Ancient Roman culture. Ancient culture of ancient Rome

CULTURE OF ANCIENT ROME

The culture of Rome is associated with the completion of the history of ancient society. It continued the Hellenistic tradition and at the same time acted as an independent phenomenon, determined by the course of historical events, the uniqueness of living conditions, religion, the character traits of the Romans and other factors.

Initially, the territory of the Apennine Peninsula was inhabited by various tribes, among which the most developed were the Veneti in the north, the Etruscans in the center, and the Greeks in the south. It was the Etruscans and Greeks who had a decisive influence on the formation of ancient Roman culture.

The Etruscans inhabited these lands from the 1st millennium BC. e. and created an advanced civilization that preceded the Roman one. Etruria was a strong maritime power. Skilled metallurgists, shipbuilders, traders, builders and pirates, the Etruscans sailed throughout Mediterranean Sea, assimilating the cultural traditions of many peoples who inhabited its coast, creating a high and unique culture. It was from the Etruscans that the Romans subsequently borrowed the experience of urban planning, craft techniques, technology for making iron, glass, concrete, the secret sciences of the priests and some customs, for example, celebrating a victory with a triumph. The Etruscans also created the emblem of Rome - a she-wolf who, according to legend, suckled the twins Romulus and Remus - descendants of the Trojan hero Aeneas. It was these brothers who, according to legend, founded the city of Rome in 753 BC. e. (April 21).

The Latins living in the west gradually reached a high level of development, conquered neighboring territories and peoples and later formed one of the largest empires of antiquity, which included European countries, the northern coast of Africa and part of Asia.

Chronology

In the cultural history of Ancient Rome, three major periods can be distinguished:

monarchy - 753 - 509 BC e.;

republic - 509 - 29 BC e.;

empire - 29 BC e. - 476 AD e.

Peculiarities of worldview

The ancient population of Italy lived in territorial communities - pagah, as a result of the unification of which the city arose. At the head of archaic Rome was an elected king, combining the duties of high priest, military leader, legislator and judge, and with him was a senate. The most important matters were decided by the people's assembly.

In 510-509 BC e. a republic is formed. Republican rule lasted until 30 - 29 BC. e., after which the period of the empire begins. During these years, Rome waged almost continuous victorious wars and transformed from a small city into the capital of a huge Mediterranean power, spreading its influence over numerous provinces: Macedonia, Achaia (Greece), Near and Far Spain, regions of Africa and Asia, the Middle East. This leads to intensive cultural exchange, an intensive process of interpenetration of cultures.

The luxurious loot of the triumphants, the stories of soldiers, the penetration of wealthy people into the newly acquired provinces led to a revolution at the level of everyday culture: ideas about wealth changed, new material and spiritual needs arose, and new morals were born. The mass passion for oriental luxury began after the Asian triumphs of L. Cornelius Scipio and Gn. Volson's Mandya. The fashion for Attalian (Pergamon) robes, chased silver, Corinthian bronze, and inlaid stocks similar to those of ancient Egypt quickly spread.

The conquest of the Hellenistic states, and by the 1st century. BC e. and Hellenistic Greece revolutionized the culture of Rome. The Romans were confronted with a culture that surpassed their own in depth and variety. “Captured Greece captured its victors,” Horace, the ancient Roman poet, would later say. The Romans began to study the Greek language, literature, philosophy, and bought Greek slaves to teach their children. Wealthy families sent their sons to Athens, Ephesus and other cities in Greece and Asia Minor to listen to lectures by famous orators and philosophers. This influenced the growth of the Roman intelligentsia. Two new comic types appeared in society and literature: the absurd Greekmaniacs and the harsh persecutors of Greek science. In many families, foreign education was combined with ancient Roman traditions and patriotic ambition.

Thus, the Etruscan and ancient Greek origins are clearly visible in the culture of Ancient Rome.

The entire history of cultural relations between Rome and Greece from that time on reveals the secret admiration of the Romans for Greek culture, the desire to achieve its perfection, sometimes reaching the point of imitation. However, by assimilating ancient Greek culture, the Romans put their own content into it. The rapprochement of Greek and Roman cultures became especially noticeable during the empire. Nevertheless, the majestic harmony of Greek art and the poetic spirituality of its images remained forever unattainable for the Romans. Pragmatism of thinking and engineering solutions determined the functional nature of Roman culture. The Roman was too sober and too practical to, while admiring the skill of the Greeks, achieve their plastic balance and amazing generality of design.

The ideology of the Roman was primarily determined by patriotism - the idea of ​​Rome as the highest value, the duty of a citizen to serve it without sparing strength and life. In Rome, courage, loyalty, dignity, moderation in personal life, and the ability to obey iron discipline and law were revered. Lies, dishonesty, and flattery were considered vices characteristic of slaves. If the Greek admired art and philosophy, the Roman despised writing plays, the work of a sculptor, painter, and performing on stage as slave occupations. In his mind, the only deeds worthy of a Roman citizen were wars, politics, law, historiography and agriculture.

Social structure and economy.

Roman society was slave-owning. The Romans included:

patricians, nobility descended from the founders of Rome. It was the urban population that concentrated all power in its hands;

clients, poor Latins who lived in the countryside and worked the lands of the patricians;

plebeians, descendants of conquered peoples, the most numerous class, therefore for a long time they remained powerless;

slaves, completely powerless, their ranks were replenished with prisoners of war.

Rome was an economically very powerful state; its economy developed through several industries:

Agriculture;

industrial production (weapons, glass, ceramics);

trade;

spoils of war and tribute paid by conquered peoples.

Religion and mythology.

Religion was originally based on a mixture of rituals and beliefs. The mythology and religious beliefs of the ancient Romans are simple and artless. The two-faced god Janus was revered as the creator of the world from chaos, the creator of the firmament. The king himself was the priest of Janus. The main deities: Mana - the spirits of ancestors and Penates - the patrons of the family. The Laras, the deities of the hearth, were considered the patrons of communities and their lands. They worshiped water, fire, and among the most ancient gods - Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Mars, Quirinus, Diana, Venus. As they got closer to the Greek world, the Roman gods were identified with the Greek ones: Jupiter - Zeus, Juno - Hera, Diana - Artemis, Venus - Aphrodite, Victoria - Nike, Mars - Ares, Mercury - Hermesi, etc. Greek myths were adapted, of which he became especially popular myth about the exploits of Hercules, whom the Romans called Hercules. The pantheon also began to include Greek gods, which had no analogues in Roman mythology: Aesculapius, Apollonai, etc. A little later, eastern cults began to penetrate into Rome, mainly Egyptian - the cult of Isis, Osiris, Cybele. At the beginning of the new era, Christianity became increasingly widespread.

Christianity has come a long way before it became a world religion and the spiritual basis of European culture. It originated in the 1st century. n. e., which we count from the Nativity of Christ, and were initially formed in the bosom of Judaism, as one of its sects. But the content of the sermon of Jesus of Nazareth went far beyond the national religion of the ancient Jews. It was this universal meaning of Christianity that made Jesus the Christ (Savior, Messiah) in the eyes of millions of people who find the semantic basis of their lives in the Christian faith.

The Roman authorities long persecuted the early Christians, but almost four centuries later, thanks to the Emperor Constantine, it became the state religion of the Roman Empire, bringing with it not only a new worldview, but also a new art to its culture.

Spectacles and holidays.

The spirit of struggle, competition, and testing is inherent in all ancient culture. The Romans, like the Greeks, loved all kinds of competitions. There was nothing more honorable than becoming a winner in some competition and receiving a wreath as a reward. Theatrical performances in Rome were held during the holidays. Grandiose spectacles were especially successful when detachments of cavalry and infantry appeared on the stage, processions of prisoners, and performances of rare animals were included in the action. Solo pantomimes (usually on a mythological plot) with music and choir singing were very popular: comedies, performances in circuses, gladiator fights in amphitheaters.

Scientific and technicalachievements

Disdain for the arts and sciences did not mean that the Roman remained a dropout. In enlightened houses they taught not only the Greek language, but also correct, elegant Latin.

