CULTURAL CONTACTS

When Greek-style drama emerged in Rome in the mid-third century bce, Romans had been in contact with peoples in Italy and elsewhere in the Mediterranean for several centuries, and they had got to know their political organizations, their ways of life and various aspects of their cultures (e.g. literature, art, sciences). This situation resulted in exchanges, testified to by commercial activities (e.g. Greek vases in Italy) and the adaptation of customs (such as religious cults or the alphabet). The peoples Romans got in touch with included Carthaginians, Etruscans and Oscans, while the encounter with the Greek civilization (in Greece and the Greek colonies) proved to be particularly important for Rome's cultural development.

Greeks had been present in Italy since the colonization of the coastal areas in the south of the country and of the neighbouring islands (Magna Graecia) during the eighth to sixth centuries bce; Romans had dealt with those Greeks in political and commercial contexts. Greek artefacts found in Italy and Sicily demonstrate the spread of Greek culture and, specifically, of Greek myths: imported Greek vases from the sixth century bce onwards as well as locally made vases (esp. in Apulia, Lucania, Campania) particularly from the beginning of the fourth century bce onwards depict well-known Greek heroes and heroines, while south-Italian vase-paintings include pictures that illustrate myths rarely or never found on artefacts elsewhere.