[extropy-chat] CULTURE: Did Romans ruin Greek Culture?

[scerir]

Natasha:

> >"Upon being seized, Greece seized her savage victor
> >and brought the arts into rustic Latium"
>
> This is the anciennt region of Italy, along the Terranian Sen.

Yes, Latium (now Lazio) is the region of Rome, between Tuscany
(north) and Campania (south).

> In the reference I mention, "culture" is quite different from
> "civilization" the former being considered one of honorable human spirit,
> and the latter being a degeneration or collapse of that spirit.
> The spirit would be the Greek sense of beauty, and the death would be
> realism.  The engineers would be the Romans, and the intellectual beauty
> the Greeks.
>
> History:  "According to some scholars, the Etruscans invaded and conquered
> Rome early in the Sixth Century B. C. Others hold that they did not
> conquer the Romans, but entered Latium peacefully and rose to a
> ruling position in Roman society. According to this group of scholars,
> some of the Etruscan families became established as influential
> families in Rome's early aristocracy."
>
> So, the Etruscians either siezed Rome or when there peacefully. Either
> way, they did rule Italy for a while. I'm not sure what happened to
> reverse this.

This policy was abandoned, by Etruscans, at the beginning of the 3rd
century BC, when their cities rebelled against the interference of
Roman power. Defeated, they lost part of their territories, including
the coastal area and their harbors. The Etruscan civilization vanished
completely during the 1st century AD.

Prof. Cavalli-Sforza (?) has shown there are, these days, among people
living in Tuscany, peculiar genetic characters, much different from
the genetic characters of people living in other Italian regions,
and similar to the characters of people living in the far East (?).
So the Etruscans are hidden in Tuscany but, perhaps, still alive.

<<Tomb paintings and inscriptions have told us more of the Etruscans'
considerable role played by women. Accounts of Greek and Roman writers
give further evidence of these facts and, more importantly, they indicate
how the high status of women frightened them. Their writings express the
view that the relations between men and women and their differing
attitudes toward sex create a conflict, since strong women were seen
as a threat to the power of the state. Historian Larissa Bonfante
suggests that Rome's first "cultural shock" was that she was becoming too
much like the Etruscan city that confronted her across the Tiber and from
whom she took so much external culture - letters, the arts, and symbols of
royalty. For the Romans, the Etruscans would always represent "the others."
What we know best about the Etruscans is from their art and literature which
express the freedom and power of women in their society. Theopompus, the
Greek historian of the 4th century B.C., was startled by this. According to
his report, Etruscan women took great care of their bodies, often exercising
in the nude with men and with each other, which was not considered shameful.
They were very beautiful, and it was not uncommon for them to recline
publicly at dinner with men other than their husbands. These women liked to
drink, and they even took part in the toasting traditionally reserved for
men at Greek symposia.>>

For the Romans, the Etruscans would always represent "the others". That
is something.

s.