So was Roman culture and religion actually completely ripped

>>1543935
Rome was colonized by greeks so...

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>>1543935
Think of it less as the Romans just copying the Greeks, and more as the Romans emerging within a Greek-dominated cultural world encompassing the whole non-Punic Mediterranean. They were just one of many cultures constituting a wider classical civilization, centered on the Greeks but also including the likes of the Etruscans, Latins, Nabataeans, Armenians, etc. The Romans weren't barbarians who became civilized by adopting Greek culture; rather they had Greek-derived culture from the very beginning, which they inherited from the Greek, Latin and Etruscan civilizations that had been flourishing in Italy centuries before Rome's rise. They were distinct from the Greeks in the same way that different Western nations or Indian regions were distinct from each other, and they innovated and created their own unique culture, but they always shared in the same wider civilization as the Greeks.

The same is true of most civilizations in the world; they're always unique in their own ways, but more often than not they also form part of a wider cultural sphere which usually originated elsewhere.

It's not a meme, Romans before conquering Greece were basically farmer warriors.

The Roman elite was Hellenized because no one really before the Greeks had produced such vast amounts of literature, scientific research and philosophy.

Roman religion was however primarily Etruscan however, and it didn't really posses the whole "anthropomorphizing" the Greek gods had.

>>1543935
Just look at the beginnings of Latin literature...

>Formal Latin literature began in 240 BC, when a Roman audience saw a Latin version of a Greek play.[1]

>The adaptor was Livius Andronicus, a Greek who had been brought to Rome as a prisoner of war in 272 BC. Andronicus also translated Homer's Greek epic the Odyssey into an old type of Latin verse called Saturnian.
That was the very first piece of literature ever written in Latin. A translation of a Greek epic by a Greek....

>The first Latin poet to write on a Roman theme was Gnaeus Naevius during the 3rd century BC. He composed an epic poem about the first Punic War, in which he had fought.
>Naevius's dramas were mainly reworkings of Greek originals, but he also created tragedies based on Roman myths and history.

Even the first Roman poet mainly dealt in Greek culture...

>Other epic poets followed Naevius. Quintus Ennius wrote a historical epic, the Annals (soon after 200 BC), describing Roman history from the founding of Rome to his own time. He adopted Greek dactylic hexameter, which became the standard verse form for Roman epics.

Ennius is really the beginning of Roman literary tradition because Annals was so influential... and even he adopted Greek literary styles.

>In this field, his most distinguished successors were Marcus Pacuvius and Lucius Accius. These three writers rarely used episodes from Roman history. Instead, they wrote Latin versions of tragic themes that the Greeks had already handled.

Add to that the fact that the Romans readily worshipped Greek gods and adopted Greek myths, taught their children the Iliad in primary school, and the fact that the Roman Republic appears to be modelled after various Greek governing systems (dual consuls... dual kings... land required for fighting in the army...etc)

Roman culture was Latinized Greek culture originally, but as Rome grew the two cultures advanced in tandem.

>>1543942
It was the exact opposite so...

>>1544726
Actually, according to Roman historians commission by Augustus + the submission of the Greeks, Herakles founded Rome by clearing a monster on one of the hills.

>>1543935
Roman looked up to and were inspired by the Greeks who they considered to be cultured. They emerged in a Greco Dominated world, and inherited their mythology and philosophies. I don't know if "ripped off" is applicable because I don't think anyone thought of it as "my religion, my culture" rather just the thing that was done in the Mediterranean

nawmsayin?

>>1544739
>Herakles founded Rome by clearing a monster on one of the hills.

Yeah well according to the Greeks their mythical heroes founded every city ever basically, or close to that.

>>1543935
Hellenic culture was synonymous with civilization in the ancient Mediterranean. Therefore, if any city wanted to advance in prestige they would have to adopt certain Greek attributes. Similar to how modern East Asia has adopted Western European dress, architecture, and governance.

Their architecture and art were a complete rip offs, although they definitely expanded on it. Their religion existed before but they combined it with greek myths (ex. Jupiter began to show characteristics of Zeus). Their society however remained different in many ways. Togas were distinctly Roman, as were the ideas of Republicanism and Citizenship. Culturally they saw themselves as more militant and noble than the degenerate greeks.

>>1544800
Augustus forced the Greeks to admit it so he could compete in the Olympics...

Same thing Philip did.

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Yes and they were all germanic (nordic)

IIRC Iupiter didn't originally start off as Zeus 2.0 (i.e. Bearded king with lightning bolts) but rather just personified as the infinite sky

>>1543935

Roman Culture was very different from the Greeks but was still very much Hellenic.

There were a bunch of minor gods unique to the latin regions like Terminus, the God of Boundries who was just a parapalegic dumbass stuck in the corner of the world. Also the cult of Vesta, which is probably the origin of christian nuns, was unique to Rome.

>>1545933
WE

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>>1545933