Culture and traditions of ancient Rome. Culture and religion of ancient Rome

Art

The Romans, who were distinguished by great practical sense in solving the problems of material life, were able to create a harmonious sense of citizenship in themselves, to establish their military force and widely spread their political power, were only weakly gifted with the ability for artistic creativity, as well as creativity in general in the field of spiritual interests. Never feeling a real, inner need for art, they initially looked at it as a relaxing luxury, and if they turned to it, it was only in the form of real benefits, and they were content with borrowings from the Etruscans.

Then, when victories over other nations brought wealth to the Romans and developed national pride in them, especially after the conquest of Greece, which brought them closer to the high civilization of this country and flooded the city of the Quirites with works of art taken from it, art began to be held in high esteem in Rome, but still not as something essentially necessary, but as a means to add external shine to public and private life, to exalt the creators of national glory, and to flatter people’s pride. State people and the rich began to patronize art and attract artists from the impoverished and deserted cities of Hellas to Rome; these visiting artists worked, trying to satisfy the taste of their customers, and under their leadership, native craftsmen were formed.

Thus, by the end of the republican regime, a special R. art had developed, representing a mixture of Etruscan elements with Greek ones, but despite this, having a unique character. home distinguishing feature This art is a desire for luxury, colossality and spectacular decorativeness.

Architecture

The architecture of the Romans achieved the greatest originality; sculpture and painting were for them only a continuation of what was done in these artistic branches by the Greeks. Despite all the limited novelty that the Romans generally introduced into art, they own that great merit that they carried the classical art of Hellas they had inherited to all corners of the then known world and served as transmitters of its elements to new times and new peoples who began their political existence on the ruins of the Roman Empire.

Painting

This branch of art, like sculpture, moved to Italy from Greece. But while Rome had almost no sculptor of its own who was so famous that his name would be preserved for posterity, there was no shortage of native artists who successfully worked in the field of painting. This proves that the Romans were endowed with a capacity for it, having received their first acquaintance with it from the Etruscans, who, as has been proven, made extensive use of it for the decoration of their funerary crypts and, probably, also of temples and dwellings. Even during the times of the republic, Fabius Pictor, who painted in 300 BC, was famous. e. Temple of Security. A hundred years later, the poet Pacuvius, who took up his brushes in moments of leisure, was respected for his paintings. Under Augustus, Rome already had several more or less skilled painters, headed by the famous Ludius. But all of these were mainly decorators; painting in the strict sense of the word, which does not play the role of an accomplice in architecture, always remained in the hands of the Greeks. Perhaps her most important task was portraits, for which at the end of the republic Lala or Laya, originally from Cyzicus, was especially famous.

see also

Literature

Initially literary works were written on stone or on tree bark, so the word “liber” meant both book and bast, as well as on waxed and lead tablets. The best variety of Egyptian papyrus was called Augustan papyrus, in honor of Octavian Augustus, but it was later superseded by Claudian papyrus.

The first monuments of Roman prose were laws, treaties and liturgical books, but already in the fire of 387 BC. e. Many important documents were burned. In 240 BC e. The Romans became acquainted with the tragedy and comedy of Livy Andronicus, who translated the Odyssey into Latin and, on behalf of the priests, wrote the first Latin choral song. Elogies appeared in honor of representatives noble families. The earliest elogy is preserved on the monument of Lucius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus and dates from 298 BC. e. The beginnings of Roman folk drama appeared during various rural festivals. Main view dramatic works became atellans. Under Andronicus, the poetic activity of Gnaeus Naevius began with his epic work about the First Punic War. After the Second Punic War the works of the poet Quintus Ennius appeared, who first introduced the hexameter into Latin literature. At the same time, during this period the comedians Titus Maccius Plautus and Publius Terentius Africanus, as well as the satirist Lucilius, became famous, from whose time satire became a purely Roman genre. By this time belong prose works senior annalists, the first of whom was Quintus Fabius Pictor. The first history of Rome in Latin was written by Marcus Porcius Cato the Elder, famous for his treatise “On agriculture».

The last century of the Republic was marked by the flowering of prose and poetry. The ability to write poetry was a sign of good taste. At the same time, poetry of that time was divided into two schools. One defended traditional form versification coming from Ennius. Its most famous adherents were Cicero and Titus Lucretius Carus. Another school cultivated the traditions of Hellenistic, especially Alexandrian, poets and was distinguished by the emphatic erudition of the author in his works, elegance of form and craving for sentimentalism. Supporters of this trend were especially among aristocratic youth. Later, Gaius Valery Catullus joined this trend. Caesar occupied a prominent place in the prose literature of the end of the Republic with his memoirs “Notes on the Gallic War” and “Notes on the Civil War”. Close to memoir literature some works stood, for example those by Gaius Sallust Crispus.

The era of Augustus, called the "golden age of Roman literature", became further development poetry. The Maecenas and Messala Corvinus circles appeared. The first poets of this period - Publius Virgil Maron and Quintus Horace Flaccus - began their work during the civil wars and were members of the Maecenas circle. Virgil, being familiar with the Alexandrian school, created purely Roman poetic works, the pinnacle of which is the Aeneid. The best works Horace became his odes and a large poetic work “Ars poetica” (“ Poetic art"). At the same time as Virgil and Horace, the elegistic poets Albius Tibullus and Sextus Propertius wrote works. The youngest, but the last major poet of the Augustan era was Publius Ovid Naso, the author of the virtually fundamental works “Metamorphoses”, “Fastas” and “The Art of Love”. The custom of recitation - the public reading of one's works - was introduced by Asinius Pollio under Augustus.

In the 3rd century. Early Christian literature appeared (Quintus Septimius Florence Tertullian, Cyprian, Minucius Felix), which strengthened its position in the next century (Aurelius Augustine, Ambrose of Milan, Arnobius, Caecilius Firmian Lactantius). The desire to maintain the Roman tradition was expressed mainly in the appearance of commentaries on old authors such as Virgil. The classical poetic works of Claudius Claudianus appeared.

