In this succession of empires and shifts of centers of power, we note a slight geographical movement from south to north (from Egypt to Greece, from Sumer to Akkad) and a much more notable movement from east to west (from Sumer to Babylon). Greece assimilated all the previous cultures, in defeating the Persian Empire. Rome assimilated Greece, expanding further north and approaching west of the end of the known world – “Where the land ends and the sea begins" quoting the Lusiads by Camões.
In some ways, we can say that Rome is to Greece as the barbarians are to Rome, since Rome was much more cultured than the barbarians of Northern and Eastern Europe at the time of the fall of the empire. Rome never imposed its culture on the peoples they conquered in the East and was much more tolerant to the Jews than the Greeks were; in this respect, they imitated the Persians who were also condescending to the conquered peoples.
Greece was proud of its knowledge, as we see in St. Paul's speech at the aeropagus. Rome was powerful, but magnanimous and tolerant. That is why it only succeeded in imposing its culture and language on the primitive peoples of the West; the East continued to speak Greek and the Romans cared little about it.
GREECE
Hellenic culture has influenced Western civilization in countless ways; certainly, in many more ways than its two other pillar cities.
Philosophy
Philo-sophia (love of wisdom). It was the art of thinking without any practical or pragmatic goal other than to discover the meaning of the cosmos, things, and life in general. It is rational and reflective critical thinking. Above all, Greek philosophy challenged the mythical view of the world. Myths are the first attempts to explain things and phenomena in order to give them meaning and significance. They are symbolic narratives whose characters are gods. Every reality was commanded by a god, thus there was a god of time, Cronus, a god of war, Mars, a goddess of love, Venus, etc.
Philosophy looks at the world in a rational way and seeks rational or reasonable explanations for natural phenomena, without resorting to myths or ghostly tales. Noteworthy are the philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, and numerous pre-Socratic philosophers such as Heraclitus, Parmenides, Zeno, Democritus, Anaxagoras and many others.
All I know is that I know nothing – It is the Socratic maxim that leads us to never be content with what we already know and to always stay humble, which is so important for us to learn more and more. In addition to his method of knowledge, Socrates was immortalized by his maieutics, the art of helping to bring to light, based on the principle that wisdom is already within us, we just need someone to help to bring it out. This principle is still valid today and is applied in psychotherapy, in the non-directive psychology of Carl Rogers, and also in sociology, by the Brazilian pedagogue Paulo Freire.
Democracy
The city of Athens is considered the birthplace of democracy. The Athenian citizens (men, born in the city, adults and free) were those who could participate in the voting that took place in the Agora (public square). They decided, directly, the directions of the city-state.
Science – The abandonment of beliefs and myths is important for the emergence of empirical and scientific thinking. In this sense, philosophy is the mother of sciences, because it was with philosophy that rational thinking, free of legends, myths, and beliefs, emerged to analyze reality and natural phenomena.
Furthermore, the Socratic attitude that "All I know is that I know nothing" is also important for discovering the mystery that surrounds any science: the more one knows, the more there is to know. Even today, the technical and scientific terms are derived from Greek and new concepts are formed from the Greek language.
Medicine – Hippocrates, considered the father of medicine, was the first to understand that diseases were not caused by the gods, but have an imbalance as their root cause. Hippocrates left us his oath which is still used today in graduation ceremonies in many medical schools.
Mathematics – Thales of Miletus and Pythagoras left us their theorems, interesting enough both regarding the triangle, the simplest geometric shape, where all other shapes can be derived from a series of triangles, that includes the circle.
Architecture – Certainly heir to earlier heritages, such as those of Egypt and Mesopotamia, Greek architecture was immortalized by the introduction of columns that made buildings appear more elegant and less monolithic than the previous ones from Egypt and Mesopotamia. Greek columns were differentiated by the shape they took at the top, with three different styles: Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian.
Art – The concept of beauty and harmony portrayed in sculpture and painting. Sculptors sought to portray the human body in the greatest detail, a characteristic that was later revisited during the European Renaissance, which gave us such famous masterpieces like the Pieta and Moses of Michelangelo.
History – The Greeks were the first to treat history with a scientific character, separating facts from legends, myths, and religious beliefs, and distinguishing between human action and divine interference or intervention. The very word history comes from a Greek term meaning research, investigation. Noteworthy are the authors Herodotus, also considered the father of history, Xenophon, and Thucydides.
Literature – Homer stands out with his epic poems: the Iliad that describes the Trojan War, and the Odyssey that describes the travels and adventures of Ulysses. Legend has it that this hero founded the city of Lisbon, Olissipona, the city of Ulysses, when he left Troy after the war.
