Ancient Civilization of Rome and Athens

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

The city of Rome and the city of Athens had great influence and authority over their neighbors and allies. They both emerged as leaders in their respective areas of influence but each employed different tactics and strategies to extend and maintain this influence for a long period of time. The city of Athens had great influence throughout the Aegean and the influence lasted for about a century. On the other hand, the city of Rome managed to achieve and sustain her influence over the whole of Italy for a long period of time. The city of Athens managed to have its influence over its first territory earlier than the city of Rome. There are many reasons why the two cities managed to enforce and maintain their influence over the different regions at different times. This paper will seek to analyze the political, military, cultural, and social strategies that each of them used leading to the influence at different times.

Main body

By the mid fifth century B.C, the offices and institutions of the Roman Empire had been designed and had become fully or partially operational. However, the Romans were still engaged in social issues making it quite hard for them to extend their influence beyond the region of Latium. On the other hand, Pericles- who ascended as the Athens’ leading politician- was running a complete operational system of government from the beginning of the fifth century B.C. during the period when the Romans were entangled in social issues, Pericles used his prestige to implement popular democratic reforms and extend his city’s influence throughout the Aegean (Meiggs 24). Even before the ascent of Pericles, the Athenians led the Delian League that protected the Persians from having influence over the Hellespont and also along the Ionian coast of Anatolia. This movement helped them neutralize the threat that Persian had on Aegean by 411 B.C. These factors explain why the Athenians managed to have their influence on Aegean long before the Romans had one.

During the fifth century B.C, the Romans were preoccupied with a great number of social issues. Most of these issues propelled the conflict of orders. They wanted to ensure that all citizens had equal access to public offices. This is because many citizens had to travel long distances to access offices that were very far and were only accessible to very few people. The Romans also wanted the law to be codified. During the same period, the Athenians were working on their influence in Aegean (Naphtali and Meyer 48). Pericles who was the leader of Athens by then led the Athenians in a process where they fortified their city and their port. In addition, all important corridors that connected the city with the port were fortified. This could be the reason as to why Athenians managed to have great influence on the Aegean long before the Romans had their first influence.

During the sixth century B.C, there were great social instabilities in Athens. This led to the appointment of Solon so that he could propose solutions to the social crisis. The Roman city was then enjoying a stable democratic form of government (North 26). This could explain the reason as to why it later came to have great influence throughout Italy.

Conclusion

The city of Athens managed to have great influence over Aegean long before the city of Rome could have some influenced because the Romans were engaged in addressing social issues when Athens were working on their influence. The city of Athens also had a stable and full operational government since the beginning of the fifth century B.C. Athens was later affected by social crisis leading to the Romans overtaking them.

Works Cited

Meiggs, Russell. The Growth of Athenian Imperialism. The Journal of Hellenic Studies 63 (1943): 21-34.

Naphtali, Lewis and Meyer, Reinhold. Roman Civilization: Selected Readings. Columbia: Columbia University Press, 1999. Print.

North, J. A. “The Development of Roman Imperialism” Journal of Roman Studies 71 (1981).

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Ancient Civilization of Rome and Athens

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