What Was Ancient Greece Like During the Roman Empire?

For centuries, Greece dominated the Mediterranean in both cultural and political terms. However, it was eventually surpassed by Rome. Nonetheless, Greece did not disappear into obscurity in the Roman Empire. It continued to be a major player on the world scene. What do we know about Greece in the Roman Empire?

Reorganization of Greece by the Romans

Upon conquering Greece in the second century BCE, principally with the victory over Corinth in 146 BCE, Rome was able to establish the province of Macedonia, covering northern Greece. The cities of the Peloponnese were also subject to Rome’s rule, although not all to the same degree as in the province of Macedonia.

For some time, a few of the southern Greek cities were allowed to remain autonomous, free from the direct rule of Rome. Examples include Sparta and Athens. Most of the other cities, however, had to send tribute to the Romans.

Later, in 27 BCE, Augustus Caesar become the first emperor of the Roman Empire. In this same year, he reorganized Roman rule over Greece. He reorganized it into two provinces, Macedonia and Achaia. The territory of the former covered much of northern Greece, as before. Achaia, meanwhile, covered the Peloponnese and a portion of mainland Greece.

A long time after this, the Romans divided Greece into additional provinces, such as Epirus along the western coast. There was also the province of Thrace in the northeast.

How Roman rule negatively impacted Greece

In many respects, being part of the Roman Empire had a very negative impact on Greece. Needless to say, it experienced major political decline, having lost its power and freedom to engage in conquests of other areas.

Another area that experienced decline was economically. While being in the Roman Empire, the Greek cities were not independently able to exact tribute on other territories as they had done while they were self-governing.

The Greeks themselves were not ignorant of the political and economic decline that their country was experiencing. During this period of dominance by Rome, the Greeks developed a tendency of looking towards their past and dwelling on their own history. Evidently, they considered their golden age to have been a thing of the past in many respects.

Thriving Greek culture

However, being in the Roman Empire was not entirely bad for Greece. In fact, although Greece experienced political and economic decline, the culture of the Greeks thrived. The main reason for this is that the Romans were enamoured by it. We see this, for instance, in the way that they readily identified their gods with the gods of the Greeks.

The Romans were so fascinated by Greek religion that they even dismantled entire Greek temples and reassembled them in their homeland in Italy.

Furthermore, the Romans greatly admired Greek artwork, architecture, philosophies and even political ideas. For intellectuals, the Greeks were the subject of considerable admiration. Certain Greek cities were still considered centers of learning. One example is Athens, which had one of the most prominent and prestigious schools within the Roman Empire.

This is clearly evident in the Christian Scriptures in the Bible, in which we find accounts of the early disciples of Jesus preaching their message. While experiencing some political opposition from Rome, these accounts show that intellectual or philosophical opposition always came from either Jewish sources or Greek ones, but never Roman.

The language of Greece throughout the Roman Empire

Another way in which Greece continued to thrive under the Roman Empire is that its language remained dominant. Alexander the Great had spread the Greek language all over the Eastern Mediterranean during his conquests in the fourth century BCE.

Even after the Roman Empire emerged, Greek did not fall out of use. Rather, it remained the lingua franca of the day. That is why, famously, the Gospels and other first-century Christian works were written in Greek, not Latin.

It was common to consider those who adopted the Greek language and culture to be ‘Greeks’ in a sense. This being the case, the Roman Empire was absolutely full of Greeks. Again, the first-century Christian Scriptures give us insight into this matter. The Apostle Paul, for example, used ‘Greeks’ to represent all non-Jewish people.

The fact that he used this term instead of ‘Romans’ is fascinating. It shows that the Greeks were still the most prominent among the nations of the Roman Empire, by virtue of the widespread adoption of the Greek language and culture.