Cultural Assimilation

Any new, budding nation could be wise to look at those that came before it to see its successes and failures. Systems that worked would be utilized again. Those that didn’t could be discarded or revised. The Romans had no problem adopting systems, buildings, ideas, or anything that they could make into something very useful. “The Romans’ contact with Greek culture had the greatest effect on the development of their own ways of life. Greek culture reached its most famous flowering by the fifth century B.C., centuries before Rome had its own literature, theater, or monumental architecture” (Martin). The Romans looked to the Greeks as a younger sibling would look to their older brother or sister. They saw what worked for the Greeks and adopted those practices, but put their own twist on them. They also saw what didn’t work so well for the Greeks and found ways to better improve lackluster systems. “They adopted many fundamental aspects of their own ways from Greek culture, ranging from ethical values to deities for their national cults, from the models for their literature to the architectural design of large public buildings such as temples” (Martin).
Romans had a serious connection to Greek literature and art. Being able to understand Greek, having a Greek artwork, or Greek styled artwork was considered high class and usually only for the noble of the time. However not all works of art were solemnly Greek. “What is clear is that the influx of Greek works of art did not completely overwhelm local traditions, and that the old materials continued to play a leading part in Roman art during the second century B.C.” (Strong). The Romans acknowledged Greek art works and styled their own art to match that of the Greeks. They took something that they liked that was from another culture, and the assimilated it into their own culture. Although Greek in style it was still Roman in design.

Along with Greek artwork and literature, another very dominant form of Greek culture assimilated into Roman culture was the use of coin. “In Rome the fixed metallic unit was the as, a pound of bronze, which had existed as an official measure of value long before the introduction of coins. Coinage was a Greek device, and the Romans’ adoption of it marks a conscious effort on their part to enter the cultural milieu of the Hellenistic world” (Cornell). Having a valued monetary object was a good thing for the Romans to create, but having it weigh a pound would definitely put a hindering on their system. As Tim Cornell states on page 397, “In general, ancient states issued coins for financial, rather than economic reasons. That is to say, coinage was a convenient means of distributing the proceeds of booty, or of making payments to a large number of people, such as soldiers or workmen.” The Romans, while having created their own monetary system, had a use for a monetary device that their system alone couldn’t achieve. Paying the largest army of the ancient world with one pound bronze bars would really be a hassle, not to mention run mines dry due to the vast quantities required.

Martin, Thomas. Ancient Rome: From Romulus to Justinian. Yale UP, 2012. Print.

Strong, Donald Emrys, and J. M. C. Toynbee. Roman Art. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1976. Print.

Cornell, Tim. The beginnings of Rome: Italy and Rome from the Bronze Age to the Punic Wars (c. 1000-264 BC). London: Routledge, 1995. Print.

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