Already in the Republican period, original, original art, philosophy, and science were taking shape in Rome, and their own method of creativity was being formed. Their main feature is psychological realism and truly Roman individualism.

The ancient Roman model of the world was fundamentally different from the Greek one. There was no personal event in it, organically inscribed in the event of the polis and the cosmos, like the Greeks. The event model of the Roman was simplified to two events: the event of the individual fit into the event of the state, or the Roman Empire. That is why the Romans turned their attention to the individual.

The Greek saw the world through a comprehensive harmonious model of the world, through a majestic and heroic mythological system, which gave completeness to the model of the world. For the Roman, the world became extremely simplified, myth ceased to be a worldview and turned into a fairy tale. As a result of this, phenomena were perceived more clearly, it became much easier to cognize them, but something irreplaceable was lost - the feeling of the integrity of being disappeared. That is why the Romans could not get closer to the Greek ideal: the natural model of the world was lost - the basis and secret of ancient Greek greatness.

Roman science did not reach the scale of Greek science, because it was dependent on the specific needs of the growing Roman Empire. Mathematics, geography, natural science and other sciences among the Romans were of a narrowly applied nature. A noticeable mark in science was left by the works of Menelaus of Alexandria on spherical geometry and trigonometry, the geocentric model of the world by Ptolemy (both were Greek by origin). Works on optics and astronomy were written (a catalog of more than 1,600 stars was compiled), experiments were carried out on animals in physiology. Doctor Galen famous for his skill and complex operations, laid the foundations of sanitation, and came close to discovering the importance of nerves for motor reflexes and blood circulation.

The Romans were excellent builders. Their construction equipment, which made it possible to create the Flavian Colosseum in Rome and other amphitheatres, a 1.5 km long bridge across the Danube under Trajan, etc. Mechanics were improved, lifting mechanisms were used. According to Seneca, “despicable slaves” (for the citizens of Rome they were mainly conquered scientists and inventors) each time they invented something new: pipes through which steam flowed to heat rooms (in conquered England, Roman houses had steam heating) , special polishing of marble, mirror tiles to reflect the sun's rays.

Astrology, which was studied by major astronomers, was very popular. Mostly Roman scholars studied and commented on the Greeks. Philosophy and jurisprudence occupied a special place in the culture of the ancient Romans. Ancient Roman philosophy eclectically (eclecticism - mixing) combines the principles of various teachings of Greek thinkers, especially the Hellenistic era. Philosophers adopted their scientific apparatus, terminology, and most important directions. The ideas of moral improvement of man and the mystical moods characteristic of the time acquired important significance for Roman philosophy. Among philosophical trends, the most widespread in republican, and later in imperial Rome, were stoicism And epicureanism.

Representative of Stoicism Seneca saw the meaning of life in achieving absolute peace of mind, overcoming the fear of death. Seneca believes that a person should devote a huge part of his efforts to his own improvement.

Epicureanism is the only materialist philosophy in ancient Rome. Its most prominent representative is Titus Lucretius Carus- known for his philosophical poem “On the Nature of Things.”

Characteristic of the Roman mentality was a passion for skepticism. The founder of skepticism, Sextus the empiricist, built his teaching on a critical reassessment of modern knowledge. The edge of skepticism was directed against the concepts of philosophy, mathematics, rhetoric, astronomy and grammar. Skepticism became a specific expression of the progressive crisis of Roman society.

Close to Stoic ideals of renunciation of material wealth and life in harmony with nature were also proclaimed at that time cynics, addressing the urban lower classes in a language they understood. Philosophical moralistic treatises were popular Plutarch from Chaeronea. His works were distinguished by excellent living language, common sense, love of life, and tolerance.

The golden age of Roman science was characterized not so much by the increase in knowledge as by encyclopedism, the desire to master and systematically present the already accumulated achievements. The natural science theories of the Greeks in an eclectic, seemingly averaged form were accepted as once and for all given, without discussion. Along with this, a keen interest in scientific, rational knowledge of nature remained, and a whole galaxy of outstanding creative minds and wonderful scientists appeared. Pliny the Elder based on two thousand works of Greek and Roman authors, he compiled the encyclopedic “Natural History”, which included all areas of the then science - from the structure of the cosmos to fauna and flora, from the description of countries and peoples to mineralogy.

The most important cultural innovations of Roman antiquity are associated with the development politicians And rights. Ancient Rome - homeland jurisprudence.

If in small Greek city-states with their diverse and often changing forms of government, many issues could be resolved on the basis of the direct expression of the will of the ruling elite or a general meeting of citizens, then the management of the huge Roman power required the creation of a detailed system of government bodies, a clearly organized administrative structure, legal laws regulating civil relations, legal proceedings, etc. The first legal document is the Law of 12 books, regulating criminal, financial, and trade relations. The constant expansion of territory leads to the emergence of other documents - private law for the Latins and public law regulating the relations between the Latins and the conquered peoples living in the provinces.

Roman historian Polybius already in the 2nd century. BC e. He also saw the perfection of the political and legal structure of Rome as a guarantee of its power. Ancient Roman jurists truly laid the foundation for legal culture. Roman law is still the basis on which modern legal systems are based. But the relationships clearly defined by law , the powers and responsibilities of numerous bureaucratic institutions and officials - the Senate, consuls, prefects, procurators, censors, etc. did not eliminate the tension of political struggle. The nobility (nobility) involves broad sections of the population in its struggle for a place in the system of power, seeking to receive support from them. Slogans and appeals of various parties and groups against the general background of patriotic speeches praising the Roman Empire and the emperor form the public consciousness of citizens and fill their spiritual world. Literature, art, even urban development and architecture are put in the service of political and ideological goals. And although artistic creativity and reality are far from completely subordinate to these goals, they still very significantly influence the nature of art and all cultural life Roman society. This leads to one of the main features of Roman culture - politicization.

Passion for politics and jurisprudence led to a high level of development oratory(Gaius Gracchus, Cicero, Julius Caesar) and logic. Speeches, letters, philosophical writings, treatises on oratory Cicero had a great influence on their contemporaries. But the deepest impression was made by his speeches at trials, in the Senate, and in the people's assembly. Eloquence was the main means of social struggle. Rhetoric has had a great influence on philosophy, literature, and historiography. The art of eloquence was taught in public schools, where teachers received salaries from the state. Quintilian, who wrote a large treatise “Education of the Orator” in 12 books.

Great Roman historian Tacitus, one of the best historians of Rome, in his works “History” and “Annals” shows the tragedy of society, consisting in the incompatibility of imperial power and the freedom of citizens. Another famous historian is Titus Livius.

Literature

From the middle of the 2nd century. BC e. the Latin beginning was gaining strength: prose writers switched to their native language (previously, Roman writers wrote in Greek). Latin was experiencing the emergence of a literary national language, and literature began to play an important role in ancient Roman culture.

Emperor Augustus attracted the best writers of his time. His time is called the “golden age of Roman culture.” The most famous poets were Virgil, Horace, who were part of the circle of Maecenas - close to Augustus - patron of talents, as well as Ovid. Well-known, famous creation Virgil became the poem “Aeneid”, dedicated to the wanderings of Aeneas, which united the author’s love for ancient legends, Greek philosophical views on the structure of the Cosmos, Greek ideas about the world soul and posthumous fate; thoughts about reward for those who faithfully serve the fatherland, and about punishment for those who betrayed it. The Aeneid is the most popular monument of Roman literature.

Horace wrote love poems and satire, ridiculed the vices of Roman society. It was his pen that produced the famous poem “Monument,” which was so masterfully translated by Lomonosov, Derzhavin, and Pushkin.

Ovid famous for his love elegies, but especially for the poem “Metamorphoses” - a mythological epic that tells the story of the transformation of people into plants and animals. The poem ends with the legend of how Julius Caesar turns into a star.

