Greek And Roman Civilization Research Paper

Western Civ. 101

The immediate and long-term legacy of Greek and Roman civilizations

Until the start of the Renaissance, in the mid 1300's, many of the brilliant ideas and advancements created and used by Greek and Roman civilizations remained dormant. Both, Greek and Roman, cultures were astounding at finding a better way or solution to handling problems and bettering their community. Most important aspects of a small city were thought out and discussed, rather than being decided by one dictator. Anything from government to language, art and architecture, and everything in between was considered and thought out to create a better understanding of life for a prospering civilization.

The Greek civilization brought many new ideas,
This gave the Romans a strong foundation for building prosperous individuals, ideas, laws, and a government form. With a society to show them how problems were handled and life was lived, the Romans had a head start on becoming a well-developed empire. While Grecian art and architecture was considered spectacular, the Romans surpassed them in every way. The advancements made in Roman times to transportation, public building, streets, and villages all contributed to the rapid growing of Rome, as well as set standards for civilizations to come. As the Roman Empire got larger in size as well as population, the need for roads became an issue; these new allies of Rome would need a way to transport back and forth. When Rome extended their alliance and citizenship to surrounding city-states or civilizations, they spread their culture and identity further and further. Rome made a strong effort to connect with all of its allies as part of functioning as one whole, loyal, Empire. Although, the way Rome colonized was much different than the method the Greeks used, which consisted of entering a town, conquering it, taking what they wanted, and then having little contact, but for the most part remaining disconnected, while remaining allies with this town or civilization. Another large comparison between Greek and Roman civilizations is in their writers
This was a large step forward in the development of rights for individuals. With a government that had to represent its people and their opinion on the matter, the aristocrats began to lose a hold in power. Prior to being a democratic society, all city-states in Greece, mainly Athens, abided by the rules of aristocratic landowners controlling the land. Cleisthenes held the first successful attempt of reinstating the four traditional classes, based on wealth and family relations, which led to the tyranny in the first place, with a division of demes based on area of residence. In this system, every Athenian had input and an opinion that was valued, the option of not participating did not exist. Greece's experience and prosperity in government showed over the years as they developed more and saw a large increase in population. Obviously, they had strength in building a strong government and maintaining it. The conquests taken on by the Greeks revealed their weaknesses. As Greeks began their expansion to areas beyond Peloponnesos, Crete, and Cyprus, they found that colonizing became very difficult. Establishing your own government in a society that has been governed a certain way for ages does not make for easy reform. Greeks began to see this as they ventured outside their