Ancient Greek And Roman Empire Essay

The Roman Empire was once one of the most powerful empires in the world, but still to this day we ask, how did the empire end? Romans built their territory to be the best. They expanded their land across regions, had all the power, a large population, and technological innovations; so how could such a ‘great’ empire end? Rome was once at it’s peak but was destined to fall due to political instability, overconfidence, negligence, and barbarian attacks.

As the Greek and Roman empires ascended immensely throughout the western world, new ideas changed the way the Mediterranean Society handled things, which were spread across the globe. “The rise of the series of city-states of classical Greece began in the ninth century B.C.E. and during the late sixth century B.C.E, Rome’s development as a republic began as Etruscan society declined”(Bentley et al, 2008 p.132, 145). The development of these empires encouraged cultural circulation, blending the culture of the two empires into the land it conquered. As Greece and Rome gained more territory within the Mediterranean society, they began to progress toward a more civilized order of humanity. How were they alike? How were they different? How did

Romans were a civilization that originated after the Greek culture. They, like Greeks, saw an extreme significance in the idea of a love for one’s country and loyalty. The Romans, however, were more concerned with public affairs such as education, sanitation, and health. They held a strong connection with their ancestors and wished to imitate what the ancient Romans did. Although Romans rejected the idea of a Rex, or king, they favored the common hero. They wanted a leader who a “regular Joe”, someone who was average and could still led an average life after doing extraordinary things. The Romans also had a very defined government that was broken into consuls, senate, and assembly. There were two consuls who served in place of the king as the leaders of the Roman Empire. Next in succession was the senate, comprised only of patricians who debated and passed legislation. Finally, there was the assembly made for the plebeians to approve laws.

The great Roman Empire expanded across all of Europe and into the Middle East. Its military was one of the finest. With major trading in Africa and Britain, the economy flourished with brining many citizens a healthy income. With amazing advancements in culture and technology, Roman society was at its finest. During the Pax Romana, the Romans had 200 years of peace and good ruling by level headed dictators and emperors. Despite Rome’s greatness in all of these areas, Rome would eventually fall. Surprisingly all of these qualities that led up to a flourishing empire were the same ones that led to its demise. As Germanic tribes invaded, the military weakened and the government became unstable.

All of these civilizations came and went at different times throughout the duration of Bronze Age Greece. All of them were drastically important in maintaining the great power of the area during a time of such havoc and turmoil. Much like anything in life, all good things must come to an end eventually. The Bronze Age Greece almost completely fell by 146BC. There are a number of different reasons why the collapse of the Bronze Age Greece occurred. In the following sections we will discuss several reasons for the collapse of this once great society.

Ancient Greece was one of the first democratic societies and has greatly influenced modern day governments. Although the Greek idea of democracy is different from what is practiced today, their ideas formed the basis for modern democratic governments. Prior the invention of democracy, citizens had no rights and there were no guidelines for who was considered a citizen. Democracy gave voting rights and the ability to hold office to citizens – free men born in Greece, usually landowners. Today’s modern democracy is accessible to all people and has a higher degree of organization and hierarchy, it still derives its basic prinicples from Greek democracy.

For Polybius the advantage of the roman republic over Athenian democracy was that, successively more people shared power as a safeguard against abuse until the immorality of democracy again led to conditions favorable for the receiving of the "Fuehrerpinzip." In his plan, there successively occur three "good" forms of government – kingship, aristocracy, and democracy – only for each to succumb to corruption and for its resulting understanding in its distorted form – respectively dictatorship, oligarchy, and adhocracy, or mob rule – to be overthrown by the kind phase of the next. Polybius also tells us that the senate puts forth its control largely because it has the power to carry out investigations of capital crimes and to offer ultimate negotiation in civil disagreement. There are no rights prior to the state Mixed government implies checks & balances (Polybius, Roman Republic), which implies the good of the entire community.

The second major similarity between ancient Greek and Roman civilizations was that their citizens voted on who to make their elected officials, however the difference was that each culture differed in their definition of a citizen. The Greeks only recognized native-born males having the right of citizenship, women and slaves could not be citizens and therefore could not vote. The Romans on the other hand, recognized foreigners residing within Italy as half-citizens giving them full legal rights but not the right to vote. Greece mostly voted into office people of middle- to upper-class citizens, whereas Rome only voted in the rich 10% of their population. Even though history seems to show that the Greeks were more fair by randomly selecting citizens to run for office, the Roman government specifically chose who would run for election similar to our political race today where the Republican and Democratic parties choose who will be there candidates.

One reason why the Empire collapsed was because of how large the land was. As the Empire grew, the “borders became difficult to secure.” (Document 2). As the land expanded, more men were needed to guard the borders, but because the land was growing, there weren’t enough people to cover everything. Another factor is it

Did you know that the Roman empire was one of the strongest and one of the most powerful empire? Well as we all know the Roman empire fell for these reasons. The first reason is because the population decreased. The next reason is because the Roman empire had a economic crisis. The final reason is because the Roman empire had tons of invaders invading Rome at the same time so Rome couldn’t fight all those empires!.

Tainter main argument is that the collapse of societies stemmed from the failure of problem-solving institutions. That once these issues arose in the empires, the ruling factions were unable to provide solutions or relief that would provide stability and support the citizens. Furthermore, the societies collapsed they couldn’t adapt the

Aside from these physical differences, there is a difference in the goals between the Greeks and the Romans. In the first case what concerns the Greek city-states is limited to self-preservation if not individual fame and success. The Romans, on the other hand, were concerned with the success of the country as a whole; they knew that if the whole was successful, then the individual parts would also benefit.

Classical Greek culture had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean region and Europe. Greek culture influenced the development of Roman civilization because at first Rome absorbed ideas from Greek colonists in southern Italy, and they continued to borrow from Greek culture after they conquered Greece. Ancient Greece has had an enormous amount of impact on culture in the western world. For this reason, Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the foundation of Western civilization. Rome conquered the Greek empire and its civilization, but Greek culture conquered imperial Rome. Furthermore, the Romans willingly

It is the Greek culture which shaped the modern society. The importance that the Greeks placed upon their citizens in terms of government, helped shape the Greek culture. The Greeks change in politics from an Oligarchy to democracy. With the reliance on the average Greek citizen strengthened the Greek democracy. From the shift in power from the hoi polloi to average Greek citizen caused a shift in Greek culture. The responsibility placed on the citizens that resulted in the progression of Greek politics, drama, sculpture, and philosophy.

In a relatively resource-poor region, a society rose from the access of foreign sources of raw materials and markets abroad. This society came to be known as one of the largest nations in Eurasia. The rise and fall of this great nation has to do with war-fare and the conflict between city-states. Their division led to the widespread of language and culture. This is the great story of Ancient Greece and how individualism changed the view Greece had on certain issues. (Bulliet 99) From 1000 B.C.E to 30 B.C.E, Ancient Greece’s view on individualism changed the political system Greece had, over time changed the way individuals thought and made important Intellectual changes, and gradually changed the Economic system such as bartering.