The history of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, the culture of these states and the peoples inhabiting them, never ceases to attract both professional historians and art historians and ordinary people interested in the achievements of ancient civilization. Despite the apparent remoteness of the heyday of Greece and Rome from our days (Greece was included in the Roman Republic in the II century BC, and the Western Roman Empire fell under the blows of the Germanic tribes in the V century), the main achievements of antiquity have not lost their relevance … People at school study Euclidean geometry, modern law is largely based on ancient Roman principles, any philosopher begins to build his concepts by mentioning Plato and Aristotle.
It should be borne in mind that the identification of ancient civilization as an integral stage in the history of mankind is based on features common to the culture of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The different things, arising from different attitudes towards the world, are mentioned in passing, as if this were nothing more than a special case of manifestation of one of the general principles. Meanwhile, the peculiarities of the culture of Ancient Greece and Rome manifested themselves already in the forms of government: Greece is a conglomerate of polis demonstrating a high degree of autonomy (Athens, Sparta, Corinth), Rome is a centralized republic.
Definition of culture
First of all, it is necessary to define the very concept of culture. The definition of this term has many options, depending on the approach of a particular researcher or philosophical school. In the broadest sense, everything created by man is called culture, using the definition of “second nature” as a synonym. However, this approach leaves aside the ideological component of human activity. In this regard, two components of culture are introduced in scientific works: material (buildings, works of art, costume) and spiritual, which includes art, science and a way of thinking. This division is fragile, since both aspects of culture are always interconnected: the ideological sphere determines the forms of expression (sculpture, painting, architecture), and material objects stimulate the evolution of the world of ideas (many medieval and Renaissance literary works were created with a clear focus on antique samples).
General and special in the ideological sphere
With regard to mentality and way of thinking, the common and the special in the cultures of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome is briefly defined by the attitude towards man and the world. Both the Greeks and the Romans put man at the forefront. If the cultures of the Ancient East chronologically preceding them (Egypt, Mesopotamia, Persia) inscribed a person in the surrounding world, and not as its most important element, the thinkers of ancient civilization preferred to endow the gods with purely human qualities. They are able to experience feelings, not always noble (anger, jealousy, envy), to perform motivated actions (in Homer’s Iliad, the gods participate in battles along with mortals), and even their way of life is no different from that of wealthy people. Perhaps the main proof of the closeness of the mentality of the Greeks and Romans is the fact that after the conquest of Greece, the Romans fully adopted the Greek pantheon and mythology, retaining only the names of their deities.
However, there is also a serious difference. The Greeks explored the world and solved complex philosophical problems largely from purely speculative motives. The Romans immediately established themselves as pragmatists. The statement of the problem and the search for methods of its solution were determined only by obtaining practical benefits. Continuing the theme of religion, it should be noted that the Romans, for the same practical reasons, populated every corner with supernatural powers. From domestic deities, lares and penates, protecting the well-being and health of family members, the Romans reached the deification of a manure heap: the god Sterkul favored the timely and high-quality fertilization of fields.
