Fine art of Ancient Rome. Features of the culture of Ancient Rome. Culture and religion of ancient Rome

The culture of Ancient 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 and the character traits of the Romans. The culture of Ancient Rome was characterized by increased individualism. The individual increasingly begins to oppose himself to the state, traditional ancient ideals are rethought and criticized, society becomes more open to external influences.

For the Roman worldview early period were characterized by a feeling of oneself as a free citizen, consciously choosing and committing his actions; a sense of collectivism, belonging to a civil community, the priority of state interests over personal ones; conservatism, following the morals and customs of ancestors (ascetic ideals of frugality, hard work, patriotism); the desire for communal isolation and isolation from the outside world. The Romans differed from the Greeks in being more sober and practical.

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 the Mediterranean Sea, assimilating the cultural traditions of many peoples inhabiting 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. on the day of the celebration of the shepherd goddess Paleia (April 21).

The Latins who lived 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, north coast Africa and part of Asia.

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

1) monarchy - 753 - 509. BC e.;
2) republic - 509 - 29. BC e.;
3) empire - 29 BC. e. - 476 AD e.

Architecture

Urban planning and architecture of the Republican era go through three stages in their development. In the first (5th century BC) the city was built up chaotically; primitive dwellings made of adobe and wood predominate; monumental construction is limited to the construction of temples (the rectangular temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, the round temple of Vesta).

At the second stage (IV-III centuries BC) the city begins to be improved (paved streets, sewerage, water pipes). The main type of structures are engineering military and civil buildings - defensive walls (the wall of Servius of the 4th century BC), roads (Appian Way 312 BC), grandiose aqueducts supplying water for tens of kilometers (Aqueduct of Appius Claudius 311 BC), sewage canals (cloaca Maximus). There is a strong Etruscan influence (temple type, arch, vault).

At the third stage (II-I centuries BC), elements of urban planning appear: division into blocks, design of the city center (Forum), arrangement of park areas on the outskirts. A new building material is used - waterproof and durable Roman concrete (made of crushed stone, volcanic sand and lime mortar), which makes it possible to construct vaulted ceilings in large rooms. Roman architects creatively reworked Greek architectural forms. They create the new kind orders - composite, combining the features of the Ionian, Dorian and especially Corinthian styles, as well as the order arcade - a set of arches resting on columns.

Based on the synthesis of Etruscan samples and the Greek peripter, a special type of temple emerged - a pseudo-peripter with a high base (podium), a facade in the form of a deep portico and blank walls dissected by semi-columns. Under Greek influence, the construction of theaters begins; but if the Greek theater was carved into the rock and was part of the surrounding landscape, then the Roman amphitheater is an independent structure with a closed internal space, in which the rows of spectators are arranged in an ellipse around the stage or arena ( Grand Theatre in Pompeii, theater on the Campus Martius in Rome).

To build residential buildings, the Romans borrowed the Greek peristyle design (a courtyard surrounded by a colonnade, to which living quarters are adjacent), but, unlike the Greeks, they tried to arrange the rooms in strict symmetry (House of Pansa and House of Faun in Pompeii); country estates (villas), freely organized and closely connected with the landscape, became the favorite vacation spot of the Roman nobility; their integral parts are a garden, fountains, gazebos, grottoes, statues and a large pond. The Roman (Italian) architectural tradition itself is represented by basilicas (rectangular buildings with several naves) intended for trade and the administration of justice (Portian Basilica, Emilian Basilica); monumental tombs (tomb of Caecilia Metella); triumphal arches on roads and squares with one or three spans; thermal baths (complexes of bathhouses and sports facilities).

Sculpture

Roman monumental sculpture did not receive such development as the Greek one; she was not focused on the image of a physically and spiritually perfect person; its hero was a Roman statesman, dressed in a toga. Plastic art was dominated by the sculptural portrait, historically associated with the custom of removing a wax mask from the deceased and storing it along with figurines of household gods. Unlike the Greeks, Roman masters sought to convey individual, rather than ideally generalized, features of their models; their works were characterized by great prosaicism. Gradually from detailed fixation appearance they were moving on to reveal internal character characters (“Brutus”, “Cicero”, “Pompey”).

Painting

Two styles dominated in painting (wall painting): the first Pompeian (inlay), when the artist imitated the laying of a wall of colored marble (House of Faun in Pompeii), and the second Pompeian (architectural), when he used his design (columns, cornices, porticos, arbors) created the illusion of expanding the space of the room (Villa of Mysteries in Pompeii); An important role here was played by the depiction of the landscape, devoid of the isolation and limitations that were characteristic of ancient Greek landscapes.

