How was the roman culture changed by contact with the Hellenistic of Greece?

Several Greek city-states established colonies (settlements) in southern Italy and Sicily in the 8th and 7th century BC, presumably due to insufficient land to support population growth in the homeland. Being a more advanced civilisation, their arrival had a big impact on all the Italic peoples they came in contact with during the archaic (early) period. This led, among other things, to the adoption and adaptation of the western Greek alphabet by all Italic peoples, including the Latins and the Romans (the Romans were Latins).

Etruscan civilisation arose out of trade with and influence by these Greeks in what has been called the orientalising period; a term which refers to a period when Greek art was influenced by motifs from their east/orient, notably Syria and Egypt. The wealth which gave rise to Etruscan civilisation came from their mines and selling their metals to the Greeks. The Etruscans imported Greek manufactures, particularly pottery. They also adapted and adopted the orientalised style for their own pottery.

The Italic peoples also adopted stone houses and temples and the columns used to support roofs or for porticoes of the Greeks. Recent archaeological finds have shown that the archaic Latins were also involved in this process described above and that there was influence by the Greeks of Cumae (a Greek city near Naples, some 125 miles south of Rome) as well as the Etruscan neighbours.

Very early Roman religion was influenced by the Sabines and the Etruscans. The Sabines were part of the early population of Rome. The foundation of Rome involved a fusion between the Latins and the Sabines who lived on the Seven Hills of Rome. The second king of Rome was a Sabine from the nearby land of the Sabines. He laid the foundation of archaic (early) Roman religion (which then decayed). The Etruscans were Rome's next door neighbours.

The biggest influence on Roman religion was the Greeks. Originally it came for the colonies (settlements) the Greeks established in southern Italy and Sicily from the 8th and 7th century BC. Then with the beginning of contacts with mainland Greece, there was also influence for that part of the Greek world.

Already the 6th century BC the Romans started using the books of the Sibylline who were Greek oracles, some of whom lived in Greek city of Cumae in in southern Italy, just 125 moles south of Rome. They also adopted the Greek god Apollo, who was an oracular god (that is he was the god of the oracles) and built the Temple of Apollo Medicus (the doctor) in in 431. BC. Apollo's son, who mediated Apollo's association with medicine and healing, was also adopted. The Senate was instructed to build a temple in his honour by the Sybil oracles in 293 BC. The Romans also procured a statue of him from Greece. The Romans also adopted the Greek twin gods Castor and Pollux and the mythology associated with them by the late 5th century. They turned Heracles, the Greek mythological hero (whom they called Hercules) into a god because he was said to have killed Cacus, a fire-breathing giant who was terrorising the Roman countryside during his 10th labour and founded an altar of Hercules. During the Second Punic War (218-202 BC) they 'imported' Cybele (whom they called Magna Mater, Great Mother) a Greek goddess because the books of the Sibyl oracles said that with this Rome could defeat Carthage. Besides adopting some Greek gods, at one point the Romans linked their gods to the Greek gods and their associated mythologies

With contact with mainland Greece, there was also influence from this part of the Greek world. The first professional teachers in Rome were Greeks. The children of the rich received an education in both Latin and Greek and were fluent in Greek. The pinnacle of their education was a stay in Greece to study Greek philosophy. From Augustus onwards, the Romans moDELLed their statues on the Hellenistic ones. They also copied and moDELLed statues on those of the great classical sculptors of Greece. They adopted Greek medicine and Greek sports. They adopted and greatly improved on the Greek cranes and the ballista (a crossbow-like) catapult. Latin tragedies and comedies and theatre were based on the Greek ones. Roman theatre architecture was inspired by that of the Greeks. However, whilst the seating of Greek theatres were always built on hillsides, the Romans also built theatres with their own foundations which could be built on flat land.