The Romans were deeply influenced by the Greeks and the Roman elites looked up to them. The first professional teachers in Rome were Greeks from southern Italy and education w…as modelled on that of the Greeks. The children of the rich received an education in both Latin and Greek and were fluent in Greek. The pinnacle of their education was a stay in Greece to study Greek philosophy. The Romans had Greek libraries as well as Latin libraries. They adopted the Epicurean and the Stoic schools of Greek philosophy. Their architecture and sculpture were modelled on Greek styles. The influence of Greek mythology came through the absorption of elements of Greek religion. Greek influence started very early on in Roman history. The Greeks established colonies (settlements) in southern Italy in the 8th and 7th century BC. Being a more advanced civilisation, their arrival had a big impact on all the Italic peoples they came in contact with during the archaic (early) period. This led to the adoption and adaptation of the western Greek alphabet by all Italic peoples, including the Latins (the Romans were Latins). Greek motifs for pottery decoration and Greek architectural styles were adopted by the Etruscans. Etruscan civilisation arose out of trade with and influence by these Greeks in what has been called the orientalising period. Recent archaeological evidence has shown that the archaic Latins were also involved in this process and that there was influence by the Greeks of Cumae (a Greek city near Naples) as well as the Etruscans. Already the 6th century BC the Romans started using the books of the Sibyls who were Greek oracles, some of whom lived in the mentioned Greek city of Cumae near Naples. They also adopted the Greek god Apollo, who was an oracular god (that is, he was the god of the oracles) and built the Temple of Apollo Medicus (the doctor) in in 431 BC. Apollo's son, who mediated Apollo's association with medicine and healing, was also adopted. The Senate was instructed to build a temple in his honour by the Sybils in 293 BC. The Romans also procured a statue of him from Greece. The Romans adopted the Greek twin gods Castor and Pollux and the mythology associated with them by the late 5th century. They turned Heracles, the Greek mythological hero (whom they called Hercules) into a god because he was said to have killed Cacus, a fire-breathing giant who was terrorising the Roman countryside. During the Second Punic War (218-202 BC) they 'imported' Cybele (whom they called Magna Mater, Great Mother) because Sibyls said that with this Rome could defeat Carthage. Besides adopting some Greek gods, at one point the Romans linked their gods to the Greek gods and their associated mythologies. The Romans adopted Greek columns for their temples and porticoes and the three orders (Doric, Ionic and Corinthian) the Greeks used to style them. They also developed composite orders which were a mixture of these orders. With contact with mainland Greece, there was also influence from this part of the Greek world. From Augustus onwards, the Romans modelled their statues on the Hellenistic ones. They made copies of statues by the great classical and Hellenistic sculptors of Greece so that they could model theirs on these artists. They adopted Greek medicine and Greek sports. They adopted and improved on the Greek cranes and ballista, a crossbow-like catapult. Latin tragedies and comedies and theatre were based on the Greek ones. Roman theatre architecture was inspired by that of the Greeks. However, whilst the seating of Greek theatres were always built on hillsides, the Romans also built theatres with their own foundations which could be built on flat land.
