When we think of Rome we envisage an empire and the civil strife prior to Caesar establishing himself as dictator for life and then Augustus becoming emperor with tribunal powers for life. But Rome grew from a little town to an Italian military power and then a western Mediterranean power before it looked east with any interest.
It is possible that the Etruscan nobility came from Greece, and the Greeks were well established in Sicily and Sardinia as well as with trading cities on the southern Italian coast. Carthage, which was to become Rome's greatest rival, was originally a Phoenician city. So Greece and the eastern Mediterranean cultures were not unknown to Rome, however by Greek cultural standards Romans were militaristic barbarians.
During the Second Punic War the Greeks, or more accurately, the Macedonians, came into Roman foreign policy considerations with Phillip. This was really the first time that any great absorption of Greek Culture occurred - and it was picked up by the Roman progressives, such as the Scipios, as well as resisted by Roman conservatives such as Cato.
H.H Scullard writes:
Cato, who with narrow nationalism had withstood the liberal policy of the Scipios, now set himself to stem the tide that threatened to sweep away the simplicity of Roman life. Greek men of culture roused his puritanical suspicions; the corruption of others was only too patent and all were tarred with the same brush since they threatened to undermine the mos maiorium . In every field a bitter struggle was waged between the nationalists and the Hellenists, each of whom only saw the only one side of Greek culture. But Cato fought a losing battle despite his fulminations a younger generation of enthusiasts for received the torch of Hellenism unquenched.Interesting.
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