Book publishing

Book publishing and bookselling received great development in Rome. The most valuable source on the history of publishing is the correspondence of the author with those who took the trouble to publish his works. Titus Pomponius Atticus is especially famous. Under Augustus, the publishers worked, the brothers Sosia, who had their own bookstore in the Forum, near the statue of Vertumnus, and became famous for publishing the works of Horace. Virgil's works were published by Varius Rufus and Plocius Tucca. Later, the number of book publishers increased; one could buy the works of Livy and Seneca, the epigrams of Martial, or Quintilian’s treatise “The Education of the Orator.” Martial immortalized the names of his publishers in his epigrams. One of them was a freed renegade of a certain scientist, Gaius Pollius Valerian Secundus, who kept his shop in Rome near the Temple of Peace. Another acquaintance of Martial, Atrectus, sold books in the Roman quarter of Argilet. However, the poets did not receive copyright copies, so they gave their books very reluctantly. One publisher employed many copyists, whose wages depended, as in Greece, on the amount of text copied. The counting of lines was carried out according to a special stichometric system, probably introduced under Nero. After Diocletian's decree, 100 lines became the criterion for measuring the work of copyists. At the same time, copyright did not formally exist in Rome, although there was an unwritten right to respect the property of others, including the author of his books. Publishers tried to prevent private rewriting of books by releasing the maximum possible circulations onto the market to fully satisfy the demand for a particular work. It was not only about competition, but also about the quality of texts. The role of reviewers was usually performed by acquaintances and friends of the author, who read his works to them, such as the tragic poet Lucius Actius, who read to his brother Marcus Pacuvius. Terence brought his first comedy to the attention of the city aediles, who ordered the famous comedian Caecilius Statius to read it.

Education

Youth organizations

The beginning of Roman youth organizations should be sought in the 2nd century. BC e. In Italy they were known as "iuvenes" or "iuventus" ("young", "youth"), and in the provinces as "iuventus" and "collegium iuventutis". The expansion of their network was associated with the emergence of new schools in the cities of the empire (in Mediolan, Augustodunum, Burdigal, Carthage, Antioch, etc.). Unlike the Athenian ephebia, membership in organizations was voluntary and not mandatory, the exercises were not military in nature, and in addition, such organizations were based on collegial principles and did not have an appointed administration - they were headed by a master. Youth organizations flourished during the early Empire, when the municipal urban aristocracy began to effectively help state authorities. After the advent of the latifundial economy, the importance of Roman youth organizations fell.

Religion

The struggle and ban of Ancient Roman culture by Christianity

Prefect of the East Cynegius, with the help armed forces and, together with the Christian monks, destroyed many of the remaining sanctuaries of the old faith.

The Edict of 391, even more strict, dealt the final blow to “paganism” by prohibiting the worship of gods not only in public, but also in private homes.

In 391, a crowd of Christian fanatics under the leadership of Patriarch Theophilus destroyed and burned the Library of Alexandria, which was a repository of Ancient Roman culture.

In Rome, it was finally and forever removed from the Senate hall famous statue Niki (“victory”), recognized as the palladium of ancient religion. The opposition of the old Roman nobility (with Symmachus and Praetextatus at their head) did not crush the decisions of Theodosius; sacred fire

The history of Rome represents one of the most remarkable pages world history. Having begun its existence as a small civil community, Rome came to its end as largest empire ancient world; but even after the death of Rome as a state, Roman culture continued to exert a huge influence on the culture of later Europe, and through the latter, on world culture as a whole.

However, Roman culture itself, from the very beginning of its history, was not something unified; it was a fusion of cultures of different peoples, and its initially inherent syncretism became a feature that determined the nature of the culture of Rome throughout its development. At the same time, Roman culture was by no means a disorderly agglomeration of borrowings and foreign influences; it was a completely original phenomenon, the originality of which rested on the solid foundation of the culture of the Roman polis. So what was truly Roman about the culture of Rome?

The Roman community arose in the middle. VIII century BC. as a result of the merger of several villages of different tribes, main role among whom the Latins and Sabines played; in addition, several centuries earlier the Achaean Greeks had visited here, and the Etruscans also became part of the ancient Roman community. However, the Greeks and Etruscans had strong influence on the culture of early Rome and for another reason: Southern Italy and Sicily were at that time colonized by the Greeks (there were so many Greek colonies, that this territory began to be called Magna Graecia), and the Etruscans owned a vast territory from the Alps in the north to Naples in the south. The origin of the Etruscans and their language still constitute a scientific mystery, despite the fact that a lot of monuments of their material culture have survived. The Etruscans, like the Greeks (over time, the Etruscan culture absorbed many elements of the Greek), in terms of socio-economic and cultural development superior to the Latins, and therefore the latter experienced their influence. Thus, the Romans adopted from the Etruscans the rules of field surveying, the layout of cities and houses, the practice of fortune telling by the entrails of animals, etc.

However, borrowing cultural forms from the outside they did not deprive Roman culture of its own original content; on the contrary, it was precisely this content that determined the nature and order of borrowing. The Romans were very rational and practical people, their thinking was almost devoid of imagery; Even in the names of months and the names of children, they used ordinal numbers (for example, the only daughter received her father’s family name, if there were two of them, then they were distinguished as Senior and Junior (major and minor), the rest were simply considered Third, Fourth, Fifth (Tertia , Qanta, Quinta) etc.).

The originality of the Roman mentality was expressed, first of all, in the Roman religion. Initially, Roman deities were neither anthropomorphic nor personal: they were not represented in human form, they were not given statues, or temples were built. Only with the borrowing of Etruscan and Greek deities did the Romans have temples and images of gods. The Romans deified various concepts, qualities, functions, stages of human activity, and these gods themselves had not their own, but common nouns; There were a great variety of such deities - for example, one personified the threshold, another the door leaves, the third the door hinges, etc. Communication with the gods was highly formalized and ritualized, and its content was determined by the formula “do ut des” - “I give so that [you] give”: making a sacrifice to God, the Roman expected a response from him, i.e. expected to receive some benefit for himself. This practicality, pragmatism, legal normative consciousness, sober calculation, combined with strict patriarchal morals, emphasized respect for the dignity of elders and superiors, became the main attitudes of the original Roman culture.