Literature

Roman history Literature V-I centuries BC. breaks down into two periods. Until the middle of the 3rd century. BC. oral folk literature undoubtedly dominated: incantations and incantations, work and everyday (wedding, drinking, funeral) songs, religious hymns (the hymn of the Arval brothers), fescennins (songs of a comic and parody nature), saturas (impromptu skits, a prototype of folk drama), atellans (satirical farces with permanent masked characters: a fool-glutton, a fool-braggart, an old miser, a pseudo-scientist-charlatan).

The birth of written literature is associated with the emergence of the Latin alphabet, which originated either from Etruscan or Western Greek; it numbered twenty-one characters. The earliest monuments of Latin writing were the annals of the pontiffs (weather records of major events), prophecies of a public and private nature, international treaties, funeral orations or inscriptions in the houses of the deceased, genealogical lists, and legal documents. The first text that has come down to us is the laws of the Twelve Tables 451-450 BC; the first writer known to us is Appius Claudius (late 4th - early 3rd centuries BC), author of several legal treatises and a collection of poetic maxims.

From the middle of the 3rd century. BC. Roman literature began to be strongly influenced by Greek. Big role played in cultural Hellenization in the first half of the 2nd century. BC. circle of Scipios; however, she also faced strong opposition from the defenders of antiquity (the group of Cato the Elder); Greek philosophy caused particular hostility.

Drama and theater

The birth of the main genres of Roman literature was associated with imitation of Greek and Hellenistic models. The works of the first Roman playwright, Livius Andronicus (c. 280-207 BC), were adaptations of Greek tragedies of the 5th century. BC, like most of the works of his followers Gnaeus Naevius (c. 270-201 BC) and Quintus Ennius (239-169 BC). At the same time, Gnaeus Naevius is credited with creating the Roman national drama - pretexts (Romulus, Clastidia); his work was continued by Ennius (The Rape of the Sabine Women) and Actium (170 - ca. 85 BC), who completely abandoned mythological subjects (Brutus).

Andronicus and Naevius are also considered the first Roman comedians who created the genre of palleata (Latin comedy based on a Greek plot); Naevius took material from Old Attic comedies, but supplemented it with Roman realities. The heyday of palleata is associated with the work of Plautus (mid-3rd century - 184 BC) and Terence (c. 195-159 BC), who were already guided by Neo-Attic comedy, especially Menander; they actively developed everyday topics (conflicts between fathers and children, lovers and pimps, debtors and moneylenders, problems of education and attitudes towards women).

In the second half of the 2nd century. BC. the Roman national comedy (togata) was born; Afranius stood at its origins; in the first half of the 1st century. BC. Titinius and Atta worked in this genre; they depicted the life of the lower classes and ridiculed the decline of morals. At the end of the 2nd century. BC. atellana (Pomponius, Novius) also received a literary form; now they began to play it after the performance of the tragedy for the entertainment of the audience; She often parodied mythological stories; The mask of an old rich miser, thirsty for positions, acquired special significance in her. At the same time, thanks to Lucilius (180-102 BC), satura turned into a special literary genre- satirical dialogue.

Poetry

Under the influence of Homer in the second half of the 3rd century. BC. poetry develops - the first Roman epic poems appear, telling the story of the history of Rome from its foundation to the end of the 3rd century. BC, - Punic War of Naevius and Annals of Ennius. In the 1st century BC. Lucretius Carus (95-55 BC) creates philosophical poem On the nature of things, in which Epicurus sets out and develops the atomistic concept.

At the beginning of the 1st century. BC. Roman lyric poetry arose, which was greatly influenced by the Alexandrian poetic school. Roman neoteric poets (Valerius Cato, Licinius Calvus, Valerius Catullus) sought to penetrate into the intimate experiences of a person and professed the cult of form; their favorite genres were the mythological epillium (short poem), elegy and epigram. The most outstanding neoteric poet Catullus (87 - c. 54 BC) also contributed to the development of Roman civil lyric poetry (epigrams against Caesar and Pompey); thanks to him, the Roman epigram took shape as a genre.

Prose

First prose works in Latin belong to Cato the Elder (234-149 BC), the founder of Roman historiography (Origins) and Roman agronomic science (O agriculture). The real flowering of Latin prose dates back to the 1st century. BC. The best samples historical prose are the works of Julius Caesar - Notes on the Gallic War and Notes on the Civil War - and Sallust Crispus (86 - c. 35 BC) - The Conspiracy of Catiline, the Jugurthine War and History.

