The Romans adopted MANY cultural practices from all of Latium and Etruria, but why was Classical Greek history, culture, architecture, and even literature integrated so throughly throughout the Roman Republic?

by Prussia792

The Romans of the same time period (200’s-100’s BCE) conquered Carthage and Spain, but other than the gladius and a navy, the amount taken from those cultures pales in comparison to what the Romans got from Greeks.

0ke_0

You answered yourself in the question: it's because of culture.

Greeks had a large cultural baggage to show to Romans, much more than Etruscans or other populations: they had literature, arts, maths, sciences.. Romans liked to respect other cultures, and in front of the magnificent of the Greek culture they only could absorb a lot of practices.

However it must be said that it was long and hard to let the Hellenic culture break into Romans hearts: Greeks had some colonies in the Italic Peninsula in the IV sec. B.C. , but the Hellenic culture started to spread only in the II sec. B.C., after the Roman expansion in the Mediterranean sea. A lot of slaves were brought to Rome, and some of them were men of culture, that Romans used to instruct their children.

I suggest you to read something about the "Mos Maiorum" and the "fight" between Catone and the Scipione family.

By your profile I see that you like Romans: read some books of Alberto Angela, one of the best documentarist in Italy.