The history of Rome is the history of a city that became a world; the case of Rome is unique. In ancient times there was no shortage of either civil communities or huge empires, but only Rome managed to organically combine the idea of ​​citizenship with the imperial idea, i.e. to some extent, achieve the merging of the polis ideals of freedom and independence of the community as a whole and of each citizen individually with the imperial ideal of peace and security for all; This is what is called the “Roman idea.” Accordingly, Roman culture became, as it were, an expression of this universal state: it represented a kind of civilizational technology, an easily digestible set of living standards, a kind of “know-how” of civilized (from civilis - civil) life. This culture could be borrowed with the same ease with which it itself accepted all kinds of borrowings; its actual content was an applied technological and organizational set of life-supporting structures that operated with equal efficiency in any place and at any time. Roman culture was built on the principle of open architecture - it was a system of standard structures into which any new blocks could be freely built, so its ability to develop was practically unlimited.

The Romans were especially strong in the utilitarian sphere, in everything that related to the material and organizational side of life. Architecture and urban planning on the one hand, politics and law on the other: these are the main areas where the Roman genius manifested itself. The Romans were the first to widely use baked bricks and concrete; Instead of the direct ceilings adopted by the Greeks, arched vaults began to be widely used. Wealthy Romans lived in spacious city houses with flower beds and fountains, the floors of which were covered with mosaics, and the walls were covered with frescoes; A very common type of housing was the villa - an estate that combined urban comfort with the delights rural life. The poor rented apartments in multi-storey (4-6 floors) apartment buildings. The most impressive were public buildings: the Roman Forum - a square, more precisely, a whole system of squares with libraries, porticos, statues, triumphal columns and arches, etc., theaters (also the wooden theater of Marcus Aemilius Scaurus accommodated 80 thousand people; built later three centuries the Colosseum - 56 thousand people, its diameter was 188 m, height - 48.5 m), circuses - the Circus Maximus in Rome had a length of 600 and a width of 150 m, it could accommodate 60 thousand spectators. There were about a thousand in Rome public baths– term; The baths of Emperor Caracalla could accommodate 1800, and the baths of Diocletian - 3200 people. simultaneously. In honor of the victories of Roman weapons, triumphal arches and columns were erected: the arch of Emperor Titus had a height of 15.4 m, the arch of Constantine was 22 m high and 25.7 m wide, Trajan's column was 38 m high. Huge structures were erected by emperors: so. the mausoleum of Augustus was a cylindrical building with a diameter of 89 and a height of 44 m. Of course, temples were also built: the famous Pantheon (temple of all gods) was covered with a dome with a diameter of 43.2 m, the columns of the Temple of Olympian Zeus built in Athens by Emperor Hadrian had a height of 17.2 m .

In all provinces of the Roman Republic, and later the Empire, cities were built according to a single plan; The Roman city had a well-thought-out life support system - paved roads, sewerage, centralized water supply (water was often supplied to the city through special above-ground water pipelines - aqueducts; the length of one such aqueduct, built in Rome by Emperor Claudius, was 87 km - it supplied 700 thousand to the city. m 3 of water per day; the longest Roman aqueduct was built under Emperor Hadrian in Carthage - its length reached 132 km; in total, water was obtained through aqueducts in almost 100 cities of the empire). The cities were connected by beautiful roads, along which there were postal stations, inns, posts indicating distances, etc.; Part of the roads were bridges, viaducts, and tunnels. Roman roads had five layers of surface; the total length of the road network reached 80 thousand km.

Roman sculpture initially developed under strong Etruscan and Greek influence. Having taken from the Etruscans the naturalistic nature of the portrait and the developed plasticity of the human body from the Greeks, the Romans themselves added official severity and impressive dimensions: for example, one head of the statue of Emperor Constantine has a height of 2.4 m, and the colossal statue of Emperor Nero (the work of the master Zenodorus) was 2.4 m high. 39 m. Sculpture was an integral part of the urban and domestic space: at home the Roman had sculptural portraits of his ancestors, on the street he encountered images of gods, heroes and emperors (in general, among the images of Roman sculpture it is not gods, but people, that dominate - unlike the Greeks ).

Roman painting has been studied quite well: the Romans, again, painted not so much temples as houses, and depicted not only gods, but also people. Roman painting is realistic; the portrait genre occupies a large place in it (the most famous is a series of portraits from the Fayum oasis in Egypt). It must be said that, like sculpture, Roman painting is represented primarily not by masterpieces, but by high-quality mass craft products; Art among the Romans served everyday life.

Apart from the plastic arts, the Romans were the most original in the field of law. Legal science, jurisprudence arose precisely in Rome: the fact is that in Rome for many centuries there was a special position of praetor, whose duty was to interpret and develop the law. The annually elected praetors declared in their edicts how they intended to apply the existing laws. In addition, private lawyers practiced in Rome, giving their advice to everyone, who published their developments in special books. One of these lawyers, Quintus Mucius Scaevola, set out in 18 books the entire system of Roman civil law (namely, the system - for the first time in the world). During the imperial period, the codification of law was continued by Trebatius and Labeo; Salvius Julian compiled the “Eternal Edict” and “Digests” in 90 books, Guy wrote “Institutions” (a legal textbook in 4 books), Papinian, Ulpian also did a lot (one of his treatises “On the Praetorial Edict” consisted of 81 books) and Paul .

It was also very developed in Rome oratory- rhetoric. Studying at the rhetorician's school crowned the entire system of Roman school education: Primary School was private, they studied there for 4–5 years, then followed by a 4-year grammar school and, finally, a 3–4-year rhetoric school. (It must be said that the literacy rate in the Roman Empire reached 50%). The rhetorician's school was state-owned, and the rhetoricians were paid; it was a kind of university - a person who received such an education could make a career in any field. Actually, oratory was especially necessary in the Senate and court; the most famous Roman orator was Marcus Tullius Cicero (about 50 of his speeches have reached us).

Philology, which received great development in Rome, was closely connected with rhetoric: among the most famous Roman philologists, Marcus Terence Varro should be mentioned. Varro, like many other Roman scientists, was an encyclopedist - he wrote about 600 books on various branches of knowledge. In general, the encyclopedia became a real Roman genre: Varro wrote 41 books of “Divine and Human Antiquities,” Pliny the Elder wrote “Natural History” in 37 books, etc. These were people of enormous knowledge: for example, Pliny’s list of sources includes 400 authors, Varro, in one of his works, “Images,” gives literary portraits of 700 famous Greeks and Romans - but he was not a specialist historian, but wrote works on philosophy, law, and agriculture.

