Roman vs. greek

How Are the Greeks and Romans in Western Civilization?
Daniel Eys
Western Civil 40g
Mr. Burtnack
Feb.19,2014

Gods, Open Bathhouses, and Warfare. The Greeks and Romans advanced civilization to a high standard just before it crumbed and was dashed into shambles. Though they had advances back then, just how have the Greeks shaped the western civilization, how did the Romans influence it as well?

The Greeks had a great many things to their list of achievements, from the monuments they built, to the masterfully created Parthenon that is still standing today. They worked hard to create what is known as a lost legacy nowadays; but how much of Greece is actually still influencing us today? The first concept that they invented that is still being used is the alphabet. This influence is probably the hugest because this essay right now is written with letters; an idea that was first made real by the Greeks. Before people used images to get their stuff across, but when the Greece came along it made writing way easier. Currently, we use the Roman alphabet, which was of course a more developed version of the Greek alphabet.

With the alphabet another innovation was made, this was the library. Though many of them are around today, only one was ever built in Greece. That was the Library of Alexandria. Even if it was built in Egypt, it was still a Greek invention because Egypt by then was already applying the Greek way of life to how they were living, which was under Alexander’s rule. What lay in the library was about 700,000 scrolls of work, why isn’t there a library of Alexandria anymore? Well, Julius Caesar from the Roman Empire besieged the city of Alexandria and burned down the monument to literature. It’s was a tragedy to say the least.

One of the most important aspects of their culture was democracy. When the Greeks started out, the capital of Athens was a monarchy. Slowly but surely, the government swayed towards what we see today in The United States and Canada. (Anonemuss, May 18, 2010)Their government consisted of over 6,000 members, all of them being white adult male citizens. They voted on problems that faced Athens and passed laws. A specific number of assembly members had to vote in on a law to get it to be passed, similar to what our government does today. If someone wanted another banished though, well; they would need the whole group to agree with them. What they used at the time was a direct democracy and what we do today is called a representative democracy. We vote for people to make the decisions for us, in ancient Greece any citizen can go up and make a good argument on what they wanted changed or law they wanted instated.
This is some of the very basic and fundamental things we owe to the Greeks. They gave us libraries, Democracy, and the first worded alphabet. All of these have been building blocks for the lives ahead of this once great civilization for many centuries and they will continue to be building blocks for years to come. For this, we must thank them for their ingenuity and advanced way of thinking as they revolutionized the whole world for us.

After the Greeks came and gone, a new society was build; this society was the Roman society and western civilizations owe a lot to them for their further medical, legal, and architectural innovations. They did a whole slew of things that are still being used. What exactly did they make they would put them in a highly revered status? One of their innovations was in architecture, they created massive aqueducts and plumbing systems that were works of beauty and masterfully crafted, they created them to last and they have lasted. Most of their aqueducts and their sewers are still being used today, due to the size of the network they put out and the genius of it all. (Masser-English, 2013) Another part of their architecture was their road system, which was seen as revolutionary at the time. Most of our back roads use the same method as the romans did for their basic roads, of course their city roads were more elaborately made but that doesn’t need to be delved into.
The basics of the legal system the western civilization has today is very based on the Twelve Tables of the Roman law, so they can lend a hand over to the romans for that as well. The basic laws of the western world are shaped around the rules made by the Romans as well. It’s not a widely expressed part of the Rome culture that is talked about, mostly because the twelve tables were destroyed but it may have been the most important part of their judicial system.
Of course, that’s not the only thing they revolutionized, they also helped shape modern medicine itself. By being a mix between gods and science, they used tools and techniques that were unheard of at the time. If you look back at it though; it seems pretty barbaric. Often the ‘doctors’ they would use mythical cures and then try to physically solve the problem but often than not, they would not even try other methods as they trusted their gods to save their patients as they were taught in the so called ‘medical schools’. They were highly clever with their equipment; they created the first types of scalpels and other medical procedural items. Things that they created for medical uses are still out here today. Catheters, bone saws, and forceps were widely used by the ancient physicians and are a staple to our medicine world today. Naturally, they’re made with better materials and are a bit more advanced but the basic elements are there. (Micheal Lahanas, 2013)

This is what we owe to the Romans, this vast cornucopia of knowledge, laws, and medicine. They formed our basic laws with the twelve tables, their architecture inspired us, and the medicinal innovations were outstanding at the time. It seems that the western civilizations owe a lot of what we have today to the Ancient Roman Empire. The same goes with the Greeks, if they didn’t help create the foundations that Rome was built on; the world for all civilizations would probably be a whole lot different.

Works cited: http://anonemuss.hubpages.com/hub/Greek-Influences-today (Anonemuss, May 18, 2010) http://masser-english.wiki.nhvweb.net/Roman+Influence+on+Today's+Society (Masser-English) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzn53MMm0EM (Ancient Greeks: who were they) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-MFgjO88KY (Contributions of the Ancient Romans to the World) http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/society/law-roman-law-its-influence.html (The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. 2012) http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/MedicalInstruments.htm (Michael Lahanas)