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the mythological traditions, literature and everyday life. Until the end of the
classical period architecture, painting and sculpture primarily served for the public
purpose, focusing on the construction of temples and other sacred objects,
perpetuating civil life events and famous people (winners of athletic, poets’,

playwrights’, painters’, sculptors’ competitions). Favorite materials of the Greek
artists were marble, limestone, wood and tiles. The sculptors worked with marble,
limestone, clay, bronze. Large sculptures were made of chased bronze plates or

plates covered with gold and ivory on the top of a wooden base. Stone and clay
sculptures were painted in part or completely with bright water colors, and natural
colors were not necessarily observed (beard could be green, skin – blue, eyes –

red). Temple building which combined the richness of the color, harmony of
mathematical accurateness and clever adaptation to the peculiarities of relief
seemed to bear something mythological.

The ancient democracy existed in various forms, depending on the
population: as a true democracy (Athens), oligarchy, the power of certain groups,
such as the aristocratic clans (Sparta), the monarchy that was governed by the
Board (Syracuse, where the king’s power was limited by the national assembly), a

tyranny - the power of a tyrant with special political powers (Peisistratos, Pericles).

4. Ancient Roman culture
A civilization of ancient Rome was the last stage of the development of the
ancient culture.The ethnic sources of the Roman people are very different: Siculo,
Sabine and other groups of the ancient population of the peninsula. The Etruscans

– quite mysterious people who created the most advanced culture in Pre-Roman
Italy, and subsequently dissolved in the Roman ethnos played a significant role.
The effect of the Etruscan culture is reflected not only in the legends of the first

kings of Rome. In fact, the Romans almost completely adopted the system of
beliefs and religious practices of the Etruscans, their architectural traditions, and on
the basis of the Etruscan alphabet, which was an adaptation of the Greek alphabet,

created the classic Latin alphabet of 26 letters. The famous Roman toga with
purple trim, a fascia as a state symbol, military triumphs, gladiatorial combats,
common practices of magic and divination among the Romans had the Etruscan

origins.
The myth of Aeneas as the progenitor of the legendary founders of Rome
brothers Romulus and Remus fed by the wold (a bronze statue still stands at the
Capitol) provides an opportunity to talk about the Mycenaean and Trojan cultural

component. However, the influence of the South Italian Greek colonies was more
tangible.

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