Scientific prose of the 1st century. BC. represented by Terence Varro (116-27 BC), author of the encyclopedia Human and Divine Antiquities, historical and philological works On the Latin language, On grammar, On the comedies of Plautus and the treatise On Agriculture, and Vitruvius (second half of the 1st century BC AD), creator of the treatise “On Architecture”.

Oratory

I century BC. is the golden age of Roman oratorical prose, which developed within two directions - Asian (florid style, abundance of aphorisms, metrical organization of periods) and Attic (compressed and simple language); Hortensius Gortalus belonged to the first, Julius Caesar, Licinius Calvus and Marcus Junius Brutus to the second. It reached its peak in the judicial and political speeches of Cicero, who originally combined Asian and Attic manners; Cicero also made a significant contribution to the development of the theory of Roman eloquence (On the Orator, Brutus, Orator).

The culture of Ancient Rome existed since the 8th century. BC e. and until 476 AD. e. Unlike the ancient Greek culture, which, as a rule, is awarded the highest words and assessments, the ancient Roman culture is assessed differently by everyone. Some famous cultural scientists (O. Spengler, A. Toynbee) believed that Rome did not go beyond borrowing and popularizing what was done by the Greeks, and never rose to the heights of Hellenic culture. More justified, however, is the view that Roman culture and civilization are no less original and original than others.

Roman civilization became the last page in the history of ancient culture. Geographically, it arose on the territory of the Apennine Peninsula, receiving the name Italy from the Greeks. Subsequently, Rome gathered into an immense empire those countries that arose as a result of the collapse of the power of Alexander the Great, subjugating almost the entire Mediterranean. The consequence of this was centuries-long wars with neighbors, in which several generations of Roman citizens participated in a row.

Late Roman legends linked the founding of Rome with the Trojan War. They reported that after the destruction of Troy (Asia Minor, the territory of modern Turkey), some Trojans, led by King Aeneas, fled to Italy. Aeneas founded a city there. Another legend says that the king was overthrown by his brother. The new king, fearing revenge from the children and grandchildren of Aeneas, forced his daughter Silvia to become a vestal (priestess of the goddess Vesta), who took a vow of celibacy. But Sylvia had twin sons from the god Mars - Romulus and Remus. Their uncle ordered the boys to be thrown into the river. Tiber However, a wave threw the twins ashore, where they were suckled by a she-wolf. Then they were raised by a shepherd, and when they grew up and learned about their origins, they killed their treacherous uncle, returned royal power to their grandfather and founded a city on the Palatine Hill on the banks of the Tiber. By lot, the city received its name from Romulus. Later, a quarrel arose between the brothers, as a result of which Romulus killed Remus. Romulus became the first Roman king, divided the citizens into patricians (aristocrats) and plebeians (common people), and created an army. The Romans considered the founding day of Rome to be April 21, 753 BC. e., it was from him that the Romans based their chronology.

In fact, the name "Romulus" was derived from the name of the city, and not vice versa. The territory of the Apennine Peninsula from 2 thousand BC. e. was inhabited by Indo-European tribes who came from Central Europe(Italics, Sabines, Latins, etc.), later the Etruscans (Rasens, Tusci) came to the area of modern Italian Tuscany - a tribe of non-European origin, disputes about the origin of which are still ongoing. It was the Etruscans (from the north) and the Greeks (who settled the southern part of Italy and Sicily) who had the most powerful influence on the development of Roman culture. The Etruscans were both experienced farmers and skilled artisans. It was from them that the Romans inherited craft and construction equipment, writing, “Roman” numerals, toga clothing, and much more. etc. (it is characteristic that even the “Capitolian She-Wolf”, which, according to legend, suckled Romulus and Remus and was a symbol of Rome, was a work of Etruscan craftsmen, exported as a war trophy).

There are 2 periods in the culture of Rome:

1) culture of tsarist and republican times (from the founding of Rome in the 8th century BC to 30 BC);
2) the culture of imperial Rome (from 30 BC to 476 AD).

Unlike the ancient Greeks, mythology did not become the basis for the development and flourishing of Roman culture. The ancient Romans had a custom of luring the gods of hostile tribes with the help of a certain formula and establishing a cult for them. Thus, many gods of the Italian and Etruscan cities moved to Rome, and later - the anthropomorphic gods of the ancient Greeks, whom the Romans renamed, preserving their functions: thus Zeus became Jupiter, Aphrodite - Venus, Ares - Mars, Poseidon - Neptune, Hermes - Mercury, Hera - Juno, Athena - Minerva, Dionysus - Bacchus, etc. The original Roman gods indicated in the priestly books were the deities of sowing, seed growth, flowering, ripening, harvest, marriage, the first cry of a child, etc. The Romans also believed in souls the dead who patronize their family (manas), into unburied souls that cannot find peace for themselves (larvas or lemurs), into deities guarding home and family (lares), into guardians of the hearth (penates). The guardian of a person, shaping his character and accompanying him throughout his life, was the Genius, to whom the birthday of a Roman citizen was dedicated. Cities, communities, and families had their own patron Genius. The most ancient Italian god, who hosted the overthrown Saturn, the father of Jupiter, the god of farmers and the harvest, was considered Janus. He was portrayed as two-faced.

