Compare and Contrast Essay

1. Ryann Woods<br />Period 1<br />03-06-11<br />Time Traveler Compare and Contrast Essay<br />Greece and Rome<br /> <br />From the Greek’s softly read poetry to the swift chariot races of the Romans, or the tunics of the Greeks and the Roman togas, both civilizations were extremely unique in most ways. However, the Greeks and Romans had a large number of commonalities, too. The entertainment, clothing, and war techniques of the Greek and Roman civilizations are both very unique and very similar. <br />Romans enjoyed the faster paced forms of entertainment, such as chariot racing, and gruesome battles in amphitheaters, like the famous Coliseum. Romans also enjoyed gambling, and had a variety of dice and board games. The Greeks preferred the artistic forms of entertainment. The Greeks are known for their stories and poems. Epics like the ‘Iliad’ and ‘Odyssey’ are still popular today. Both Romans and Greeks enjoyed the theater, however, with tragedies being the most popular. Only men were allowed to act in these plays, and the plays included a chorus and masks, although Roman plays often did not have a chorus. <br />Roman and Greek clothing were very similar. The Greek and Roman men wore tunics, although some Roman men wore togas. The children’s dress was all simple and practical. Women wore more elaborate up-dos while men kept it uncomplicated, and women’s dress was less restricted by the rules of society than men. The Romans, on the other hand, had more ‘rules’ to their clothing, like having specific thread colors and stripes on their togas and tunics, as did women. Greeks went barefoot the majority of the time, while Romans wore leather sandals. <br />Using large blocks of soldiers was a favorite tactic of both the Romans and Greeks. Both would position men in blocks, so that the soldiers were shoulder to shoulder, creating impenetrable walls with their shields and marching forward in unison. Both used spears and swords as the main weapons. This block tactic required a great deal of courage, because if one soldier was to run away and break the line, the whole formation would fall apart. The tactic also required a long period of training because the men had to be in step with each other. However, the Romans were known for their more intense feeling of camaraderie and were trained more to improvise and use anything and everything around them as a weapon. <br />In entertainment, clothing, and war techniques, the Romans and Greeks share many similarities but are also incredibly exceptional. Although the civilizations were very separate from each other and rose in different climates and terrains, the people remained the same in their ability to generate practical solutions to the frenzied atmosphere of war at that time, and clothes that would not get in the way of day-to-day needs and jobs. <br />