Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece - pillars of ancient civilization

The period of antiquity is of great interest both for professional historians and for fans of culture, painting, and architecture. Indeed, these two largest civilizations of antiquity have given the world many discoveries, inventions, achievements in virtually all areas of human activity.

Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece are united in historiography under the general title of the Ancient Age, Antiquity. These words emphasize the commonality of socio-economic development, artistic culture, world perception of the ancient Greeks and Romans, with the Romans becoming successors to the great Greek civilization and in many ways replicating it. But already with their characteristic features. At the heart of these phenomena lies the economic structure, which was based on the slave-owning mode of production. It was slaves from all over the world that were the core of economic development and the welfare of these state entities. The history of Ancient Greece and Rome abounds with manifestations of open defiance of slaves, the most famous of which were the revolt of the Ilots in Sparta and the Spartacus uprising in Rome, which were suppressed. But their source was cruelty and absolute indifference to slaves, who simply were not perceived as people, while this view was spread both among the nobility and among the free population.

However, the civilization of Ancient Greece and Rome is not limited to slavery. The Greeks are the pioneers of many political phenomena: indisputably the most famous is democracy. Not only democracy emerged from the environment of Greek civilization, but also the principle of separation of powers, although very primitive and perfected by the Romans, which, in order to avoid arbitrariness, limited the scope of praetors and quaestors, and senators could even resist the emperor. Many of these principles formed the basis for European political models. Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece gave the world the Olympic Games, which were first held in the city of Olympia in 776 BC. E. The famous Roman law, consisting of many sections and extremely clearly developed, formed the basis of the legislation of many countries of the world.

But the true heritage of Antiquity is a rich culture, which has reached us in large volumes. Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece showed the planet of such famous people as Aristotle, Archimedes, Thucydides, Homer. Their works and discoveries radically changed the scientific picture of the world, philosophical views, enriched medieval literature. The works of Cicero, Virgil are classics of exquisite literature. Celsus and Galen are the founders of many medical discoveries. Since the days of Antiquity, the architectural monuments, stunning by their monumentality, have been preserved. The Parthenon, the Temple of Artemis, the Theater of Dionysus are classics of architecture. The Romans adopted and perfected the methods and techniques of erecting structures, and all this was expressed in the Colosseum, the terms of Caracalla, the triumphal arches and temples. This Greco-Roman style of architecture was later called the classical one. Thus, we can say that Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece is an inexhaustible source of culture for the whole world.