However, in Rome there were enough philosophers and historians, not to mention scientists who left reference books and monographs on almost all the special sciences that appeared during this period. In philosophy the Romans did not create original schools; the most widespread teachings in Rome were Stoicism (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius), Epicureanism (Lucretius), and Cynicism. Among the historians we should name Titus Livy, who described 8 centuries of Roman history in 142 books of his “history of Rome from the foundation of the city” (only a fourth of this work has reached us, but even this is not much in modern publications occupies about 1500 pages), Cornelius Tacitus (“History” and “Annals”), Suetonius Tranquila ( famous book“The Life of the Twelve Caesars”), Ammianus Marcellinus (“Acts”), etc. Representatives of the natural sciences include Diophantus of Alexandria (mathematics), Claudius Ptolemy (geography), Galen (medicine).

Roman literature began with the Greeks writing in Latin and the Romans writing in Greek; it began with translations and transcriptions. Captive Greek Livius Andronicus in the 3rd century. BC. translated into Latin Greek tragedies and comedies (Sophocles and Euripides), and also translated the “Odyssey”; at the same time, Naevius began to write his imitations of the Greeks in Latin. More original were the creator of the historical epic “Annals” Ennius and the comedians Plautus and Terence, while Gaius Lucilius and Lucius Actius created completely national literature in both form and content. The golden age of Roman literature (more precisely, poetry) was the time of the first emperors, when the author of “Georgics” and “Aeneid” Virgil, who wrote “Satires”, “Epodes”, “Odes” and “Epistles” Horace and the author of “The Science of Love” and “Metamorphoses” Ovid. Among the later Roman writers, Petronius, Lucan, Apuleius, Martial, Juvenal and others should be mentioned.

The culture of Rome and Christian culture are in a complex dialectical relationship: it is difficult to decide what is important in this relationship and what is derivative. Rome was possible without Christianity, but Christianity was impossible without Rome; Christianity could become a world religion only in a world empire. On the other hand, without Christianity, which inherited Roman culture, we would have had about the same idea about ancient culture as about Etruscan or early Minoan culture, and its significance for us would have been the same as the significance of the Indian civilizations of Mesoamerica; Without Christianity, only silent monuments of material culture would have remained from antiquity, the historical and cultural tradition would have been interrupted, and therefore we ourselves would have been different. Christianity and Rome both denied and complemented each other: at first Christianity was impossible without Rome, which persecuted Christians, and then the very existence of Rome became derived from Christianity, which just as steadily fought against Roman paganism - i.e. the backbone of the entire ancient culture.

The traditional Roman religion did not promise those who professed it eternal life, afterlife bliss, posthumous punishment for the evil and encouragement for the good: like any paganism, i.e. the animation of the forces and objects of nature, she was focused on this world and life in it - beyond the grave, both good and evil awaited the same sad vegetation in Hades. Roman paganism, like any other, did not know personal ethics, because was addressed not to an individual, but to a community; it was a ritual and ceremonial system, the action of which took place only on the surface of a person’s spiritual world - for mental life itself at this stage of development was quite superficial, or rather, fundamentally oriented towards external action, and not towards internal content. Only in an empire does it become possible for the emergence of a new person, a person-person, in our understanding, for whom the value of inner life, moral self-improvement, internal freedom mean no less than the values ​​of external success and prosperity: state universalism gives rise to civil individualism, the empire and the individual are interconnected.

The new man needed a new god, or rather, God - an omnipotent and all-encompassing, but at the same time infinitely close to man, good being who would “manage” not separate people, locality, sphere of activity, etc., but infinity and eternity, and could communicate them to the human soul. The search for such a god begins already in the early Empire: the cult of the old Roman gods gradually declines (or rather, the cult remains, but the gods themselves are now understood only as images and symbols), the new cult of emperors also cannot satisfy the requirements of religious feeling, and in Rome Eastern religions are spreading. The worship of Cybele, Isis, Atargata, Mithra, Baal, etc. gave remission of sins and victory over death, promised eternal life; in this circle religious ideas and practices and Christianity begins to spread. Born in the remote province of Judea, known only for the religious fanaticism of its inhabitants, who worshiped a single unknown god, obscure to the Romans, new religion quickly spread throughout the empire. Having emerged as one of the Jewish sects, Christianity quickly became a cosmopolitan religion for people of any language, gender, social and national affiliation - needless to say, this was only possible in the empire; already three decades after the death of their founder, followers of Christ appeared in Rome itself. During the 1st – 2nd centuries. the Roman state either persecuted Christians or treated them with tolerance: for the traditional Roman consciousness, the idea of ​​​​monotheism was incomprehensible, and their joyful expectation of the end of the world was unpleasant; in addition, Christians refused to take part in the cult of the emperor, which was perceived as a sign of political disloyalty. And yet, the real persecution of Christians began only in the second half of the 3rd century, when the Roman state declared war on the Christian church, this “parallel state”, which integrated an ever-increasing volume of social relations. A serious struggle was waged for about half a century, but it was not successful: Christians were already everywhere - in government, in the army, in all political institutions in general. The pagan empire was degenerating into a Christian one - seeing the futility of the fight against Christianity, the Roman state recognized it as equal in rights with other religions of the empire (313). After this, it was no longer possible to stop the spread of Christianity, and in 392. pagan cults were officially banned, and the persecution of the pagans had already begun. The development itself begins Christian culture– religious literature, architecture, painting, etc. Christianity crosses the borders of the empire and spreads among the barbarians, who soon after crush the Western Roman statehood; The Christian Church partially fills the power vacuum, naturally becoming politicized in the process. The history of Rome recedes into the past, and the heritage of Roman culture becomes the property of Christianity: this was the end of the half-millennium period of relationship between these so significant phenomena of world history and culture.

The importance of Roman culture for Europe, through it, for the whole world, is difficult to overestimate. Political system, technology, language, literature, art - in almost all spheres of life we ​​are the heirs of the ancient Romans. The Roman tradition was preserved both directly and continuously, and indirectly; The “Roman idea” turned out to be truly eternal. The successors to Roman statehood, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, lasted until 1453 and 1806 respectively; but also later political formations in Europe and partly beyond its borders were built on the basis of an appeal to the heritage of ancient Rome. In the Middle Ages, both in the West and in Byzantium, people still considered and called themselves Romans, and when the difference from antiquity was finally realized by them, it was only in order to announce the need for a new revival of it (the Renaissance). The way of perceiving the world, relationships between people, the foundations of aesthetics, the structure of language and, accordingly, thinking - all of this among the peoples and societies of Europe that have emerged over the last one and a half millennia is united in its fundamental principles: what distinguishes Europeans from representatives of other regions and cultures (for example, the inhabitants of India or China), is the result of the common heritage of Rome for all of us, the heritage of ancient civilization as a whole. The realities of Rome, separated from us by two millennia, are clearer and closer to us than modern culture peoples who did not have historical connection with ancient civilization; As long as Europe exists – it doesn’t matter so much whether it’s Western or Eastern, the Eternal City continues its “life after death.”

