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Mediterranean Empires

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The Mediterranean fostered great civilizations as it provided the livelihoods for the people living in said civilizations. One of the first was the great Macedonian empire, whose leader was Alexander the Great. Alexander was an avid supporter of all things pertaining to Greek culture and spread it throughout the reaches of his empire. Even after the fall of the Macedonians, Greek influence still permeates the culture of the succeeding empires, blending various cultures in a process called syncretism. Between the years 200 C.E and 1000 C.E, civilizations in the Mediterranean Sea experienced changes in political systems due to the proximity of a civilization to another, instability, and the conflict between church and state. However, they also retained government policies left by previous empires and incorporated them into their own. …show more content…
It was an empire so vast, it considered the Mediterranean as a mere lake and encompassed most of Western Europe, North Africa, and extended to the Caucasus. Rome started as a kingdom, and then to a republic where it was ruled by two consuls. In comparison to Greece, Rome had a structure of government similar to that of the polis, which was the Senate. Both groups elected people to hold office. Although Rome at this time entitled itself as a “republic,” the senators served for life and wholly consisted of patricians. Members of the polis served for a limited amount of time and comprised of able men who were not necessarily wealthy. The Romans also adopted the phalanx from the Greeks, but improved it by reducing its size and thus making it more flexible to wield. Furthermore, the Greeks were xenophobic towards other nations and saw themselves as the pinnacle of human achievement, thus allowing citizenship only to adult males. Rome offered citizenship to all people within its borders in exchange for military

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