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The Romans conquered the Greeks politically, but culturally the influence went mainly in the other direction, and in fact the Meditations (per my comment at htt
by mhartl 12y ago
The Romans conquered the Greeks politically, but culturally the influence went mainly in the other direction, and in fact the Meditations (per my comment at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8580261 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8580261) were written in Greek.
- xaritas 12y agoAs Horace wrote around 14 BC: Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio. - Ep. II.i.156 "Greece, once conquered, herself conquered the artless victor, and planted the banner of civilization in the farmlands of Rome." I have translated freely and taken considerable license. By Aurelius' time, familiarity with Greek for the ruling classes was a given; as a matter of preference, it is a more supple language and probably more comfortable to use for putting abstract reasoning to words.