Roman Greece
By 275 BC, the Romans
in Italy (see map) were beginning
to expand out of Italy and conquer other parts of the Mediterranean. They
started with Sicily, an island near Italy. The Romans were fighting the
Carthaginians. Some of the
Greeks decided to help the Carthaginians fight
the Romans, because the Greeks were afraid of the Romans. But the Carthaginians
lost. The Romans were very angry at the Greeks, and they began to take Greece
over as well.
At first the Romans pretended to let Greece be independent, but by 146 BC
the Romans destroyed Corinth and
made Greece into a province of the Roman Empire.
Greece did well under Roman rule, even though the Greeks were not very happy about it. Archaeology shows that the Greeks built many new houses and buildings. They were able to sail and trade peacefully all over the Mediterranean Sea, because the Romans ruled it all. The Romans ruled Greece for hundreds of years.
The Romans thought Greek plays and Greek philosophy were very interesting, and many Greeks went to Rome as teachers and entertainers. Many Romans came to Athens to go to the great colleges there, Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum.
Around 200 AD, though, Germanic
people began to invade Greece from the north, and the Roman army couldn't
always stop them. At first these Germans didn't come very often, but by
400 AD they came more often, and Greece became
poorer again. As the Germans conquered
the western half of the Roman Empire, Greece came to be ruled by Constantinople.
To find out more about Roman Greece, check out these books from Amazon.com or from your library:
Ancient Rome: An Introductory History, by Paul A. Zoch (2000). For high school students, by a high school Latin teacher.
Graecia
Capta : The Landscapes of Roman Greece, by Susan E. Alcock (1995). Alcock
used archaeological evidence to show the changes that the Roman conquest
brought to the Greek countryside. By a specialist, for specialists, but
pretty readable.
Hellenistic
and Roman Sparta, by Paul Cartledge and Anthony Spawforth (2nd edition
2001). Ever wonder what happened to Sparta AFTER the helots
got free?
Route 66 A.D. : On the Trail of Ancient Roman Tourists, by Tony Perrottet (2002). Follow ancient Roman tourists, as they travel through Italy, Greece, and Egypt.
Byzantine period in Greece
Main Greek History page
Main Ancient Greece page
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