2. Farmers in Mesopotamia benefitted from rich agriculture, and from a pottery and obsidian tool production. The wheel had been introduced and improvements were made in the irrigation network. When the rivers rise in the spring, they depositing immensely fertile soil. To deal with the dry seasons and to keep …show more content…
Both the ancient Greeks and Romans began their histories as city-states. The jagged coastline and mountainous terrain of the Greek peninsula caused isolation between the various Greek city-states. On the other hand, the city of Rome was located in the geographical plain bordered on the easy with mountains and on the west by the sea. The Greeks heavily influenced the Romans. By the time the city-state of Rome emerged as a distinct entity and was poised to expand its own unique influence, the Greek civilization had spread throughout the area. The Greek were heavily into isolation and based on their opinion of all outsiders as Barbarians, the expansion of that Greek empire was not achieved. The closest the Greeks came to an empire was the expansion of the Athenians by domination of the Delian League, yet the Peloponnesian Wars thwarted this. The Romans in contrast took other communities on the Italian peninsula under their control. In the beginning this was through conquest, but later they began extending Roman citizenship to conquered peoples. Over time the conquered people came to identify themselves as Romans. The biggest components in the success of the Roman Empire were their military prowess, and their ability to extending their government over the conquered people. This process led to the creation of professional soldiers. The Greek city-states were united by force, first by invading Macedonians, and then by the Romans. The Greek culture was more sophisticated, and their grasp on learning and philosophy was significantly advanced. Conversely. Roman culture would eventually be overwhelmed as they absorbed the cultural influences of conquered peoples. The majority of art, structure and philosophy that the Romans displayed were heavily taken from the Greeks. While the two civilizations differ in landscape and approach, the Romans took much of their displayed culture was directly borrowed from eh