Art culture

The spirit of struggle and the desire to overcome difficulties played an important role in the political life of society and in its military successes, which allowed Julius Caesar and other Roman commanders to create a huge Roman Empire. Its geographical unity and integrity were ensured by numerous settlements and cities. The city (“polis”, “civitas” in Latin) was in antiquity a form of organization of society, on the basis of which there was a move beyond the narrow boundaries of tribal consciousness. The Greeks and Romans believed that the absence of city policies was a sign of barbarism, and, conquering new lands, they built cities everywhere.

Numerous cities across the vast expanses of the Roman Empire were created according to the same plan: two cross-shaped intersecting highways - one from north to south, the other from east to west. At their intersection there is a square with a basilica, a market, the Capitoline Temple and the Temple of the Emperor, and near it there is a place for shows (an amphitheater or circus). Around the city there was an area where citizens' land plots were located. It was believed that people could not live otherwise, because to live like a human being, not like a barbarian, means living in the city, participating in public life. That is why Roman architecture is replete with public buildings. Rome was rightfully the center of Roman art.

The artistic culture of Rome was distinguished by great diversity and variegation of forms; it reflected the features characteristic of the art of the peoples conquered by Rome, sometimes standing on more high degree cultural development. Roman art developed on the basis of the complex interpenetration of the original art of local Italian tribes and peoples, primarily the powerful Etruscans, who introduced the Romans to the art of urban planning (various versions of vaults, engineering structures, tombs, residential buildings, roads, etc.), monumental wall painting, sculptural and pictorial portraits, distinguished by a keen perception of nature and character. Associated with the Etruscan tradition is a specific Italian type of residential building, the compositional center of which was the atrium - a vast hall-type room with a rectangular opening in the center of the ceiling. But the main influence was still Greek art.

The basic principles of the artistic culture of the two peoples were different in their origins. Greece, even during its period of greatest prosperity, did not represent a single state and a single geographical space, but only a conglomerate of city-states. Rome in its heyday was a single state, an empire stretching over thousands of kilometers. Hence the completely different tasks of architecture and the scale of construction. The Greeks recognized the power of harmony, proportionality and beauty, the Romans did not recognize any other power than the power of force. They created a great and powerful state, and the entire structure of Roman life was determined by this great power. Personal talents were not promoted or cultivated - the social attitude was completely different. The strength of the state was expressed primarily in construction, and therefore in architecture, which played a leading role in Roman art.

Architecture and construction. The basic principles of ancient Roman architecture, as well as ancient Roman art, were formed by the time of the republic (IV-I centuries BC).

Architectural monuments now, even in ruins, captivate with their power. The Romans marked the beginning of a new era of world architecture, in which the main place belonged to public buildings designed for huge numbers of people: basilicas, baths, theaters, amphitheaters, circuses, libraries, markets. The list of building structures in Rome should also include religious ones: temples, altars, tombs. Throughout the ancient world, Roman architecture is unrivaled in height engineering art, the variety of types of structures, the richness of compositional forms, the scale of construction. The Romans introduced engineering structures (aqueducts, bridges, roads, harbors, fortresses, canals) as architectural objects into the urban, rural ensemble and landscape, and used new building materials (concrete) and structures (arches, domes, etc.). They reworked the principles of Greek architecture, and above all the order system: they combined the order with an arched structure.

No less important in the development of Roman culture was the art of Hellenism with its architecture, which gravitated towards grandiose scales and urban centers. But the humanistic principle, noble grandeur and harmony, which form the basis of Greek art, in Rome gave way to tendencies to exalt the power of emperors and the military power of the empire. Hence the large-scale exaggerations, external effects, and the false pathos of huge structures.

Roman roads gained worldwide fame and have not lost their importance to this day. They were divided into three types (according to cost and degree of importance): military or state, under the authority of the central government, small, owned by community magistrates, private and field.

The variety of structures and the scale of construction in Ancient Rome changes significantly compared to Greece: a colossal number of huge buildings are erected. All this required a change in the technical foundations of construction. Performing the most complex tasks with the help of old technology has become impossible: in Rome, fundamentally new structures are being developed and are becoming widespread - brick-concrete ones, which make it possible to solve the problems of covering large spans, speed up construction many times over, and - what is especially important - limit the use of qualified craftsmen by moving construction processes are carried out by low-skilled and unskilled slave laborers.

Around the 4th century. BC e. mortar began to be used as a binding material (first in rubble masonry), and by the 2nd century. BC e. A new technology has emerged for the construction of monolithic walls and vaults based on mortars and small aggregate stones. An artificial monolith was obtained by mixing mortar and sand with crushed stone called “Roman concrete”. Hydraulic additives of volcanic sand - pozzolana (named after the area from which it was exported) made it waterproof and very durable. This caused a revolution in construction. This type of masonry was done quickly and made it possible to experiment with shape. The Romans knew all the advantages of baked clay, made bricks of various shapes, used metal instead of wood to ensure fire safety of buildings, and rationally used stone when laying foundations. Some secrets of Roman builders have not yet been solved.

Ancient Roman architects were familiar with the subtleties of numerical patterns; they knew various types of drawings using compasses and rulers.

In terms of importance, the most important type of building was the temple. The pinnacle of temple construction was Pantheon- temple of all gods, built in 118-125. The Patheon has no analogues in ancient Roman architecture either in composition or in design. This is a grandiose round temple, covered with a dome bowl with a diameter of almost 43 m. The entrance is made in the form of a deep multi-columned portico, topped with a pediment. Constructed using brick and concrete structures, the interior of the temple was decorated with polychrome marbles. Daylight enters the temple through a round light opening at the zenith of the dome (diameter 9 m).

The culture of ancient Rome is briefly studied in all humanities courses with a civilizational focus, but all the diversity can hardly be seen in a survey course. In many ways, the culture of ancient Rome is briefly taught in order to only touch upon the cognitive interest of students and force them to acquire knowledge themselves.

Let us pay some attention to the peculiarities of Roman culture in order to still form, albeit flawed, a superficial impression of the heritage of ancient civilization.

Roman culture largely continued the Greek traditions, but, taking culture as a basis Ancient Greece, the Romans also contributed their interesting elements. As in Greece, culture was derived from military affairs, politics, religion, and its achievements primarily depended on the needs of Roman society.

Most of all, the Romans developed architecture and sculptural portraiture. The culture of ancient Rome briefly shows that the efforts of the Greeks were not in vain.

The religion of the Romans was not so much complex as it was disorderly. Many gods, protective spirits, and idols did not always correspond to their functions, and then stopped performing them altogether, leaving only the pantheon we are familiar with. With the emergence and popularization of Christianity, the Roman religion acquired more harmonious outlines, and the gods have long become mythology.

The Romans are also famous for their philosophy, which gave the world the pillars of this science. Just look at the names of Cicero and Titus Lucretius Cara, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. Thanks to the work of these scientists, the first philosophical problems, many of which are still unresolved.

In science, the Romans also reached a fairly high level, especially for a time when many industries were in their infancy. In medicine, Celsus and Claudius Galen achieved particular success; in history - Sallust, Pliny, Tacitus, Titus Livy; in literature - Livy Andronicus, Plautus, Gaius Valerius Catullus, Virgil, Gaius Petronius, Horace, Ovid Naso, Plutarch. It is also necessary to remember about Roman law, which is used throughout Europe. And this is not in vain, because the laws of the twelve tables were written in Rome.

A more familiar remnant of Roman luxury for ordinary people was the circus, where gladiator fights were held. Many movies amaze us with thrilling battle scenes, but for the Romans this was just one way to spend their free time.

A special place has always been given to the Roman contribution to construction and architecture. The culture of ancient Rome cannot even describe half of what was being built in the then city-state.

The Etruscans and Hellenes left their rich heritage to the Romans, from which Roman architecture grew. It is quite natural that most of the structures were for public purposes - aqueducts, roads, bridges, baths, fortifications, basilicas.

But how could the Romans simple buildings to make works of art, this remains a mystery to everyone. Plus, we can add to this the rapid flourishing of portraits depicted in stone - the Greeks did not know such a flourishing in this area.