Life of the Romans

The house had no windows. Light and air came in through a wide opening in the roof. Brick walls were plastered and whitewashed, often covered with drawings on the inside. In rich houses, the floor was decorated with mosaics - pieces of multi-colored stone or colored glass.
The poor lived in shacks or cramped rooms in apartment buildings. The sun's rays did not penetrate into the homes of the poor. Houses for the poor were poorly built and often collapsed. There were terrible fires that destroyed entire areas of Rome.
They did not sit at dinner, but reclined on wide couches around a low table. The poor were content with a handful of olives, a piece of bread with garlic and a glass of sour wine (half and half with water) for lunch. Rich people spent fortunes on expensive foods and were sophisticated in inventing amazing dishes like roast nightingale tongues.
The underwear of the Romans was the tunic (a kind of knee-length shirt). Over the tunic they wore a toga - a cloak made of an oval-shaped piece of white woolen fabric. Senators and magistrates wore togas with a wide purple border. Craftsmen wore a short cloak that left the right shoulder exposed. It was more convenient to work this way.
The rich and noble Romans, who did not know any work, spent many hours every day in baths (therms). There were marble-lined pools with hot and cold water, steam rooms, walking galleries, gardens and shops.

Advances in technology

Previously, they sculpted from a softened glass mass, like clay. The Romans began to get blown away glass, made glassware, learned how to cast glass products into molds.
Roman builders built roads covered with dense stone slabs. Along the sides of the roads there were ditches lined with stones to drain water. Distances were marked with mileposts. Many Roman roads have survived to this day.
The Romans invented concrete components which contained lime mortar, volcanic ash and rubble. Concrete made it possible to use arches in the construction of bridges. Through arched bridges with a trench for pipes at the top (aqueducts), water flowed by gravity into the city. Imperial Rome had 13 aqueducts.
Extremely accurate calculations were required for domed buildings, since during the construction of domes, metal or reinforced concrete beams and fastenings were not used, as now. An example of a domed building is the Pantheon (temple of all gods), built in Rome in the 1st century. and now serving as a burial place for prominent people of Italy.
A marvel of ancient construction technology is the Colosseum, a huge amphitheater 2 built in Rome in the second half of the 1st century. The walls of the Colosseum reached 50 meters in height; it could accommodate at least 50 thousand spectators.
Many architectural monuments Rome are dedicated to glorifying the victories of Roman weapons. These are the wooden and then stone triumphal arches - the front gates through which the victorious commander passed and the victorious army passed during the triumph. To commemorate military victories, high stone columns with a statue of the emperor-commander were also erected.


We are introduced to construction techniques by the work of the Roman engineer Vitruvius (1st century BC), which for a long time served as a model for engineers and builders of modern times.
In ancient Rome, agronomic (agricultural) science was encouraged. Roman agronomists developed methods better processing soils, techniques for better crop care. Katdn (I century BC) and many other outstanding people wrote about agriculture and its technology.

Sculpture of ancient Rome

The more ancestors there were, the more noblegenus was considered
When, according to Greek custom, statues began to be carved from stone, Roman sculptors retained the custom of accurately conveying human features, as was done in wax works. If the statue depicts an old man, then you can see wrinkles and sagging skin. Roman sculpture was realistic. The statues were real portraits, accurately conveying the features of the persons depicted.

Literature of Ancient Rome

The poem “On the Nature of Things,” beautiful in form and deep in thought, was written by the poet and scientist Lucretius Carus (1st century BC). He proved that nature obeys its natural laws, and not the will of the gods. Lucretius fought against superstitions and religion, and promoted the achievements of science.
The poet of the time of Augustus Virgil, in the sonorous and solemn verses of the poem “Aeneid,” spoke about the distant past of Italy, connecting its fate with the myth of the Trojan Aeneas, who escaped during the destruction of Troy and ended up in Italy after long wanderings. Virgil praised Augustus, who considered himself a descendant of Aeneas; Virgil also exalted the Roman state, which, as if the gods themselves had commanded to rule other nations.

Virgil's contemporary poet Horace wrote wonderful poems about friendship and the benefits of a peaceful life, sang the beauty of Italy's nature and the work of the farmer.
August well understood the extent of the impact fiction to the masses and therefore sought to attract poets and writers to his side. A friend of Augustus, a wealthy slave owner Maecenas, gave estates to the poets and gave them other gifts. Poets glorified Augustus as the savior of the Roman state, and his reign was called the “golden age.”
1 The word patron came to mean a noble patron of the arts.

Calendar in ancient Rome

January was named after the god Janus; February received its name from celebrations in memory of ancestors - february; March bore the name of the god of war and vegetation, Mars; July and August are named after Julius Caesar and Augustus; September October November December
stand for “seventh”, “eighth”, “ninth”, “tenth”. Counting the days was difficult. Instead of “May 7th,” a Roman would say “8 days until May 15th.” The first day of the month was called Kalends - hence the calendar.

Significance of Roman Culture

Romans. conquered many regions of Europe and Africa, introduced other peoples to cultural
achievements of the Greeks. They kept copies wonderful works Greek sculpture that has not come down to us in the original. Many works of the Greeks are known to us only in the Roman transmission.
In modern times, Greek and Roman culture began to be called ancient (from the Latin word antiquus - ancient).
The Romans introduced new things into culture, especially in the field of construction and technology. The language of the Romans - Latin - became the ancestor and basis of the language of many peoples (Italian, French, Spanish, etc.). The Latin alphabet is now used by the peoples of Western and partly Eastern Europe, most of Africa, America, and Australia (see map). We use Roman numerals to denote centuries and use them on watch dials. Scientists use Latin to refer to plants, minerals, and parts of the human body.

