LieutenantGeneral, Sir,
sorry my Italian is poor at best, I meant indeed to say good morning and thank you.
I am enjoying the discussoin of Classical languages and cultures as I have been a fascinated tho amateur student and researcher in both Roman and Greek history, cultures, arts, and military history for many years, indeed right now I am working with a collegue on Roman economics and organizational practices in the late Republic and Empire.
Roman culture and history and Latin language derived from both Greek and Etruscan, as well as other language roots and lexography in the Mediterranean area, as there were many cultures in close contact throughout the Classical period and they all effected each other in very interesting ways.
Greece had a distinct history and culture among the many city states, indeed, however I would humble consider that both are different ratther than Greece being superior to Rome in culture, they were quite different. It is definitely true that the Romans did find much to learn from Greece and after they conquered Greece after a long period of various interactions, between Rome and the various Greek City States, the principle ones being of course Athens, Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, Syracuse, and others, much Greek influence happened in Rome, many Greek teachers, philosophers, artists, and scholars were brought to or travelled to Rome, and there was much cultural exchange.
There was indeed much Greek presence in the form of Greek states apart from the mainland of Greece, and colonies that Greek city states formes all over the area:
Cyprus and the Aegean islands, the Aegean coast of Anatolia (then known as Ionia), Sicily and southern Italy (known as Magna Graecia), and the scattered Greek settlements on the coasts of Colchis, Illyria, Thrace, Egypt, Cyrenaica, southern Gaul, east and northeast of the Iberian peninsula, Iberia and Taurica.
It was a complex and fascinating time, for there were many small kingdoms and states, even though Rome itself became a sort of larger organizing entity for many hundreds of years and Latin became the official and unifying language of both politics, and culture and higher learning. Many modern languages which arose in former Roman Provinces such as modern Great Britain (Britannia), Spain, Romania, France, Austria, parts of Germany, Greece, Asia Minor etc, had much influence from Latin and Roman culture and mythology.
The Greek culture was quite independent and individual among the various states, but overall their mythology and philosphy was humanist and quite sophisitcated in depth and vision. The Roman state arose as an organization that protected and supported a loose league of cities of which Rome was the principal, and this league grew over time to become the larger Roman state. Over time, other cities, states, culture and kingdoms were conquered, captued, joined the Republic and later the Empire voulentarily, and some became provinces or parts of provinces or stayed somewhat autonomous over time. This all combined into Roman culture, which has some uniform characteristics throughout the Empire, uniform forms of Provincial rule and administration, infrastructure such as the roads, and coinage, weights and meausre, trade practices, and so forth. But through out classical Roman history, there remained much that was individual and very diverse about the many peoples and cultures absorbed or part of the larger whole.
Rome remains one of the most intriguing and remarkable human civilizations of great depth, complexity and value throughout its history and they gave us a great deal of what we call culture today, as well as principles of law, justice, democracy and government, engineering, economics, arts, music, literature, religion, and much more.
Aequam memento rebus in arduis servare mentem
Tota Via a Roma propinquabat
