Ancient Roman civilization

In modern world history, Western countries have successively completed reforms in their own countries, entered capitalist societies, continuously developed their economies, and continuously improved their overall national level. In order to accumulate capital and plunder raw materials, these countries continue to expand.

With the continuous development of the economy and technology in Western countries, they used force to open the doors of other countries, and other countries in the world became their colonies. Western countries regard their own civilization as the world's advanced civilization, and even consider the civilization represented by Western countries to be synonymous with advanced civilization.

However, modern Western civilization is not the highest peak in the history of Western civilization. The Roman civilization truly pushed the development of Western civilization to its peak. Even in modern society, mentioning the name Rome can shock Westerners.

Because the name "Rome" can represent a civilization, a tradition, a highlight of Western civilization, and also the pinnacle of Western civilization. Known as the "Great Tang Dynasty" in Europe.

1、 The Formation of Ancient Roman Civilization

At first, the Romans were uncivilized barbarians. As early as the 9th century BC, the Romans had been thriving on the Italian peninsula. Later, the ancient Romans established their own city states.

Although in the early days of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the land area of Rome was only as large as a few small mountains, making it an inconspicuous small city-state. But on the basis of this city-state, they established a vast empire spanning across Europe, Asia, and Africa.

As the saying goes, "The granary knows etiquette, and sufficient clothing and food know honor and disgrace.". With the expansion of ancient Rome's territory and economic development, it gradually evolved from a life reliant on robbery and a life without food and clothing to a suzerain that influenced three continents.

After economic development, the ancient Romans continuously integrated advanced civilization, making it a unique ancient Roman civilization and gradually spreading it to the outside world, making it the mainstream culture that influenced Europe, Asia, and Africa.

After the conquest of ancient Greece by ancient Rome, a large number of ancient Greeks flooded into Rome, bringing splendid culture. When the ancient Romans saw ancient Greek culture, they felt how ignorant they were.

So, as the origin of Western civilization, ancient Greek civilization did not disappear in the long river of history due to the downfall of its country, but was inherited and developed by the ancient Romans.

The ancient Romans, based on ancient Greek culture, continuously absorbed cultural factors from different countries and ethnic regions, combined with the characteristics of their own ethnic development, and ultimately formed a unique ancient Roman civilization.

Engels said, "Without the foundation laid by ancient Greek culture and the Roman Empire, there would be no modern Europe." It was originally thought that after the decline of ancient Greek civilization, Western civilization lost its inheritance.

Unexpectedly, with the rise of Rome, its territory continued to expand and its political influence continued to expand. The emergence of ancient Greek civilization in another form pushed the development of Western civilization to its peak.

2、 The Achievements of Ancient Roman Civilization

So, what achievements did the ancient Roman civilization achieve that made proud Westerners have such a high evaluation of the ancient Roman civilization?

Art field

Speaking of Rome, it is not just a name, but also a first-class civilization and tradition that can serve as a model. Until now, Ranran still has many ancient Roman ruins. Ruins such as the Senate, Arc de Triomphe, Pantheon, Memorial Pillars, Bathrooms, and Maximus Arena are preserved around the world with their magnificent architectural scale and luxurious style.

These ancient buildings are very strict in design and construction materials, reflecting the calm thinking and pragmatic attitude of the ancient Romans. Many of their works of art that have been passed down to the world are known for their practicality, sturdiness, and aesthetics, playing a crucial role in the development of Western civilization.

(2) Legal field

As early as a thousand years ago, the wise ancient Romans knew how to constrain public power. They believe that "sunshine is the best preservative", and they demand that all procedures of power bearers be made public, the operation of public power be subject to public supervision, and all rights of citizens be written into a written code of law, determined in the form of legal provisions. As a result, a political ecological balance of power constraints has been formed in the national governance system.

Over time, in ancient Rome, a unique legal system emerged where procedural law was superior to substantive law and private law was superior to public law. In order to better interpret the law, the ancient Roman government granted some authoritative jurists the privilege of publicly interpreting the law.

In this way, whether in terms of the transparency of legislative procedures or legal procedures, ancient Roman law demonstrated its professionalism with its rigorous thinking attitude.

After the fall of the Western Empire, Emperor Justinian of the Eastern Roman Empire compiled and compiled the Roman Imperial Code, writings of legal scholars, parliamentary resolutions, and royal decrees issued by the king, becoming a comprehensive collection of national laws.

The Complete Collection of National Laws became the culmination of ancient Roman law, and its emergence made Rome the most developed country in the world in terms of legal system at that time. The laws of ancient Rome have been borrowed by many modern Western countries.

（3） In the field of literary history

Because ancient Roman culture mostly inherited ancient Greek culture and belonged to Latin literature. In the literary world of ancient Rome, poets represented by Cicero, Caesar, Catulus, Virgil, Horace, Ovid, and Levi emerged.

These poets recorded important events and activities in ancient Rome in a concise and fluent style through letters, speeches, battle notes, and other forms. Immortal works such as "Chronicles," "History," and "Chronicles of Germania" have spread throughout the world, ultimately making ancient Roman literature an important material for later generations to study the early history of Western Europe.

(4) Religious and cultural fields

With the continuous expansion of the Roman territory, the ancient Roman civilization absorbed many foreign cultural factors and ultimately completed the transformation of Roman religious beliefs from polytheism to monotheism.

With the establishment of Christianity's dominant position in ancient Rome, religious culture made tremendous progress in the area and became the mainstream culture of society. It can be seen that religious civilization has had an extremely important and far-reaching impact on the entire Western civilization.

(5) Scientific field

On the basis of absorbing ancient Greek civilization, ancient Rome summarized and absorbed the civilization of its predecessors with its calm thinking and pragmatic thinking. Significant achievements have been made in fields such as agriculture, astronomy, geography, medicine, and engineering.

Based on the principle of pragmatism, ancient Roman science left cultural treasures for Western civilization in the field of science.

epilogue

If ancient Greek civilization is the origin of Western civilization, then ancient Roman civilization is another source of Western civilization. It is precisely because ancient Rome inherited and developed ancient Greek civilization, continuously absorbing foreign cultures, and forming a unique civilization system that pushed Western civilization to its peak.