The culture of ancient Rome gave the world a rich heritage, the significance of which is difficult to assess. But we were still able to apply the main achievements.

The history of Rome represents one of the most remarkable pages of world history. Having begun its existence as a small civil community, Rome came to its end as the largest empire of the ancient world; but even after the death of Rome as a state, Roman culture continued to have a huge influence on culture later Europe, and through the latter - on world culture as a whole.

However, Roman culture itself, from the very beginning of its history, was not something unified; it was a fusion of cultures different nations, and its initially inherent syncretism became a feature that determined the nature of the culture of Rome throughout its development. At the same time, Roman culture was by no means a disorderly agglomeration of borrowings and foreign influences; it was a completely original phenomenon, the originality of which rested on the solid foundation of the culture of the Roman polis. So what was truly Roman about the culture of Rome?

The Roman community arose in the middle. VIII century BC. as a result of the merger of several villages of different tribes, main role among whom the Latins and Sabines played; in addition, several centuries earlier the Achaean Greeks had visited here, and the Etruscans also became part of the ancient Roman community. However, the Greeks and Etruscans had a strong influence on the culture of early Rome for another reason: Southern Italy and Sicily were colonized by the Greeks at that time (there were so many Greek colonies, that this territory began to be called Magna Graecia), and the Etruscans owned a vast territory from the Alps in the north to Naples in the south. The origin of the Etruscans and their language still constitute a scientific mystery, despite the fact that a lot of monuments of their material culture have survived. The Etruscans, like the Greeks (over time, the Etruscan culture absorbed many elements of the Greek), were superior to the Latins in terms of socio-economic and cultural development, and therefore the latter experienced their influence. Thus, the Romans adopted from the Etruscans the rules of field surveying, the layout of cities and houses, the practice of fortune telling by the entrails of animals, etc.

However, borrowing cultural forms from the outside they did not deprive Roman culture of its own original content; on the contrary, it was precisely this content that determined the nature and order of borrowing. The Romans were very rational and practical people, their thinking was almost devoid of imagery; Even in the names of months and the names of children, they used ordinal numbers (for example, the only daughter received her father’s family name, if there were two of them, then they were distinguished as Senior and Junior (major and minor), the rest were simply considered Third, Fourth, Fifth (Tertia , Qanta, Quinta) etc.).

The originality of the Roman mentality was expressed, first of all, in the Roman religion. Initially, Roman deities were neither anthropomorphic nor personal: they were not represented in human form, they were not given statues, or temples were built. Only with the borrowing of Etruscan and Greek deities did the Romans have temples and images of gods. The Romans deified various concepts, qualities, functions, stages of human activity, and these gods themselves had not their own, but common nouns; There were a great variety of such deities - for example, one personified the threshold, another the door leaves, the third the door hinges, etc. Communication with the gods was highly formalized and ritualized, and its content was determined by the formula “do ut des” - “I give so that [you] give”: making a sacrifice to God, the Roman expected a response from him, i.e. expected to receive some benefit for himself. This practicality, pragmatism, legal normative consciousness, sober calculation, combined with strict patriarchal morals, emphasized respect for the dignity of elders and superiors, became the main attitudes of the original Roman culture.

The history of Rome is the history of a city that became a world; the case of Rome is unique. In ancient times there was no shortage of either civil communities or huge empires, but only Rome managed to organically combine the idea of ​​citizenship with the imperial idea, i.e. to some extent, achieve the merging of the polis ideals of freedom and independence of the community as a whole and of each citizen individually with the imperial ideal of peace and security for all; This is what is called the “Roman idea.” Accordingly, Roman culture became, as it were, an expression of this universal state: it represented a kind of civilizational technology, an easily digestible set of living standards, a kind of “know-how” of civilized (from civilis - civil) life. This culture could be borrowed with the same ease with which it itself accepted all kinds of borrowings; its actual content was an applied technological and organizational set of life-supporting structures that operated with equal efficiency in any place and at any time. Roman culture was built on the principle of open architecture - it was a system of standard structures into which any new blocks could be freely built, so its ability to develop was practically unlimited.

The Romans were especially strong in the utilitarian sphere, in everything that related to the material and organizational side of life. Architecture and urban planning on the one hand, politics and law on the other: these are the main areas where the Roman genius manifested itself. The Romans were the first to widely use baked bricks and concrete; Instead of the direct ceilings adopted by the Greeks, arched vaults began to be widely used. Wealthy Romans lived in spacious city houses with flower beds and fountains, the floors of which were covered with mosaics, and the walls were covered with frescoes; A very common type of housing was the villa - an estate that combined urban comfort with the delights rural life. The poor rented apartments in multi-storey (4-6 floors) apartment buildings. The most impressive were public buildings: the Roman Forum - a square, more precisely, a whole system of squares with libraries, porticos, statues, triumphal columns and arches, etc., theaters (also wooden theater Mark Emilius Scaurus accommodated 80 thousand people; the Colosseum, built three centuries later - 56 thousand people, its diameter was 188 m, height - 48.5 m), circuses - Big Circus in Rome had a length of 600 and a width of 150 m, it could accommodate 60 thousand spectators. There were about a thousand in Rome public baths– term; The baths of Emperor Caracalla could accommodate 1800, and the baths of Diocletian - 3200 people. simultaneously. In honor of the victories of Roman weapons, triumphal arches and columns were erected: the arch of Emperor Titus had a height of 15.4 m, the arch of Constantine was 22 m high and 25.7 m wide, Trajan's column was 38 m high. Huge structures were erected by emperors: so. the mausoleum of Augustus was a cylindrical building with a diameter of 89 and a height of 44 m. Of course, temples were also built: the famous Pantheon (temple of all gods) was covered with a dome with a diameter of 43.2 m, the columns of the Temple of Olympian Zeus built in Athens by Emperor Hadrian had a height of 17.2 m .

In all provinces of the Roman Republic, and later the Empire, cities were built according to a single plan; The Roman city had a well-thought-out life support system - paved roads, sewerage, centralized water supply (water was often supplied to the city through special above-ground water pipelines - aqueducts; the length of one such aqueduct, built in Rome by Emperor Claudius, was 87 km - it supplied 700 thousand to the city. m 3 of water per day; the longest Roman aqueduct was built under Emperor Hadrian in Carthage - its length reached 132 km; in total, water was obtained through aqueducts in almost 100 cities of the empire). The cities were connected by beautiful roads, along which there were postal stations, inns, posts indicating distances, etc.; Part of the roads were bridges, viaducts, and tunnels. Roman roads had five layers of surface; the total length of the road network reached 80 thousand km.

Roman sculpture initially developed under strong Etruscan and Greek influence. Taking from the Etruscans the naturalism of the portrait and the developed plasticity human body from the Greeks, the Romans themselves added official severity and impressive dimensions: for example, one head of the statue of Emperor Constantine has a height of 2.4 m, and the colossal statue of Emperor Nero (the work of the master Zenodorus) was 39 m high. Sculpture was an integral part of the city and home spaces: the Romans had houses sculptural portraits his ancestors, on the street he encountered images of gods, heroes and emperors (in general, among the images of Roman sculpture, it is not gods that dominate, but people - unlike the Greeks).

Roman painting has been studied quite well: the Romans, again, painted not so much temples as houses, and depicted not only gods, but also people. Roman painting is realistic; the portrait genre occupies a large place in it (the most famous is a series of portraits from the Fayum oasis in Egypt). It must be said that, like sculpture, Roman painting is represented primarily not by masterpieces, but by high-quality mass craft products; Art among the Romans served everyday life.

Apart from the plastic arts, the Romans were the most original in the field of law. Legal science, jurisprudence arose precisely in Rome: the fact is that in Rome for many centuries there was a special position of praetor, whose duty was to interpret and develop the law. The annually elected praetors declared in their edicts how they intended to apply the existing laws. In addition, private lawyers practiced in Rome, giving their advice to everyone, who published their developments in special books. One of these lawyers, Quintus Mucius Scaevola, outlined the entire system of Roman law in 18 books. civil law(namely the system - for the first time in the world). During the imperial period, the codification of law was continued by Trebatius and Labeo; Salvius Julian compiled the “Eternal Edict” and “Digests” in 90 books, Guy wrote “Institutions” (a legal textbook in 4 books), Papinian, Ulpian also did a lot (one of his treatises “On the Praetorial Edict” consisted of 81 books) and Paul .

