Concept

Greco-Roman world

Overview

The Greco-Roman world () – also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture, or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco- or Graeco- in British English) – is the term used by modern scholars and writers to describe the geographical regions and countries that were culturally—and so historically—directly and intimately influenced by the language, culture, government, and religion of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The term "classical antiquity" is used for describing the time period when the Greco-Roman culture exerted its greatest influence and dominance on the European continent. Specifically, the term "Mediterranean world" refers to the extensive tracts of land centered on the Mediterranean and Black Sea basins which are considered the "swimming pool and spa" of the Greeks and the Romans. In these regions, the cultural perceptions, ideas, and sensitivities of these peoples became dominant in classical antiquity.

That process was aided by the universal adoption of Greek as the language of intellectual culture and commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean and of Latin as the language of public administration and of forensic advocacy, especially in the Western Mediterranean.

Greek and Latin were never the native languages of many or most of the rural peasants, who formed the great majority of the Roman Empire's population. They became the languages of the urban and cosmopolitan elites and the Empire's lingua franca for those who lived within the large territories and populations outside the Macedonian settlements and the Roman colonies.

All Roman citizens of note and accomplishment, regardless of their ethnic extractions, spoke and wrote in Greek or Latin. Examples include the Roman jurist and imperial chancellor Ulpian of Phoenician origin; the mathematician and geographer Claudius Ptolemy of Greco-Egyptian ethnicity; and the theologian Augustine of Berber origin. The historian Josephus Flavius, who was of Jewish origin, spoke and wrote in Greek.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

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And the opinion which universally prevails, that the gods themselves are subject to kingly government, arises from hence, that all men formerly were, and many are so now; and as they imagined themselves to be made in the likeness of the gods, so they supposed their manner of life must needs be the same.
Aristotle, Politics
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425. God, Father and Maker of all things, v. 428. God, what is, iii. 118. Gods, generation of the, iii. 400. Gorgias, i. 340; at the Banquet of the Seven Wise Men, ii. 3-41; 44, 134; ii. 502; v. 405. Government. Of the Three Sorts of Government, Monarchy, Democracy, and Oligarchy, v. 395-398. Gracchus, Caius, example of, i. 40. Greek music, principles of, i. 102, 103. Greek Questions, ii. 265-293. Groom, saying of…
Plutarch, Plutarch's essays and miscellanies, Vol. 1
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Sosicles of Coronea having at the Pythian games won the prize from all the poets, gave us an entertainment. And the time for running, cuffing, wrestling, and the like drawing on, there was a great talk of the wrestlers; for there were many and very famous men, who came to try their skill. Lysimachus, one of the company, a procurator of the Amphictyons, said he heard a grammarian lately affirm that wrestling was the…
Plutarch, Complete Works of Plutarch — Volume 3
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Greco-Roman world

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