formed part of Western literature? Homer, The Iliad, The Odyssey

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.

Towering mountains. Bright blue seas. Glittering white temples dedicated to the gods. Though Ancient Greece was made up of many different regions and colonies, these 3 things were almost always in view. The ancient Greeks worshiped many different gods and goddesses that each controlled something in the mortal world. What was different about their gods and goddesses was that they were very human like. They looked like mortals, had thoughts like mortals, and they even quarreled with each other like we do. Ancient Greek religion is also known as Greek Mythology, Classical Religion, and Classical Mythology. Though whatever people call it, decisions made in Ancient Greece were heavily influenced by their religion.

The ancient Greeks and Romans were perhaps two of the greatest civilizations of the ancient world. These two civilizations thrived in their ancient environments which eventually led to a vast amount of prosperity within these two cultures. It is because of this prosperity that these ancient cultures were able to make a variety of advancements in literature, architecture, art and a variety of other fields. These two civilizations also produced some of the ancient world’s greatest writers, leaders, and philosophers. The cultures of ancient Greece and Rome made a number of contributions to western civilization in the form of advancements in literature, architecture, art, government, and philosophy.

Professor Roy Mathews and Dewitt Platt centralized their arguments around political humanities of the western world, and around the period for the Hellenistic civilization. This is when the institutions and culture of other nations interacted with the Greek’s in order to create a multicultural and varied civilization. From their definition, this would seem to suggest that Rome should not be counted as Hellenistic civilization because of the controversial time lines. Nonetheless, Rome was situated in the ideal geographical location, which naturally created a varied and multicultural civilization due to its expansion and methods of conquering people. This explanation indicates that Rome was an heir to Hellenistic civilization even though it does not fit according to the definition given by Professor Mathews and Platt. Professor Noble, on the other hand, explains how the fall of the Roman Empire led to the rising of three great civilizations of, the Byzantine Empire, medieval Europe, and the Islamic caliphate.8 Professor Noble

The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World fascinate and baffle the modern world. The list is comprised of the Great Pyramids of Giza, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, the Statue of Zeus at Olympia, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, the Colossus of Rhodes, and lastly the Lighthouse of Alexandria (history). Ancient civilizations had developed and grown without being as connected as countries in today's society are. Thus, cultures and societies remained unique from the others. Ancient communities such as the Greek are both similar and different from other ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians in many ways; some similarities are their interests in geometry and mathematics, having an insular society, and religious beliefs and some differences are religious structures, art style, and finally government structures.

Civilization is the period in which humans develop and organize their community in an advanced form in different aspects. As time was fleeting the ancient Greek civilization was starting to shape and adopt many alterations which started to center a more stable community. Just as the Greeks there were other civilizations developing some similar to the Greeks attributes and some differing them in different aspects.

The civilizations that I decided to elaborate on are Greece, Rome, and Persian. The purpose of this essay is to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of these civilizations. These civilizations will be analyzed in the area of their cultural, social, political, economic, diplomatic and military collating. Greece, Rome, and Persian are very distinctive and fascinating civilization. From the information I have learned through the semester will help me sharply juxtapose the cultures.

Throughout the course of time, different civilizations across the world hold one thing in common by which a society or culture can be based upon or help influence the structure. The one common thing that has help a civilization grow throughout the period of time would be the formation of a religion. Religion is a center point for many societies throughout history. As the center for the different civilizations, it helped form their different traditions and customs. The same could be said about the people of ancient Greece, where religion or mythology played an important role in their lives as it was the pedestal of their culture and how they base their lives upon. The formation of a religion across the large number of regions of Greece, help the different locations mold themselves by the customs that were created from the adaptation. During what was known as Ancient Greece, the people would hear tales of the twelve Olympians and how their actions influence the world around them. Within this period of time for the people of Greece was that of growth, as they sought to bring new ideas into light as they exited from a dark period within their own history.

The contemporary United States has been influenced by many ancient civilizations, mainly Classical Rome and Classical Greece. Even though Greece had a tremendous influence over our civilization, out of these two classical civilizations, I believe that Classical Rome has had a bigger impact on many aspects of the contemporary United States. In this essay, I am going to examine the political system, economic system, and the architecture of the Classical Rome Empire, and explain how these influenced the contemporary United States.