The art of oratory - rhetoric - was also very developed in Rome. Studying at the rhetorician's school crowned the entire system of Roman school education: the primary school was private, students studied there for 4–5 years, then followed by a 4-year grammar school and, finally, a 3–4-year rhetorician school. (It must be said that the literacy rate in the Roman Empire reached 50%). The rhetorician's school was state-owned, and the rhetoricians were paid; it was a kind of university - a person who received such an education could make a career in any field. Actually, oratory was especially necessary in the Senate and court; the most famous Roman orator was Marcus Tullius Cicero (about 50 of his speeches have reached us).

Philology was closely related to rhetoric, which received its great development: Of the most famous Roman philologists, we should mention Marcus Terence Varro. Varro, like many other Roman scientists, was an encyclopedist - he wrote about 600 books on various branches of knowledge. In general, the encyclopedia became a real Roman genre: Varro wrote 41 books of “Divine and Human Antiquities,” Pliny the Elder wrote “Natural History” in 37 books, etc. These were people of enormous knowledge: for example, Pliny’s list of sources includes 400 authors, Varro in one of his works, “Images”, gives literary portraits 700 famous Greeks and Romans - but he was not a specialist historian, but wrote works on philosophy, law, and agriculture.

However, in Rome there were enough philosophers and historians, not to mention scientists who left reference books and monographs on almost all the special sciences that appeared during this period. In philosophy the Romans did not create original schools; the most widespread teachings in Rome were Stoicism (Seneca, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius), Epicureanism (Lucretius), and Cynicism. Among the historians we should name Titus Livy, who described 8 centuries of Roman history in 142 books of his “history of Rome from the foundation of the city” (only a fourth of this work has reached us, but even this is not much in modern publications occupies about 1500 pages), Cornelius Tacitus (“history” and “Annals”), Suetonius Tranquila (the famous book “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars”), Ammianus Marcellinus (“Acts”), etc. Among the representatives of the natural sciences, one can name Diophantus of Alexandria (mathematics ), Claudius Ptolemy (geography), Galen (medicine).

Roman literature began with the Greeks writing in Latin and the Romans writing in Greek; it began with translations and transcriptions. Captive Greek Livius Andronicus in the 3rd century. BC. translated Greek tragedies and comedies (Sophocles and Euripides) into Latin, and also translated the Odyssey; at the same time, Naevius began to write his imitations of the Greeks in Latin. More original were the creator of the historical epic “Annals” Ennius and the comedians Plautus and Terence, while Gaius Lucilius and Lucius Actius created completely national literature in both form and content. The golden age of Roman literature (more precisely, poetry) was the time of the first emperors, when the author of “Georgics” and “Aeneid” Virgil, who wrote “Satires”, “Epodes”, “Odes” and “Epistles” Horace and the author of “The Science of Love” and “Metamorphoses” Ovid. Among the later Roman writers, Petronius, Lucan, Apuleius, Martial, Juvenal and others should be mentioned.

The culture of Rome and Christian culture are in a complex dialectical relationship: it is difficult to decide what is important in this relationship and what is derivative. Rome was possible without Christianity, but Christianity was impossible without Rome; Christianity could become a world religion only in a world empire. On the other hand, without Christianity, which inherited Roman culture, we would have had about the same idea about ancient culture as about Etruscan or early Minoan culture, and its significance for us would have been the same as the significance of the Indian civilizations of Mesoamerica; Without Christianity, only silent monuments of material culture would have remained from antiquity, the historical and cultural tradition would have been interrupted, and therefore we ourselves would have been different. Christianity and Rome both denied and complemented each other: at first Christianity was impossible without Rome, which persecuted Christians, and then the very existence of Rome became derived from Christianity, which just as steadily fought against Roman paganism - i.e. the backbone of the entire ancient culture.

The traditional Roman religion did not promise those who professed it eternal life, afterlife bliss, posthumous punishment for the evil and encouragement for the good: like any paganism, i.e. the animation of the forces and objects of nature, she was focused on this world and life in it - beyond the grave, both good and evil awaited the same sad vegetation in Hades. Roman paganism, like any other, did not know personal ethics, because was not addressed to to an individual, and to the community; it was a ritual and ceremonial system, the action of which took place only on the surface of a person’s spiritual world - for mental life itself at this stage of development was quite superficial, or rather, fundamentally oriented towards external action, and not towards internal content. Only in an empire does it become possible for the emergence of a new person, a person-person, in our understanding, for whom the value of inner life, moral self-improvement, internal freedom mean no less than the values ​​of external success and prosperity: state universalism gives rise to civil individualism, the empire and the individual are interconnected.

The new man needed new god, more precisely, God is an omnipotent and all-encompassing, but at the same time, a good being infinitely close to man, who would “manage” not a separate people, locality, sphere of activity, etc., but infinity and eternity, and could communicate them human soul. The search for such a god begins already in the early Empire: the cult of the old Roman gods gradually declines (or rather, the cult remains, but the gods themselves are now understood only as images and symbols), the new cult of emperors also cannot satisfy the requirements of religious feeling, and in Rome spread eastern religions. The worship of Cybele, Isis, Atargata, Mithra, Baal, etc. gave remission of sins and victory over death, promised eternal life; It is in this circle of religious ideas and practices that Christianity begins to spread. Born in the remote province of Judea, known only for the religious fanaticism of its inhabitants, who worshiped a single unknown god, obscure to the Romans, the new religion quickly spread throughout the empire. Having emerged as one of the Jewish sects, Christianity quickly became a cosmopolitan religion for people of any language, gender, social and national affiliation - needless to say, this was only possible in the empire; already three decades after the death of their founder, followers of Christ appeared in Rome itself. During the 1st – 2nd centuries. the Roman state either persecuted Christians or treated them with tolerance: for the traditional Roman consciousness, the idea of ​​​​monotheism was incomprehensible, and their joyful expectation of the end of the world was unpleasant; in addition, Christians refused to take part in the cult of the emperor, which was perceived as a sign of political disloyalty. And yet, the real persecution of Christians began only in the second half of the 3rd century, when the Roman state declared war on the Christian church, this “parallel state”, which integrated an ever-increasing volume of social relations. A serious struggle was waged for about half a century, but it was not successful: Christians were already everywhere - in government, in the army, in all political institutions in general. The pagan empire was degenerating into a Christian one - seeing the futility of the fight against Christianity, the Roman state recognized it as equal in rights with other religions of the empire (313). After this, it was no longer possible to stop the spread of Christianity, and in 392 pagan cults were officially banned, and the persecution of pagans began. The development itself begins Christian culture– religious literature, architecture, painting, etc. Christianity crosses the borders of the empire and spreads among the barbarians, who soon after crush the Western Roman statehood; The Christian Church partially fills the power vacuum, naturally becoming politicized in the process. The history of Rome recedes into the past, and the heritage of Roman culture becomes the property of Christianity: this was the end of the half-millennium period of relationship between these so significant phenomena of world history and culture.

The importance of Roman culture for Europe, through it, for the whole world, is difficult to overestimate. Political system, technology, language, literature, art - in almost all spheres of life we ​​are the heirs of the ancient Romans. The Roman tradition was preserved both directly and continuously, and indirectly; The “Roman idea” turned out to be truly eternal. The successors to Roman statehood, the Eastern Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, lasted until 1453 and 1806 respectively; but also later political formations in Europe and partly beyond its borders were built on the basis of an appeal to the heritage of ancient Rome. In the Middle Ages, both in the West and in Byzantium, people still considered and called themselves Romans, and when the difference from antiquity was finally realized by them, it was only in order to announce the need for a new revival of it (the Renaissance). The way of perceiving the world, relationships between people, the foundations of aesthetics, the structure of language and, accordingly, thinking - all of this among the peoples and societies of Europe that have emerged over the last one and a half millennia is united in its fundamental principles: what distinguishes Europeans from representatives of other regions and cultures (for example, the inhabitants of India or China), is the result of the common heritage of Rome for all of us, the heritage of ancient civilization as a whole. The realities of Rome, separated from us by two millennia, are clearer and closer to us than modern culture peoples who did not have historical connection with ancient civilization; As long as Europe exists – it doesn’t matter so much whether it’s Western or Eastern, the Eternal City continues its “life after death.”

