Can a grecco-roman philosophical/artistic renaissance occur during the peak of roman power?

after the shattering of Alexander's empire and the decline of the city-state, greek philosophy, arts and science never truly recovered to the great heights during the time of Socrates and Plato, and it would take about 1700 years for the west to truly explore the concepts raised there in a meaningful way, during OTL's renaissance.

however, only about 200 years after the end of the greek classical period, a new power came to dominate the area - the roman republic was wealthy, powerful, and very interested in greek culture (more specifically, the parts which they could exploit).
could this roman domination reignite the spark of art and learning in greece, and perhaps spread it to italy as well? what would be the ramifications of major advancments in science and philosophy (especially political philosophy) during the late republic, and perhaps early empire?
 

Skallagrim

Banned
The premise is incorrect. The whole idea that the Hellenistic era was degenerate and that the classical period of the Greek poleis was superior was invented in the Renaissance. It's not actually true. Philosophy didn't stagnate. Certainly, there were schools and movements, sometimes initially established by classical period figures such as Plato and Aristotle... but those schools did evolve and grow (and cross-influence each other: consider how a lot of Aristotelianism was absorbed into Middle Platonism). Art didn't suffer, either: the Renaissance and Enlightenment thinkers just had a very, very biased view of history, and a total hard-on for what they imagined classical Greece to have been. They picked and chose which works were "worthy", but their evaluations were not the be-all-end-all judgement, you know. The idea that science somehow declined after the classical period is especially wrong. In actual fact, the Hellenistic era saw some of the most insightful scientific work of all Antiquity.

Now, the Romans. You ask "what if they absorbed Greek thought and knowledge?" -- Congratulations, your question has already been answered, because that happened. The Romans were exceptionally familiar with the classics. They imitated art styles, and they based some of their classics on Greek classics (the Aeneid is ultimately Iliad fanfiction). They took the philosophy for themselves, too. Cicero comments on all the classics, for instance. You seem to think that knowledge was lost, but every learned boy knew his Aristotle and his Plato. Not to mention the Stoics. A lot of Roman intellectuels were Stoics. (Say "Hi, Emperor Marcus Aurelius, those are some nice meditations you've got there!")

Then you bring up political philosophy in particular. My friend, the education of young Romans with political ambitions included all the major Greek works on the matter.

It gets even better, since you are asking for this "at the height of roman power". That would, arguably, be the reign of Hadrian. Who was a total philhellene, and did everything in his (considerable) power to promote Greek culture in the Roman Empire. So rejoice: everything you ask for has in fact happened!
 
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