Essay - Greek and Roman Thoughts and Culture: Impacts on Western Civilization...

Greek and Roman Thoughts and Culture: Impacts on Western Civilizati*****

The contributions made by the ancient civilizations of Greece and Rome to Western thought ***** culture are many, especially in the areas ***** art, literature, architecture, politics, government, science, and religion. Taken as a whole, the ide*****s ***** pr*****ciples expressed ***** ***** Greeks and Romans have drastically altered Western civilization ***** ***** made it possible for the West ***** flourish and at times domin*****e all other cultures and societies.

In the 5th century B.C.E, a time which ***** scholars have termed the "Golden Age of Athens," the Greek historian Thucydides praised the A*****nians for their "open, democratic system and their adherence to the ideals of humanistic education and life" (Larsen, 67). Two ***** tra*****s that have come down to us living in the 21st century are in the form of universal and open education ***** a ***** of ***** based on democratic ***** and principles as they ***** currently followed in many *****ern societies. In this humanistic view, man is truly what matters and he *****, in the words ***** ***** famo***** Sophist Protagor*****, "the measure of all things, born with the innate capability for excellence" (Highet 156).

Since man was regarded as ***** highest creation of nature, it was the Greeks who created democracy, a system of government in which ***** citizens ***** Greek are *****ed as equal and thus have the right to equal and fair treatment and justice. Scholar Werner Jaegar wrote that "Set against the exaltation of the God-King as it existed in Eastern ***** ***** ***** suppression of the people, the beginning of Greek history appears to have been the beginning of a new conception of the individual... ***** history of Europe and that ***** other Western societies must start with the Greeks" (Hoff*****n 149).

Obviously, these Greek traits, being intellectual pursuit ***** philosophical argument, greatly inspired other cultures within Europe to follow the Greek way which after thousands of years still exist, namely in our own ***** system ***** which citizens are free to speak their minds and ***** disagree with the ruling political body, being the government. Humanistic ***** is also vitally important, for it allowed for the ***** of univers*****ies where citizens could freely and openly discover and explore the mysteries of the past ***** use ***** newfound knowledge for the good of themselves and ***** society.

Thus, these constants of ***** culture, ***** man, nature and reason, made it possible for the ***** to understand how they ***** interrelated, creating entirely new areas for study and reflection. Moreover, upon these convictions, the ancient Greeks constructed ***** grand achievements in art, poetry, mathematics, philosophy, logic, history and science, the very build*****g blocks ***** ***** Western society ***** in turn constructed. Philosophically speaking, the Greeks, upon discovering the multitude of talents within man, were then able to confront and alter the problems related ***** natural change and persistence. They ***** knew that ***** as a cre*****ture of the earth dies and decays, yet