Theatre – Theater, in the different modalities of tragedy and comedy, represented not only an entertainment for the Greeks, quite different from the violent entertainment of the Romans with gladiators in the arena, but was also a form of education for the youth. The most famous authors were Aeschylus, Sophocles, Aristophanes, and Euripides. Since the stages were outdoors, Greece built numerous theatres, both north and south of the Mediterranean Sea, and their ruins can still be seen today.
Olympic Games – These had a sacred character and, as the name implies, were a tribute to the gods of Mount Olympus. It was the Greeks who invented sports, physical fitness; they were pan-Hellenic games, that is, between the Greek city-states. They were held every four years and lasted five days.
Ptolemaic Worldview
Ptolemy (70-147 A.D.), the most celebrated astronomer of antiquity, placed the Earth at the center of the universe. In this system, the sun, the moon, and other planets rotated around the Earth. This geocentric view of the world was assumed in the Middle Ages, and is associated with Aristotelian philosophy. The medieval cosmovision placed man, and the Earth he inhabited, as the center of creation.
ROME
Senatus Populus Que Romanus (SPQR)
"The Senate and the people of Rome". These are the initials that the Romans placed on their banners, on their flag, on military expeditions, and on public buildings. If these insignias, and symbol of Rome’s power, demonstrate anything, it is that the Greek people’s idea of democracy was assimilated by the Roman people. Democracy for the Romans meant the republic which was governed by senators, the representatives of the people.
The Romans were a more practical and pragmatic people, they assimilated the legacy of Greece but did not try to impose their culture. On the contrary, they were very tolerant of the peoples they conquered, not even imposing their language -- as long as they paid tribute to Rome, they could even keep their customs, their religion and their kings.
The Romans were aware of the greatness and superiority of Hellenic culture and, in fact, in many matters they did not advance very far. There are, however, several points where the Romans surpassed the Greeks and it is these that we mention. As we have said, this evolution is linked to their practical rather than theoretical character.
Law and Organization of the State
This is undoubtedly the most important Roman legacy to the modern world. At the base of the law of every nation on our planet is the Roman law.
The division and separation of powers, which must work freely and autonomously without mutual influences, come from Rome. Interestingly, there are three of these powers: Executive, Judicial, and Legislative. The principle of control among them was instituted so that none can exceed its own power. This is what nowadays is called checks and balances.
The Romans distinguished three classes of law: Political Law, which regulated the relationships between the State and the citizens; Private Law, which regulated relationships between citizens; and International Law or the law of the nations, which regulated the relationships between different nations.
Legal ideas such as trial by jury, civil rights, contracts, personal property, legal wills, and corporate laws were influenced by Roman law and the Roman way of looking at things.
Let us look at some Latin maxims still used today, both in the context of law and the courts and commonly by the people.
Dura lex sed lex – The law is harsh and difficult to enforce, but it is the law; it is stipulated and provides security. Harder would be the arbitrariness and unpredictability of a dictator. This maxim establishes the rule of law and that no one is above the law.
Sumum ius summa injuria – Excess of law, excess of injustice. A legal axiom that warns us against applying the law too strictly, which can give rise to great injustice. To avoid this, jurisprudence or epiqueia is necessary. It is one thing to be just, it is another to be a vigilante.
Excusatio non petita accusatio manifesta – It is more a psychological principle than a legal one. When someone apologizes without anyone asking him to justify himself, he is implicitly and unconsciously accusing himself.
In dubio pro reo – In case of doubt, rule in favor of the defendant; an expression based on the presumption of innocence until proven guilty; also referred to as the benefit of the doubt. The uncertainty about the commission of an offence or about some circumstance relating to it, should favor the defendant.
Conditio sine qua non – Condition without which it cannot exist; it is used to say that a condition is indispensable for the validity of something, such as a theory of equivalence of causes. A classic example of conditio sine qua non is the will or consent of the bride and groom as a prerequisite for a marriage to be valid.
Patria potestas – The power of the father, power that the head of the family exercises over his children and his most remote descendants in the male line, whatever their age, as well as on those brought into the family by adoption.
Habeas corpus – You have the body; it is the legal action that protects the right to freedom threatened by an abusive act of authority, that is, an action to prevent someone from being arrested or remaining wrongfully imprisoned.
Architecture and Engineering
In the field of architecture, the Romans are by far more superior than the Greeks. With the invention of the Roman arch, the Romans built great temples, palaces, stadiums, aqueducts and bridges, amphitheaters and public buildings that integrated arches and vaults with such efficiency and durability that many of these works are still standing today. The Colosseum and the Pantheon in Rome, the Aqueduct of Segovia, and countless Roman bridges are still in use today.
