preview

How Did The Greeks Influence Roman Culture

Decent Essays

Every culture and society arises from some previous form. In this course we have analyzed how societies affect each other, and how civilizations adopt or adapt to differing environments and peoples that they are exposed to. The Roman Republic/Empire is a great example of this process. Who were the Romans influenced by? The Romans were clearly heavily influenced by the Greeks. The Romans adopted the Greek style of architecture. For example they borrowed dome architecture from the Greeks, and improved upon it. The Romans also borrowed their intense use of columns from the Greeks. The Romans did not just borrow architecture from the Greeks, but they also heavily borrowed from Greek mythology, and philosophy. The Roman gods and the Greek gods are eerily similar; Jupiter and Zeus …show more content…

Romans also adopted Greek ship building techniques. During the Punic Wars the Romans realized that they had to build a proper navy to fight Carthage, so they essentially reverse engineered a Greek ship to figure out how to build ships for their own navy. Other than the Greeks another obvious sculptor of the Romans were the Jews who spread their monotheisms to their Roman occupiers through Jesus. Christianity birthed the Roman Catholic church, and reshaped the fabric of Roman society. The Romans would give up polytheism, and gladiator fights. Carthage also had an immense impact on Rome through its defeat. When Carthage was defeated it flooded Rome with slaves which took the jobs of citizen farmers. This new class of poor who moved to the cities would be the catalyst for many riots, and political struggles. The Gracchi brothers whom relied on these people as their base of support led to the

Get Access