At the origins of Western civilization
What we owe to Greco-Roman Antiquity
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Dear readers,
today we're looking at a Figaro Histoire feature (Le Figaro is the second-largest national newspaper in France, after Le Monde) dedicated to the Greco-Roman sources of Western civilization. Historians and specialists share their views on the importance of the Greco-Roman legacy to Western identity, and how the West is continually reappropriating this heritage. Lower down, you can find my full reading notes on this feature.
For those in a hurry, here are the 2 main takeaways:
Greco-Roman heritage and Christianity are the two major pillars on which Western civilization was built. Two millennia of dialogue between these traditions have forged the Western mental framework and worldview.
This Greco-Roman heritage is still very tangible, but it has become so natural to us that we sometimes no longer perceive it. Let's take two examples:
language: although the English language is not descended from Latin as the Romance languages are, about 60% of English words are of Latin origin due to borrowing. The French speak French because the Romans conquered Gaul. French is nothing other than Latin continued and transformed.
architecture: "Greece invented architectural orders, which, until the first half of the 20th century, were the basic syntax of Western architectural language". From the modest courthouse of a town to the British Museum, the architectural codes of our historic public buildings are largely based on those invented on the shores of the Aegean Sea over 2,500 years ago.
Below are my comprehensive notes on this feature from Figaro Histoire. But to start, enjoy this Superb 3D flyover of the Acropolis of Athens. Note the painted facades of the Parthenon and the temples (images by altair4.com):
In addition, I recommend reading my article on Jacqueline de Romilly's book 'Why Greece' on what the West owes to Athens:
Summary
What is the name of our civilization?
What we owe to Greco-Roman antiquity
1. What is the name of our civilization?
Introduction by Michel de Jaeghere, journalist and historian
we have received from Greece “the philosophy, the sciences, the canons of classical art, the sources of our letters, the framework of our institutions, our conception of history, our confidence placed in reason to decipher the book of Nature at the same time as to govern political societies, to substitute deliberation for the law of the strongest”
we have received from Rome “the bases of our law and the practices of our justice, the foundations of our town planning, the development of our territories, the conception of our States and the model of our administrations; (…) most of our languages: with them, the way we think; to have been converted under his empire to the religion to which he gave his mode of organization and which for more than 15 centuries governed our morality and gave an ultimate meaning to our existence.”
“From the Greeks, (...) the Europeans inherited the idea that there is a Good, a Beauty and a Truth accessible to consciousness and which, because they correspond to a fulfillment of the potentialities common to human nature, overlook the legacy of the past and therefore allow us to judge it, gauge it, prune it, as well as make room for foreign influences and innovations from elsewhere. They learned that if the tradition is venerable, it is up to it to be critical, unless it condemns itself to a sterilizing immobility (...)”
“From Christianity (...), Europe drew its faith in the capacity for the improvement of the world, born of the will of divine omnipotence, and which had been given to it to share in order to understand it, to submit it and beautify it like a landscape garden. Hence the idea of progress, to which it was up to everyone to contribute through their initiatives, the invitation that the golden age was to be built in the future, more than to be regretted in the past. From there, the impetus towards the exploration of the planet, the will to civilize to the ends of the earth (“to undertake, to study, to provide diligent care, without sparing work, expense, dangers incurred until pouring one's own blood” according to the program fixed in 1493 by the pope to the Spanish and Portuguese navigators between whom he had shared the oceans). Hence, at the same time, the place given to questions, to the idea that the universe was governed by a creative Intelligence whose designs it was up to us to pierce.”
“From the meeting of Greco-Roman and Christian traditions, their incessant meditation, their deep integration of being in the world, of facing our finitude and of finding reasons to live, to undertake, to build, was born the most extraordinary of the adventures of which history has been the theatre: the one which enabled Europeans to explore and conquer the earth without ceasing to be themselves, to give an unparalleled brilliance to works of art and spirit and to carry out the scientific revolution which has enabled us to master energy, to square space, to dominate time”
2. What we owe to Greco-Roman antiquity
An article by Alexandre Grandazzi, Professor at Sorbonne University's Faculty of Letters.
Romance languages
“The evidence is sometimes what is least visible: because it is there, it is not hidden, we do not become aware of it and we look elsewhere for what is in front of us”
French is nothing but Latin continued and transformed. It is the granddaughter of Latin (and daughter of the Romance languages). 85% of all French vocabulary is of Latin origin.
"If the Romans hadn't spoken Latin, we wouldn't speak French today."
Architecture: from Romanesque to neoclassical
Few areas where the Greco-Roman heritage is more visible than in architecture. Just walk around any European city
“Greece invented the architectural orders, which, until the first half of the 20th century, were the basic syntax of the Western architectural language”
Nobility of the Doric order, elegance of the Ionic order, profusion of the Corinthian order
Romanesque art arises from Roman art to express a spirituality of a new era.
Cupola: invented by the Pantheon in Rome. Had a great destiny in European architecture
Ancient statuary and Western art
"Because the men of Greco-Roman antiquity conceived the gods in their own image, they represented them with anthropomorphic statues, in a type of mimetic sculpture destined for a very long posterity."
The influence of antiquity on European literature, from Dante to Corneille and Goethe
Medieval and modern European literature: developed in a constant relationship of admiration and emulation with its Greek and Roman forebears.
Montesquieu's The Spirit of the Law: based on a meditation on Aristotle's Politics, Plato's Republic
Posterity of Roman law
Rome was the civilization of law par excellence. If all civilizations have experienced a development of legal norms to regulate society, it is in Rome that the law has taken on the greatest importance. For example, the drafting of the Law of the 12 Tables is the founding act of Roman written law.
Town planning and road network.
Having become Roman, the cities of Gaul were equipped with a forum, a temple and an aqueduct.
Institutions: democracy, republic, monarchy, empire
All the words that we use to designate the institutions that were and are the framework of European societies come from Greece and Rome.
An imperial dream that runs through all of European history.
History
Herodotus: the father of history. Precursor of Lévi-Strauss. Historical study has found some of these fundamental laws as far back as Herodotus:
interdependence between customs, institutions and foreign policy of a country
the distinction between immediate causes and root causes
the idea that history is both the account of events and their explanation
Philosophy
Plato: clear style. Never jargon.
Stoicism and Epicureanism: 2 visions of the world promised a great future
Sciences
The great debt of Western science to Greek science. The great figures of the 3 scientific revolutions (Copernicus, Galileo, Newton): aware of walking in the footsteps of ancient predecessors
Concepts of latitude and longitude: come from the rediscovery of Ptolemy's Geography in the 15th century
The concept of geometric perspective: rediscovered by Pierro della Francesca in a passage from Euclid
The terms describing the essential operations of scientific reasoning are Greek: hypothesis, theorem, problem
Catholicism, a heritage of the Romans
Because the empire constituted a relatively uniform, urbanized and pacified space which gave the Christian religion an immense potential for expansion
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