The Influence Of Greek Civilization On The Culture Of Roman Empire

It is a well-known fact that a formation of the civilizations is a very complex process which takes many years and evidently, within this process, an influence of different civilizations on one another is inevitable. If there is a discussion about the civilizations, it will be unwise not to talk about Greek civilization and its impact on other civilizations, especially on Roman Empire. Considering geographical factors, it is easy to perceive why the Roman Empire had been under the influence of Greek civilization. Actually, it is widely believed that Romans copied many things in various fields from Greek civilization; however, Romans’ social life, art, architecture, literature, music and religion are the most influenced ones by Greeks. The aim of this paper is to explain and discuss the several effects of Greek civilization on Roman Empire.

First of all, undoubtedly, the Greek civilization directly influences the daily activities, particularly, social life of Roman Empire. We know that cities are required for a society to be considered as a civilization, and that was one of the factors that Romans almost copied from Greek civilization. I mean, the way Romans constructed most of their cities was taken from Greeks. I think, obviously, the Romans had noticed that Greek cities seemed to have strong structure, or they just liked the appearance of it; thus, they decided to build with the similar techniques. Also, it is not a coincidence that the Olympic games of Greeks were seen in Roman civilization. I want to remind that Romans took some agricultural habits from Greeks, too. For instance, they learned viniculture habits from Greeks, and I think it was a convenient skill to learn for Romans because their climate was as useful as Greeks’ for viniculture. Briefly, the Greeks’ impact on Romans’ daily life can be one of the best examples of how one civilization can somehow lead to the development of another one.

In addition, the traces of Greek civilization can be obviously seen in the art or in other words, literature, architecture, music, and other fields in Roman Empire. It is known that ancient Greek civilization has contributed to world literature with dozens of magnificent poets and writers; thus, their impact is understandable on Roman literature. I honestly believe that even though Roman Empire’s literature is great, without the strong influences of Greek civilization, it might not have the value it has now because most of the crucial factors that shape marvelous literature were taken from Greeks. Another factor of Greek influence is observed from architecture of Roman Empire. The main three architectural styles of Greeks had been adopted by Romans, but they improved this system and added some more details. From my point of view, first assumption is that Roman civilization was open to innovation and possibly implemented certain architectural strategy taken from the conquered areas that they like; therefore, it is possible that nothing was special with Greeks. In fact, they wanted to create their own architectural culture by mixing and referring to architecture of other civilizations. To support the idea, Etruscan civilization had also influenced Roman architecture which shows that they did not copy the style from Greeks, but they merely adopted different strategies to improve their construction styles (Cartwright, 2017). Moreover, it is clear that Roman Empire’s musical life was affected by again Greek civilization. After finding about it, I started to form my second assumption that since Roman Empire is known to be one of the strongest empires in terms of military, maybe they just ignored everything related to art and thought that it is better to “take” it from neighboring nations. All in all, despite the fact that we call it “influence” of Greek civilization, I think we can just simply say that it is the degree of Roman Empire’s willingness to be “influenced” by the Greeks.

Finally, even though all the civilizations had a polytheistic religion, for some reasons, it is believed that Romans’ religion was also impacted by Greek civilization. Actually, to be precise, the Romans took several Gods from Greeks and just changed their name, but their functions remained almost the same. In my opinion, this action could have been taken by the priests or authority in order to make people believe that they were creating something new, like a new culture or civilization. In addition, from my point of view, it could be a good opportunity to adopt certain religious rituals from Greeks that served best their interest under the name of innovation or changes. Because it is obvious that they had their own Gods, too, so adding the ones with similar power or “ability” might lead to confusion, and the religion could be quite complicated to understand for local people; therefore, it was the most convenient option to “take” the Gods that were missing in original Roman religion. In my opinion, even though Romans somehow copied the Greeks’ religion, they also added something new to this polytheistic situation.

To sum up, the vestiges of impacts of Greek civilization on Roman Empire are still observed in certain fields, such as social life, art, architecture, music, literature and religion. How the cities of Roman Empire constructed resembles the Greeks construction strategy which is considered as an evidence to show the influences of Greeks. Also, Romans started to organize Olympic Games after they conquered Greek civilization. In addition, architectural strategy and art, particularly, music and literature are the fields that were also been affected by Greek civilization. Finally, although the religion was polytheistic in both civilizations, the traces of Greeks’ impacts have been observed and examined in Roman Empire. I honestly believe, despite the similarities between these two civilizations, both Roman and Greek culture needs to be examined carefully in order to get deep understanding of the greatest examples of the ancient era.