The culture of Ancient Rome existed for more than 12 centuries and had its own unique values. In the art of ancient Rome, the veneration of the gods, love for the Fatherland, and soldier's honor were sung. Many reports have been prepared about Ancient Rome, which describe its achievements.
Culture of Ancient Rome
Scholars share history ancient Roman culture for three periods:
- Royal (8th-6th centuries BC)
- Republican (6th-1st centuries BC)
- Imperial (1st century BC - 5th century AD)
The royal period is considered a primitive period in terms of cultural development, however, it was then that the Romans had their own alphabet.
The artistic culture of the Romans was similar to the Hellenic, but had its own characteristics. For example, the sculpture of Ancient Rome acquired emotions. On the faces of the characters, Roman sculptors began to convey the state of mind. Especially numerous were the sculptures of contemporaries - Caesar, Crassus, various gods, ordinary citizens.
In the days of ancient Rome, for the first time such a literary concept like "novel". Among the poets who composed comedies, the most famous was Lucilius, who is the author of poems on everyday topics. His favorite topic was ridiculing the obsession with achieving various riches.
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The Roman Livius Andronicus, who worked as an actor in tragedy, knew the Greek language. He managed to translate Homer's Odyssey into Latin. Probably, under the impression of the work, Virgil will soon write his "Aeneid" about the Trojan Aeneas, who became the distant ancestor of all the Romans.
Rice. 1. The abduction of the Sabine women.
Philosophy has reached extraordinary development. The following philosophical currents were formed: Roman stoicism, whose task was to achieve spiritual and moral ideals, and Neoplatonism, the essence of which was the development of the highest spiritual point of the human soul and the achievement of ecstasy.
In Rome, the ancient scientist Ptolemy created a geocentric system of the world. He also owns numerous works on mathematics and geography.
The music of ancient Rome copied the Greek. Musicians, actors and sculptors were invited from Hellas. The odes of Horace and Ovid were popular. Over time, musical performances have acquired a spectacular character, accompanied by theatrical performances or gladiator fights.
A letter from the Roman poet Martial has been preserved, in which he claims that if he becomes a music teacher, then a comfortable old age is guaranteed to him. This suggests that the musicians used in great demand in Rome.
Fine art in Rome was utilitarian in nature. It was presented by the Romans as a way to fill and organize living space. It, like architecture, was carried out in the form of monumentality and grandeur.
Summing up, we note that the Roman culture can be considered the successor of the Greek, however, the Romans brought and improved a lot in it. In other words, the student has surpassed the teacher.
Rice. 2. Construction of the Roman road.
In architecture, the Romans built their buildings to last for centuries. Baths of Caracalla - a prime example gigantism in construction. Architects used such techniques as the use of palestras, peristyle courtyards, gardens. Baths were supplied with sophisticated technical equipment.
Majestic Roman structures can be considered roads that are still used to this day, the famous defensive ramparts of Trajan and Hadrian, aqueducts and, of course, the Flavian amphitheater (Coliseum).
Roman culture largely continued the Greek traditions, but, taking culture as a basis Ancient Greece, the Romans also introduced their interesting elements. As in Greece, culture was derived from military affairs, politics, religion, and its achievements primarily depended on the needs of Roman society.
Most of all, the Romans developed architecture and sculptural portraiture. The culture of ancient Rome briefly shows that the efforts of the Greeks were not in vain.
The religion of the Romans was not so much complex as disorderly. Many gods, protective spirits, idols did not always correspond to their functions, and then they completely ceased to fulfill them, leaving only the pantheon familiar to us. With the emergence and popularization of Christianity, the Roman religion took on a more slender outline, and the gods have long become mythology. The religions of ancient Rome originated in totemism (the legend of the founders of Rome - Romulus and Remus). The pantheon of the gods of Rome, as well as rituals, was mostly borrowed from the Greeks. Zeus - Jupiter, Hera - Juno, Demeter - Ceres, etc. Cult of Jupiter (Temple on the Capitoline Hill). The Romans revered such deities as Peace, Hope, Valor, Justice, who did not possess the features of living personalities. Temples were built in honor of such gods, sacrifices were made. Mythology has not been developed.
The Romans are also known for their philosophy, which gave the world the pillars of this science. What are the names of Cicero and Titus Lucretius Cara, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. Thanks to the works of these scientists, the first philosophical problems arose, many of which have not been resolved to this day.
