The most important contribution of ancient Roman civilization to the development of western and even world civilization lies in two aspects: Roman law in the first half and Christianity in the second half.
In the history of western civilization, ancient Roman civilization plays a connecting role. Ancient Rome usually refers to the civilization that rose in the central part of the Italian peninsula from the 8th century BC. After the Roman monarchy and the Roman Republic, it expanded into a huge Roman empire spanning Europe, Asia and Africa around 1 century BC.
The origin of ancient Roman civilization
According to legend, when Troy was attacked by the Greeks, Janice, the son of Venus, and his followers escaped and crossed Carthage in North Africa to Rome.
According to modern research, the Apennine Peninsula was inhabited by humans in the Paleolithic period. In the Neolithic Age, Ligurians came to Italy from Africa through Spain and France.
In the Bronze Age around 2000 BC, some Indo-European speaking tribes crossed the Alps from the Danube and Carpathians and entered Italy. One of them, a Latin, entered the Latium Plain, moved to the later Rome in about 800 BC, and lived in Umm and other hills in Parati.
At the same time or later, Sabin people lived on the neighboring hills. Later, people from Lasquin also came here.
From the 8th century to the 6th century, the Greeks immigrated to southern Italy and established the city-state. In the 7th century BC, the process of tribal union began with Pallatium as the center. A single Latin tribe joined with Sabin and Eta Lasquin to form the Roman Commune.
From the end of the 7th century BC to the end of the 6th century BC, the Roman commune was under the rule of Etta Rasquin. At this time, the transition from clan tribal commune to polis was completed. At the end of the 5th century, Gauls entered the Po Plain from the northern Alps. After long-term integration and assimilation, these tribes formed the ancestors of Italians.
The Influence of Ancient Roman Civilization on Western Civilization
In the development process from Greek and Roman times to modern civilization, Roman culture has played a key role in connecting the past and the future, and is an important factor in the pattern of western civilization coming down in one continuous line.
Greece, as the pioneer of western civilization, is characterized by the establishment of slavery democracy or civil politics in its city-state with a small country and few people. Greek culture can maintain this feature and continue to develop as the origin of western civilization, which is attributed to the emergence of Roman culture.
Rome also started from the city-state, and its culture basically inherited Greece completely.
But in the late Hellenistic period, Rome developed from a city-state to a great empire that ruled the whole Mediterranean region, and still maintained the system of * * * and the state. Although it was later transformed into an empire, its imperial system had some characteristics different from that of the eastern empire, thus establishing the trend of coexistence of the two peaks of civilization in the East and the West.
Roman culture is mainly circulated in written form, and a large part of it is Latin. Latin is the foundation of modern Roman language and has a far-reaching influence on English.
Before the immigrants arrived in England, the Anglo-Saxons borrowed many words from Latin, which resulted in everyday words.
From now on, most abstract nouns in English come from classical Latin, which is closer to the Romanesque branch than Germanic. In the 14 and 15 centuries, French borrowed a lot of words from Latin twice, the first time directly from the vulgar Latin in the Middle Ages, and the second time through written language.
In a word, the existence and spread of Latin words played an important role in the inheritance of western languages and cultures in later generations.