User blog comment:Frodo the 9 fingered/Greeks vs Romans/@comment-199.7.156.141-20121023204127

Rome was in cantact with the Greeks from the time it was a village on a hill, some even say that Greek exiles helped build the city at it's beginings. Romans were known as good fighters who allied with one Greek city state or another vs other Greek city states. The Persians were crushed by the Greeks who were out numbered 5-1 but later masacred the Romans halting their eastward expansion forever!. Rome could never defeat the United Greek empire and worked tiressly to keep them fractured allying with one league then changing sides when that league got too strong. In the end the Greeks defeated themselves with their constant infighting never again being able to truly unite behind a single ruler Like Philip and Alexander, their arogant behavior towards their neighbors won them few friends, "If you are not Greek you are a barbarian". So when the Greeks went into decline Rome siezed the oppertunity to destroy their greatest threat at the time, the Greeks would have down the same to Rome if they could've reunited their people and empire. If Alexander hadn't died in Babylon and turned his army west do you really believe Rome would have stopped the Greeks? Rome couldn't even stop Hannibals small army of mercenaries from ravaging the whole peninsula for over a decade. The Romans inhaled Greek culture and knowledge and became great only after uniting Roman and Greek culture, how many beautiful Roman ruins pre-date the conquest of Greece? NONE! Comparing Rome at their peak to Greece at their peak is like comparing apples and oranges, Rome at it's peak had the benefit of Greek knowledge and thinkers at their disposal plus hundreds of years of technical/scientific advancements like Iron instead of bronze.