In science, the Romans also reached a fairly high level, especially for a time when many industries were in their infancy. In medicine, Celsus and Claudius Galen achieved special success; in history - Sallust, Pliny, Tacitus, Titus Livius; in literature - Livius Andronicus, Plautus, Gaius Valery Catullus, Virgil, Gaius Petronius, Horace, Ovid Nason, Plutarch. It is also necessary to recall the Roman law, which is used by all of Europe. And this is not in vain, because the laws of the twelve tables were written in Rome.
A more familiar remnant of Roman luxury for the inhabitants was the circus, in which gladiator fights were held. Many movies amaze us with burning scenes of battles, but for the Romans this was just one way to spend their free time.
A special place has always been given to the Roman contribution to construction and architecture. The culture of ancient Rome will not even describe half of what was built in the then city-state.
The Etruscans and Hellenes left to the Romans their rich heritage, on the basis of which Roman architecture grew. It is quite natural that most of the buildings were for public purposes - aqueducts, roads, bridges, baths, fortifications, basilicas.
But how the Romans could turn simple buildings into works of art remains a mystery to everyone. Plus, you can add to this the rapid flowering of portraits depicted in stone - the Greeks did not know such a flourishing in this area.
At the end of the 1st century BC. Ancient Rome becomes a world power. Roman culture was formed as a result of the interaction of the culture of local Italic tribes and peoples, primarily the Etruscans, with Greek culture carried out first through Great Greece(Greek colonial cities in southern Italy and Sicily), then it intensified as a result of the conquest of Greece by Rome.
The culture of Ancient Italy and Ancient Rome breaks up into three main periods:
- 1) the culture of pre-Roman Italy (3 thousand - III century BC);
- 2) the culture of the Roman Republic (III-I centuries BC);
- 3) the culture of the Roman Empire (I-V centuries AD).
The forerunner of the culture of ancient Rome was etruscan culture, whose country stretched from the Tyrrhenian Sea to the Apennine Mountains in the east, and its northern border in the 7th century. BC. reached the river Po. Etruria was a union of 12 city-states with a slave system based on the undivided domination of the aristocracy. The heyday of Etruscan culture dates back to the 6th-5th centuries. BC, when she was strongly influenced by Greek culture.
Greek influences are visible in the painting and sculpture of the Etruscans (statue of Apollo from Vei, master Vulka, VI century BC; paintings of tombs in Corneto, Chiusi, Vulci, Cervetri, Orveto, VI-V centuries BC .), but there were also Etruscan traditions proper, which are most clearly expressed in monumental terracotta sarcophagi with figures of the dead (sarcophagus from Cervetri, VI century BC), bronze casting (Capitoline she-wolf, VI century BC. ), making clay vessels bucceneros("black earth").
The culture of ancient Rome developed as a synthetic one, which included Etruscan, Greek and Roman traditions and features characteristic of the culture of the peoples conquered by Rome, sometimes standing at a higher level of development. Like the Greeks, the Romans did not conceive of life outside of the civil community, to serve which is a duty and good, outside of freedom and independence, outside of connection with the gods and demigods.
Not having their own developed mythology, the Romans almost completely adopted it from the Greeks, calling the gods by their proper names: Zeus - Jupiter, Aphrodite - Venus, Ares - Mars, Dionysus - Bacchus, etc.
The Romans introduced features of a more sober worldview into ancient humanism. Accuracy and historicism of thinking, harsh prose underlie their artistic culture. The Romans believed that the gods needed not the feelings of people, but victims (wine, blood, smoke, etc.), and the very latin word "religion" (religion) means originally connection between man and the gods (I give you to give me).
The practical warehouse of Roman culture is reflected in everything: in the sobriety of thinking, the normative idea of \u200b\u200bthe expediency of order, scrupulousness Roman law(closely associated with religion), taking into account all life phenomena, inclination to accurate historical facts. Scientific and philosophical ideas, literature and art - everything was rethought from the point of view of "Rome is the center of the World."
Roman law evolved over several centuries. It was a system of norms and legal laws of the slave-owning state, included private and public law, regulated property, private property and civil relations.
The Romans were equal in their responsibility before the law, but they were not equal in political and social spheres. The nobles and the wealthy had a monopoly on rights, but they also bore duties to a greater extent. Unlike the Greeks, simple people could not count on high posts, but any Roman citizen had the right to land ownership.
