What Features of Modern Europe Have Been Traced Back to Ancient Greece and Rome

What Features of Modern Europe Have Been Traced Back to Ancient Greece and Rome, and Are Such Comparisons Justified?

Many features of Ancient Greece and Rome could be said, in one way or another, to still be present in modern day Europe, although perhaps in a fashion entirely unrecognisable to the populaces of these antediluvian territories. To a modern-day European layperson, or one of the demos1, original Greek and Roman ideals might vary from politics and the legal structure that comprises what we think of democracy; to the Olympic Games; to geographical institutions such as architecture, landmarks, roads and sewage systems; to the very language we speak. Two of the most important foundations bequeathed us are democracy and our language.
Democracy, as we know it, is defined as “a form of government in which the supreme power is vested in the people collectively, and is administered by them or by officers appointed by them; the common people; a state of society characterised by recognition of equality of rights and privileges for all people; political, social or legal equality.” (Chambers Dictionary, 1993, p.448). Many historians believe that traces of democratic practices were apparent as early as 621 BC; at this time, Draco, the Athenian lawgiver, created the first recorded written law, instructing any person found guilty of homicide to be exiled (Raaflub et al, 2007). Draco was the first recorded lawgiver, and was chosen by an apparent democratic vote. However, this first law, and subsequent written laws were still under the leadership, or tyranny, of one man, and appear to have favoured the aristocracy.
A generation later, Solon, the lawgiver at the time, renounced the majority of Draco’s laws, and issued directives that were, in his eyes, fairer to both higher and lower classes. During the course of his time as lawgiver in Athens, Solon revolutionised the way the state was run, resulting in the first legitimate government of Athens2. Institutions created in this time included a court system comprising a jury, or dikastai, selected from the main population, and an Areopagus Council, who would oversee the dikastai. This is a reflection on the way our court systems are run today, with a jury of laypeople, overseen by a judge or council of magistrates.
According to Raaflub et al, “If democracy means that all citizens, the entire demos, determine policies and exercise control through assembly, council and courts, and that political leaders, attempting to shape public opinion, are subordinate to the demos, the first democracy that we can identify with certainty was that of Athens from the 460s [BC].” (Raaflaub, Josiah et al, 2007, p.22). The reforms that had occurred resulted in the people retaining power; demos came to mean more than just “the people”; it now held monarchical significance, and referred to all men of Athens, regardless of class or status. Even the lowest classes, or thetes, had a say in the way the country was governed. Demos, meaning “the people” and kratos meaning “power” formed demokratis which became a part of everyday terminology, hitherto absent from the Athenian vocabulary.
Where the Greeks focused more on the philosophy of law rather than the science of law, the Romans, who between 500 and 550 BC became the empire we think of them as today, rather than the insignificant state they had originated from, expanded upon this discipline. As their empire grew, it became important for their laws to evolve into more than generationally passed oratories. Basing their plans on the Greek custom of Dikastic Courts, the Romans in 451 BC formed a group of citizens, or decemvirs, formally appointed to write down laws. These laws were based on the Athenian laws written down by Solon, and were named The Twelve Tables. While the exact nature of these laws has been lost to us due to decrepitude of materials, they have been referred to in subsequent texts enough for scholars to extrapolate their meaning and reconstruct them. Enough has been saved for us to be sure that certain actions undertaken by a defendant would result in certain judgements. (Stein, 1999) Although the Twelve Tables, like the Draconian laws of the Greeks, were more favourable to the higher classes, it was at least clear to all where they stood in terms of the law now that it had been written down. Where a dispute could not be settled in house, the parties concerned would state their case to a magistrate, or sometimes a group of magistrates, who would hear the evidence and pass judgement accordingly.
Tracing back to these instances of democracy and transposing them on to our own systems and beliefs in the modern day has been a subject of high interest for many scholars and historians. However, to state unequivocally whether these first shoots of democracy from Ancient Greece and Rome have developed into the trees of modern day government is a much larger task that it might first appear. If democracy means, taken literally from the original Greek, “Power to the People”, then can we state absolutely that this is the case in modern day Europe? It has long been the wish of political leaders to recreate the fabled Roman Empire, and create a “Pax Romana” – an almost utopian government. Unfortunately this ambition has resulted in many a lost dictatorship, such as those of Mussolini in Italy, the Kaiser and Hitler in Germany, and Stalin and Lenin in Russia. Modern day Europe is now concerned with ensuring that civilians are treated equally without the dominating empirical force of the Romans, suggesting that while we have the utmost respect for these ancient laws, the natural law of evolution has allowed us to build and expand upon them.
Although it was, as shown above, the Greeks that first laid the foundations for the legal aspects of our modern day civilisation, it is the Romans who seem to get most of the credit for this. Conversely, when reflecting on the etymology of our language and the way we communicate today, time and again the Greeks are mentioned. Plato, for instance, is credited with being the first person to distinguish between a noun and a verb (Aitchison, 1972). In 389 BC, Plato founded a school in Athens. This was built on grounds formerly belonging to a Greek named A. Cadamus. The school became known as the Academy, and was retrospectively known as the first European university. By this time, written language had become the norm, although this had not always been the case.
Between 3000 and 4000 BC, language had been purely consonantal with no thought of transcribing the written vowel. The Greeks expanded upon this by developing their own pattern of transliterating vowels. The end result was two distinct sounds – the vowel sound, or alpha for “a”, and the consonant sound, or beta for “b”. These combined to form an “alphabet”. According to Yule, 2006, “it is the Greeks who should be given credit for taking the inherently syllabic system from the Phoenicians and creating a writing system in which the single-symbol to single-sound correspondence was fully realised.” (Yule, 2006, p.24) It is unfortunate for the Greeks that yet again, the credit for the written alphabet that we know today is given mainly to the Romans, for it was they who substantially modified the alphabet to fit their needs. The written alphabet we use today is often referred to as “the Roman alphabet”; although many of the phonetic symbols use in the International Phonetic Alphabet, are taken directly from the Greek alphabet.
Modern day Europe certainly has a lot to thank Ancient Greece and Rome for, not least our democratic civilisation and the language we speak and write; these are not by any means the only features we have taken from them, but arguably the most important ones. Although the laws that were first passed in Greece and Rome would certainly be viewed as archaic by our modern day standards, the very fact that they were passed speaks volumes about the legal legacy left to us. The foundations that we have built our own civilisation and democratic structure on were laid by them. The same goes for the alphabet, whose very name we would not have without the Greeks, and the written word which now forms so much of our communication, manipulated into the generic writing structure we have today, thanks to the Romans. Were it not for these important scholarly blueprints, Europe may never have evolved into the intelligent civilisation that it is today.

