Our family home-educates. The way we studied history was basically by starting with creation, and then moving on up till the Victorian era - at which stage my other sibblings went back to square one - you can never get enough history. Out of all the ancient civilizations, Greece was my favourite. The ancient Greek civilization played the second most influential part in the shaping of Western culture as we know it. (the most influential has been Christianity). We call the ancient Greek culture "helenistic". I really appreciated the ancient Greeks. For their battles won, their cool "gods", and their amazing buildings and massive empire.
It seems, on the whole, that the Greeks, though claiming allegiance to a host of "gods" living on Mount Olympus, were quite nominal in their belief. They were open to debate and new ideas, and they did not attempt to stamp out Christianity - at least, not to the extent that the Roman empire did. The Greeks loved everything that was aesthetically good, and pleasing. Culture, design and thought flourished throughout the Greek empire.
The Romans, on the other hand, I find to be quite repugnant. A grossly immoral and bloodthirsty nation of the dissipated rich. Partying, watching forced battles between slaves, and watching Christians burnt alive or ripped apart by lions were these people's chief recreation.
Several years previous to our family's visit to Greece, we had studied ancient Greece. Here's some pictures of ruins and stuff, a few of which, I stumbled into...
Souvilaki time.