In the heyday of Roman art, the leading role was played by architecture, which embodied the ideas of the power of the state. The main place in it belonged not to the temple (as among the Greeks), but to social and civil construction. The Romans invented waterproof concrete; widely used arched, vaulted and domed structures; introduced new engineering structures (aqueducts, bridges, roads, harbors, fortresses); improved the planning of large cities. Public life was
forum - a square decorated with temples, basilicas, merchants' shops, statues of eminent citizens, markets. The forum was the center of trade, political and public life Romans (Roman Forum or Forum Romanum, forums of the emperors Caesar, Augustus, Vespasian, Trajan).
The needs of Roman society also gave rise to such types of structures as amphitheaters (Coliseum), baths (baths of Caracalla, Diocletian), triumphal arches(Tyaga arch) and columns (Trajan's column). In the architecture of Ancient Rome, new types of palaces, country villas and tombstones appeared.
Giant spectacular building of ancient Rome - Coliseum(from lat. colosseum- colossal) was intended for grandiose performances and gladiator fights. The Colosseum, built of tuff, could accommodate up to 50,000 spectators. He began the construction of the amphitheater, who came to power after the civil war in 68-69. AD Titus Flavius Vespasian(9-79 AD). Its construction was completed during the reign of Vespasian's son - tita(from 79 to 81 AD). In honor of the opening of the Colosseum, a hundred-day gladiatorial games were arranged. In plan, the Colosseum was a closed oval (524 m in circumference), dissected by transverse and annular passages. Its central part, the arena, is surrounded by stepped benches for spectators. The appearance of the Colosseum, monumental and majestic, is determined by the ring wall, designed in the form of a multi-tiered order arcade: below - Tuscan, above - Ionic, in the third tier - Corinthian, above which Corinthian pilasters were placed.
In order to drain sewage and dirty water in Rome, an underground pipe was built - cloaca. The Romans stepped far ahead in the construction of buildings necessary for the economy. Public baths were built in Rome terms, having a constant supply clean water; pools with warm and cold water.
The best in the heritage of Roman culture was the portrait as an independent form of creativity from the beginning of the 1st century BC. BC. The Romans showed realism in the depiction of facial features specific person. Roman portrait painters historically recorded changes appearance people, their customs and ideals.
In the painting of the Roman Empire, one decorative style replaces another. The first Roman pictorial portraits created by Greek artists appear. Their distinctive feature is to use the form tondo - circle. Painting II century. AD - these are mainly murals of tombs, frescoes of residential buildings and nympheons (pools), which are distinguished by the severity of patterns and static figures.
In ancient Roman art, it is also worth mentioning the monumental wall painting known from the excavations of houses in the city of Pompeii in Italy. The frescoes depicted colorful paintings of mythological, historical, household plots and reminiscent of Greek.
roman theatre, unlike the Greek, was little associated with religious cults. The mime played the main place among the stage performances. The actors were free to improvise. Important role devoted to dance and gesture.
According to the Greek model in Rome were rebuilt stage performances. The authors usually took Greek tragedies and comedies as models. The comedies of Plautus and Terentius have been fully preserved. Comedy Plautus(c. 254-184 BC) were very popular. The main character of his works was a clever, inexhaustible slave who helped the owner's son to deceive his stingy father, defrauding him of money. The performances were accompanied by flute playing and masks were used. The lyric poetry of republican Rome reached its highest development in the work of Catullus(87-54 BC). The Roman poet highlights spontaneous, contradictory, emotions beyond the control of reason, refers to inner world man sings of love.
In the era of the first emperor Augustus, his associate Maecenas provided material support and patronized outstanding poets- Virgil, Horace and Ovid. Virgil
(70-19 BC) published Bucoliki, a collection in which he glorified Augustus; "Georgics" - a poem dedicated to rural life. And fame brought him the poem "Aeneid". Horace(65-8 BC) sang antiquity in verse and also praised Augustus. He wrote love poems and satires that ridiculed the vices of Roman society. Ovid(43 BC - 17 AD) became famous for love poems and the poem "Metamorphoses", built on the basis of myths.
In the 1st century BC. appeared in Rome and philosophical works. The most prominent of the Roman thinkers was considered a materialist philosopher Lucretius Kar(c. 98-54 BC). He outlined his views on the emergence of the universe, nature, and man in the poem "On the Nature of Things", where with brilliant skill he described complex philosophical problems in an accessible form, in verse.
