Greco-Roman Religion in both Greece and Rome was polytheistic, embracing a multitude of gods and goddesses, especially in the Roman Empire which tended to absorb the deities of the countries it conquered. The Greco-Roman period of history refers to the culture of the peoples who were incorporated into the Roman Republic and Empire. The "classical" Greco-Roman period ends with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. However, the Greco-Roman civilization continued in the East for another millennium (although as with all civilizations it changed over time). Terms such as Greco-Roman World are also coined by scholars to denote the geographical borders of the culture's impact. After the Punic Wars, Greco-Roman civilization dominated permanently over the Carthago Phoenician areas and the entire Mediterranean basin. The Greco-Roman dominion reflects the essential unity of the Mediterranean world at the time when this culture flourished, between the 3rd century BC and the 5th century AD. In the succeeding centuries the notion of a common Greco-Roman culture in the Mediterranean became more and more distant from reality. Within its educated class, spanning all of the "Greco-Roman" era, the testimony of literary borrowings and influences is overwhelming proof of a mantle of mutual knowledge. Imperial Rome is identified with the cultural legacy of its forebears; it sustained that tradition without innovation, until Constantine broke away from the attenuated religion of the Greco-Roman past and transformed Rome's cultural matrix by acknowledging the faith of a persecuted minority. The life of Constantine is arguably a better terminus of the Greco-Roman age than any other; it may equally be considered as the herald of the Middle Ages. In the cities of the Greco-Roman period, Greek ideas were disseminated, Greek dress was fashionable, and the externals of Greek civilization, baths, theaters, amphitheaters, hippodromes, fountains, aqueducts, arches, and the like were highly visible. The Greco-Roman world did not lack gods and goddesses. Although Caesarea was home to many Jews, its population became primarily Hellenistic (Greek-speaking inhabitants who worshiped Greco-Roman gods). Many Romans worshipped the traditional Greco-Roman gods, but Romans were also Christians, Jews, and followers of Eastern religions such as the cults of Mithras, Isis and Astarte. The major Greco-Roman gods are illustrated, as are a number of depictions of Medusa, Heracles performing his labors, and other mythological figures, such as genii on Roman sarcophagi. In ancient times, Hebe was regarded as the goddess of youth and the servant of the Greco-Roman gods. Pompeii's large theatre underwent a structural change from the Hellenistic style to a more Greco-Roman style. So as you can see there are many studies and thoughts regarding the Roman-Greco period.
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