Chronology Questions...

[skel]

as ive been readin the histories by herodotus, im noticing that alot of the dates in the book refering to greek events, corrospond with alot of roman dates, mainly that rome was supposedly founded in 700ish bc but alot of major greek events such as the uniting of them all nstuff and great wars that defined their peoples happend around the dates of the 500ish bc era.

 

so my question really is i guess, when in romes history did they start adopting greek society and things? cuz the way i always thought of it was, rome came way after the greeks had been extremely civilized and educated. but really it seems as if the greeks werent really even a whole nation while the roman empire was building.

 

also, i havent goten very far in herdotus yet, only book 4, but when is the greek nation that most people think of as the great enlightened society begin to take place? ive heard mention of it in the book as around the 500-400s bc? but it hasnt gon e into much detail yet...

[Primus Pilus]

Its a pretty common misconception really, that Hellenistic power, was long gone by the time of the Romans. Consider that while the Romans were expanding in Italy, Alexander was conquering the eastern world.

[skel]

so...when did the romans really make a significant contact with the greeks for the first time? was it just with trade? was it a battle?

[pompeius magnus]

The Romans were in contact with the Greek culture throughout their founding( roughly 753 BCE) via Greek colonies in southern Italy. The Romans conquered Greece between the end of the Punic Wars and the Gracchus brothers assassinations, so in the late 2nd century BCE.

[Ursus]

Rome was situated on the main trading road that ran between the Greek colonies in the south and the various peoples who inhabited Italy's north and center. Rome was in contact with Greek merchants from the beginning. The Etruscans who ruled early Rome were themselves influenced by Hellenic civilization. So whether it was from the Greeks directly or through Etruscan middle man, Rome had always been exposed to Greek culture.

 

But when we say "influenced" by Greece, we have to take it into context. The largest influence seems to be religious cults that were adopted early and eagerly. If by Greek culture we mean some of the more complicated aspects like philosophy and so forth, that didn't seem to penetrate until later, and then only to those who had the wealth to pursue a Greek style education.