In the 1st century AD in the bowels of the Roman Empire Christianity was born. Violent internal struggle for power and changes in socio-economic and the political conditions of life of the peoples of Europe led the Roman Empire to decline. Christian church negative and hostile attitude towards ancient culture considering it barbaric. This factor accelerated the death of the culture of Ancient Rome.
In 395, the Roman Empire split into Western and Eastern. The Western Roman Empire ceased to exist in 476. The Eastern Roman Empire, called Byzantium, lasted another thousand years. Destroyed and plundered by the barbarians in the IV-VII centuries. Rome is deserted; new villages grew up among its ruins, but the traditions of Roman art continued to live.
The art of Hellenism vividly reflected the ideas that excited the people of that turbulent era, and artistic culture became the basis for the development of many types of art in various areas of the Mediterranean. With the extinction of the Hellenistic states from the end of the 1st century BC. e. leading value in the ancient world acquires Roman art. Having absorbed many of the achievements of the culture and art of Greece, it embodied them in the artistic practice of the colossal Roman power.
The Romans introduced features of a more sober worldview into the ancient anthropocentrism of the Greeks. Accuracy and historicism of thinking, harsh prose underlie their artistic culture, which is far from the sublime poetics of the myth-making of the Greeks.
The culture of Rome enters our consciousness from school years the mysterious legend of Romulus, Remus, and their adopted wolf mother. Rome is the ringing of gladiatorial swords and the thumbs down of the Roman beauties who were present at the gladiatorial battles and longing for the death of the defeated. Rome is Julius Caesar, who, on the banks of the Rubicon, says "The die is cast" and begins civil war, and then, falling under the daggers of the conspirators, he says: “And you, Brutus!” Roman culture is associated with the activities of many Roman emperors. Among them is Augustus, who proudly declares that he accepted Rome in brick, and leaves marble for posterity. Caligula about to appoint his horse senator, Claudius with his empress Messalina, whose name has become synonymous with violent debauchery, Nero who set fire to Rome to inspire the poem about the fire of Troy, Vespasian with his cynical words "Money does not smell", and the noble Titus, who, if he didn’t do a single good deed in a day, said: “Friends, I lost a day” (Gasparov M. L. Preface // Gaius Suetonius Tranquila. Life of the Twelve Caesars. M., 1988. P. 5).
The artistic culture of Rome was distinguished by a great variety and diversity of forms, it reflected the features characteristic of the art of the peoples conquered by Rome, sometimes standing on a more high degree cultural development. Roman art developed on the basis of a complex interpenetration of the original art of local Italic tribes and peoples, primarily the powerful Etruscans, who introduced the Romans to the art of urban planning ( various options vaults, the Tuscan order, engineering structures, temples and residential buildings, etc.), wall monumental painting, a sculptural and pictorial portrait, characterized by a sharp perception of nature and character. But the main thing was still the influence of Greek art. In the words of Horace, "Greece, having become a prisoner, captivated the rude conquerors."
The basic principles of the artistic culture of the two peoples were different in their origins. The beautiful, "the proper measure in everything," was for the Greek both the ideal and the principle of culture. The Greeks, as already noted, recognized the power of harmony, proportion and beauty, the Romans did not recognize any other power than the power of force. They created a great and powerful state, and the whole structure of Roman life was determined by this great power. Personal talents were not put forward and not cultivated - the social attitude was completely different. Hence the formula of researchers of Roman culture: "great deeds were accomplished by the Romans, but among them there were no great people" - great artists, architects, sculptors. Let's clarify - there were no equal in importance to geniuses ancient Greece. The strength of the state was expressed primarily in construction.
Architecture played a leading role in Roman art during its heyday, the monuments of which, even in ruins, conquer with their power. The Romans started new era world architecture, in which the main place belonged to public buildings, designed for huge numbers of people. In everything ancient world architecture has no equal in terms of the height of engineering art, the variety of types of structures, the richness of compositional forms, and the scale of construction. The Romans introduced engineering structures (aqueducts, bridges, roads, harbors, fortresses) as architectural objects in the urban, rural ensemble and landscape. They reworked the principles Greek architecture and above all the order system.
But the humanistic beginning, noble grandeur and harmony, which are the foundations of Greek art, in Rome gave way to tendencies to exalt the power of emperors, the military power of the empire. Hence the large-scale exaggerations, external effects, the false pathos of huge buildings, and next to it - the impoverished shacks of the poor, cramped crooked streets and urban slums.