A bunch of Latin words entered our language. The words communism, party, republic, proletariat, school and many other Latin ones. The names Pavel, Victor, Natalia, Margarita, Maxim, Sergey are also Latin. The planets Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn bear the names of Roman gods. The world-famous cruiser Aurora is named after the Roman goddess of dawn.

The culture of Ancient Rome existed since the 8th century. BC e. and until 476 AD. e. Unlike the ancient Greek culture, which, as a rule, is awarded the highest words and assessments, the ancient Roman culture is assessed differently by everyone. Some famous cultural scientists (O. Spengler, A. Toynbee) believed that Rome did not go beyond borrowing and popularizing what was done by the Greeks, and never rose to the heights of Hellenic culture. More justified, however, is the view that Roman culture and civilization are no less original and original than others.

Roman civilization became the last page in the history of ancient culture. Geographically, it arose on the territory of the Apennine Peninsula, receiving the name Italy from the Greeks. Subsequently, Rome gathered into an immense empire those countries that arose as a result of the collapse of the power of Alexander the Great, subjugating almost the entire Mediterranean. The consequence of this was centuries-long wars with neighbors, in which several generations of Roman citizens participated in a row.

Late Roman legends linked the founding of Rome with the Trojan War. They reported that after the destruction of Troy (Asia Minor, the territory of modern Turkey), some Trojans, led by King Aeneas, fled to Italy. Aeneas founded a city there. Another legend says that the king was overthrown by his brother. The new king, fearing revenge from the children and grandchildren of Aeneas, forced his daughter Silvia to become a vestal (priestess of the goddess Vesta), who took a vow of celibacy. But Sylvia had twin sons from the god Mars - Romulus and Remus. Their uncle ordered the boys to be thrown into the river. Tiber However, a wave threw the twins ashore, where they were suckled by a she-wolf. Then they were raised by a shepherd, and when they grew up and learned about their origin, they killed their treacherous uncle and returned royal power to their grandfather and founded a city on the Palatine Hill on the banks of the Tiber. By lot, the city received its name from Romulus. Later, a quarrel arose between the brothers, as a result of which Romulus killed Remus. Romulus became the first Roman king, divided the citizens into patricians (aristocrats) and plebeians (common people), and created an army. The Romans considered the founding day of Rome to be April 21, 753 BC. e., it was from him that the Romans based their chronology.

In fact, the name "Romulus" was derived from the name of the city, and not vice versa. The territory of the Apennine Peninsula from 2 thousand BC. e. was inhabited by Indo-European tribes who came from Central Europe (Italics, Sabines, Latins, etc.), later the Etruscans (Rasens, Tusci) came to the area of ​​​​modern Italian Tuscany - a tribe of non-European origin, disputes about the origin of which are still ongoing. It was the Etruscans (from the north) and the Greeks (who settled the southern part of Italy and Sicily) who had the most strong impact on the development of Roman culture. The Etruscans were both experienced farmers and skilled artisans. It was from them that the Romans inherited craft and construction equipment, writing, “Roman” numerals, toga clothing, and much more. etc. (it is characteristic that even the “Capitolian She-Wolf”, which, according to legend, suckled Romulus and Remus and was a symbol of Rome, was a work of Etruscan craftsmen, exported as a war trophy).

There are 2 periods in the culture of Rome:

• 1) culture of tsarist and republican times (from the founding of Rome in the 8th century BC to 30 BC);
• 2) the culture of imperial Rome (from 30 BC to 476 AD).

Unlike the ancient Greeks, mythology did not become the basis for the development and flourishing of Roman culture. The ancient Romans had a custom of luring the gods of hostile tribes with the help of a certain formula and establishing a cult for them. Thus, many gods of the Italian and Etruscan cities moved to Rome, and later - the anthropomorphic gods of the ancient Greeks, whom the Romans renamed, preserving their functions: thus Zeus became Jupiter, Aphrodite - Venus, Ares - Mars, Poseidon - Neptune, Hermes - Mercury, Hera - Juno, Athena - Minerva, Dionysus - Bacchus, etc. The original Roman gods indicated in the priestly books were the deities of sowing, seed growth, flowering, ripening, harvest, marriage, the first cry of a child, etc. The Romans also believed in souls the dead who patronize their family (manas), into unburied souls that cannot find peace for themselves (larvas or lemurs), into deities protecting home and family (laras), into guardians hearth and home(Penates). The guardian of a person, shaping his character and accompanying him throughout his life, was the Genius, to whom the birthday of a Roman citizen was dedicated. Cities, communities, and families had their own patron Genius. The most ancient Italian god, who hosted the overthrown Saturn, the father of Jupiter, the god of farmers and the harvest, was considered Janus. He was portrayed as two-faced.

The Romans treated their gods with disinterestedness. But the main thing for every Roman was not the gods, but historical legends and legends that were formed during the formation of Roman statehood.

From an early age, the Roman citizen was instilled with the ideas of concor - consent, internal unity, legality developed during the development of Roman law, and its patroness - the goddess of Justice, loyalty to the morals of their ancestors, valor. Real historical figures early Rome became role models. Thus history became myth, and myth became history.

In the first period of Roman history and culture - the era of the reign of seven kings (Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Gastilius, Ancus Marcius, Servius Tullius, Tarquinius the Proud) there was a transition from a primitive communal system to an early class society. In 510 BC. BC, after the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud, Rome became a city-state (civitas), ruled by a Senate of 300 people, a popular assembly (comitia), led by two consuls elected for a term of 1 year.

Formed in 510 BC. e. The aristocratic slave-owning Roman Republic lasted until the 30s. n. e. Then came the period of empire, which ended with the fall of " eternal city» in 476 AD e.

The Romans were in many ways similar to the Hellenes, but at the same time they were significantly different from them. They created their own system of ideals and values, the main ones among which were patriotism, honor and dignity, loyalty to civic duty, veneration of the gods, the idea of ​​​​the special chosenness of the Roman people by God, of Rome as the highest value, etc. The Romans did not share the Greek glorification of the free individual, violating established laws society. On the contrary, they in every possible way exalted the role and value of the law, the immutability of its observance and respect. For them, public interests were higher than the interests of the individual. At the same time, the Romans strengthened the antagonism between the freeborn citizen and the slave, considering not only the practice of a craft unworthy of the former, but also the activities of a sculptor, painter, actor or playwright. The most worthy occupations of a free Roman were considered politics, war, development of law, historiography, and agriculture. The Romans defined the qualities in their own way and more clearly free man, excluding from them such “slave vices” as lies, dishonesty and flattery. Rome reached the highest level of development of slavery.

