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TheGreco-Roman civilization (/ˌɡriːkoʊˈroʊmən,ˌɡrɛkoʊ-/; alsoGreco-Roman culture orGreco-Latin culture; spelledGraeco-Roman inBritish English), as understood by modern scholars and writers, includes the geographical regions and countries that culturally—and so historically—were directly and intimately influenced by the language, culture, government and religion of theGreeks andRomans. A better-known term isclassical antiquity. In exact terms the area refers to the"Mediterranean world", the extensive tracts of land centered on theMediterranean andBlack Sea basins, the "swimming pool and spa" of the Greeks and the Romans, in which those peoples' cultural perceptions, ideas, and sensitivities became dominant in classical antiquity.
That process was aided by the universal adoption ofGreek as the language of intellectual culture and commerce in theEastern Mediterranean and ofLatin as the language ofpublic administration and offorensic advocacy, especially in the Western Mediterranean.
Greek and Latin were never the native languages of many or most of the rural peasants, who formed the great majority of theRoman Empire's population. However, they became the languages of theurban andcosmopolitanelites and the Empire'slingua franca for those who lived within the large territories and populations outside theMacedonian settlements and theRoman colonies. All Roman citizens of note and accomplishment, regardless of their ethnic extractions, spoke and wrote in Greek or Latin. Examples include the Roman jurist and imperial chancellorUlpian ofPhoenician origin; the mathematician and geographerClaudius Ptolemy ofGreco-Egyptian ethnicity; and the theologianAugustine ofBerber origin. Note too the historianJosephus Flavius, who was ofJewish origin but spoke and wrote in Greek.[citation needed]
Based on the above definition, the "cores" of the Greco-Roman world can be confidently stated to have been the coasts of theMediterranean Sea, specifically theItalian Peninsula,Greece,Cyprus, theIberian Peninsula, theAnatolian Peninsula (modern-dayTurkey),Gaul (modern-dayFrance), theSyrian region (modern-dayLevantine countries,Central and Northern Syria,Lebanon andPalestine),Egypt andRoman Africa (corresponding to modern-dayTunisia,Eastern Algeria andWestern Libya). Occupying the periphery of that world were the so-called "Roman Germany" (the modern-dayAlpine countries ofAustria andSwitzerland and theAgri Decumates, southwesternGermany), theIllyricum (modern-dayNorthern Albania,Montenegro,Bosnia and Herzegovina and the coast ofCroatia), theMacedonian region,Thrace (corresponding to modern-daySoutheastern Bulgaria,Northeastern Greece and theEuropean portion ofTurkey),Moesia (roughly corresponding to modern-dayCentral Serbia,Kosovo,Northern Macedonia,Northern Bulgaria andRomanian Dobrudja), andPannonia (corresponding to modern-dayWestern Hungary, theAustrianLänder ofBurgenland,Eastern Slovenia andNorthern Serbia).
Also included wereDacia (roughly corresponding to modern-dayRomania andMoldavia),Nubia (a region roughly corresponding to the far south ofEgypt and modern-dayNorthern Sudan),Mauretania (corresponding to modern-dayMorocco,Western Algeria andNorthern Mauritania),Arabia Petraea (corresponding to modern-dayHejaz region ofSaudi Arabia,Jordan,Southern Syria and Egypt'sSinai Peninsula), and the Tauric Chersonesus (modern-dayCrimea and the coast ofUkraine).
The Greco-Roman world had another "world" or empire to its east, the Persians, with which there was constant interaction:Xenophon'sAnabasis (the'March Upcountry'), theGreco-Persian wars, the famous battles ofMarathon andSalamis, the Greek tragedyThe Persians byAeschylus,Alexander the Great'sdefeat of the Persian emperorDarius III and conquest of thePersian empire, or the later Roman generals' difficulties with the Persian armies, such asPompey the Great, and ofMarcus Licinius Crassus (conqueror of the slave generalSpartacus), who was defeated in the field by a Persian force and was beheaded by them.[1]
In the schools ofart,philosophy, andrhetoric, the foundations ofeducation were transmitted throughout the lands of Greek and Roman rule. Within its educated class, spanning all of the "Greco-Roman" eras, the testimony of literary borrowings and influences are overwhelming proofs of a mantle of mutual knowledge. For example, several hundredpapyrus volumes found in a Roman villa atHerculaneum are in Greek. The lives ofCicero andJulius Caesar are examples of Romans who frequented schools in Greece.
The installation, both inGreek andLatin, ofAugustus's monumental eulogy, theRes Gestae, exemplifies the official recognition of the dual vehicles for the common culture. The familiarity of figures from Roman legend and history in theParallel Lives byPlutarch is one example of the extent to which "universal history" was then synonymous with the accomplishments of famousLatins andHellenes. Most educated Romans were likely bilingual in Greek and Latin.
Graeco-Roman architecture in the Roman world followed the principles and styles that had been established by ancient Greece. That era's most representative building was the temple. Other prominent structures that represented that style included government buildings like theRoman Senate. The three primary styles of column design used in temples in classical Greece wereDoric,Ionic, andCorinthian. Some examples of Doric architecture are theParthenon and theTemple of Hephaestus in Athens, and theErechtheum, next to the Parthenon, is Ionic.
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By AD 211, withCaracalla's edict known as theConstitutio Antoniniana, and although one of the edict's main purposes was to increase tax revenue, all of the empire's free men became citizens with all the rights this entailed. As a result, even after theFall of the Western Roman Empire, the people who remained within the lands (including Byzantium) that the empire comprised continued to call themselvesRhomaioi. (Hellenes had been referring to pagan, or non-Christian, Greeks until theFourth Crusade.) Through attrition of Byzantine territory in the preceding 400 or so years from perceived friends and foes alike (Crusaders, Ottoman Turks, and others), Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire (the Eastern Roman Empire) fell to the Turks led by Mehmed II in 1453. There is a perception that these events led to the predecessor ofGreek nationalism through theOttoman era and even into modern times.
Greco-Roman mythology, sometimes called classical mythology, is the result of the syncretism between Roman and Greek myths, spanning the period of Great Greece at the end ofRoman paganism. Along withphilosophy andpolitical theory, mythology is one of the greatest contributions ofclassical antiquity toWestern society.[2]
From a historical point of view,early Christianity was born in the Greco-Roman world, which had a massive influence onChristian culture.[3]
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