In the field of monumental sculpture, the Romans were far behind the Greeks and did not create monuments as significant as the Greek ones. But they enriched the plastic with the disclosure of new aspects of life, developed everyday and historical relief, which constituted the most important part of the architectural decor.
The best heritage of Roman sculpture was the portrait. As an independent type of creativity, it can be traced from the beginning of the 1st century BC. e. The Romans were the authors of a new understanding of this genre. They, unlike the Greek sculptors, closely and vigilantly studied the face of a particular person with his unique features. In the portrait genre, the original realism of Roman sculptors, observation and the ability to generalize observations in a certain art form. Roman portraits historically recorded changes in the appearance of people, their customs and ideals.
The ideal of the era was the wise and strong-willed Roman Cato - a man of a practical mindset, the guardian of strict morals. An example of such an image is sharply individual portrait a Roman with a thin, asymmetrical face, with a tense gaze and a skeptical smile. The civic ideals of the republican era are embodied in monumental full-length portraits - statues of Togatus ("Worn in a toga"), usually depicted standing straight, in the pose of an orator. The well-known statue "Orator" (beginning of the 1st century BC), depicts a Roman or Etruscan master at the moment of addressing fellow citizens with a speech.
At the end of the 1st century BC. e. The Roman state from an aristocratic republic turned into an empire. The so-called "Roman peace" - a lull in the class struggle during the reign of Augustus (27 BC-24 AD) stimulated the high flowering of art. Ancient historians characterize this period as the "golden age" of the Roman state. The names of the architect Vitruvius, the historian Titus Livius, the poets Virgil, Ovid, Horace are associated with him.
Late 1st and early 2nd centuries n. e. - the time of creation of grandiose architectural complexes, structures of large spatial scope. Next to the ancient republican forum, the forums of emperors intended for solemn ceremonies were erected. were built multi-story houses- they determined the appearance of Rome and other cities of the empire. The epitome of the power and historical significance of Imperial Rome were triumphal structures glorifying military victories.
The most gigantic spectacular building of Ancient Rome is the Colosseum, a place of grandiose spectacles and gladiator fights. The builders had to comfortably accommodate 50 thousand spectators in its huge stone bowl. The powerful walls of the Colosseum are divided into four tiers by continuous arcades; on the lower floor they served for entry and exit. The funneled seats were divided according to the social rank of the spectators. In terms of the grandeur of the idea and the breadth of the spatial solution, the Pantheon temple competes with the Colosseum, captivating with free harmony. Built by Apollodorus of Damascus, it represents classic look central-domed building, the largest and most perfect in antiquity. In the future, the largest architects sought to surpass the Pantheon in scale and perfection of embodiment. The ancient sense of proportion remained inaccessible.
Artistic ideals of Roman art of the 111th-4th centuries. n. e. reflected the complex nature of the era: the collapse of the ancient way of life and worldview was accompanied by new searches in art. The grand scale of some of the monuments in Rome and its provinces is reminiscent of architecture ancient east.
During the era of empire further development relief and round plastic. On the Field of Mars, a monumental marble Altar of Peace (13-9 AD) was erected on the occasion of the victory of Augustus in Spain and Gaul. The upper part of the altar ends with a relief depicting the solemn procession to the altar of Augustus, his family and Roman patricians, endowed with accurate portrait characteristics. The craftsmanship, free drawing testify to the Greek influence.
Leading place in Roman sculpture still occupied the portrait. His new direction arose under the influence of Greek art and was called "August classicism". In the age of August, the character of the image changed dramatically - it reflected the ideal of strict classic beauty, is the type of new man that republican Rome did not know. Full-length ceremonial court portraits appeared, filled with restraint and grandeur.
Later, lifelike and convincing works are created, and the portrait reaches one of the peaks of its development. The desire to individualize the image sometimes reached the grotesque in its expressiveness. In the portrait of Nero, with a low forehead, a heavy suspicious look from under swollen eyelids and an ominous smile of a sensual mouth, the cold cruelty of a despot, a man of base, unbridled passions, is revealed.
At the time of the crisis of the ancient worldview (II century AD), individualism and spirituality, self-deepening and, at the same time, refinement and fatigue, characterizing the period of decline, are recorded in the portrait. The finest chiaroscuro and brilliant polishing of the surface of the face made the marble glow from within, destroying the sharpness of the contour lines; picturesque masses of restlessly flowing hair set off the transparency of features with their matte texture. Such is the portrait of the "Syrian Woman", ennobled by the subtlest experiences. In the face changed from the lighting, a barely noticeable ironic smile shines through. When the point of view changes, the smile disappears - a shade of sadness and fatigue appears.
