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The Greco-Roman world () – also Greco-Roman civilization, Greco-Roman culture, or Greco-Latin culture (spelled Græco- or Graeco- in British English) – is the modern term for the regions that historically and culturally fell under the direct influence of the language, culture, government, and religion of the ancient Greeks and Romans. The two cultures first blended significantly within the military sphere of the Roman Republic, and then the widening Roman Empire. The term "classical antiquity" describes the accompanying time period when Greco-Roman culture exerted its greatest influence and dominance on the European continent. In these regions, the cultural perceptions, ideas, and sensitivities of these peoples became dominant in classical antiquity.
That process was aided by the universal adoption of Greek as the language of intellectual culture and commerce in the Eastern Mediterranean and of Latin as the language of public administration and of law, especially in the Western Mediterranean.
Greek and Latin were never the native languages of many or most of the rural peasants, who formed the great majority of the Roman Empire's population. They became the languages of the urban and cosmopolitan elites and the Empire's lingua franca for those who lived within the large territories and populations outside the Macedonian settlements and the Roman colonies.
All Roman citizens of note and accomplishment, regardless of their ethnic extractions, spoke and wrote in Greek or Latin. Examples include the Roman jurist and imperial chancellor Ulpian of Phoenician origin; the mathematician and geographer Claudius Ptolemy of Greco-Egyptian ethnicity; and the theologian Augustine of Berber origin. The historian Josephus Flavius, who was of Jewish origin, spoke and wrote in Greek.
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General info from Wikipedia.org
