ancient rome and ancient greece

8/6/2019 Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece

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AncientRome was a civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th cent uryBC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it became one of the largest empires in the ancient world.

In its centuries of existence, Roman civilization shifted from a monarchy to an oligarchic republic to an increasingly autocr atic empire. It came

to dominate South-Western Europe, South-Eastern Europe/Balkans and the Mediterranean region through con quest and assimilation.


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Ancient Greece is the civilization belonging to the period of Greek history lasting from the Archaic period of the 8th to 6th centuries BC to the

end of antiquity and beginning of the Early Middle Ages with the rise of the Byzantine era following Justinian .

Classical Greek culture had a powerful influence on the Roman Empire, which carried a version of it to many parts of the Mediterranean

region and Europe, for which reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the seminal culture which provided the fou ndation ofWestern civilization.


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Ancient Rome Government

From 500 BC to nearly 1500 AD, for two thousand years, Roman government had more or less the same system. Of course there were some changes

over that time too!

When the RomanRepublic was first set up, in 500 BC, the people in charge were two men called consuls. Women were not allowed to be consuls.

The consuls controlled the army, and they decided whether to start a war and how many taxes to collect and what the laws were. They both had to

agree in order to change anything; if one of them said veto, Latin for I forbid it, then nothing would be done

the consuls got advice from the Senate, which was made up of men from wealthy families in Rome. Women were not allowed in the Sen ate, either.

Once you got into the Senate, you stayed in for the r est of your life. Most consuls eventually joined the Senate, and most senators were from

families where their fathers and grandfathers had been in the Senate. Most of the time, the consuls did what the Senate advis ed

Ancient Greece government

The Greeks had a lot of different kinds of governments, because there were many different city states in ancient Greece, and they each had their own

government. In addition, people's ideas about what made a good government changed over time


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Ancient Rome religion

In some ways Roman religion is a lot like Greek religion, but in other ways it is very different. Like the Greeks, the Romans thought that there were

many gods and that these gods each controlled different parts of the world: storms, the ocean, marriage, blacksmithing, and so forth.

The Romans were particularly interested in legal contracts, and much less interested in balance than the Greeks. One important Roman idea about

their gods was "do ut des", which is Latin for "I give so that you will give" People should sacrifice to the gods, so that the gods would help them in

return.

Ancient Greece Religion

The religious beliefs of Classical Greece can be interpreted in many different ways. Nobody can be sure how or why people believe a certain story

about their gods. And different people probably have different reasons for believing a story (or a myth - myth is another word for a story). Or the same

person may believe a story for several different reasons. Not everyone believes all th e stories, either: different people may tell different stories. And


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people may tell one story in one situation, and a different story in a different situation, whatever seems to fit. Here are s ome of the stories that people

told in Ancient Greece, and some of the reasons why they might have told these stories and not other ones

Ancient Greece technology

Ancient Greek technology developed at an unprecedented speed during the 5th century BC, continuing up to and including the Roman period,

and beyond. Inventions that are credited to the ancientGreeks such as the gear, screw, rotary mills, screw press, bronze casting techniques,

water clock, water organ, torsion catapult and the use of steam to operate some experimental machines and toys and a chart to find prime

numbers. Many of these inventions occurred late in the Greek period, often inspired by the need to improve weapons and tactics in wa r.

However, peaceful uses are shown by their early development of the watermill, a device which pointed to further exploitation on a large scale


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under the Romans. They developed surveying and mathematics to an advanced state, and many of their technical advances were published by

philosophers like Archimedes and Hero.

Ancient rome technology

Ropes made in a number of different techniques could be rendered more or less elastic so that they were not only used as a means of binding

or pulling but also as a spring capable of conserving energy. This last use can be seen in catapults where a number of such ropes would be

bundled and fixed taught at ei ther end. A bar passed through them could be twisted and thus creating tensile force in the ropes.

Ancient Rome history

Italy's history in antiquity mostly followed the changes that were happening in West Asia a little earlier. The first modern people arrived in Italy from

West Asia about 10,000 BC. About 5000 BC a second group of West Asian travellers brought farming and farm animals to Italy.

When people started to use bronze in West Asia, about 3000 BC, people in Italy quickly learned how to use bronze as well. And then about 2000 BC, a

third group of people came to Italy from West Asia - the Indo Europeans. The Indo-Europeans brought with them a new language, that eventually

became Latin.


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Ancient Greece history

Greece is a much harder place to live than Egypt, because the soil is not as good and there is not always enough water to grow plants for food. So

people did not move there until a lot later. Our first evidence of real settlement in Greece comes from about 55,000 BC (57,000 years ago). By about

6000 BC people in Greece began to farm their food and settle down in villages. Then there began to be more and more people living in Greece.

Sometime around 2000 BC, Indo-European invaders came to Greece from West Asia, bringing with them the use of bronze, the potter's wheel, and

Greek language

Similarities

Both Greece and Rome are Mediterranean countries, but the terrain of the two is very different. The ancient Greek city -states were separated

from each other by hilly countryside and all were near the water. Rome was inland, on one side of the Tiber River, but the Italic tribes (in the

boot-shaped peninsula that is now Italy) did not have the natural hilly borders to keep them out of Rome. In Italy, around Naples, Mt. Vesuvius

produced fertile land by blanketing the soil with tephra which aged into rich soil. There were also two nearby mountain range s to the north(Alps) and east (Apennine).

Similarities

Most of the Roman and Greek Gods and Goddesses share enough attributes to be considered roughly the same, but with a differen t name --

Latin for the Roman, Greek for the Greek. Some of the Roman and Greek gods and goddesses --Apollo, for instance -- have only the one name

for both the Romans and the Greeks.

For a more complete listing ofRoman gods, see Roman Gods and Goddesses. For more on the Greek gods, see Olympian Greek Gods and

Goddesses.


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Similarities

The Romans borrowed the Greeks polytheistic religion. They changed the gods' names.

The Greeks tried a variety of governments including a limited democracy. The Romans also tried different types focusing more on republics

and dictatorships. The Greeks were not a unified people in ancien t times. It did expand and spread Hellenistic views under Alexander the

Great. The Romans created one of the most powerful empires. Although both groups accepted slavery as a fact of life, the Roma ns accepted

some foreigners and gave them citizenship.

Women were 2nd class citizens in both societies. Wealthier women in Rome though had control over the house and all the slaves. Si nce so

many men were away serving in the military, their wives had a lot of independence.

Similarities

Both the Roman and the Athenian civilization enjoyed recreation and cherished it dearly. Recreation was and is one of the mos t important

things in a persons life. If a person has a total lack of recreation there are chances of melancholy that can later on lead to death. Having

recreation in our lives gives us a sense of happiness thatwe all need.

ancient rome and ancient greece

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