Influential Forces In The Mediterranean Region During The Hellenistic Era

One characteristic of empires and civilizations is that they sometimes purposefully, sometimes inadvertently share aspects of their culture with neighboring and future societies. Both Greece and Rome were influential forces in the Mediterranean Region during the Hellenistic era. Each was instrumental in the transmission of technology in terms of architecture, military innovation, and political organization across the western world. The Greek civilization was a networked group of city states who benefitted from their ability to share ideas, develop new ways of thinking and technologies, where as the Roman

Empire was more concerned with demonstrating a sense of supreme power and the expansion of their territorial influence to outside cultures.

Another brilliant strategy of the Greeks was to create stable war alliances with neighboring civilizations by having generals marry women from potential opponents so as to form an alliance, this occured to Philip II from Macedonia, who at the end of his life had seven wives, all creating a web of alliances for the greek military. In the Roman Empire, the military was used primarily for expansion and protection of borders and citizens. With Rome as the center of the Roman Empire’s military, their naval capability was highly developed and contributed greatly to their expansion. At one point the empire was expanded into Spain, as far east as Egypt, and as far north as now Great Britain.

Their naval capabilities also facilitated their involvement in the Indian Ocean trading routes. Another of the notable accomplishments of the Roman military was the building of their Roman Roads. The roads were designed and built to both expand and protect the empire's borders, as well as transport large caravans of soldiers and supplies to the edges of the empire while keeping the cargo safe from invaders.

The Roman road was a technological feat of its time. They also built towering and decadent arches

Both the city states of Greece and the Roman Empire had distinctly different and yet powerful political systems. Both systems influenced many civilizations and empires and were respected by existing societies. In greece, most notably in Athens, a form a government never seen before was put in to play; Democracy. The democracy in Athens was a system of government unique to Athens and founded by the teachings and knowledge of Cleisthenes. Democracy was an early system of representative government, where the citizens of Athens elected officials to rule. The officials were elected from citizens of their social and economic class, this was decided so that the government would consist of officials from every part of society. The ultimate goal was to maintain organization in society.

The political innovation of democracy in Athens arose out of the vast amount of intellect and knowledge that thrived in the city. In Athens, many ways of using human thought thrived, some examples include: philosophy, medicine, theater, and discourse. In the Roman empire, however, innovative ways of