Ancient Greeks and Romans

At the end of 900 BCE, most of the Greek tribes had distributed themselves on the Greek mainland. The evolution of the Greek civilization was influenced by the nature and the position of the country. Its nearness to the sea was a temptation to the Greeks to explore it. However, their lives in the island and the valleys divided by mountains on the interior limited the development of the states to small regions. Individualism in political development prevented Greece from becoming a single unified state which could rival the Middle East. The sculptural arts were made out of marble. Although both civilizations appreciated portraying people in arts, each of them had a different way of creating and presenting them according to their own perspective. In ancient Greece, women had no rights and were considered as personal property just like cattle.

They could not inherit property and they could not appear in court as a party to a lawsuit. The social ideal was that a woman could not own anything and they could not be involved in business. Most of the structure that was built can be seen even today. Architecture played a pivotal role in both the religious and the daily lives of the ancient Greek community. Some of the world’s most durable architectural monuments were produced by the Greeks, and they are still standing today. Some of these include the temple of Zeus, the temple of Poseidon and the Parthenon. In the ancient Greek, there were numerous activities that they engaged in that marked as the economic system. Their houses were shabby and could burn or collapse at any moment.

These were the majority who made the big crowds during various economic activities. Any art that is significantly created reflects the society that is involved in creating them. Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the cases of the ancient Roman and Greece. It is clear that the various aspects of arts such as literature, theater, architecture, philosophy as well as sculpture the Greeks and Romans ways of life were actively incorporated into what they built. The stoic philosophy was mainly centered on the idea of the logos. This was of the view that the God orders the universe and this order is referred to as the logos. Cicero as one of the well-known philosophers who managed to produce eight books on philosophy and six on rhetoric. Advances in science, arts and politics were done in the eastern portion of the Mediterranean Sea.

The first people in the west to make guesses about how the world was created and also explore nature in a rational way were the Greek philosophers. Most of the sports stadium with tiered seating and oval shapes derives this idea from those that were built by the romans. Colosseum’s arches were made of cement and a strong building material which was from volcanic rocks and ash. Scientists believe that the use of the volcanic ash is the reason why most of these ancient structures are still standing. The structures that were constructed under water are said to be even steadier after the volcanic ash reacted with sea water to create crystals that sealed the holes in the concrete. Although the Romans were not as innovative as the Greeks, they had a great impact on western civilization.