The Romans treated their gods with disinterestedness. But the main thing for every Roman was not the gods, but historical legends and traditions that were formed during the formation of Roman statehood.

From an early age, the Roman citizen was instilled with the ideas of concor - consent, internal unity, legality developed during the development of Roman law, and its patroness - the goddess of Justice, loyalty to the morals of their ancestors, valor. Real historical figures of early Rome became role models. Thus history became myth, and myth became history.

In the first period of Roman history and culture - the era of the reign of seven kings (Romulus, Numa Pompilius, Tullus Gastilius, Ancus Marcius, Servius Tullius, Tarquinius the Proud) there was a transition from a primitive communal system to an early class society. In 510 BC. e., after the expulsion of Tarquin the Proud, Rome became a city-state (civitas), ruled by a Senate of 300 people, a popular assembly (comitia), led by two consuls elected for a term of 1 year.

Formed in 510 BC. e. The aristocratic slave-owning Roman Republic lasted until the 30s. n. e. Then came the period of empire, ending with the fall of the “eternal city” in 476 AD. e.

The Romans were in many ways similar to the Hellenes, but at the same time they were significantly different from them. They created their own system of ideals and values, the main ones among which were patriotism, honor and dignity, loyalty to civic duty, veneration of the gods, the idea of the special chosenness of the Roman people by God, of Rome as the highest value, etc. The Romans did not share the Greek glorification of the free individual, allowing violation of established laws of society. On the contrary, they in every possible way exalted the role and value of the law, the immutability of its observance and respect. For them, public interests were higher than the interests of the individual. At the same time, the Romans strengthened the antagonism between the freeborn citizen and the slave, considering not only the practice of a craft unworthy of the former, but also the activity of a sculptor, painter, actor or playwright. The most worthy occupations of a free Roman were considered politics, war, development of law, historiography, and agriculture. The Romans, in their own way and more clearly defined the qualities of a free person, excluding from them such “slave vices” as lies, dishonesty and flattery. Rome reached the highest level of development of slavery.

One of highest virtues The Romans had military valor. Military spoils and conquests served as the main source of subsistence. Military valor, feats of arms and merit were the main means and basis for success in politics, for obtaining high positions and occupying a high position in society.

Thanks to the wars of conquest, Rome grew from a small town into a world empire.

A real revolution in the cultural life of the Roman Empire occurred by the 1st century BC. e. after the conquest of Hellenistic Greece. The Romans begin to study Greek, philosophy and literature; they invite famous Greek orators and philosophers, and they themselves go to the Greek city-states to join the culture that they secretly worshiped. It should be noted, however, that unlike Greek, Roman culture is much more rational, pragmatic, aimed at practical benefit and expediency. This feature was well demonstrated by Cicero using the example of mathematics: “The Greeks studied geometry in order to understand the world, while the Romans studied geometry in order to measure plots of land.”

Greek and Roman cultures were in a state of strong interaction and mutual influence, which ultimately led to their synthesis, to the creation of a single Greco-Roman culture, which later formed the basis of Byzantine culture and had a huge influence on the cultures of the Slavic peoples and Western Europe.

In Roman art during its heyday, architecture played a leading role, the monuments of which, even in ruins, captivate with their power. The basic principles of Roman architecture were used during the Renaissance and remain relevant today. Its significant difference from the Greek was its focus not on the order system, but on the widespread use of arches, domed and vaulted ceilings in construction, as well as the creation of structures that were round in plan. On the basis of arched structures, viaducts were built for the movement of pedestrians, carts and troops, and aqueducts that supplied cities with water from sources sometimes located tens of kilometers away.

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. Throughout the ancient world, Roman architecture is unrivaled in stature. 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) as architectural objects in urban and rural landscape. This happened thanks to the discovery of a completely new building material - concrete. First, 2 parallel brick walls were erected, the space between which was filled with alternating layers of gravel and sand. When the mass of concrete hardened, it formed a solid monolith with the walls. The Romans used stone block or marble slab cladding rather than building with these materials like the Greeks. The most gigantic spectacular building of Ancient Rome is the Colosseum (75-80 AD), in its amphitheater (it differed from the theater in that it had a closed oval plan with rows of seats around the arena, gradually rising and surrounded on the outside by a powerful ring wall ) could simultaneously accommodate 50 thousand spectators. Until 405, gladiator fights were held in the Colosseum.

