The Roman Debt to Greece

[Ghostmojo]

I think there was also an element within Roman society that wished to link itself to this previous dominant culture which it so admired. There were Romans who sought to relate themselves as some sort of lost Spartan tribe, and of course you have the whole Aeneas/Troy foundation myths. In earlier times I guess both Solon and Lykourgos had their place in Roman development. And of course Caesar, Pompey and Augustus all venerated Alexander whom they tried to adopt as something of a role model.

Back to religion - the Romans were not above grafting Greek idioms and tales onto their own and also quite open to importation as we have seen. But they seemed more interested in cults and rituals than the Greeks did. The latter saw more of a history and spiritual world occupied by their Gods - more of a whole picture.

Of course none of this is straightforward. My own knowledge of Spartan religion tells me how varigated even the Greek world was over this.

[Epictetus]

One of the topics that has intrigued me in recent years is the life of the Greeks under Roman rule. One book that you might be interested in is Swain's Hellenism and Empire. I reviewed it some months ago here.

It looks at what Greeks (or more precisely 'some' Greeks) thought of Rome. Interestingly, there seemed to be little attention paid by them to what Rome gained from Greek influence. Instead, there appeared to me to be more jealousy about protecting what they viewed as Greek culture. In essence, they may not have wanted Rome to have such a 'debt' to Greece.

I didn't really read it thinking along these lines, but you might find some interesting points about what the Imperial Greeks themselves thought about this topic.

[Ghostmojo]

Thanks for those links which I read with interest. 8)

Galen's comments tickled me. The idea of trendy Graeco-Romans or Romano-Greeks wandering around with their designer label amphoras (containing 'nice' water) has modern echoes :lol:

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

If you read Polybios you will see a lot of the attitude of Rome towards the Greek city states... I think that Rome did not owe so much to the Greeks but I do think that the Greek culture spread out for centuries through their colonies. Which is the main reason for hellenic cultural features we see around the mediterranean, including Etruria and Rome itself.

M.VIB.M.