Ancient Greece and Magna Graecia - Essay Example

Therefore, the Hellenic civilization flourished, later accepting the influences of native Latin civilization. The objective of the essay is to explore the influence of the Greek civilizations on its colonies and to know how far the Hellenic civilization embraced the hue of the native culture and civilization. Moreover, the focus will be to delve into to the ancient history to bring out the efforts of the indigenous people of the colonies to resist to maintain their own identity. The artifacts evidences will be explored to substantiate the stance.

Hellenic art, which has a diverse subject matter and is enriched in stylistic development, flourished in an age which is distinguished by a strong sense of history. It was the age when museums and great libraries were established. The Hellenic art kept the traditions but had also made great innovations . The neo- Hellenic Art; the art which flourished in the Greek colonies had no precedence in earlier Greek art. As for example we find grotesques subjects; the figure of Greek Dwarf is, among the statuettes of the Hellenic civilization and Roman period, a standard example and type of grotesque.

(Archaeological Institute of America; Vol.88 No.3, July, 1984, pp. 389-391) And the portraits of ethnic people, especially of Africans, betray the diversity of the Hellenic civilization. The new affluent class of consumers, who benefited from the trades, decorated their homes with luxury goods, such as bronzes statuettes, delicately carved furniture, sculptures made of stones and pottery with mold-made decorations. In the chapter on Pithekoussai and Cumae in The Greek Cities of Magna Graecia and Sicily by Luca Cerchiai, Lorena Jannelli, Fausto Longo, there is a picture of Rhodian cup from the grave yards of Monte Vico, which dates back to 730 B.C., and it bears the inscription 'I am the goblet of Nestor, fine to drink from, but whoever drinks from this goblet will instantly be seized by desire for the well-crowned Aphrodite.

' This inscription reveals the vast knowledge of the epic cycle and it also reveals that the owner of the cup or whosoever used it was quite familiar with the Iliad.The Romans were the avid collectors of Greek art who loved to decorate their houses with Greek sculpture as demanded by their taste and interests. The wall paintings of Boscreala are the evidence of the classical milieu that the Romans aristocracy preferred for their homes.Archaeological Evidence:The Town Planning:(a)Hippodamus of MiletusHippodamus of Miletus is the known Greek urban theorist.

The world knows him from the brief description of Aristotle in Politics. Aristotle tells us that Hippodamus, "discovered the division of poleis" This refers to the physical planning of the cities which surely did not refer to the invention of grid plan, which was an ancient technique and was in use when Hippodamus was born. (Cahill, 2002). Hippodamus introduced, in his utopia, the tripartite system; his polis, comprising of 10,000 citizens, was divided into three sections, one section was for artisans, the other for farmers and the third section was for soldiers.

Likewise the land was also divided in three parts; religious, public and the private part. This numerology of Hippodamus is attributed to his background of Ionian