One of the highest virtues of the Romans was military valor. Military spoils and conquests served as the main source of subsistence. Military Valor, feats of arms and merit was the main means and basis for success in politics, for obtaining high positions and occupying a high position in society.

Thanks to the wars of conquest, Rome grew from a small town into a world empire.

A real revolution in the cultural life of the Roman Empire occurred by the 1st century BC. e. after the conquest of Hellenistic Greece. The Romans begin to study Greek, philosophy and literature; they invite famous Greek orators and philosophers, and they themselves go to the Greek city-states to join the culture that they secretly worshiped. It should be noted, however, that unlike Greek, Roman culture is much more rational, pragmatic, aimed at practical benefit and expediency. This feature was well demonstrated by Cicero using the example of mathematics: “The Greeks studied geometry in order to understand the world, while the Romans studied geometry in order to measure plots of land.”

Greek and Roman cultures were in a state of strong interaction and mutual influence, which ultimately led to their synthesis, to the creation of a single Greco-Roman culture, which later formed the basis of Byzantine culture and had a huge influence on the cultures of the Slavic peoples and Western Europe.

In Roman art during its heyday, architecture played a leading role, the monuments of which, even in ruins, captivate with their power. The basic principles of Roman architecture were used during the Renaissance and remain relevant today. Its significant difference from the Greek was its focus not on the order system, but on the widespread use of arches, domed and vaulted ceilings in construction, as well as the creation of structures that were round in plan. On the basis of arched structures, viaducts were built for the movement of pedestrians, carts and troops, and aqueducts that supplied cities with water from sources sometimes located tens of kilometers away.

The Romans marked the beginning of a new era of world architecture, in which the main place belonged to public buildings, designed for huge numbers of people. Throughout the ancient world, Roman architecture is unrivaled in stature. engineering art, variety of types of structures, wealth compositional forms, scale of construction. The Romans introduced engineering structures (aqueducts, bridges, roads, harbors, fortresses) as architectural objects in urban and rural landscape. This happened thanks to the discovery of a completely new building material - concrete. First, 2 parallel brick walls were erected, the space between which was filled with alternating layers of gravel and sand. When the mass of concrete hardened, it formed a solid monolith with the walls. The Romans used stone block or marble slab cladding rather than building with these materials like the Greeks. The most gigantic spectacular building of Ancient Rome is the Colosseum (75-80 AD), in its amphitheater (it differed from the theater in that it had a closed oval plan with rows of seats around the arena, gradually rising and surrounded on the outside by a powerful ring wall ) could simultaneously accommodate 50 thousand spectators. Until 405, gladiator fights were held in the Colosseum.

Spectacles occupied a very important place in the life of the Romans. Roman architects turned to those types of public buildings that most fully embodied the ideas of the power of the state and imperial power: forums (from the Latin “fora” - city center), triumphal arches, basilicas, circuses, baths, amphitheaters. During the imperial period, each of the emperors, following the example of Julius Caesar, built his own forum, decorated triumphal arches, memorial columns and monuments glorifying the deeds of the emperor. The ensemble of the forum also included churches and libraries, and areas for public meetings. New types of housing were also created: villas (country houses for patricians), domus (city houses for rich Romans), insula (multi-story houses for the Roman poor).

One of the most visited places in Rome, especially during the Roman Empire, were the baths. This is a complex of buildings surrounded by gardens, stadiums, walking alleys, libraries; Works of art were exhibited in the baths, and rhetoricians and poets performed. Of the 11 baths of imperial Rome, the baths of the emperors Titus and Caracalla became famous for their luxury, wall paintings and mosaics.

Great achievements of the Roman artistic genius and in the region sculptural portrait, originating from the Etruscans, who had an image of the head of the deceased covering an urn with ashes (canopus), as well as from wax masks of the dead Romans. Unlike the Greeks, who strived for typification, Roman sculptors try not to flatter their models even when they create perfect image, accurately conveying the most remarkable features appearance. It was the Roman portrait that laid the foundation for European sculptural portraiture.

Roman science was of an applied nature. The greatest scientists of the era of the Roman Empire were the Greeks Ptolemy, Menelaus of Alexandria, Galen, Diophantus. A unique encyclopedia that summarized natural scientific knowledge about the world and man was the huge work of Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) “Natural History” in 37 books.

One of the most striking and significant pages of world history and culture is Roman law. On the one hand, it placed the interests of the individual owner at the center of legal relations, and on the other, it developed a value basis for the legal order, the content of which was:

• - justice, equality;
• - expediency;
• - conscientiousness;
• - good morals.

Roman law was characterized by precise formulations, it reaches perfect legal forms, its decisions are justified, and terms and concepts form the basis of modern jurisprudence. The analysis of cases from ancient Roman legal practice today contributes to the development of legal thinking, sharpens the arguments for and against, and systematizes logical generalizations.

In the 1st century. BC e. in Rome, rhetoric, or the art of political and judicial eloquence, is developing powerfully, which was a consequence of reflecting the turbulent social life of the transitional era from the Republic to the Empire. Achieving authority in society and being successful political career were impossible without mastery of the living word.

Rhetoric becomes a stepping stone towards entry into the Roman elite. The most brilliant orator of Rome was Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC). Being also a keen expert on philosophy, he did a lot to introduce the Romans to the classical Greek philosophy of Plato and the Stoics.

The population of the empire was characterized by a high level of literacy. The school education and upbringing system included 3 levels - primary, secondary and higher. Graduates of the highest level were prepared for state, practical and cultural activities. Higher education began to emerge.

The development of Roman literature went through several stages. During the Tsarist and partly Republican periods literary creativity existed in the form of cult chants, tribal epics, primitive drama, and legal texts. The first known Roman writer whose name has come down to us was Appius Claudius Caecus (c. 300 BC). Livy Andronicus, a Greek slave and freedman (late 3rd century BC), translated the Odyssey and thereby laid the foundation for the creation of Roman literature based on the Greek model. Dramaturgy later achieved noticeable development (the comedies of Plautus and Terence). Cato the Elder is considered the first Roman prose writer, who wrote in Latin the history of Rome and the Italic tribes. Cicero, with his writing and oratory, opened the era that is commonly called the era of “Golden Latin.” During the time of the first Roman emperor Octavian Augustus (1st century BC), the flowering of literature, called the “golden age of Roman poetry,” was associated with the names of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Seneca, and Petronius. Virgil's famous poem "Aeneid" about the mythical divine ancestor of the Roman aristocracy and Augustus himself (King Aeneas) exalted the special historical mission of Rome, glorified the Roman spirit and Roman art. In comparison with Greek examples, the works of Roman authors were distinguished by greater drama and a more sober analysis of reality.

