Comparison: Ancient
Greeks & Romans

Differences between the ancient Greeks and ancient Romans.

Art: The Greeks wanted perfection in their depiction of people.  The Romans want real life people.  The Greeks statues were of perfect people.  The Romans statues contained all the flaws of real people.

Expansion: The Greeks colonized.  They established some colonies on the coastline around the Mediterranean Sea. The Romans conquered and ruled all over the Mediterranean.

Connection: The Romans built roads that connected their empire to Rome.  The Greeks built roads to connect two specific cities.

Government: The Romans created an empire that lasted 500 years.  The Greek civilization was a collection of city-states, and were not united under one central government until they were conquered by Alexander the Great. Even then, Alexander allowed all the conquered Greek city-states to rule their own state, provided they were loyal to Alexander.

Women: In Ancient Greece women had no rights.  They were property. In Rome, when ruled by kings, and then under the Republic, women were not property, but they had no rights.  During the Empire, Roman women had quite a few rights, but were still not citizens.

Language: The Greeks spoke Greek.  The Romans spoke Latin.

These are just a few of the differences between these two ancient civilizations.  Can you think of others? How about inventions or myths?

Ancient Roman Achievements Inventions
Ancient Greek Achievements and Inventions

Ancient Roman Myths
Ancient Greek Myths