Greek and Roman Influence on Western Civilization

Greek and Roman Influence on Western Civilization

Western civilization is what we call modern society that mainly includes North America and

Western Europe. But how did this western way of life come to be? Their are many different

ways but mainly through ancient cultures. The two main ones are the Greek and Roman.

Greece with their golden age and Rome with its great Empire and Republic and also

together.

Their are many ways in which western civilization is like the ancient Greek

civilization. They started the Olympic games. Greeks come up with the idea of an alphabet

that it still used today. They were the first to think of the idea of democracy. They had

common people participate in their government and to elect a leader. Their trials had an

actual jury made up of commoners. Greece was the first to think of paying people for their

labor. It also had the initial philosophers and thought up of the way we now write literature.

Including the idea of putting on a play. One of history’s greatest writes, Homer, thought up

of poems that are story size that we now call epic poems. But it was mainly through

government that Greeks influenced the world.

The other greatest influence on western civilization is the one of Ancient Rome.

They formed a law code much like the ones used now a day in many countries. First to

believe someone was innocent tell proven guilty. Had a Senate much like the ones used

today, with both upper class and lower class in it. And also had other assemblies. Rome

spread the Latin language which is the bases for almost all languages. They also thought up

the modern calendar. Rome helped expand Christianity, making it the most wide spread

religion. Roman’s also invented the numeral system that is still being used. First to have

people living in apartments and to think up a welfare system. Roman’s were even the ones

that gave the planets their names. Because of all these things Rome had a big impact on

western culture.

Rome and Greece both had a major impact on the architecture of western civilization.