The art of Hellenism vividly reflected the ideas that worried the people of that turbulent era, and artistic culture became the basis for the development of many types of art in various areas of the Mediterranean. With the decline of the Hellenistic states from the end of the 1st century BC. e. leading value Roman art acquired in the ancient world. Having absorbed much of the achievements of Greek culture and art, it embodied them in artistic practice colossal Roman power.

The Romans introduced features of a more sober worldview into the ancient anthropocentrism of the Greeks. Precision and historicism of thinking, harsh prose lie at the basis of their artistic culture, far from the sublime poetics of the myth-making of the Greeks.

The culture of Rome has entered our consciousness since school years with the mysterious legend of Romulus, Remus and their adopted wolf mother. Rome is the ringing of gladiator swords and the thumbs down of Roman beauties who were present at gladiator fights and longing for the death of the defeated. Rome is Julius Caesar, who on the banks of the Rubicon says “The die is cast” and begins civil war, and then, falling under the daggers of the conspirators, he says: “And you, Brutus!” Roman culture is associated with the activities of many Roman emperors. Among them is Augustus, who proudly declares that he took Rome in brick and left it to his descendants as marble. Caligula, who is about to appoint his horse as a senator, Claudius with his empress Messalina, whose name has become synonymous with frantic debauchery, Nero, who started the fire of Rome to inspire a poem about the fire of Troy, Vespasian with his cynical words “Money has no smell,” and the noble Titus, who, if he did not do a single good deed during the day, said: “Friends, I lost a day” (Gasparov M.L. Preface // Gaius Suetonius Tranquila. The Life of the Twelve Caesars. M., 1988. P. 5).

Art culture Rome was distinguished by its great variety and variegation of forms, it reflected features characteristic of the art of peoples conquered by Rome, sometimes at a higher level of cultural development. Roman art developed on the basis of complex interpenetration original art local Italic tribes and peoples, primarily the powerful Etruscans, who introduced the Romans to the art of city planning ( various options vaults, the Tuscan order, engineering structures, temples and residential buildings, etc.), monumental wall painting, sculptural and pictorial portraits, distinguished by a keen perception of nature and character. But the main influence was still Greek art. In the words of Horace, “Greece, having become a captive, captured the rude victors.”

The basic principles of the artistic culture of the two peoples were different in their origins. The beautiful, “the proper measure in everything,” was for the Greek both the ideal and the principle of culture. The Greeks, as already noted, recognized the power of harmony, proportionality and beauty, the Romans did not recognize any other power than the power of force. They created a great and powerful state, and the entire structure of Roman life was determined by this great power. Personal talents were not put forward and were not cultivated - the social attitude was completely different. Hence the formula of researchers of Roman culture: “great deeds were accomplished by the Romans, but there were no great people among them” - great artists, architects, sculptors. Let us clarify that there were no geniuses of ancient Greece equal in importance. The strength of the state was expressed primarily in construction.

In Roman art during its heyday, architecture played a leading role, the monuments of which, even in ruins, captivate with their power. The Romans started new era world architecture, in which the main place belonged to public buildings, designed for huge numbers of people. Throughout the ancient world, architecture has no equal in the height of engineering art, the variety of types of structures, the richness of compositional forms, and the scale of construction. The Romans introduced engineering structures (aqueducts, bridges, roads, harbors, fortresses) as architectural objects into urban, rural ensembles and landscapes. They reworked the principles of Greek architecture and, above all, the order system.

But the humanistic principle, noble grandeur and harmony, which constitute the foundations of Greek art, in Rome gave way to tendencies to exalt the power of emperors and the military power of the empire. Hence the large-scale exaggerations, external effects, false pathos of huge structures, and nearby - the poor shacks of the poor, cramped crooked streets and city slums.

In area monumental sculpture the Romans remained far behind the Greeks and did not create monuments as significant as the Greek ones. But they enriched plastic art by revealing new aspects of life, developed everyday and historical relief, which formed the most important part of architectural decor.

The best legacy of Roman sculpture was the portrait. As an independent type of creativity, it has been traced since the beginning of the 1st century BC. e. The Romans were the authors of a new understanding of this genre. They, unlike the Greek sculptors, carefully and vigilantly studied the face of a particular person with his unique features. In the portrait genre, the original realism of Roman sculptors, observation and the ability to generalize observations in a certain artistic form were most clearly manifested. Roman portraits historically record changes appearance people, their morals and ideals.

The ideal of the era was the wise and strong-willed Roman Cato - a man of a practical mindset, the keeper of strict morals. An example of such an image is a sharply individual portrait of a Roman with a thin, asymmetrical face, an intense gaze and a skeptical smile. The civic ideals of the republican era are embodied in monumental full-length portraits - statues of Togatus ("Dressed in Toga"), usually depicted standing upright, in the pose of an orator. Famous statue“Orator” (early 1st century BC), depicts a Roman or Etruscan master at the moment of making a speech to his fellow citizens.

At the end of the 1st century BC. e. The Roman state transformed from an aristocratic republic into an empire. The so-called “Roman Peace” - a time of calm in the class struggle during the reign of Augustus (27 BC - 24 AD) stimulated a high flowering of art. Ancient historians characterize this period as the “golden age” of the Roman state. The names of the architect Vitruvius, the historian Titus Livius, and the poets Virgil, Ovid, and Horace are associated with it.

End of 1st and beginning of 2nd centuries. n. e. - time to create grandiose architectural complexes, structures of large spatial scope. Next to the ancient Republican Forum, forums for emperors were erected for ceremonial ceremonies. Multi-storey buildings were built - they determined the appearance of Rome and other cities of the empire. The embodiment of the power and historical significance of imperial Rome were triumphal structures glorifying military victories.

The most gigantic spectacular building of Ancient Rome is the Colosseum, a place of grandiose spectacles and gladiator fights. The builders had to comfortably accommodate 50 thousand spectators in its huge stone bowl. The powerful walls of the Colosseum are divided into four tiers by continuous arcades; on the lower floor they served for entrance and exit. The places descending like a funnel were divided according to the social rank of the spectators. In terms of the grandeur of the plan and the breadth of spatial design, the Pantheon temple competes with the Colosseum, captivating with its free harmony. Built by Apollodorus of Damascus, it represents classic look central domed building, the largest and most perfect in antiquity. Subsequently, the largest architects sought to surpass the Pantheon in scale and perfection of implementation. The ancient sense of proportion remained unattainable.

Artistic ideals of Roman art 111-4th centuries. n. e. reflected complex nature era: the collapse of the ancient ancient way of life and worldview was accompanied by new searches in art. The grandiose scale of some monuments in Rome and its provinces is reminiscent of the architecture of the Ancient East.

In the era of the empire they received further development relief and round plastic. A monumental marble Altar of Peace was erected on the Campus Martius (13-9 AD) on the occasion of the victory of Augustus in Spain and Gaul. Top part The altar ends with a relief depicting the solemn procession to the altar of Augustus, his family and the Roman patricians, endowed with precise portrait characteristics. The craftsmanship and free design indicate Greek influence.

The leading place in Roman sculpture was still occupied by the portrait. His new direction arose under the influence of Greek art and was called “August classicism.” In the age of Augustus, the character of the image changed dramatically - it reflected the ideal of strict classical beauty, this is the type of new person that republican Rome did not know. Full-length ceremonial court portraits appeared, full of restraint and grandeur.

