What did HORATIUS FLACCUS mean when he wrote, "Captive Greece took captive her savage conqueror?"

It's from Source: Epistles II,i,156. This is a question in an assignment. Thanks for all help.

Johnnie



Post Edited (07-28-04 21:35)

The Romans conquered Greece politically, militarily, made them a subject of the Empire. But the Greek culture...art, political theory , and the structure of the gods, survived and dominated through their effect on the Romans. The claim is that once the Romans took Greece, they themselves became "Grecified," Hellenized, the carriers of Greek culture. This is what the quote refers to. There's a lot more to this.

Good luck,

Peter

One of the things that you can use to explain this is the fact that the Romans looked up the greek culture. They admired it so much that they started by imitating the great greek works. (translatio-imitatio-aemulatio: translation, imitation, improvement).
Every Roman nobleman spoke perfectly greek for a long time. Also due to the fact that greeks were brought to Rome to educate the children of the nobility.

As peter says, there's a lot more to it :-) Good luck.

And Desi, visiting beaches on the lovely island of Crete, should certainly know. The entire passage is,

"Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artes intulit agresti Latio, ‘Greece, when captured, captured her savage conqueror and brought the arts into rustic Latium'."

A former professor [William V. Spanos] argues, as he always does, reversely, in his latest book, that the western world, European culture, with its aggressive and militant attitudes, since at least Charles the Great, has been an extention of Roman Culture, not Greek culture (he's Greek)... not Greek to us; Roman to us.

I guess this is a sidebar comment.

Very often though, the winners settle into conquered territory, take the women, kill a lot of men, beget the begotten; their children learning the mother tongue, their children, like second generation Americans (or what have you) becoming assimilated more to the matriarchal heritage, the partimony remaining, resessive and exterior. We wear Roman clothes, speak the mind of a Greek, if we be Hellenistic Atticans, around first century New Era.

g'luck,

Peter

Give me my Flaccus Bacchus. Dionysius was the youngest of the Greek gods, and the first to die. T or F.

I only worship Flatus

Platus Pussus, among the Musses.

Leaving aside Chronos and Ouranos.

"Chro -o-o- nos....is on my side, yes he is"
Miccus Jaggerus

Wasn't Chronos a Titan, or maybe one of the pre-Greek gods, that preceeded the Olympians, Zeus et al, long before Dionysus. Ouranus with Gaia, Ocean and Earth, were even more primordial, older gods of nature, to be replaced by Zeus and his gang.


:-)>-):-(

Father and grandfather of Zeus, Hera, Hades, Poseidon et al. I'd have thought that gave them a claim on godhood.

higamus hogamus