Peter Stearns. World Civilizations, the Global Experience.
Greece and Rome featured an important variety of political forms. Both tended to emphasize aristocratic rule. But there were significant democratic elements in some cases, as well as examples of autocracy. Later Rome added emphasis on law and the institutions of a great, though somewhat decentralized empire.
Politics were very important in classical Mediterranean civilization, from the Greek' city-states through the early part of the Roman Empire. Indeed, our word politics comes from the Greek word for city-state, polis, which correctly suggests that intense political interests were part of life in a city-state in both Greece and Rome. The "good life" for an upper-class Athenian or Roman included active participation in politics and. frequent
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And, the minority of people throughout the empire who were Roman citizens were intensely proud of this privilege.
Strong political ideals and interests created some similarities between Greco- Roman society and the Confucian values of classical China, although the concept of active citizenship was distinctive in the Mediterranean cultures. However, Greece and Rome did not develop a single or cohesive set of political institutions to rival China's divinely sanctioned emperor or its elaborate bureaucracy. So in addition to political intensity and localism as characteristics of
Mediterranean civilization, we must note great diversity in political forms. Here the comparison extends to India, where various political forms, including participation in governing councils, ran strong. Later societies, in reflecting on classical Mediterranean civilization, did select from a number of political precedents. Monarchy was not a preferred form; the Roman republic and most Greek city-states had abolished early monarchies as part of