WESTERN CIVILIZATION 1

The City of Rome and its Influence on the Western Civilization

Student’s Name

Institution

Course

Instructor

Date
 WESTERN CIVILIZATION 2

The City of Rome and its Influence on Western Civilization

Introduction

Rome’s city has a great history and has since remained a source of admiration and

disbelief even today in the 21st century. Such a small town rose inspiringly to influence and

create an empire of the then civilized Western world. The city was founded in the 8 th BCE,

and its history of the many contributions it made to Western Civilization has stood the test of

time, a very long period that is close to a thousand years. The influence has remained till the

21st century (Wilson 2016). This paper summarizes the many contributions that the city of

Rome had on the cultural inheritances of the Western world. The ancient Roman world

unified several Mediterranean basin cultures; hence its empire consisted of various religious

affiliations, ethnic and political groups. The fact that the Romans were able to unite all

societies is such a genius venture (Perry 2012).

Influencing Factors

The Romans were able to achieve such a milestone of remarkable social coherence

because of six influential factors. The factors are as follows;

 Ensuring security, law, and order by the use of Roman legions,

 Adapting to local customs of the Roman culture,

 An extended period of acquiring citizenship and following the Roman to subdued

individuals,

 Roman use of a common language which was Latin,

 Use of political influence and Roman administration practically and flexibly, and
 WESTERN CIVILIZATION 3

 It created a fast-growing economy and social infrastructure that created the vast

empire.

Influencing Factors to the Glory of Rome

Rome’s glory was promoted by aspects like law and politics, Roman peace (Pax

Romana), language usage, and science and medicine.

Law and Politics. The law and the legal system of Rome’s city were the foundation

of Western civilization’s traditional systems. Throughout their history, the Romans developed

laws that led to establishing rules and regulations that governed the fair and impartial justice

system and leadership. The regulations influenced the economy’s growth, a change in every

individual’s social life, and transformed the political system (Spielvogel 2014). The Roman

law structured family lives, businesses, and individual rights throughout the empire’s whole

system uniquely. The law united the empire and gave its occupants equal rights before the

law.

The Roman Peace (The Pax Romana). This is a 200-year period that the Romans

enjoyed unity, universal peace, and economic prosperity. The period also brought about

extraordinary arts, economic growth, scientific innovations, engineering, leadership, and law.

Such achievement led to the period being termed s the Golden Age of ancient Roman

Civilization. From this peace, several provinces of the empire expanded while adopting

Roman law, promoting its economy, education, and arts (Martínez‐Abraín et al. 2019, p.3).

Even today, periods of peace under the dominance of superpower nations are termed as pax

of such or just like the Pax of Britannica.

Language Usage. When it comes to language, the Latin language gave Rome an

excellent opportunity to unify the people in its empire, which the empire did not hesitate to
 WESTERN CIVILIZATION 4

seize. Since the Romans were great admirers of the Greeks, educated Romans used the Latin

and Greek languages to communicate in writing and orally. The use of the languages was

widespread in the Hellenistic province of the empire. Nonetheless, the source of most

languages of Spanish, Italian, Romanian, and Portuguese is Latin. Roman Britain was also

affected by the language, and as a matter of fact, more than half of English words are of Latin

origin (Bloomer 2015).

Science and Medicine. Since the Romans were always pragmatic, the most preferred

the application of science and mathematics to medicine. The Romans adopted the Hellenistic

culture in the area of medicine and science (Highet 2015). The impractical theories were left

for the non-Romans. Of all the known scientists, Galen was the most famous one who

researched Hippocrates’ discovery. Ptolemy, a Roman scientist, backed the theory on earth’s

discovery as the solar system center. The catholic church later favored Ptolemy’s

interpretation because it fitted the church’s cosmic perspective (Woods 2012). The viewpoint

lasted until the time of Galileo and Copernicus who discovered that the sun is the solar

system center. The discovery influenced Western civilization and led to exploring the solar

system that remained a scientific influence on the western world.

Conclusion

The peace, order, and unity that the civilized western nations enjoy today is just a

replica of what the Romans enjoyed during the Pax Romana. The ideals of these qualities are

the same dreams for modern civilization. Feasibly, several modern societies may not be able

to emulate what the Romans did in ancient times. The legacy left by the Roman empire is

immersed mainly into the new civilization of the modern world. From the Roman empire’s

history and its achievements, the Romans adapted and conserved the best of their time for the

European world to take over later.

 WESTERN CIVILIZATION 5

References

Bloomer, W.M., 2015. Latinity and literary society at Rome. University of pennsylvania

press.

Highet, G., 2015. The classical tradition: Greek and Roman influences on Western literature.

Oxford University Press, USA.

Martínez‐Abraín, A., Jiménez, J. and Oro, D., 2019. Pax Romana:‘refuge abandonment’and

spread of fearless behavior in a reconciling world. Animal Conservation, 22(1), pp.3-

13.

Perry, M., 2012. Western civilization, a brief history. Nelson Education.

Spielvogel, J.J., 2014. Western civilization. Cengage Learning.

Wilson, P.H., 2016. The Holy Roman Empire: A Thousand Years of Europe's History.

Penguin UK.

Woods Jr, T., 2012. How the catholic church built western civilization. Regnery Publishing.