At the end of the 2nd century. n. e. a crisis began in the Roman Empire: frequent changes of emperors, separation of provinces, the emergence of various parts empires of independent rulers. From the 1st century n. e. In the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire (in Palestine), the spread of Christian ideas began, proclaiming the equality of all before God, which was essential for the consolidation of a society torn apart by contradictions. The emergence of a new myth about the possibility of universal achievement of the kingdom of God on earth and the idea of ​​rewarding the suffering and disadvantaged with happiness in the kingdom of heaven became very attractive, especially for the lower social strata of Rome. Christianity adopted many elements of Eastern cults and religions, and also included the achievements of Hellenistic philosophy in its ideology. Christianity, cruelly persecuted and persecuted at first, gradually captured the Roman aristocracy and intelligentsia with its ideas, and in the 4th century. AD became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

From 410 to 476 Rome was destroyed by barbarians - Goths, Vandals, Franks, Huns, Germans, etc. The eastern part of the Roman Empire (Byzantium) existed for another thousand years, and the western part, having died, became the foundation for the culture of the emerging Western European states.

Greco-Roman antiquity (9th century BC - 5th century AD) left the following achievements as a legacy to world culture:

the richest myth-making;

experience of a democratic structure of society;

Roman legal system;

timeless works of art;

laws of truth, goodness and beauty;

variety of philosophical ideas;

acquiring the Christian faith.

Personalities: Herodotus, Aesop, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, A. Macedonian, J. Caesar.

Test tasks

• 1. Consider the differences between Greek and Roman architecture.
• 2. Why is Greek culture called the “culture of philosophers” and Roman culture “the culture of rhetoricians”?
• 3. List the 7 wonders of the world as imagined by ancient society.
• 4. Name prominent figures literature and science of ancient Greek culture, accompany your story with characteristics of their works.
• 5. Name the outstanding figures of literature and science of Roman civilization, accompany the story with characteristics of their creations.
• 6. Prepare a presentation on any aspect of the topic.
• 7. What made the “Greek miracle” possible? State your version.

Culture of Ancient Rome

The culture of Ancient Rome is the last stage in the development of ancient culture. The history of Rome spans more than 20 centuries. The very first people to settle in Rome on the Apennine Peninsula were the Ligurians. However, their origin is still unknown. In 3-2 thousand BC. Italic tribes who migrated here from the north begin to settle on the peninsula. First, these people introduced the culture of bronze to the masses, and the second wave, which occurred in the 1st millennium BC. - iron culture. Then the Etruscans, who supposedly came to these lands from Asia Minor, began to rule on the Apennine Peninsula. Scientists suggest that they were involved in the creation of the first civilization in Italy. And over the subsequent time, it was they who were assigned the leading role.

According to ancient beliefs, graceful and majestic Rome was founded by Remus and Romulus back in 753 BC. In addition, it was he who was considered the second maritime civilization in the world. Its size and position extended over several thousand kilometers, and already in the 4th century. Rome began to dominate Italy.

In the middle of the 1st century. Single ruler Ancient Rome was proclaimed Julius Caesar. But after his death, his adopted son Octavian Augustus took the throne.

The main stage in the development of Ancient Rome was the absorption of the Greeks, while the Romans became their guides. Gradually, the Greeks began to lose their former independence, and the Romans adopted their philosophy and mythology and won a “cultural” victory. It was Greek philosophy that was fundamental in the education of Roman society. It is known that almost all mentors were Greeks. At the same time, teachers taught all sciences only in Greek. Once proud Rome, cruel and unshakable, which fought hard for world domination, bowed its head to the culture of Greece. The artistic traditions of the Roman state were quite meager, while the nascent mythology was broken at the root. Rome assimilated and adopted all the Greek deities, and at the same time gave them different names. From now on, Zeus became Jupiter, and Aphrodite Venus. Rome devoted all its efforts to creating its own independent and strong literature.

The culture of Ancient Rome is a prototype of world culture. The state can be called the first civilization in the whole world that devoted all its efforts to creating a single cultural field and captured territory. The culture of Rome did not have a coherent culture that could compete with others. The state was subordinate to the culture of other peoples, which gave it special specificity. 2nd century BC. became in a sense decisive for Rome - it adopted the world religion - Christianity.

Roman literature is known to many for its elegant prose, in which utilitarianism was visible. The culture of Ancient Rome is, first of all, a reasonable worldview and organization of life in general. Ancient Rome - the first state in which it was organized special system state management.

The Romans were convinced that the life of man and all living things on earth is subject to the power of the gods and is under their protection. In other words, a person depends on a higher power.

The afterlife played a special role in the life of the Romans. They believed that in heaven the souls of the dead would definitely have to repent for their sins. In addition, they firmly believed that the afterlife and earthly world were full of demons.

The Romans actively practiced fortune telling using the internal organs of animals and were able to predict the weather based on the flight of birds alone. By the way, the enterprising Romans even decided to adopt fortune telling from other peoples.

As for religion, it is more animistic and believed in the existence of various spirits. However, the development of the people did not stand still, and soon there was a transition to anthropomorphism. To the Romans, the gods were represented in human form, thereby influencing the emergence of the Roman pantheon.

Along with other ancient peoples, the Romans presented sacrifices to the gods and even built temples in their honor. Cult “responsibilities” were distributed among the priests: someone organized the burial and “managed” the rituals, while others organized the calendars.

Poetic and literary creativity was visible in such iconic works for the state as Plautus and Terence. On the basis of these works, cult works of such playwrights as Molte and Shakespeare were created.

Theatrical performances began to be staged from the end of the 3rd century, and such a direction as atellan, based on the comedy of masks, prevailed in creativity. In order to spice up the sensations, the artists used decorations, as well as various masks and wigs. At the same time, the gladiator movement, based on animal baiting, began to emerge.

The culture of Ancient Rome left its mark on world civilization.