Rome v/s Greece

Given how similar modern day democracies are to ancient Rome in their power sharing structures, elections, and term limits, it’s not surprising that Tom Holland writes in his wonderful book, Rubicon:

“We flatter ourselves, in the democracies of the West, as if we trace our roots back to Athens alone. We are, for better as well as ill, the heirs of the Roman Republic.”

 

Rome itself was extremely functional. Why then did they care about prophecies?

“The Romans, being a people as practical as they were devout, had no patience for fatalism. They were interested in knowing the future only because they believed that it could then better be kept at bay.”

 

The Romans’ admiration for ancient Greece was mixed with contempt:

“While the cities of ancient Greece were regularly shattered by civil wars and revolutions, Rome proved herself impervious to such disasters. Not once, despite all the social upheavals of the Republic’s first century of existence, had the blood of her own citizens been spilled on her streets. How typical of the Greeks to reduce the ideal of shared citizenship to sophistry!”

 

Rome was too pragmatic to be philosophical. In 93 BC, a Roman commissioner named Publicola came to (conquered) Athens. He “combined a taste for Greek culture with the sensibility of a joker”. He summoned the representatives of the differing philosophies and “urged them, with a perfectly straight face, to resolve their differences”!

“If this was proved beyond their abilities, he added, then he was very graciously prepared to step in and settle their controversies for them.”

 

Decades later, following the power struggle after Julius Caesar’s assassination, Octavian (remembered in history as Augustus Caesar) emerged as the last man standing by defeating Mark Antony in Alexandria. What did Octavian do when he visited Alexander the Great’s tomb?

“He chipped at the conqueror’s reputation. The greatest challenge, Octavian argued sternly, was not winning an empire but the ordering of it.”

On that front too (governance, not just conquest), the Romans beat the Greeks hands down via Pax Romana. Variations of the term have continued to be used even today, from Pax Britannica, to Pax Americana, and possibly Pax Sinica next.