Roman Culture

Even while Rome was still developing, Greece was an influence to many ancient civilizations. Before 500 B.C., the Romans did not always appreciate the thoughts and way of life of the Greeks. The Romans were more focused on physical and hard labor (as many of them were farmers), and made many choices based on superstition, while the Greeks displayed sophisticated qualities and knowledge in the areas of literacy and the arts (“Greek Influence on Rome”, 2017). Once the Romans came to realize the benefits of the Greek way of life, they began to adopt these qualities as their own, and almost every aspect of the life of Romans was touched by these adoptions.
The similarities between Greek and Roman culture were striking and plentiful. I think the most obvious similarity is democracy. As we have learned throughout this class, the first form of democracy originated in Greece during the Golden Age (Morey, 1901). The Romans interpreted democracy in their own way, only allowing citizens to vote on elected officials instead of everything like the Athenians (Morey, 1901). Societal similarities other than democracy existed as well. For example, both Romans and Greeks divided their societies by classes that were evident by differences
“Greek was the language of the educated, and it was used in all official documents and governmental assemblies during the Roman empire” (“Greek Influence on Rome”, 2017).
Religion is another similarity that Greeks and Romans share. Much like what happened with democracy, the Romans interpreted Greek religion in their own way, simply renaming Greek Gods but believing in the same myths (“Greek Influence on Rome”, 2017). It’s quite fascinating that the names the Romans gave to their Gods are the names of our planets (and one that has since been re-classified a star!): Jupiter, Neptune, Venus, Mercury and