Plutarch

In this essay we shall discuss the Romans’ reaction to Greek culture whilst comparing their relations with other cultures. Therefore, it shall be necessary to consult both ancient and modern scholarship. In order to understand the Roman attitude to the Greeks we need to explore the various things which Rome absorbed from the Greeks into its own culture. Amongst these are the conflation of traditional Roman deities with their Greek counterparts, inspirations for literature and the social…

Mycenaeans united with other Greek kingdoms to lay siege to Troy. After a ten year war, the city was breached and sacked, but only with the use of a ruse in the form of a wooden horse. Ancient historians in the likes of Herodotus, Xenophon, Arrian, and Plutarch tried to locate Homeric Troy. Most archaeologists attribute the discovery of the site of Troy at Hissarlik, Turkey, to Heinrich Schliemann in the 19th century. Whereas the mythical events surrounding Troy lack historical basis, the…

Separation in ancient Roman Family The word “divorce” always has been a difficult word for me to speak out loud. The divorce itself was often treated as a sin in the society I was raised in. As I read through Susan Treggiari’s “Roman Marriage,” I started to wonder how the divorce was perceived in the ancient Roman society and where those divorced women stood on the issue. It is apparent the different social roles in ancient society had influenced them since this is the time period where it was…

‘Augustus’ extraordinary position…is defined in art’ and so his iconography programme should be taken at face value in order to identify key motifs and themes within it and how this supposedly reflected Augustus’ rule. However, nowadays scholars debate about the intricacies of said iconography and try to understand it textually rather than by sight. The importance of iconography was larger in Augustus’ time in comparison now, partly because it is estimated that only 10% of the population was…

Pederasty in Athens was found only among a noble class, those who were able to find leisure in places such as the gymnasium or those who had the money to buy the persuasion of adolescent boys. In fact Greeks did not believe in the exclusiveness of homosexuality or heterosexuality, one could be both interchangeably. There are many accounts, of Socrates love for young men despite his marriage. Many Greeks had a preference between boys and women, most of the time boys were whom they often tried to…

Beverly Agni Professor: Van History 1 03/30/2016 Ancient Greece Ever wonder how was the Ancient Societies used to be like? What start off the adultery? What did the Neolithic period and Bronze age do in history? Why do people believe what they believe in today’s world? Why do people behave the way they do? Learning the Ancient history helps us understand how religion, education, government impacted the society back in the early days and how the after come has affects us now. In Greece,…

The treatment of women in ancient Greece varied wildly from state to state. Two particular cities stand out as stark opposites: Athens and Sparta. When considering the two, many consider Sparta to have been far more progressive in terms of women’s rights, at least for that day and age. Compare: in Sparta women were encouraged to eat well, and train their bodies, that they might be at their peak physical form, while in Athens women were fed what the men did not eat, and were rarely allowed to…

The gladiator was an armed fighter, who fought in the arenas to entertain audiences thought-out the Roman Empire from 264AD-404CE. “The term gladiator derives from the Latin gladiatores in reference to their principal weapon the gladius or short sword.” The majority of the gladiators were slaves fighting against other gladiators, wild animals, and condemned criminals. The origins of gladiators and the gladiator games are often disputed, but gladiators were believed to have started from the…

behavior and opinion towards a particular subject matter. In a democratic society, which literally translates to ‘the rule of the people’ from the Greek word demokratia, persuasion is an important tool for a democratic leader. Authors and Historians Plutarch, Thucydides, and Steven Pressfield provides us with examples of prominent Athenian public speakers who displayed powerful ethos, pathos, and/or logos in their address to the public. By perfecting the practice of public oration, a democratic…

Ambitious magnanimous Charismatic Eloquent Greedy Gallant Audacious 2. Key Events Gallic wars 58BCE-50BCE: Aggressive After his role as consul Julius Caesar was made proconsul of Gaul (Roughly present day France and Belgium. At the start of his posting the Roman empire only controlled the southern areas of Gaul, but had alliances with several Celtic tribes that controlled the rest. Many of these tribes were often at war with one another. This situation helped provide Caesar with the…