| Greco-Roman Religion in both Greece and Rome was | | | | religion of the Greco-Roman past and transformed |
| polytheistic, embracing a multitude of gods and | | | | Rome's cultural matrix by acknowledging the faith of a |
| goddesses, especially in the Roman Empire which | | | | persecuted minority. The life of Constantine is arguably |
| tended to absorb the deities of the countries it | | | | a better terminus of the Greco-Roman age than any |
| conquered. The Greco-Roman period of history refers | | | | other; it may equally be considered as the herald of |
| to the culture of the peoples who were incorporated | | | | the Middle Ages. In the cities of the Greco-Roman |
| into the Roman Republic and Empire. The "classical" | | | | period, Greek ideas were disseminated, Greek dress |
| Greco-Roman period ends with the fall of the | | | | was fashionable, and the externals of Greek civilization, |
| Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. | | | | baths, theaters, amphitheaters, hippodromes, fountains, |
| However, the Greco-Roman civilization continued in the | | | | aqueducts, arches, and the like were highly visible. |
| East for another millennium (although as with all | | | | The Greco-Roman world did not lack gods and |
| civilizations it changed over time). Terms such as | | | | goddesses. Although Caesarea was home to many |
| Greco-Roman World are also coined by scholars to | | | | Jews, its population became primarily Hellenistic |
| denote the geographical borders of the culture's | | | | (Greek-speaking inhabitants who worshiped |
| impact. After the Punic Wars, Greco-Roman civilization | | | | Greco-Roman gods). Many Romans worshipped the |
| dominated permanently over the Carthago Phoenician | | | | traditional Greco-Roman gods, but Romans were also |
| areas and the entire Mediterranean basin. The | | | | Christians, Jews, and followers of Eastern religions |
| Greco-Roman dominion reflects the essential unity of | | | | such as the cults of Mithras, Isis and Astarte. The |
| the Mediterranean world at the time when this culture | | | | major Greco-Roman gods are illustrated, as are a |
| flourished, between the 3rd century BC and the 5th | | | | number of depictions of Medusa, Heracles performing |
| century AD. | | | | his labors, and other mythological figures, such as genii |
| In the succeeding centuries the notion of a common | | | | on Roman sarcophagi. In ancient times, Hebe was |
| Greco-Roman culture in the Mediterranean became | | | | regarded as the goddess of youth and the servant of |
| more and more distant from reality. Within its educated | | | | the Greco-Roman gods. |
| class, spanning all of the "Greco-Roman" era, the | | | | Pompeii's large theatre underwent a structural change |
| testimony of literary borrowings and influences is | | | | from the Hellenistic style to a more Greco-Roman |
| overwhelming proof of a mantle of mutual knowledge. | | | | style. |
| Imperial Rome is identified with the cultural legacy of its | | | | So as you can see there are many studies and |
| forebears; it sustained that tradition without innovation, | | | | thoughts regarding the Roman-Greco period. |
| until Constantine broke away from the attenuated | | | | |