Spectacles occupied a very important place in the life of the Romans. Roman architects turned to those types of public buildings that most fully embodied the ideas of the power of the state and imperial power: forums (from the Latin “fora” - city center), triumphal arches, basilicas, circuses, baths, amphitheatres. During the imperial period, each of the emperors, following the example of Julius Caesar, built his own forum, decorated with triumphal arches, memorial columns and monuments glorifying the deeds of the emperor. The ensemble of the forum also included churches and libraries, and areas for public meetings. New types of housing are also being created: villas ( country houses for patricians), domus (city houses for wealthy Romans), insula ( multi-story houses for the Roman poor).

One of the most visited places in Rome, especially during the Roman Empire, were the baths. This is a complex of buildings surrounded by gardens, stadiums, walking alleys, libraries; Works of art were exhibited in the baths, and rhetoricians and poets performed. Of the 11 baths of imperial Rome, the baths of the emperors Titus and Caracalla became famous for their luxury, wall paintings and mosaics.

The achievements of the Roman artistic genius were also great in the field of sculptural portraits, which originated from the Etruscans, who had an image of the head of the deceased covering an urn with ashes (canopus), as well as from wax masks of the dead Romans. Unlike the Greeks, who strived for typification, Roman sculptors try not to flatter their models even when they create an ideal image, accurately conveying the most remarkable features of the appearance. It was the Roman portrait that laid the foundation for European sculptural portraiture.

Roman science was of an applied nature. The greatest scientists of the era of the Roman Empire were the Greeks Ptolemy, Menelaus of Alexandria, Galen, Diophantus. A unique encyclopedia that summarized natural scientific knowledge about the world and man was the huge work of Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) “Natural History” in 37 books.

One of the most striking and significant pages of world history and culture is Roman law. On the one hand, it placed the interests of the individual owner at the center of legal relations, and on the other, it developed a value basis for the legal order, the content of which was:

- justice, equality;
- expediency;
- conscientiousness;
- good morals.

Roman law was characterized by precise formulations, it reaches perfect legal forms, its decisions are justified, and terms and concepts form the basis of modern jurisprudence. The analysis of cases from ancient Roman legal practice today contributes to the development of legal thinking, sharpens the arguments for and against, and systematizes logical generalizations.

In the 1st century. BC e. in Rome, rhetoric, or the art of political and judicial eloquence, is developing powerfully, which was a consequence of reflecting the turbulent social life of the transitional era from the Republic to the Empire. Achieving authority in society and a successful political career were impossible without mastery of the living word.

Rhetoric becomes a stepping stone towards entry into the Roman elite. The most brilliant orator of Rome was Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC). Being also a subtle connoisseur philosophy, he did a lot to introduce the Romans to the classical Greek philosophy of Plato and the Stoics.

It was typical for the population of the empire high level literacy. The school education and upbringing system included 3 levels - primary, secondary and higher. Graduates of the highest level were prepared for state, practical and cultural activities. Higher education began to emerge.

The development of Roman literature went through several stages. During the tsarist and partly republican periods, literary creativity existed in the form of cult chants, tribal epics, primitive drama, and legal texts. The first known Roman writer whose name has come down to us was Appius Claudius Caecus (c. 300 BC). Livy Andronicus, a Greek slave and freedman (late 3rd century BC), translated the Odyssey and thereby laid the foundation for the creation of Roman literature based on the Greek model. Dramaturgy later achieved noticeable development (the comedies of Plautus and Terence). Cato the Elder is considered the first Roman prose writer, who wrote in Latin the history of Rome and the Italic tribes. Cicero, with his writing and oratory, opened the era that is commonly called the era of “Golden Latin.” During the time of the first Roman emperor Octavian Augustus (1st century BC), the flowering of literature, called the “golden age of Roman poetry,” was associated with the names of Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Seneca, and Petronius. Famous poem Virgil's "Aeneid" about the mythical divine ancestor of the Roman aristocracy and Augustus himself (King Aeneas) exalted the special historical mission of Rome, glorified the Roman spirit and Roman art. In comparison with Greek examples, the works of Roman authors were distinguished by greater drama and a more sober analysis of reality.

