How Did Greek Culture Form Greco-Roman Culture

Many aspects of Roman culture, or Greco-Roman culture are based off of Greek culture. Greeks were Indo- Europeans who migrated into Greece, a small country in southeastern Europe, around 1900 B.C. Ancient Romans believe Rome, a boot-shaped Italian Peninsula that juts out into the Mediterranean Sea, was founded around 753 B.C. by Romulus. Romulus was one of the twin sons of Mars, the Roman god of War. Archeological evidence indicates that Rome is much older and was settled by Latins. The Romans adapted and adopted Greek culture to form Greco-Roman culture by adopting Greek deities and changing their names, modeling Roman literature pieces after Greek literature pieces, and copying Greek art pieces and creating their own modified artworks like statues. The first way in which Romans adopted and adapted Greek culture was by borrowing from their religion. Romans adopted Greek deities, gods and goddesses, and gave them Roman names. Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of war became known as Venus. Zeus, the king of Greek gods, became Jupiter, the king of Roman gods. Ares, the Greek god of war, became the god of Mars, and was believed to lead Roman armies to victory. …show more content…
Some ancient Roman writers modeled literature pieces after Greek literature pieces. Virgil, an ancient Roman writer, also considered Rome’s greatest poet, was called on by Caesar Augustus to compose an epic poem about the founding of Rome that would rival those of the Greek’s, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey. In response, Virgil wrote the Aeneid, which tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan prince and early ancestor of Rome. Livy, was another ancient Roman writer, who wrote hundreds of books about the history of Rome. He followed the example of the Greek historian,