What did the ancient Romans and Greeks think of each other?

Question: What did the ancient Romans and Greeks think of each other!?
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Shanna S is right, Greeks saw country as their city state, not Greece is general!. However, there was a shared sense of Hellenic culture, and the Greeks did contrast that to the Romans!.

When the Greeks first encountered the Romans, they considered them barbarians!. Pyrrhus of Epirus, a Hellenistic general, supposedly said, when he faced the Romans in battle, "These people are well disciplined march in good order, for barbarians!."

Later, when the Romans invaded Greece, opinions were split!. Many saw them as liberators (liberating them from the Macedonians) while others (like the Macedonians) saw them as vicous invaders!. But all would have looked down on them as more primitive, good fighters, but lacking in discipline!.

Even later in the Roman Empire, when Greece was firmly integrated into the Empire, they still saw the Latin speakers of the west as less cultured, people with less history and knowledge!.

The Roman opinion of Greeks was more complicated!. The Romans, at first, saw the Greeks as effete, pleasure addicted, book worms!. Cato the Elder, a Roman senator, tried to outlaw Greek philosophy in Rome, and saw it as having a weakening effect on Roman morals!. Romans were supposed to be about discipline, living modestly, exercising, and practicing for war!. The Romans saw the Greeks as having been made weak by too much money and by having tyrannical kings (i!.e!. Alexander the Great, Philip of Macedon), wheras the Romans saw themselves as free people with an elected government!.

However, many Romans were attracted to Greek thinking and art, and slowly but surely changed Roman culture and deeply impacted the Romans!. There was always a grudging respect toward the Greeks for their long and glorious history and their learning!. Athens became like the college town of the Roman empire, where all the great Romans sent their kids to study!.

But even as time went on, Romans still had a stereotype of Greeks as feminine, weak, and self obsessed!. "The Greeks, a people valiant in words rather than deeds," as Livy put it!. A good example of how the Romans perceived the effects of Greek culture was when Mark Antony took command over Rome's Eastern, Greek speaking provinces!. Many Romans thought he went native, devoting himself to pleasure above duty, and getting involved with a monarch (Cleopatra), which was despicable!.

The Romans also thought that despite the impressive abilities and culture of the Greeks, Romans were superior in a number of ways!. In the words of Virgil "Others [aka the Greeks] will chisel bronze so subtly that it seems to be breathing (I'm quite sure of it), they make living faces from marble, they will plead cases more fluently, and will measure the heavens and describe the movement of the stars!. But remember Roman, these are your arts: to impose the ways of peace, to spare the humble, and conquer the proud!."

When the Western Roman empire collapsed, but the Eastern empire stayed standing, these sentiments continued!. The westerners called the Byzantines Greeks, and saw them still as the feminine bookworms that they always did!. In the Byzantine Empire, the Greeks called all westerners Franks (a barbarian tribe) and saw them as such, uncultured barbarians!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

It depends on when!. People generally did not think of themselves as Greek or Roman in the ancient times!. People associated themselves with their "city state" which was basically a large metropolitan area that included the city proper and some outlying areas!. The idea of countries really didn't exist then!. There were city states and then unclaimed "lands" in their view!. Lands were places like Gaul, or Mesopotamia, which in Greek literally translates to "the land between two rivers" meanin the Tigres and Euphrates rivers!.

If you were a Greek speaker, you would likely if asked would say you were Athenian or Spartan or Cretian!. You would not say Greek!. A person from Rome would call you that!.

In turn, think about the term "roman" it refers to a city, not all of Italy!. It was a priviledge to be a Roman, and the requirements were fairly strict!. Not all who made their lives in Roman had that title, even if they were born there!.

So to try to answer your question: Greek speakers thought highly of themselves and felt all others were lessor or mere copycats!. Romans thought highly of themselves and thought of everyone else as either adle minded fools, or violent barbarians!.

There was not a whole lot of respect going on in spite of the Romans co-opting most of the Greek culture, as well as any other cultures they absorbed through their empire over time!.Www@QuestionHome@Com