At the end of the 2nd century. n. e. a crisis began in the Roman Empire: frequent changes of emperors, separation of provinces, the emergence of various parts empires of independent rulers. From the 1st century n. e. in the eastern provinces of the Roman Empire (in Palestine) the spread begins Christian ideas who proclaimed the equality of all before God, which was essential for the consolidation of a society torn apart by contradictions. The emergence of a new myth about the possibility of universal achievement of the kingdom of God on earth and the idea of rewarding the suffering and disadvantaged with happiness in the kingdom of heaven became very attractive, especially for the lower social strata of Rome. Christianity adopted many elements of Eastern cults and religions, and also included the achievements of Hellenistic philosophy in its ideology. Christianity, cruelly persecuted and persecuted at first, gradually captured the Roman aristocracy and intelligentsia with its ideas, and in the 4th century. AD became the official religion of the Roman Empire.

From 410 to 476 Rome was destroyed by barbarians - Goths, Vandals, Franks, Huns, Germans, etc. The eastern part of the Roman Empire (Byzantium) existed for another thousand years, and the western part, having died, became the foundation for the culture of the emerging Western European states.

Greco-Roman antiquity (9th century BC - 5th century AD) left the following achievements as a legacy to world culture:

the richest myth-making;

experience of a democratic structure of society;

Roman legal system;

timeless works of art;

laws of truth, goodness and beauty;

variety of philosophical ideas;

acquiring the Christian faith.

Personalities: Herodotus, Aesop, Aristotle, Plato, Socrates, A. Macedonian, J. Caesar.

Test tasks

1. Consider the differences between Greek and Roman architecture.
2. Why is Greek culture called the “culture of philosophers” and Roman culture “the culture of rhetoricians”?
3. List 7 wonders of the world as imagined by ancient society.
4. Name outstanding figures of literature and science of ancient Greek culture, accompany your story with characteristics of their works.
5. Name the outstanding figures of literature and science of Roman civilization, accompany the story with characteristics of their creations.
6. Prepare a presentation on any aspect of the topic.
7. What made the “Greek miracle” possible? State your version.

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 exert a huge influence on the culture of later Europe, and through the latter - on world culture generally.

However, Roman culture itself, from the very beginning of its history, was not something unified; it was a fusion of cultures of different peoples, 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 various tribes, the main role among which was played by the Latins and Sabines; 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 outside 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 children's names they used ordinal numbers (for example, only daughter received the 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 didn’t put up statues for them, didn’t build temples. 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 of 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, porticoes, 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 - the Circus Maximus in Rome had a length of 600 and a width of 150 m, it could accommodate 60 thousand spectators. In Rome there were about a thousand public baths - terms; 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; total length 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 space: at home the Roman had sculptural portraits of 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, set out in 18 books the entire system of Roman 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, which received great development in Rome, was closely connected with rhetoric: among the most famous Roman philologists, Marcus Terence Varro should be mentioned. Varro, like many other Roman scientists, was an encyclopedist - he wrote about 600 books on various industries 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 little in modern editions takes up about 1500 pages), Cornelius Tacitus (“ history” and “Annals”), Suetonius Tranquillus (the famous book “The Lives of the Twelve Caesars”), Ammianus Marcellinus (“Acts”), etc. Representatives of the natural sciences include 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 addressed not to an individual, but to a 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 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, empire and personality are interconnected.

The new man needed a new god, or rather, God - an omnipotent and all-encompassing, but at the same time infinitely close to man, good being who would “manage” not a separate people, locality, sphere of activity, etc., but infinity and eternity , and could communicate them to the 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 Eastern religions are spreading. 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” that 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 had no 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.”

According to ancient legends, Rome was founded in the middle of the 8th century BC. e. The culture, which was considered one of the most influential in the period of antiquity, had a huge impact on European civilization. And this is despite the fact that the painting and sculpture of Ancient Rome are based on Greek motifs, and theater and music are inextricably linked with Etruscan ancient traditions.

Characteristics of ancient Roman art

Unlike other ancient countries, the Romans did not assign educational or moral tasks to art. On the contrary, the fine art of Ancient Rome was more utilitarian in nature, since it was considered just a way to rationally organize living space. That is why architecture occupied an important place in the life of the population of this ancient country. The civilization of Ancient Rome still reminds itself of itself with monumental buildings: temples, arenas and palaces.

In addition to magnificent architectural monuments, the culture of Rome in antiquity can also be judged by numerous sculptures that were portraits of those who lived at that time. Life in Ancient Rome was always subject to strict rules, and in some periods sculptural portraits were created solely to immortalize the faces of rulers or famous people. Only after some time did Roman sculptors begin to endow their statues with characters or special features. Important historical events Roman creators preferred to depict them in the form of bas-reliefs.

