POINTS OF VIEW
8053 Social Theory 6 - Greece and Rome
Having been taught in a public school, I was a well aware of our heritage from the Romans and Greeks. Even in our Junior School the various forms were called by the names Greeks, Romans and Trojans.
I guess we were meant to appreciate the legacies of both Rome and Greece, and of course I did. For a long time I appreciated those of Rome much more, for in Europe it is much easier to see physical evidence of their empire all round -- especially in Italy. Ultimately, though, I wished the legacy of Greeks had been more potent. The Romans gave us our military structures, and to a large extent the business procedures we use, as well as our sewers. They were great builders, engineers and colonizers. It is fair to say that our civilization, supposedly based on Christianity, is in reality based on Rome; which captured the church to prolong – and even extend - its empire. At the same time, however, the values handed down by Rome are brutal ones. There was little about democracy in Rome, certainly in the later stages of its history. Perhaps that is why it lasted so long.
On the other hand, I am attracted by values of Greeks – or at least those of Athens in its golden age around 400 BC. Having said that, there is a mythical quality about these. The values that we so admire about Athens were held for a relatively short time, for just a few decades where those of Rome ruled for as many centuries. On the other hand, and this is not to belittle them -- they have since been transmitted down the years, by their mythical values as much as any real power, to influence later generations.
We do think of Greece as being cradle of democracy, after all it is a Greeks derived word, and it is true that for a short period of least there was genuine democracy of some sort in Athens. On the other hand, even then the majority of the population -- especially women and the slaves -- were denied this democracy. But it was a miracle that there was any democracy at all flowering at that time. Nothing like it existed in the neighbouring region of Sparta, and it was very firmly stamped upon by Rome
Of course one of the great turning points of history was the defeat of Anthony and Cleopatra. The series of battles - culminating in the disastrous sea battle at Actium - which saw their armies defeated, moved power from the Eastern Mediterranean to Rome and the West. At that time the most powerful nation, Egypt, was ruled not by its own Pharaohs but by the Greek descendants of Alexander's administration -- in the form of Cleopatra - not least a Ptolemy and a direct descendant of Alexander's general. Thus, the values that were finally defeated at the sea battle of work were those civilized values of the Greeks, encapsulated in the great library at Alexandria. Regrettably the result was that barbarous Rome triumphed over Greek civilization.
Of course, I am oversimplifying. But it is true that, in general, the most barbarous nations -- who care little about civilized values -- are best able to trample over everyone else. It is now true of the United States, the new Rome, which pays no regard to civilized values in its plans to take over the world. Hopefully, for once, the resuscitated social democracies of Europe may offer some challenge to this pending barbarism.
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