Greek culture particularly thrived in the eastern parts of the Roman Empire, where the Greeks had carried out extensive trade and which Alexander had conquered. By the first century C. E., Rome had political control over the Jewish land of Judaea, located in what is now Israel and Jordan.
In this Jewish land influenced by Romans and Greeks, a new monotheistic (belief in one god) religion emerged: Christianity. Jesus Christ spoke the Middle Eastern language of Aramaic, but the followers who spread his teachings wrote and spoke primarily in Greek, the common language of the eastern Roman Empire. Later debates about Christianity’s doctrines took place in Greek, and, according to Thomas Cahill in Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea, reflected the kind of issues ancient Greek philosophers addressed, such as the nature of matter and spirit. Cahill writes, “The two great rivers of our cultural patrimony-the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian-flow into each other to become the mighty torrent of Western civilization.”
By 395 C. E. the Roman Empire had split in half, reunited, and then split again. The eastern portion, including Greece, was ruled from Constantinople (now Istanbul). Even before this point, the Greek-speaking east was becoming the economic and political center of the empire, and it was the seat of four of the five bishops of the Christian Church, who were based in Constantinople, Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Antioch, Syria. Rome and the western half of the empire fell to invaders in 476 c. e. The greatness that had been Rome lived on in the more Hellenized east, which became known as the Byzantine Empire.
The Byzantine emperors were aware that they carried on two great cultural traditions. Rome had been famous for its highly developed system of laws and courts, as well as efficient government and skilled engineering. The Byzantines also knew their roots went back even further, to the greatness of Classical Greece and its art, science, and philosophy. Greek scholars in the Byzantine Empire kept that intellectual tradition alive when the West entered into its own Dark Age, when wars continued to erupt and only a handful of Christian monks knew the basics of reading and writing.
Importance of Logos
Dialogues were at the heart of Plato's writing, and at the heart of the word dialogue is the Greek word logos. In a general sense, logos means "word" or "speech." The prefix dia means "through," "apart," or "across," so a dialogue features words sent across from one person to another. To the ancient Greeks, logos also had a deeper meaning: the reason or order that controls the universe. Early Christian writers used logos to mean the literal word of Jesus Christ, as well as the order and wisdom he represented for the universe. Logos is still used that way today.
World History
