Borrowed Culture: How Greek Culture Has Influenced Roman Society

How Roman society and though was influenced by Greek Culture was in Southern Italy when the Romans interacted with Greek colonies. 'How did Greek culture influence the development of Roman civilization?' discused how the Greek culture was adopted, adapted and expanded upon, and this lead to a saying. 'Rome may have conquered Greece, but the Greek culture has conquered Rome'. The Greeks influenced the Roman civilization though Religion, Engineering, Literature, Music, Art, Mythology, Architecture, Law, Government, Military and Education. If we discuss Religion and Mythology, there differences were that as it is mentioned by 'How did Greek culture influence the development of Roman civilization?'

Most Roman gods are borrowed from Greek mythology and given Latin names. Both sets of Gods are said to reside on Mount Olympus in Greece. The main difference, was that the Greek gods were based on human and physical forms and traits. Roman gods on the other hand were named after objects rather than human personality traits and thus often didn't have a physical appearance or even their gender specified.

Religion was important to the Greeks in ancient times as they believed life would be better when they were alive and when they died, and their gods would look after them in their afterlife. Roman law was based on Greek Legislation and was an important of the development or the Roman government and was the start to their what we know as 'modern law'. With the Romans building on the ideas that the Greeks gave them regarding architecture, they expanded on that as it is seen in them developing the arch and dome. The Greek language was widely used and common in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Romans adopted used rules of rhetoric, and according to Nordquist, Aristotle and Isocrates first used it as it was meant to be.

The English word rhetoric is derived from Greek rhetorike, which apparently came into use in the circle of Socrates in the fifth century and first appears in Plato's dialogue Gorgias, probably written about 385 B.C. Rhetorike in Greek specifically denotes the civic art of public speaking as it developed in deliberative assemblies, law courts, and other formal occasions under constitutional government in the Greek cities, especially the Athenian democracy.

The two common languages used by the Romans, were Greek and Latin with Literature been a influence in works of playwrights. 'How did Greek culture influence the development of Roman civilization?' explain further how Greek Culture was of utmost importance in education, the Romans admiring the Greek educational idea, this was of great importance if you decided to reach a high level, and had to be schooled in Greece. Philosophy was also adopted, Stoicism which was a school of Hellenistic philosophy. Musical instruments were adopted from the Greeks, including the Art that the Greeks had a set skill of sculpting. Finally, there is the Roman military who was trained in at the way of the Spartans and in wars against the Parthian Empire, Spartan soldiers were part of the Roman military, assisting in the battles.

The Greeks influenced the Romans in many areas throughout history and whole the Romans improved in some areas, they will always have their roots of influence from the Greeks which is shown in this modern day.