The relationship between the Roman Empire and culture
Before recounting the impact the Roman Empire had on cultural history in different ways, a little understanding of the political history of the Roman Empire is essential.
The political history of the Roman Empire
After successive conquests, the borders of the Roman Empire in its heyday stretched from the Rhine and Danube rivers in Europe in the west to the Euphrates River in Asia in the east and the Great Desert in North Africa in the south. From the ascension of Augustus to the turmoil of the third century AD, the Roman Empire as a whole was singing and dancing.
At the same time, the Roman state system also underwent a very important development process. Rome gradually developed from a small city-state into a vast empire. Its form of government also transitioned from the original aristocratic republic to a special political system in which the three systems of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy were ideally mixed. Later, due to the increasing decay of the Senate, tyranny took its place. It was not until the reign of Augustus (30 BC to 14 AD), when the great emperor put an end to domestic disputes and gradually quelled foreign wars, that the ancient world enjoyed peace and security for the first time.
The Greek-style political system was destroyed for two reasons: that every city-state demanded absolute sovereignty, and that there was a fierce and bloody struggle between the rich and the poor in most city-states. As the Roman Empire continued to conquer, the first reason gradually disappeared, but the second reason continued to exist. In the end, Augustus won the struggle completely, and no one could challenge his authority anymore.
Rome, under Augustus' rule, finally achieved the stability and order that the Greeks and Macedonians had previously sought, which was a real relief for them.
Happiness is accompanied by the disappearance of the spirit of adventure. The Greek world lost its vitality and became both cynical and religious. The situation in Rome was slightly different, and it was stimulated and inspired by successful imperial rule. Both the Greeks and Romans gained peace and order after surrendering to Augustus.
The settled mood of the Romans, though satisfactory to them, was not creative. The great poets of Augustus's time were shaped by the turbulent years that preceded them, and the Roman world began to become conformist.
In 98 AD, Trajan ascended the throne until 180 AD. Marcus. Until Aurelius' death, it was a better period of time for the Roman Empire. By the third century, political turmoil, wars, financial collapses, plagues, and other disasters followed, constantly disrupting the empire.
Two able figures tried to avoid the fall of the Roman Empire, one diocletian and the other Constantine. They divided the empire into east and west by the dividing line between Greek and Latin. Constantine made the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire in Byzantium and renamed it Constantinople. In order to strengthen the army, Derek first opened important positions such as senior commanders to barbarians (mainly Germans). Such policies worked in the short term, but ultimately proved to be a wolf-inducing approach. In terms of administrative reform, Derrick first adopted the policy of the local self-government responsible for free taxation and paying fixed taxes to the central government. Such a policy was fine during the economic boom, but as the central government tightened its finances, the resistance of the local self-government gradually became exposed.
Constantine's most important innovation was the establishment of Christianity as the state religion. This also allowed the Germans to convert to Christianity after the destruction of the Western Roman Empire in the fifth century, and the part of the ancient civilization absorbed by the church was preserved. The Eastern Roman Empire lasted until 1453, when Constantinople was occupied by the Turks. The Arabs accepted the civilization of the conquered. It was thanks to the preservation of Greek civilization by the Eastern Roman Empire and the Arabs that it was only in the eleventh century that the West was able to regain its once lost heritage of Greek civilization.
The way the Roman Empire influenced cultural history
The Roman Empire influenced the cultural history of the West in four main ways.
First, the direct influence of Rome on Greek thought
Rome's influence on Greek thought began with the historian Polybius and the Stoic philosopher Panitius. Although the Greeks were weak politically, they felt more civilized than the Romans. But there are also a few who recognize that Rome's greatness should be attributed to certain virtues that the Greeks did not possess.
Polybius (born 200 BC) of the Greek Acadians was sent to Rome as a prisoner, but he was fortunate enough to meet Scipio the Younger. Polybius was fluent in Latin, and for the benefit of the Greeks he recounted the history of the last two Punic wars. It was through these two wars that the Romans conquered the entire ancient world. In his account, he expressed admiration for the stability and efficiency of the Roman system. But his writings seemed a little late to the Greeks, and it was doubtful whether the Greeks were willing to accept his views.
Penitius was a friend of Polybius and was also protected by Scipio The Younger. He visited Rome several times and greatly appreciated the hope and optimism that Rome had in connection with the opportunities for political activity. The doctrine of Penitius was less cynical and more political than that of the early Stoics. The Roman admiration for Plato influenced him, causing him and his successor, Posidonius, to give a broader form to Stoicism, which in turn attracted the Romans more powerfully.
Later Plutarch (46-120) wrote The Biography of Greco-Roman Celebrities, apparently trying to bring about a reconciliation between Greece and Rome in people's minds.
In general, Rome's role in the Greek-speaking places in the eastern part of the empire was only withering, and both ideas and art gradually decayed.
The influence of Greece and the East on Rome
The influence consisted of two aspects: the influence of Greek art, literature, and philosophy on the educated Romans, and the widespread spread and influence of non-Greek religion and superstition in the Western world.
Compared with the Greeks, Rome's superiority was only reflected in its military strategy and social cohesion, and other aspects such as culture, art, production technology, etc., the Greeks were incomparably superior. After the Punic War, the young people of Rome developed a sense of admiration for Greece, and they began to learn about the various cultures of Greece, and eventually Rome became a parasite of Greek culture.
Cato the Elder hated very much the Hellenistic romanization of Rome, which caused the Romans to behave in a certain degree of decline, which arose with the sudden emergence of great wealth. But even in the most debauched days of the Roman Empire, the average Roman believed that they had been fighting the corruption of Greece and possessed a purer ethical code.
Greek influence over the Western Roman Empire waned rapidly after the third century AD, largely because of the general decline of culture. Military tyranny became the norm, and they no longer valued culture, eventually resulting in only a few knowledgeable people being able to read Greek.
In contrast, non-Greek religions and superstitions have permeated over time. It was a rash time, and emperors generally believed in prophecy and some superstitious ideas. Emperors who desperately wanted to control the army also needed the stability provided by religion, which led to the birth of new religions.
Unlike the failed religions that had been introduced earlier, Constantine's adoption of Christianity was politically successful. This success may have depended on the misfortune and exhaustion of the Roman world. When Christianity became the state religion of Rome, it had absorbed a lot of Greek things and passed them on to future generations in the West, along with The Jewish elements.
Third, the unity of government and culture
The reason why Greek culture has not been lost is inseparable from Alexander and Rome. The Greek conquerors, both Macedonians and Romans, loved Greek civilization and did not destroy the conquered civilization like other conquerors. [Genghis Khan or Xerxes] had a clear mind to appreciate and even admire the civilization they ruled and to protect it as best they could.
In terms of politics and ethics, Alexander and the Romans even promoted a better philosophy. The Stoics believe in a kind of brotherly love for human beings. The Christian Church calls itself a "Catholic Church." Rome played a very important role in the expansion of the civilized region.
Muslims as a medium for the spread of Greek civilization
The Islamists conquered Syria, Egypt, North Africa, and even Spain very easily, and they were not very fanatical, and they did not harass the Christians and Jews who paid taxes. The Arabs studied the civilization of the Eastern Roman Empire, and the learned among them read and translated Greek writings and annotated them. Philosophically, the Arabs were better commentators than original thinkers, and it was they who directly inherited the Greek tradition that existed only in the Roman Empire. Scholastic philosophy arose precisely from the Contact between the West and The Islamists in Spain. If the Arabs had not preserved these cultures, the Renaissance would not have arisen.