Greece and Rome:Who Conquered Whom?

Greece Before Roman Conquest

• “Think, always, then that you have been sent to the province of Achaia - Greece true and pure - the land in which civilization, writing, even agriculture are held to have been invented”-Pliny the Younger- Letters 8.24

• “Others may fashion more smoothly images of bronze (I for one believe it), evoke living faces from marble, plead causes better, trace with a wand the wanderings of the heavens and foretell the rising of stars”-Vergil-Aeneid

Greece Before Roman ConquestGovernment

• Numerous “poleis” -city states- organized around settled centers and surrounding countryside

• Different modes of governing- Democracy, Oligarchy, Kings

• Sometimes organized into leagues for common defense(i.e. Delian League, Achaean League)

• Mostly local loyalty• Conflict among city states, Peloponnesian war

431-404

Greece Before Roman ConquestCulture and Thought

• Philosophy- Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Zeno, etc.

• Math and Science-Pythagoras, Euclid, Archimedes

• Literature and Arts-Sophocles, Homer

Rome Gets Involved• Rome drawn into East and Greece area through fighting with Macedon• 1st Macedonian War(215-205), largely due to Phillip V of Macedon helping Hannibal

out• 2nd Macedonian War(200-196)• Declaration of Greek freedom by consul Flaminius after victory• Romans didn’t seem to plan to permanently militarily occupy Greece.• 3rd Macedonian War (171-168) ended Macedonian monarchy• 168-Battle of Pydna• One more time. 4th Macedonian War(150-148), Macedonia becomes assigned as a

province• Senate tells Achaean League, which had fought with Rome against Macedon, to

grant independence to some of the states under its control, they say no• Leads to war in 148• Lucius Mummius in 146 wins, completely razes Corinth, one of the richest and well

known cities in Greece, sells citizens into slavery • End of Greek independence from Rome

Greece Under Rome

• A little rocky at first• Fighting with Mithridates in Greece• Civil Wars waged largely in Greece. Decisive

battles (Pharsalus, Actium) in both struggles took place in Greece

• Becomes more stable after Augustus takes over

Greece Under RomeEconomic Issues

• Copper, lead, bronze, and silver mines in Achaea, but not as rich as areas in Spain

• Other exports: marble, olive oil, furniture, pottery• Greece mountainous mainland and largely infertile land• In the early empire there was economic stagnation and

depopulation in parts of Greece • Increase in trade led to import of wines and oil which were cheaper

than local products• Greece was an “economic backwater“(Goodman,231) because it

became strategically unimportant during the empire. • Didn’t receive economic support for army which drove economies

in other regions

Greece Under RomeEconomic Issues

• Patronage from Roman emperors mostly went to cities

• Peasants could face starvation in hard times as food reserved and stored for city dwellers

• According to writer Galen, peasants ”had to fall back on unhealthy foods… they ate twigs, shoots of trees, and bushes… and cooked fresh grass”

• Result: Cities flourished, but land concentrated into hands of few rich men and regions away from cities saw population and economic shrinkage

Greece Under RomeAssimilation

• Romans relied on rich to help them control and rule Greece• Greek aristocrats slow to join with elite of rest of empire • Held together by continuity of Greek culture traditions,

education• For elite, tension between being Greek and partaking in

advantages of joining Roman politics, access to more power• Local patriotism wore away some as time went on• Number of Greek senators growing quickly by mid 2nd century• Still some ambivalence,• On looking back at 200 years before Nero, Pausinias writes,

“Greece was struck with universal and utter prostration.”

Rome Under Greece(?)

• “Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit”-Horace• Greek culture had a profound impact on Rome• Love for Greek culture, picked up mid 3rd century

BC, desire for art, culture, etc.• Mid first century BC quite common for Italian

aristocrats to go to Athens to get cultural education• Adoption of Greek language by much of Roman

aristocracy as sign of high education. Not the other way around.

Rome Under Greece(?)

• Great Latin writers and speakers, men like Vergil and Cicero, heavily influenced by Greeks

• Cato’s son had a Greek tutor for a while and Greek slaves often tutored Roman children

• Emperors even adopted Greek customs, gave lots of money to build up Greece

• 67-Nero in Olympics. Wins every event.• Hadrian had a Greek beard apparently and also

gave a lot of money for building in Athens

Greece After Rome

• Difficult to say exactly when Greece leaves Rome• In late 300s empire splits east, west• Greek culture has strong influence in east, what

becomes the Byzantine Empire• Greece becomes official language of Byzantine Empire• Outlasts Western Empire which falls around 476• 1400s, Ottomans conquer Greece• Greece wins Independence in 1830• Hosts Olympic games 2004• Recent economic crisis

Greece’s Spot Among Provinces

• Unlike Egypt, Greece was not vital to Empire’s economy

• Unlike Gaul, Britain, Greece was not totally Latinized. In fact more the opposite.

• Greece unique due to the strength and pervasiveness of the impact it had on Rome

Come to Greece!

• Greece: What happens here, not only does not stay here, but goes on to form the foundation for much of Western civilization and thought.

Bibliography• Boatwright, Mary Taliaferro, Daniel J. Gargola, and Richard J. A. Talbert. A brief history of the Romans . New York:

Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.• Goodman, Martin, and Jane Sherwood. The Roman World, 44 Bc-ad 180. London: Routledge, 1997.• Goldhill, Simon. Being Greek Under Rome : Cultural Identity, the Second Sophistic, and the Development of Empire.

Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2001.• Gruen, Erich S. The Hellenistic World and the Coming of Rome. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.• Mandelbaum, Allen. The Aeneid of Virgil . New York: Bantam Classic, 1981. Print. • Wikipedia contributors. "Roman Greece." Wikipedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia., n.d. Web. 1 May 2011.

<en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Roman_Greece&oldid=425639994>• Woolf, Greg . "Roman Attitudes to Greeks." Roman Attitudes to Greeks. NIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS, n.d. Web. 1

May 2011. <www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~gdw2/lecture2.pdf>.

• Pictures• Parthenon: http://www.eurograduate.com/arch_article.asp?id=2149• School of Athens: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sanzio_01.jpg-school • Map of Greece: http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/corinthians/maps.stm-map • Michael Phelps: http://philippinesgoforgold.blogspot.com/2011/04/michael-phelps-8-gold-medals-2008.html• Emperor Hadrian: http://www.harris-greenwell.com/HGS/TheDyingSuitor• Right Triangle: http://www.onemathematicalcat.org/algebra_book/online_problems/Pythagorean_Theorem.htm- • Temple at Delphi: http://www.ancient-greece.org/images/ancient-sites/delphi/apollo-temple02.jpg• Greek Art: http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/14.130.12