Greek and Roman Civilizations - Essay Example

Greek and Roman Civilizations The ancient Greece’s civilization developed from around the Aegean Sea to the mainland of Greece. It later extended towards Sicily onwards to Italy in the west part, through Asia and also around the Sea of the Mediterranean to East as well as South. The world of Greece was united in culture. However, politically it was never united. Greece actually never become one government until it joined the Roman Empire during the second century before Christ. (history.howstuffworks.com, 2011) This is a study set out to compare and contrast the processes of civilization of Greece and Rome. It will more particularly focus upon the cultural, social and political aspects of this process of civilization the two went through. The study will first handle the Greek case on to the Roman case. More so, the study will try and answer the question, “How does the process of Civilization of Greece compare with that of Rome culturally, socially and politically?” Culturally, the most outstanding of the characteristics of Greece in the process of civilization was power’s location in the individual. Usually, ordinary persons took up that sense of personal agency and which was free of counterpart among the ancient civilizations of the time. The Greek definition of what happiness was, went as follows; the practice of vital powers in the process of excellence in the scope of life affording them. Despite the fact that Greeks held a belief that gods influenced one’s life, this was seen to work in tandem with the divine intervention as well as the independent action of humans. The day-to-day life of a typical Greek was characterized by a sense of absence of any social constraint, sense of choice and which were unaligned in the ancient world of Greece. Thus, the notion of the Athens state came up as a union of persons free to establish their own powers as well as live in their own independent way. They would only be obedient to their own laws which they passed. They would as well criticize these laws as well as change these laws as suited their interest. (Rips, p 957) Socially, Greece in the archaic period of civilization was constituted by various independent states by the name polis or in other words city states. The Athens polis was the biggest and it covered approximately 2,500 km squared while other polis were smaller and would only cover about 250 km squared. The society of Greece was formed up by slaves and free people. Slaves were owned by the group of free people. They usually worked as laborers and servants and had no rights legally. These slaves would sometimes be war prisoners or would originate from foreign traders of slaves. Slaves usually lived very closely to their owners, but just few of them were skilled as craftsmen or even paid. As the society of Greece continued to develop, the free men became divided into two Metics and Citizens. Citizens would be born of parents from Athens and these formed the most powerful group of people. They would perform roles in the Government of polis. They would undergo a compulsory service in the army of Greece and later become government officials as well as play part in the service of jury. Metics on the other hand, would be of foreign birth but migrate to Athens. These would either practice craft or take part in trade. Metics would pay taxes and at given times would be called up to take part in army service. They would never achieve full rights as those accorded to the citizens. They would also not own land or houses and even worse would not speak in courts of law on any given matter. Note that the social classes would only apply to men while women would be part of the class that their partners formed. (Rips, 2008 pp957, 958) A major defining as well as long-term Greek characteristics was the political system. Democracy as a form of rule was a bit a complex issue in Greece and the system of politics of Greece was highly linked to the rationalism belief of Greeks. The basis of the political system of Greece can be obtained from the early history of this state. Subsequent to the civilization of the Minoan in the times of around 1400 B.C. commercial as well as political power in the Aegean moved to the mainland Greece. These mainland Greeks lived in minute city-states which were grouped under the overall city by the name Mycenae. Each and every of these city-states were ruled by a king- military general, and had their own main priest and judge. However, the city-states were different from Mesopotamia’s monarchs since the king’s power would not be absolute. Political decentralization in Greece as the civilization continued led to polis. Unlike is the case today, polis formed a culture in which an individual would form purpose and meaning around. Persons identified themselves in the light of their communities. The big loyalty that persons would attach to their polis as well as the geographical separation of polis would bring about the difficulty of attempting to make united the polis. ( Hitchens and Roupp, 2001 p53) On the other hand, there were differences here and there while the Roman culture, society and politics were brought about. This is as shown by different authors who have handled these topics. Culturally, life in ancient Rome was centered in the city of Rome which had several monumental structures such as Pantheon, Forum of Trajan and Colosseum. The city had gymnasiums, theatres, sewers, marketplaces among other things. In the Romanian capital city, there one would find imperial kind of residences on the elegant Hill of Palatine. Palatine is what forms the basis of the word palace. The middle class of Equestrian and the low class of Plebian usually lived in the center of the city, packed in Insulae, which looked almost like the day-to-day ghettos. These areas were built by property owners from upper class for the purposes of renting them. The society of Rome was quite large. In fact the imperial Roman city was the biggest of its time’s urban centers. The population of Rome lived in many urban centers with approximately 10,000 or more persons. These urban centers would have some military settlements and this showed a very high level of urbanization in the standards of the times before industrialization came about. Majority of these centers had their own temples as well as other buildings that would be like those of Rome. The society of Rome was not without classes and it was viewed as largely hierarchical. It had slaves as the bottom-most class, freedmen just above them and the free-born citizens sitting on the top. Note that free citizens were also sub-divided by classes. The basis of the society of Rome was families and households. (Spielvogel, 2010 pp118- 121) Rome shifted its political system from a republic to an empire. This impacted very much upon the intertwined social and cultural aspects of Rome. The intellectuals got ways to accommodate the dictatorship ways of rule by emperors. Roman architects would make gigantic buildings that would befit the empire. Those in the upper-class in the society would enjoy more independent lives while compared to the freed and the slaves. Therefore, Rome was ruled from a central place and as a single empire while compared to the Greek way of politics. (Spielvogel, 2010, p118) Work Cited: history.howstuffworks.com. Ancient Greece. (2011). Retrieved 07 October 2011 http://history.howstuffworks.com/ancient-greece/ancient-greece.htm Hitchens, Marilynn and Roupp, Heidi. How to prepare for SAT II: World history. Edition 2, illustrated. Barron's Educational Series. (2001). p53. Rips, Lance J. Reasoning: studies of human inference and its foundations. Edition illustrated. Cambridge University Press. (2008). pp957, 958. Spielvogel, Jackson J. Western Civilization: A Brief History, Volume 1. Edition 7, illustrated. Cengage Learning. (2010). pp118-121. Bottom of Form Read More