It is worth noting that the peculiarities lie in the almost complete absence of such phenomena as theater - in our usual understanding, as well as its own mythology. Using images created by the Greeks for many magnificent things, the Romans either distorted events to please their authorities, or did not attach much importance to them at all. This happened primarily because the fine art of Ancient Rome developed under the influence of the dominant ideology, to which abstract philosophical principles and artistic invention were alien.

Distinctive features of the art of Ancient Rome

Despite the proven existence of Rome as a separate civilization, historians for a long time could not separate ancient Greek art from Roman art. However, due to the fact that many works of art and architectural heritage Ancient Rome were preserved to this day; it was possible to identify the main features inherent exclusively in ancient Roman works. So, what achievements and inventions of Ancient Rome in the field of fine art characterize it as an independent phenomenon?

The architectural achievement of the Romans was the combination of spatial perception and artistic forms in buildings. Roman architects preferred to erect individual buildings and ensembles in natural lowlands, and if there were none, they surrounded the buildings with small walls.
In contrast to Greek plastic images, Roman art emphasized allegory, symbolism and the illusory nature of space. These inventions of Ancient Rome in relation to sculptural and artistic representation made it possible to impart character not only to sculptural portraits, but also to mosaic or fresco images.
Ancient Roman artists developed easel painting, which originated in Greece, which was practically not widespread in its historical homeland.

Despite the abundance of subtle and barely noticeable features to the average person, there is a factor that allows even a non-specialist to determine whether a sculptural or architectural object belongs to ancient Roman culture. This is his size. The civilization of Ancient Rome is known throughout the world for its grandiose buildings and sculptures. Their size is several times higher than analogues from Ancient Greece and other countries.

Periodization

The fine arts of Ancient Rome developed in several stages, which corresponded to the periods of the historical formation of the state itself. If historians divide the evolution of ancient Greek art into formation (archaic), flourishing (classic) and crisis period (Hellenism), then the development of ancient Roman art acquires new features during the change of the imperial dynasty. This phenomenon is due to the fact that socio-economic and ideological factors played a fundamental role in changing stylistic and artistic forms.

The stages of the evolution of art in Rome are considered to be the period of the Roman kingdom (7-5 centuries BC), the Republican period (5-1 centuries BC) and the period of the Roman Empire (1-2 centuries AD). A real flourishing of all types of arts, including sculpture, theater, music and artistic applied creativity, came at the end of the 1st century BC. e. and continued until

Art of the Tsarist period

The formation of ancient Roman art dates back to the 8th century BC. e., when the main motives in architecture became Etruscan methods of planning buildings, masonry and the use of building materials. This can be judged by the Temple of Jupiter Capitolinus. Painting and the making of decorative objects are also closely related to Etruscan roots. Only by the middle of the 7th century BC. BC, when the Romans colonized Greece, they became acquainted with the artistic techniques of the Greeks. It is worth noting that ancient Roman artists even then sought to create their works as close as possible to the originals. Historians associate this with the tradition of making death wax masks that exactly replicated a person’s facial features. The gods of Ancient Rome, whose statues were made during the Roman Empire, were depicted in the same way as ordinary people.

Republican period art

The Republican period of the Roman state was marked by final formation architecture: all complexes (residential and temple) without exception acquired an axial structure and symmetry. The facade of the building was designed more magnificently, and there was an ascent (usually a stone staircase) leading to the entrance. Residential developments of multi-storey buildings are spreading in cities, while wealthy segments of the population are building country terraced houses, decorated with frescoes and sculptural compositions. During this period, such types of buildings as the theater of Ancient Rome (amphitheatre), aqueducts, and bridges were finally formed.

Fine art was based on portrait sculpture: official and private. The first served the purpose of immortalizing statesmen, and the second existed thanks to orders for the production of statues and busts for houses and tombs. Public buildings were decorated with bas-reliefs depicting historical scenes or scenes of everyday life in the state. In temples, one could most often see paintings (including mosaics and frescoes) depicting the gods of Ancient Rome.

The Roman Empire: the final period of art development

The period is considered the time of the true flowering of ancient Roman art. The architecture is dominated by the arch, vault and domes. Stone walls everywhere they are faced with brick or marble. Large spaces in the rooms are occupied by decorative paintings and sculptures. The fine arts of Ancient Rome underwent significant changes during this period. When making sculptural portraits, less attention is paid to individual features, which sometimes look somewhat sketchy. At the same time, the sculptors tried to depict the swiftness of movements, the emotional state of the person being portrayed (the position of the body, arms and legs, hairstyle, etc.). Bas-relief images take the form of panoramas with a gradually developing plot.

Unlike the previous period, it becomes more complex due to the introduction of landscape and architectural backgrounds. The paints used for frescoes are brighter and the color combinations are more contrasting. In addition to color mosaics, black and white mosaics are widely used.

