For the purposes of studying textual sources that fall under the banner of “Greek and Roman mythology,” which is one of Hamilton’s projects in Mythology, it is helpful to specify who we are talking about when we talk about ancient Greeks and Romans.

In the past, it has been commonplace to treat Greek and Roman antiquity as a single unit, with Rome as the “inheritor” of Greek culture, and the modern West as the “inheritor” of Greek and Roman culture (in the singular, as if they were one). This notion has come under considerable scrutiny in recent years as a romanticized and ahistorical perspective that overlooks the more complex dynamics of competition and exchange not only between Greece and Rome but also between the modern West and the ancient world—as well as between ancient Near Eastern cultures and ancient Greece. In short, the Greeks and the Romans can perhaps best be understood as distinct neighboring cultures that evolved side by side, both influencing and competing with each other, until the Roman conquest of the Greek-speaking world, which unfolded gradually between the second and first centuries BC.

The influence of Greek culture in Italy has been traced back to as early as the sixth century BC.