What the Romans Knew

    For three centuries from 150BC to AD 150 Roman Empire reached to the high tide of classical civilization. The empire grew tremendously until the Christianity posed threat by its values and tenets which are quit contrast in nature to the Roman culture. Though the Romans had politically overpowered the Greek but in terms of culture and philosophy, Greeks were powerful and influensive. Roman had renamed Greek Gods and adopted them as their own. For example, they called Jupiter for Zeus, Minerva for Athena, Diana for Artimis and Apollo the same.

    They also adopted Greek alphabets, learned about poetry, drama and other forms of arts. Roman also accepted Greek lifestyle as an ideal lifestyle. The most celebrated Roman writer Cicero expounded platonic doctrine. Though there were some people like Cato the censor who never liked to imitate Greek culture and he wanted to maintain status quo in Roman culture and tradition. It is a matter of great surprise that in a period of one thousand years of Roman history, we find hardly any single work of art having ascribed purely Romans. In the sense of the truth, what the Romans knew, they had really learned from Greek. The Roman knew what the Greek knew. But the important thing is that Roman knew few things that Greek never knew which gave Roman a sense of boastfulness.Romans were very practical-oriented people so they tried their best to simplify complex Greek metaphysics. Though they also adopted Greek educational system but made it easy to understand. They were the confirm believer of what is rather than what should be.Romans were the first western people who codified laws in the Twelve Tables in about 450BC. They believed that laws are backbone for maintaining peace and order in the state. They had firm respect for law; people at that time were given the idea of such laws. The twelve tables inscribed with the laws of the state became public property.Greek never understood the real importance of making roads. The Roman knew how to build as well as maintain the road throughout their kingdoms in the form of network which enhanced the system of communication. There are still some ancient Roman roads in good useable condition.
The architectural design of arch was used by Roman for temple and bridges.Making of canals for supplying drinking water was an outstanding contribution from the part of Romans.Romans introduced the concept of citizenship. First, Romans conquered and colorized and people were enslaved and later on they were given citizenship of state for identity. The concept of citizenship implied that one citizen of the state deserves equal rights and duty that others have.
     Romans were practical people therefore their focus was in maintaining law and order by developing communication system through network of roads and paying attention to public health by supplying water properly. In the field of engineering they gave major contribution to the whole world.

Roman Poet, Playwright and Historian

Cicero: He was a Roman philosopher, in his time Roman people were is very different period, and they had been struggling with great political problem. The question of peace and freedom was prominent at that time. How to restore peace and order in the society was main issue, Cicero answered this question very easily and said that if people do right thing peace and freedom can be restored. His famous book is "On Duties" in which he has given rules of life to the people.

Seneca: He was a great tragedian born in 4BC in Rome. He exposed bloodshed, violence, killing on the stage. His tragedies gave tremendous influence to the Renaissance playwright like Shakespeare. He was a tutor of tyrant Nero and taught him so many things but later he was accused of plotting against Nero as a result given death sentence. In the Elizabethan age when English tragic drama was rising, the Greek dramatist's Sophocles, Euripides and Aeschylus were not known and the Roman writer Seneca became the model of the classical tragedy. His tragedy strongly emphasizes blood revenge for murder.

Tacitus: He was a Roman historian who included chaos, distortion and breaks of the events in history writings. For him, everything does not happen in sequence. In a way, he challenged Greek way of writing history chronologically.
Lucretius: He was a poet who mostly wrote about the wisdom of human beings. He was influenced by both Epicurean and Stoic school of philosophy. His epic poem "On the Nature of Things" which was dedicated to a friend in the year 58BC. It is an exceedingly strange poem. It is a philosophical tract that is also supremely beautiful. It is about the science of physics, yet it contains profound wisdom about human life. It is dedicated to 'pleasure' yet it leaves readers with the impression that happiness is produced by the virtue of moderation.

    (What Roman did not know) or the defect of Romans thought Romans were unlike Greek very practical and they developed the concept of road construction, law and citizenship still they had some defects on their own for example,
1. Lack of scientific and technological development.
2. Immobilization of city population.
3. Slow communication.
4. Government having despotic and tyrannical nature.
5. Government could not help to activate young people, it rather provided food without letting people do work.
6. People became corrupted and searched only for pleasure and luxury.
7. People became introvert rather than extrovert.

    These above-mentioned factors are responsible to some extent for the downfall of Roman Empire.