The Romans are distinguished by their roads. In the ancient world, they were the ones who opened roads. The main roads in Europe that exist today were built on Roman paved roads. The Romans invented bridges to cross rivers and invented aqueducts to bring water to their cities. The maritime aqueduct of Caesarea, which can still be seen on the beach of this city, was 6 km long.
One of the reasons the Roman Empire outlasted all others, over a millennium, is because it was well connected by the roads and bridges it built throughout Europe. The construction of roads and bridges was so important to the Romans that even the emperor's title reflected this effort; he was known as the Pontifex Maximus, which means the Supreme Bridge Engineer. Ironically, this is now the title of the Roman Pontiff, the Pope, which means that he as the representative of Christ is the bridge between humanity and God.
Roman Alphabet
It is the alphabet that is used by the Neo-Latin languages: Castilian, Portuguese, French, Italian and Romanian, Catalan, Galician, and Provençal. English, which became the world's first second language, is sixty percent derived from Latin and Greek; the remaining 40% is of Saxon origin.
It is still the most widely used alphabet in the world, even in non-Neo-Latin languages such as German and English, and all western European languages, as well as Turkish, Vietnamese, Malay, Somali, Swahili, and almost all African languages, and also Tagalog, the national language of the Philippines.
We have said that Greek is still used for scientific terms, although there is one exception: for the scientific names of plants and animals, it is Latin, not Greek, that is the universally used language. The Romans also had a numbering system that we still use to designate centuries. However, since it has no zero, it is not useful for mathematics. The numbering that is used worldwide is Arabic.
The 365-day, 12-month calendar that we use today, was invented by the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. The Church later changed the Julian calendar, which is still used by the Orthodox Church, to the Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory and now used universally. The names of the months is also of Latin origin.
Ancient Worldview
In the Fertile Crescent, since Sumer and Egypt, societies and empires were formed, the later one assimilating the conquests of the previous, like in a relay race. Finally, we have Greece and Rome as heirs of the Fertile Crescent from the point of view of agriculture, but also of culture. Greece and Rome shaped not only the Western civilization that followed them, but also much of the world’s thought.
The ancient worldview and religion understand heaven and earth as being intimately connected. Every event is a combination of both dimensions of reality. If a war begins on earth, then there must be, at the same time, a war in heaven, between the angels of the nations in the Celestial Council. Likewise, events initiated in heaven are mirrored on earth. We see this clearly in Homer's works, especially in the Iliad, the one I know best, which describes the Trojan war.
This war happens not only on earth, but also in heaven, as the gods ally themselves with the Greeks or the Trojans and follow step by step the events on earth. This is a symbolic way of saying that every material reality has a spiritual dimension and that every spiritual reality has physical consequences.
There can be no event or entity that does not simultaneously consist of the visible and the invisible. Aristotle, who in confrontation with the idealist and spiritualist Plato, was a materialist. He understood that the universe is spherical and finite: spherical, because this is the most perfect shape, and finite, because it has a center which is the center of the earth, and a body with a center cannot be infinite.
Matter which seems to possess mystical qualities — preferences, aspirations for certain types of movement—is animate. Things fall because it is their desire to return to earth. Matter in motion eventually stops unless there are invisible agents that keep it moving. The crystalline spheres that sustain the planets are kept in motion by invisible "intelligences".
This way of looking at things was taken by St. Thomas Aquinas and was part of the worldview of everyone who lived until Newton's mechanistic physics.
This is how the thinking of the ancient peoples is formatted, from the writers of the Bible, especially those of the Old Testament, to the Romans, Greeks, Babylonians, Egyptians, and Chinese India. This was the view of the ancient world. The gods of Olympus and all their many lives, with hatred and wars ending in envy, are much like humans.
Until the appearance of Christianity, with the idea of a single and personal God, religion had no bearing on life; that is, there was no moral or "modus vivendi" associated with religion, because the gods were as bad or as good as the humans. Ethos in the Greek tradition or morus in the Roman tradition, ethics or morality does not emanate from religion, but from philosophy which, starting with Plato and Aristotle, is dedicated to the study of natural law, that is, ethics or morality emanates from the observation of nature.
It is this natural law that is the foundation of all human values and rights, such as freedom, equality, responsibility, human dignity, the sense of justice, truth, and peace.
Conclusion: Since the gods have the same flaws as humans, in the worldview of ancient peoples, religion has no ethical bearing on everyday life. before Christianity, ethics comes from philosophy, and not from religion.
Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC
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