The most famous sculptural portraits

Roman portraits of statesmen, gods and heroes are represented by busts or full-size statues. The earliest Roman portrait is considered to be a bronze bust of Junius Brutus. It shows the great influence of Greek art, but the facial features typical of the Romans and slight asymmetry make it possible once again to be convinced that ancient Roman sculptors already then, in the 3rd century BC. e., gave their works maximum realism. Despite the lack of modern metal processing technologies, the small details of the bust are beautifully executed. First of all, this is noticeable in the fine engraving of the beard and hair.

The most realistic is still considered to be the sculptural portrait of Vespasian, the Roman emperor. The master not only conveyed his image in the smallest detail, but also endowed the bust with characteristic features. The eyes attract particular attention: deep-set and small, they radiate the natural cunning and wit of an emperor. But the most remarkable thing is the fact that the sculptor depicted the smallest details (tense veins and veins in the neck, wrinkles crossing the forehead), which speak of the strength and inflexibility of the state leader. The sculptors’ bust of the moneylender Lucius Caecilius Jucunda turned out to be no less expressive, whose greedy eyes and greasy hair are depicted with amazing accuracy.

Great architectural monuments of the ancient Roman era

To date, not a single building built during the era of Ancient Rome has been completely preserved. The most famous and famous of them is the Colosseum - an arena where gladiator fights and speeches of statesmen of various levels, including emperors, took place. The Temple of Saturn, which was repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt, has an equally colorful history. Unlike the Colosseum, it cannot be seen, since only a few columns remain from the magnificent structure. But they managed to preserve the famous Pantheon, or the temple of all gods, which is a fairly large building topped with a dome.

Poets of Ancient Rome and their works

Despite the mythology borrowed from the Greeks, the ancient Romans also had their own talents in the field of composing poetry, songs and fables. The most famous poets Rome - Virgil and Horace. The first became famous for writing the poem "Aeneid", which was very reminiscent of Homer's "Iliad". Despite the less expressive poetic and artistic component, this poem is still considered the standard of the original Latin language. Horace, on the contrary, had an excellent command of the artistic word, thanks to which he became a court poet, and lines from his poems and songs still appear in the works of many writers.

Theater arts

The theater of Ancient Rome initially bore little resemblance to what we consider it to be today. Almost all performances took place in the genre of competitions between poets and musicians. Only occasionally could ancient Roman art connoisseurs enjoy the performance of actors accompanied by a large choir. Spectators were often shown circus acts, theatrical pantomime and solo or group dances. A distinctive feature of the ancient Roman theatrical performance was the large number of the troupe. Regarding this, the audience said that there were fewer of them than the actors.

It is worth noting that costumes and makeup were not given much attention back then. Only sometimes, when playing the role of an emperor or a person important in the state, did the actors dress in more magnificent red clothes. The repertoire consisted mainly of works by Roman poets: Horace, Virgil and Ovid. Often, leisurely narratives and chants in theaters were replaced by bloody gladiator fights, which the audience attended with no less pleasure.

Music and musical instruments

The music of Ancient Rome was formed independently of the ancient Greek. When holding public events and performances, the most popular were musical instruments capable of producing a very loud sound: trumpets, horns, and the like. However, most often during performance they preferred timpani, harps, and citharas. It is worth noting that everyone was interested in music, including the Roman emperors. Among the musicians and singers there were those who were immortalized in sculpture. The singers and lyre singers Apelles, Terpnius, Diodorus, Anaxenor, Tigellius and Mesomedes enjoyed particular popularity and love among the Roman people in that era. The music of Ancient Rome is still alive, since not only the main motives, but also the musical instruments have been preserved.

The influence of ancient Roman art on modern times

The influence of Roman civilization on modern times is discussed a lot and everywhere. Of course, the characteristics of Ancient Rome, or rather that area of it that relates to art, are still not presented in full. Nevertheless, it can already be argued that the architecture, sculpture and fine arts of the ancient Roman era directly influenced the cultural component of almost all European states. This is especially noticeable in architecture, when the harmony and majesty of buildings is enclosed in a clear symmetrical form.

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.

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 in literature: the absurd Greekmaniacs and the harsh persecutors of Greek sciences. 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 urban population, concentrating 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 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, from which especially popular acquired the myth of 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. Theater performances in Rome they 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 sunlight.

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 the entire cultural life of 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 native language(earlier Roman literati 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 features characteristic of the art of the peoples conquered by Rome, sometimes at a higher level of 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. A specific Italian type of residential building is associated with the Etruscan tradition, compositional center 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 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, 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).