Roman Society & Culture

Romans were borrowers – as they conquered the world, they adopted certain parts of different culture, especially Greek culture, thereby forming Greco-Roman culture. They took many different aspects of different cultures as well – such as arches from the Etruscans, which they used to build aqueducts, but the Greek cultural influence on Rome is definitely the largest and most important. There were many ways in which Greek culture came to inspire the Romans, and also in which the Romans then adopted these ways of culture and made changes to them to make them their own. Some ways in which this spread of ideas happened was because of travel. Many Greek craftsmen and teachers traveled to Rome, and students from Rome would be sent to centers of learning – such as Athens, to learn.

In religion, Romans not only borrowed gods but also how they worshipped. Almost all of the Roman gods have Greek equivalents – their names have just been changed, but their roles stay the same. The king of the gods on Greek religion was Zeus, who became Jupiter for the Romans. From the Greek queen of the gods, Hera, came Juno. From Hades, the Greek god of the underworld, came Pluto. Poseidon, who was the God of the sea in Greek religion, became Neptune. Athena, goddess of wisdom, became Minerva. Aphrodite became Venus – goddess of love – the list continues on. How people viewed the gods also came largely from the Greeks. The Romans, like the Greeks, viewed the gods unpredictable, like humans. The gods would feel human emotions, such as guilt, anger and kindness. How the gods were worshipped was another large influence from the Greeks. While the Greeks had built the Parthenon in Athens, the Romans built a building called the Pantheon, which has many similarities to the Parthenon – from the layout of the front, to the fact that the column numbers in some parts and ratios match perfectly. Roman religion was one area heavily influenced by the Greeks and is definitely a large aspect of Greco-Roman culture.

Many works of literature were also inspired by Greek ones. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were two must-read poems for educated Romans. The story of the Trojan War from the Iliad inspired the Roman poet Virgil to write his literary masterpiece – the Aeneid. Using the Iliad, Virgil continues the story and expands on how Odysseus used a large wooden horse to get into Troy. He then tells of how Aeneas, the hero of the story and a prince of Troy, manages to escape Troy, not able to save Priam, the king of Troy. Aeneas is said to have settled in Latium, one of the ancestors of the Romans. Like the Greeks, the stories of the Romans may have been slightly made up and are not entirely true. For example, Aeneas was thought to be the son of Venus. As in Greek culture, some Roman poets goaded traditional beliefs. Euripedes in Greece would question traditional beliefs, and was not liked much, and Ovid, a Roman poet, was exiled for his poetry which made fun of Roman virtues. However, unlike Euripedes, the work of Ovid remained popular. Romans, being in a republic, also highly valued the ability to speak like the democratic Greeks. Like the Sophists, who traveled and taught public speaking, Roman orators became very popular. This included the Roman orator Cicero, who stopped a plot to overthrow the Republic. Literary writers weren’t the only writers in Rome – informational writers were also busy at work. Inspired by Greek historians such as Thucydides and Herodotus, Livy and Tacitus were famous Roman historical writers. Livy and Tacitus, however, were both more like Herodotus – exaggerating man stories to glorify Rome’s future (mainly Livy) or to criticize the past (Tacitus). Roman literature sprouted from the Greeks. The Greeks set a strong foundation for the Romans to continue writing fabulous works of both informational and fictional literature, as well as to become great at speaking in the public.

Like with literature and religion, art was very much inspired from the Greeks. First, the Romans followed Axial Age Greece, mainly idealizing the human form. Like Greek culture, the Romans made many sculptures, not using a formula but instead making each one unique. Although they didn’t use the same statues as the Greeks, they made them in the same style – just with different people. With Hellenism in Greece, sculptures began to get more realistic – different figures were depicted, and not only beautiful and strong men. Rome also shifted towards more realism in sculpture, instead of constantly idealizing the human form. This shows how the Greco-Roman culture is, in many parts, a mirror of Greek culture.

In architecture, the Romans not only borrowed style but also borrowed mathematical calculations from the Greeks. The front of the Pantheon, although not an exact replica, looks very similar to the Parthenon, with only a few changes (such as different column design). However, the number of columns on the front is the same for both: 8. From the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian orders of Greek architecture, from each of which stem a branch of column – one simple, one with scrolls at the top and one with leaves – the Romans made the Tuscan and Composite orders. The Tuscan column was short and had no decorations, while the Composite columns had both a spiral scroll and a circle of leaves. One can see that the Tuscan order was much like the Ionic order from Greece, whilst the Composite order was a mix between the Ionic and Corinthian orders. Unlike the Greeks, who were interested both in the theory and application of mathematics and science, the Romans mainly used work from the Greeks and applied it. For example, they used Greek mathematical calculations to find perfect ratios and to style their buildings, which was widely used in architecture.

In conclusion, Romans adopted certain parts of different culture, especially Greek culture, thereby forming Greco-Roman culture. As different empires were built, many of them show how a diffusion of cultures leads to a better result. For example, in Alexander the Great’s empire, although some historians argue that Hellenism is a period of separation, many argue that Hellenism was a period of cultural diffusion – essentially a large mixing pot from which the best parts, regardless of the culture they came from, were taken. And with Rome, it is the same. As the Roman empire spread, it chose the best aspects of different cultures, as they became standard practice throughout much of the known world at the time.