The Post-Hellenistic Period
In the 2nd to 1st centuries BC, Rome conquered Greece piece by piece until, with the conquest of Egypt in 30 BC, the Roman Empire controlled the Mediterranean. However, as Horace gently put it: "Graecia capta ferum victorim cepit et artis intulit agresti Latio" ("Conquered Greece has conquered the brute victor and brought her arts into rustic Latium"). Roman art and literature were calqued upon Hellenistic models. Koine Greek remained the dominant language in the eastern part of the Roman Empire. In the city of Rome, Koine Greek was in widespread use among ordinary people, and the elite spoke and wrote Greek as fluently as Latin.
Read more about this topic: Hellenistic Civilization
Famous quotes containing the word period:
“We are now going through a period of demolition. In morals, in social life, in politics, in medicine, and in religion there is a universal upturning of foundations. But the day of reconstruction seems to be looming, and now the grand question is: Are there any sure and universal principles that will evolve a harmonious system in which we shall all agree?”
—Catherine E. Beecher (1800–1878)