This era includes a monumental bronze equestrian statue Marcus Aurelius, re-installed in the 16th century. designed by Michelangelo in the Capitoline Square in Rome. The image of the emperor is the embodiment of the civic ideal and humanity. With a wide pacifying gesture, he addresses the people. This is the image of a philosopher, the author of "Reflections in private", indifferent to fame and fortune. The folds of his clothes merge him with the mighty body of a magnificently molded slow-moving horse. "More beautiful and smarter than your head the horse of Marcus Aurelius, - wrote the German historian Winckelmann, - cannot be found in nature.
The third century is the heyday of the Roman portrait, more and more freed from traditional ideals, artistic techniques and types and revealing the very essence of the portrayed. This heyday took place in the complex contradictory conditions of the decline and decay of the Roman state and its culture, the elimination of forms of high ancient art, but at the same time, the emergence in the depths of ancient society of a new social feudal order, new powerful creative tendencies. The strengthening of the role of the provinces, the influx of barbarians, who often stood at the head of the empire, poured fresh strength into the fading Roman art, determined the new look of late Roman culture. It outlined the features that were developed in the Middle Ages in the West and East, in the art of the Renaissance. Images of people appeared in the portrait, full of extraordinary energy, self-affirmation, egocentrism, lust for power, brute force, born of a cruel and tragic struggle, which captured society at that time.
Late period development of the portrait is marked by an external coarsening of the appearance and increased spiritual expression. Thus in Roman art arises new system thinking, in which aspiration to the sphere of spirituality, characteristic for medieval art. The image of a person who has lost the ethical ideal in life itself has lost the harmony of the physical and spiritual principles, characteristic of ancient world.
Roman art completed big period ancient artistic culture. In 395, the Roman Empire split into Western and Eastern. Destroyed, plundered by the barbarians in the IV-VII centuries. Rome was deserted, new settlements grew among its ruins, but the traditions of Roman art continued to live. Artistic images Ancient Rome was inspired by the masters of the Renaissance.
The culture of Ancient Rome significantly influenced the development of European and world history. Back in those days, traditional values, norms of social life and socio-psychological patterns of behavior were laid down, which for a thousand years were the basis of European enlightenment. Rome was also the "founder" of democracy, and civic responsibility, which testifies to the high social level development, which contributed to the formation of a strong and developed state.
Initially, the culture of Ancient Rome was formed under the influence of the Greek and Etruscan peoples, but later the Romans in many ways surpassed their teachers, reaching admirable heights. It all started with a religion that recognized the power of spirits and deities. Since the Roman pantheon was always open to "foreign" forces, it was believed that new deities only increase the power of the Roman inhabitants, so the mythology of Rome began to identify its gods with the Greek ones.
It was the same with philosophy and literature. Initially, the Greek sages and writers "became" Roman, and their works were translated into Latin, but then, studying the works of great philosophers and supplementing the conclusions own experience, many truly Roman great writers and scientists showed their abilities. This is how the culture of Ancient Rome was born.
Further development took place in all spheres of culture. In architecture, the Romans made a significant step forward. They preferred the construction of buildings that were more in line with practical needs and emphasized the power that overwhelms a person with its grandeur than temple (spiritual) complexes. As a result, they have new types of structures (amphitheater, terma and basil) and structures (arches, domes, pillars).
The culture of Ancient Rome briefly describes some of the achievements of Greece, because during their conquests, the Romans exported from a large number of valuables and works of art. These trophies were subsequently copied, which, unfortunately, hindered the development own painting and sculptures. Thus, ancient Rome was characterized by a fairly good development only portrait genre(statues depicting a figure in a toga, busts), which was distinguished by the simplicity and accuracy of the image.
As already mentioned, main feature Roman thinking was practical, which contributed to the development of applied sciences. Due to this high level reached jurisprudence, according to which numerous literary masterpieces have come down to us. In addition, new household utensils, glass and bronze dishes, water mills, devices for space heating and water heating, and much more were "invented".
One of the reasons that Rome began to flourish was the improvement in the material and economic situation of the empire, which ensured the necessary conditions for the formation of values, gave rise to the ancient intelligentsia (poets, teachers, philosophers and other masters of art).