Later, vital and convincing works are created, and the portrait reaches one of the peaks of its development. The desire to individualize the image sometimes reached the point of grotesqueness in its expressiveness. The portrait of Nero, with a low forehead, a heavy suspicious gaze from under swollen eyelids and an ominous smile of a sensual mouth, reveals the cold cruelty of a despot, a man of base, unbridled passions.

At the time of crisis of the ancient worldview (2nd century AD), the portrait captures individualism and spirituality, self-absorption and at the same time sophistication and fatigue, characterizing the period of decline. The finest chiaroscuro and brilliant polishing of the surface of the face made the marble glow from the inside, destroying the sharpness of the contour lines; picturesque masses of restlessly flowing hair set off the transparency of his features with their matte texture. This is the portrait of the “Syrian Woman,” ennobled by the most subtle experiences. A barely noticeable ironic smile can be seen in the facial expression that has changed due to the lighting. When the point of view changes, the smile disappears - a hint of sadness and fatigue appears.

The monumental bronze equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, reinstalled in the 16th century, dates back to this era. designed by Michelangelo on the Capitoline Square in Rome. The image of the emperor is the embodiment of the civic ideal and humanity. He addresses the people with a broad, pacifying gesture. This is the image of a philosopher, the author of “Reflections on My Own,” indifferent to fame and wealth. The folds of his clothing merge him with the powerful body of a superbly cast slow-moving horse. "More beautiful and smarter than your head“The horse of Marcus Aurelius,” wrote the German historian Winckelmann, “cannot be found in nature.”

The third century is the heyday of Roman portraiture, increasingly liberated from traditional ideals, artistic techniques and types and revealing the very essence of the person being portrayed. This flowering took place in the complex contradictory conditions of decline, decomposition of the Roman state and its culture, the obsolescence of the forms of high ancient art, but at the same time the emergence in the depths of ancient society of a new social feudal order, new powerful creative tendencies. The strengthening of the role of the provinces, the influx of barbarians, who often stood at the head of the empire, poured fresh strength into the fading Roman art, determined new look late Roman culture. It outlined features that were developed in the Middle Ages in the West and East, in the art of the Renaissance. In the portrait there appeared images of people filled with extreme energy, self-affirmation, egocentrism, lust for power, brute force, born of a cruel and tragic struggle that captured society at that time.

Late period The development of the portrait is marked by an external coarsening of the appearance and increased spiritual expression. Thus, a new system of thinking arose in Roman art, in which aspiration to the sphere triumphed. spiritual origin, characteristic of medieval art. The image of a person who has lost the ethical ideal in life itself has lost the harmony of physical and spiritual principles characteristic of the ancient world.

Roman art completed a large period of ancient artistic culture. In 395, the Roman Empire split into Western and Eastern. Destroyed and plundered by barbarians in the 4th-7th centuries. Rome was deserted, new settlements grew among its ruins, but the traditions of Roman art continued to live. The artistic images of Ancient Rome inspired the masters of the Renaissance.

Ancient Roman culture went through a complex development path from the culture of the Roman community to the city-state, absorbing the cultural traditions of ancient Greece, experiencing the influence of Etruscan, Hellenistic cultures and cultures of the peoples of the ancient East. Roman culture became the fertile soil of the culture of the Romano-Germanic peoples of Europe. She gave the world classic examples of military art, government, law, urban planning and much more.

The history of ancient Rome is usually divided into three main periods:

− royal (VIII – early VI centuries BC);

− republican (510/509 – 30/27 BC);

− period of the empire (30/27 BC – 476 AD).

Early Roman culture, like Greek culture, is closely connected with the religious ideas of the population of Ancient Rome. The religion of that time was characterized by polytheism, very close to animism. In the Roman mind, every object and every phenomenon had its own spirit, its own deity. Each house had its own Vesta - the goddess of the hearth. The gods knew every movement and breath of man from birth to death. Another curious feature of early Roman religion and people's worldview is the absence of specific images of gods. The deities were not separated from the phenomena and processes that they were in charge of. The first images of gods appear in Rome around the 6th century BC. e. influenced by Etruscan and Greek mythology and its anthropomorphic deities. Before this, there were only symbols of the gods in the form of a spear, arrow, etc. Like other peoples of the world, the souls of ancestors were revered in Rome. They were called penates, lares, manas. A feature of the religious worldview of the Romans is their narrow practicality and utilitarian nature of communication with deities according to the principle “do, ut des” - “I give so that you give to me.”

From the 5th century BC e. the serious influence of Greek culture and religion begins, coming through the Greek colonies in Italy. The rich mythology of the Greeks, all poetic, colorful world Greek legends enriched the dry and prosaic soil of the Italo-Roman religion in many ways. Under the influence of the Greek and Etruscan mythological tradition, the supreme deities of the Romans emerged, the main of which are: Jupiter - the god of the sky, Juno - the goddess of the sky and the patroness of marriage, the wife of Jupiter; Minerva is the patroness of crafts, Diana is the goddess of groves and hunting, Mars is the god of war. The myth of Aeneas appears, establishing the kinship of the Romans with the Greeks, the myth of Hercules (Hercules), etc. To a large extent, the Roman and Greek pantheons are identified. From about the 4th century BC. e. distributed by Greek language, mainly among the upper strata of the population. Some are becoming widespread Greek customs: shaving beards and cutting hair short, reclining at the table while eating, etc. In the 4th century BC. e. Copper coins introduced in Rome Greek model, and before that they paid simply with a piece of copper. The development of Roman civilization led to significant growth and elevation of the capital of the state, the city of Rome, which in the 1st–3rd centuries BC. e. numbered from one to one and a half million inhabitants. After Rome conquered the western part Hellenistic world its borders included such large cultural centers as Alexandria of Egypt, Antioch in Syria, Ephesus in Asia Minor, Corinth and Athens in Greece and Carthage on the northern coast of Africa. Rome and other cities of the empire were decorated with magnificent buildings - temples, palaces, theaters, amphitheaters, circuses. Amphitheaters and circuses in which animals were poisoned, gladiator fights and public executions were staged were a feature of the cultural life of Rome. The breeding ground for these cruel spectacles was endless wars, a colossal influx of slaves from conquered lands, and the opportunity to feed and entertain the plebs through predatory wars.

A distinctive feature of the cities of the imperial era was the presence of communications: paved roads, water pipes (aqueducts), sewers (sewers). There were 11 water pipelines in Rome, two of which are still in operation today. The squares of Rome and other cities were decorated with triumphal arches in honor of military victories, statues of emperors and prominent public people states. Magnificent buildings of public baths (terms) with hot and cold water, gymnastics halls and relaxation rooms were built. In many cities, houses of 3–6 floors, called insulas, were erected.

art The Roman Empire absorbed the achievements of all conquered lands and peoples. Palaces and public buildings were decorated with wall paintings and paintings, the main subjects of which were episodes from Greek and Roman mythology, as well as images of water and greenery. During the imperial period, portrait sculpture received special attention, a characteristic feature of which was exceptional realism in conveying the features of the person depicted.

Much success reached in Rome education and scientific life. Education consisted of three levels: primary, grammar school and rhetoric school. The latter was a higher school, and it taught the art of eloquence, which was highly valued in Rome. The emperors allocated large sums for the maintenance of schools of rhetoric.

The Hellenistic and Greek cities remained the centers of scientific activity: Alexandria, Pergamon, Rhodes, Athens and, of course, Rome and Carthage. Great importance was given in Rome in the 1st–2nd centuries to geographical knowledge and history. Geographers Strabo and Claudius Ptolemy, historians Tacitus, Titus Livius and Appian made a particularly great contribution to the development of these areas of knowledge. The activities of the Greek writer and philosopher Plutarch date back to this time. During the era of the empire, the literature of ancient Rome reached the apogee of its development. During the time of Emperor Augustus lived Gaius Cilnius Maecenas. He collected, supported financially and patronized talented poets of his time. Among the poets greatest glory Even during his lifetime, Virgil, a member of the Maecenas circle and the author of the immortal epic poem “Aeneid,” possessed it. Another poet of the Maecenas circle is the master of the perfect form of verse, Horace Flaccus. The fate of Ovid Naso, a remarkable lyric poet, the author of the poem “The Art of Love,” which aroused the wrath of Emperor Augustus and the poet’s exile to the Black Sea city of Tomy (Constanza), far from Rome, is dramatic, where he created two collections of lyrical poems, “Sorrows” and “Messages from Pontus.” " The famous Emperor Nero also wrote poetry. Truly, the era of the empire was the golden age of Roman poetry. The satirist Junius Juvenal, who wrote 16 satires, and the writer Apuleius, the author of a unique fantasy novel “Metamorphoses, or the Golden Ass” about the transformation of the young man Lucius into a donkey and his adventures, also became famous for their skill during this period.

