The Roman Empire is considered one of the most influential civilizations in human history. Their philosophical, technological, and artistic developments would remain outpaced by the rest of the Western world for over a thousand years after the Roman collapse. However, the Romans were not entirely original. Before Rome, there was Greece. As the Romans expanded and came into closer contact with the Greeks, they began to absorb the rich Greek philosophy and culture, which in many ways was very similar to existing Roman ideas. However, many Romans rejected this Greek influence, as they saw it as a threat to their way of life and a corruption of the mind. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The beginning of the Roman Empire was not the end of ancient Greek culture. Greek schools of philosophy survived despite the encroachment of the Roman Empire, because even the Romans considered Greek culture worth preserving. Even at the height of the Roman Empire, Greek schools were supported and developed. Even some emperors of Rome actively promoted and enriched Greek philosophical ideas. Marcus Aurelius, known as the "Philosopher Emperor", was heavily influenced by Greek philosophers, and much of what he is known to have written and disseminated was the result of this Greek influence. The height of the Roman Empire owed much to the philosophy introduced by the Greeks. The Roman writer Cicero was himself a student of Greek philosophy and a proponent of Greek Stoicism. Cicero, in The Laws, explores the Stoic idea of ​​natural law: "There is surely nothing more precious than the full realization that we are born for justice, and that this right is based, not on opinions men, but on nature” (Sources 74). ). Cicero had completely adhered to the idea of ​​a natural law governing the universe. He asserts that virtue, which exists only in man and God, is a “resemblance between man and God” (Sources 74). This idea of ​​virtue is nothing other than perfect nature. Roman patriots, especially in the more unstable Roman Empire, were strongly opposed to Greek philosophy, because the influence and credibility of Greek philosophy posed a threat to the idea of ​​the total superiority of all things Roman. . As Greek philosophers began to come to Rome, a divide developed between obsessive admiration and general contempt for philosophers, particularly between the young Romans who were being exposed to them for the first time and the Older conservative Romans concerned about Roman superiority. The appealing reasoning of Stoicism made sense to many young Romans, but the conservative powers of the day didn't like it so much. The Greek Plutarch discusses this tension in his work Lives. “So that people soon began to tell that a Greek, famous to the point of admiration, winning and carrying everything before him, had impressed upon young people such a strange love, that abandoning all their pleasures and pastimes , they became mad, as they were, after philosophy; which indeed greatly pleased the Romans in general” (Sources 76). Plutarch then contrasts this with Cato the Elder, a conservative Roman who denounced Socrates and warned that Greek philosophy would incite Roman youth to engage in similar inflammatory behavior (Sources 76). Additionally, Cato wanted all philosophers to be "expelled from the city" (sources 77) and feared that philosophy would lead to the destruction of.