References
Chambers Dictionary (1993) Edinburgh: Chambers
Raaflaub, Kurt A.; Ober, Josiah; Wallace, Robert; Farrah, Cynthia (2007). Origins of Democracy. Ewing, New Jersey: University of California Press
Stein, Peter (1999). Roman Law in European History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
Yule, David (2006). The Study of Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Bibliography
Chambers Dictionary (1993) Edinburgh: Chambers
Aitchison, Jean (1999). Teach Yourself Linguistics. London: Hodder Headline.
Raaflaub, Kurt A.; Ober, Josiah; Wallace, Robert; Farrah, Cynthia (2007). Origins of Democracy. Ewing, New Jersey: University of California Press
Stein, Peter (1999). Roman Law in European History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press
Todd, Loreto (1987). Introduction to Linguistics. Harlow, Essex: Longman Group.
Wallace-Hadrill, Professor Andrew (2011). Roman Empire: The Paradox of Power. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/empire_01.shtml. Accessed 18th October 2011.
Yule, David (2006). The Study of Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

References: Chambers Dictionary (1993) Edinburgh: Chambers Raaflaub, Kurt A.; Ober, Josiah; Wallace, Robert; Farrah, Cynthia (2007). Origins of Democracy Stein, Peter (1999). Roman Law in European History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press Yule, David (2006) Bibliography Chambers Dictionary (1993) Edinburgh: Chambers Aitchison, Jean (1999). Teach Yourself Linguistics. London: Hodder Headline. Raaflaub, Kurt A.; Ober, Josiah; Wallace, Robert; Farrah, Cynthia (2007). Origins of Democracy. Ewing, New Jersey: University of California Press Stein, Peter (1999) Todd, Loreto (1987). Introduction to Linguistics. Harlow, Essex: Longman Group. Wallace-Hadrill, Professor Andrew (2011). Roman Empire: The Paradox of Power. Available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/romans/empire_01.shtml. Accessed 18th October 2011. Yule, David (2006). The Study of Language. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.