Roman culture is a pagan culture. But the era of the late Roman Empire was marked by the widespread dissemination within its borders of a new faith - Christianity, which won its final victory in Rome under Emperor Constantine (324-330). The fourth century AD was the heyday of Christian eloquence. The abundance of church disputes and polemics with pagans gave rise to extensive Christian literature, created according to all the rules of ancient rhetoric. Particularly sharp ideological struggle adopted between Christians and pagans in the 5th century AD. e. - in the last decades of the existence of the great Roman power.

In the crisis that gripped the Roman world in the 3rd century AD. e., one can detect the beginning of the revolution that gave birth to the medieval West. The barbarian invasions of the 5th century can be seen as an event that accelerated the transformation, gave it a catastrophic start and profoundly changed the entire appearance of this world. But along with the death of the Roman state, ancient culture did not disappear, although its development as a single organic whole ceased. The potential of ancient culture and its treasures, despite long-term oblivion, were appreciated and claimed by descendants.

Thus, ancient culture is a unique phenomenon that provided general cultural values ​​in literally all areas of spiritual and material activity. There are only three generations of cultural figures, whose lives practically fit into classical period history of Ancient Greece, laid the foundations of European civilization and created role models for thousands of years to come. Distinctive features ancient Greek culture: spiritual diversity, mobility and freedom - allowed the Greeks to reach unprecedented heights before other peoples began to imitate the Greeks and build a culture according to the models they created.

The culture of Ancient Rome is in many ways a successor ancient traditions Greece - is distinguished by religious restraint, internal severity and external expediency. The practicality of the Romans found worthy expression in urban planning, politics, jurisprudence, and the art of war. The culture of Ancient Rome largely determined the culture of subsequent eras in Western Europe.

Literature

6. Akimova I. A. Culturology. – M., 2004. – 712 p.

7. Andreev Yu. V. The price of freedom and harmony. – St. Petersburg, 1999. – 399 p.

8. Antiquity as a type of culture: Sat. Art. / Rep. ed. A. F. Losev. – M., 1988. – 333 p.

9. Gurevich P. S.. Culturology. – M., 2004. – 335 p.

10. Cultural studies: lecture notes / ed. A. A. Oganesyan. – M., 2004. – 283 p.

11. Ostrovsky A. V. History of civilization. – St. Petersburg, 2000. – 359 p.

Questions for self-control

1. What does the term “antiquity” mean?

2. Which states can be classified as ancient?

3. Name the time frame of ancient culture.

4. What culture was the prototype of antiquity?

5. Why can’t the culture of Ancient Rome be characterized as exclusively pagan?

Chapter 18. EUROPEAN Culture of the Middle Ages

There is no other culture in which one’s own life, feature by feature and by obligation, would be so important for the living person, for he must give a verbal account of everything.

O. Spengler

The Middle Ages is a fairly long period in history. In classical chronology, it occupies a place from the 5th to the 17th century, and to be more precise, the era from 476, the time of the fall of the Western Roman Empire, to 1642, when the English bourgeois revolution began. In traditional historical scholarship, the Middle Ages are usually characterized as a decline compared to antiquity. This applies especially to the early Middle Ages. However, not all so simple. The apparent decline in the level of general culture was nothing more than the emergence of a young, qualitatively new cultural organism, with its own unique characteristics.

The environment where the culture of the Middle Ages arose consisted of the so-called barbarian peoples: Celts, Germans, Slavs, etc., who undoubtedly came into contact with ancient culture, but often in a military or unfree capacity. The ancient heritage influenced them, but it was purely external character, for even then typically barbaric (in the sense of special) elements formed the basis of the cultural development of these numerous tribes. The process that took place in Europe in the 1st–4th centuries AD. e., known as the Great Migration of Peoples, forced essentially agricultural tribes to constantly move from place to place, plus the development of one or another territory was accompanied by endless military clashes in which entire peoples and languages ​​perished. All this gradually led to the formation of a qualitatively different, in contrast to antiquity, idea of ​​the world, of the universe. This world seemed vast and endless, full of mysteries and secrets, with large spaces and equally great opportunities, but they must be defended in endless wars and skirmishes. In contrast to the calm and measured ancient “cosmos,” the world of the Celts and Germans was dark and mysterious, inhabited by many creatures, mysterious, incomprehensible, evil and good, living and living in a variety of places. This mythical world gnomes and elves, goblins and trolls, disembodied spirits, where the human personality, in addition to limitless possibilities, feels at the same time lonely and abandoned. The life of people together was not only a necessity, but also an opportunity to more fully reveal their qualities, and together with their people, associates, and friends. Initially, it turned out that a major role in the life of barbarian tribes was played by the leader and his squad - the guarantor of the protection of the tribe and the guarantor of its survival in the event of a crop failure, for military affairs in such a saturated world was the cornerstone of honor, valor and simply real business.

Historically, a situation arose in which the system of vision of the world of barbarians, in its external and internal manifestations, surprisingly flexibly correlated with the Christian idea of ​​​​the Incomprehensible and Beginningless God and his creation - infinite universe. Therefore, it is not surprising that Christian missionary activity among savage and cruel barbarians was more successful than in the enlightened ancient world. Most Germanic and Celtic tribes adopted Christianity according to the Roman model. Gradually on the territory Western Europe Many monasteries arose, which, like oases in the desert, became centers of a new, emerging culture. It was from the monasteries that the most brilliant preachers came out, in the monasteries people who were literate and widely educated not only in religious terms were concentrated, it was the monastery that was for those around them the ideal and center of real, true life. Of course, pagan beliefs came into contact and came into conflict with Christian beliefs, but the latter prevailed with amazing ease. Moreover, the Church showed amazing flexibility, accepting those rituals that did not harm the act of faith and were far-sightedly left in the form of Christian holidays.

Monasteries were not only the center new culture. Their closed, secluded, ascetic rhythm of life, full of inner spirituality, set an example and formed the basis for the structure of a new, medieval society. The external isolation and inaccessibility of the monastery were reflected in the isolation and hierarchy of class medieval society. The leaders and their squads gradually turned into an aristocratic elite, which in turn also had an internal hierarchy. The leader became a king, and his subordinates formed a hierarchy of dukes, counts, barons, knights, etc. The possession of territory became a symbol of power and nobility. The king gave his warriors a plot of land for their service. The person who received it swore an oath of allegiance to the king. The Christian “In the beginning was the Word...” began to play a decisive role in society. From now on given word decided everything. The one who gave the land was called señor (senior). The recipient of the land is a vassal. Vassals swore an oath of allegiance to the lord, and this oath was stronger than any document or agreement. This was all the more relevant in conditions of almost universal illiteracy. The vassals, in turn, did the same with the land, that is, they recruited their own servants, as a result of which a kind of hierarchical ladder was formed, where each vassal obeys only his lord. “The vassal of my vassal is not my vassal” - this was the unwritten law of the medieval hierarchy. However, it is incorrect to imagine the relationship between lord and vassal as that of master and servant. These are precisely friendly relations, because loyalty is the main criterion of friendship. The lord is more of a patron than a master. It often happened that the lord had more responsibilities to the vassal than vice versa. A unique civilization is emerging before us, in which the economic element gives way to personal, friendly relationships. Neither in the cultures preceding this era, nor in subsequent ones, such a phenomenon is seen.