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INTRODUCTION
This essay touches upon a few of the significant achievements
made by those whom lived, during the conception of western culture, in
ancient Greece and Rome. Some of these influences are quite extraordinary
and relevant to our current society and culture here in the west. I would
like to point to the most significant Greek ideal influencing our world
today: democracy. An ideal that, I might add, which seems to be ever increasingly
pushed aside by the elite few whom are controlling the world through corporate
finance and regime sponsorship.
BODY
Grecian and Roman influence on the west as we know it is very
profound and has endured longer than any other prior culture. The West
owes the refinement of drama, literature, poetry, satire, historic narrative,
philosophy, scientific inquiry, civil and judicial law to the early Greeks
and Romans. Some of the more enlightened rulers of Greece, like Solon
(638-558 B.C.E. Pages: 78-79) , helped to direct a formerly oligarchic
government towards an enterprise in which the average citizens could actively
participate. The Athenian statesman and legislator Solon abolished debt
slavery and encouraged the lower class to serve in public office. This
example helps to demonstrate Greek consideration of the quality of human
life and the revolutionary measures they achieved to enhance that quality.
These early Greeks achieved a level of egalitarianism that is, unfortunately,
unthinkable today. Athenian society was committed to the legal equality
of its participants and promoted civic duty and responsibility towards
the society itself. An innovative statesman and proponent of democracy
named Pericles (495-429 B.C.E Pages: 79-81) helped to encourage democracy;
he did this by initiating a system public audit of the finances of outgoing
magistrates thus making abuses of public funds less likely. This man was,
for me, one of the most inspiring people in this material. In Pericles'
funeral speech, excerpted from Thucydides' Peloponnesian Wars, I found
this sentence crucial to the spirit of a great democracy: "For we
are lovers of the beautiful, yet with economy, and we cultivate the mind
without loss of manliness. Wealth we employ, not for talk and ostentation,
but when there is a real use for it. To avow poverty with us is no disgrace;
the true disgrace is in doing nothing to avoid it." This line I believe
to be significant in showing that the wealthy held a duty toward society
and that education was of paramount import. Pericles' speech helped show
that capitalism or benefiting from hard work was predictable and that
war, although important when necessary, were not first and foremost on
the mind of this leader. This form of Grecian philosophy on duty can be
seen, to have been passed on to the great Roman thinker Marcus Tullius
Cicero (106-43 B.C.E. Pages: 138-140) whom opposed the dictatorships that
were current to Rome in this period, in a line he wrote: "War, however,
should be undertaken in such a way as to make it evident that it has no
other object than to secure peace." Some of this brilliant philosophy
should be examined by those whom have the power to do great harm or great
good in the world today.
The Greeks contributed to the world of art, architecture and
jewelry in very significant ways with the classical style of order and
symmetry. The Roman engineer and architect Vitruvius Pollio (?-26 B.C.E.
Pages108-109) recorded many of the principles and techniques, such as
proportion, used by the ancient Greeks from sculpture to building structures.
This system of proportions known as the Golden Ratio represents an aesthetic
ideal found both in nature and the human anatomy. Greek architecture,
unlike Egypt's, was created for the living and the sculptural program
seen on the Parthenon is a celebration of intellect over barbarism. This
concept can be seen all over the world and is still utilized by many to
this day in art as well as in architecture. Washington DC is but one of
the many cities where ancient Greco-Roman architecture is predominantly
displayed by many of our government buildings and monuments.
The Roman influence to architecture can be seen in the form
of the arch (Knowledge of which they gained from the Etruscans. 145).
Roman engineers innovatively used this design as the basis to form barrel
vaults, groined vaults, and domes. Another Roman contribution to the world
was Rome's original and very influential system of law which codified
law in all European countries with the exception of England. The early
Romans also contributed the world's first encyclopedias, geographies,
biographies, histories, and manuals of instruction. Although I believe
the Roman culture to be somewhat less civilized than that of the ancient
Greeks due to their propensity toward imperialism and blood sport; I found
that Roman adherence to the Greek philosophy of civic duty and responsibility
very significant. Rome, with a population of over one million citizens,
utilized what can be termed as a welfare system with the distribution
of free wheat and free entertainment to the genuine impoverished. (Hence
the term bread and circuses. 147) This is but one of the various qualities
of Greco-Roman influence that probably has enabled the survival of western
civilization to this day. One need only look to the North Korean, Tanzanian,
and Iraqi government's inhumane treatment of their less fortunate to realize
that, eventually, governments with flagrant disregard of suffering and
civil rights must ultimately fail.
CONCLUSION
Of all the contributions of Greco Roman culture, I believe
Grecian democratic ideals accurately held a realistic and modern outlook
of what civilization should be when the members worked toward benefiting
society through a civic responsibility toward themselves and each other.
The lack of walls surrounding Hellene cities, the optimistic artwork,
and the Olympic Games appear extremely positive in the development of
a secure and bright environment in which all can work towards prosperity,
enlightenment, and brotherhood. In a world quickly becoming overcrowded
and increasingly prone to exploitation by the powerful, we should all
take example of these ideals and implement democracy more fervently by
weeding out the self-serving leadership in favor of public servants that
resemble heroes like Pericles, Solon, Socrates, and even Plato whom was
less than an advocate of democracy but more utilitarian on his ideas of
leadership. These and other brilliant minds are key to the foundations
of Western culture and critical thought and should be considered by those
whom seek public office in a democratic society.
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