The eternal return of the ancient heritage

This article is an excerpt from Le Figaro Histoire "At the sources of Western civilization". Find in this issue a special report on everything we owe to Greek and Roman antiquity.

"At the sources of Western civilization" Le Figaro History

Peter Burke is Emeritus Professor of Cultural History at the University of Cambridge.

What is the place of Greco-Roman heritage in the history of European culture? Such a vast subject can only be the subject of a brief sketch here. I would not speak of "identity" or "roots," terms that would seem to imply that we Europeans are directly descended from the ancient Greeks and Romans, but rather of the cultural heritage we hold from the ancient world. Cultures, however, can be mixed – they always are, at least to some extent. This is why the story told here will be that of the mixed culture or cultures of the peoples who lived in what we now call "Europe" between the beginning of the Middle Ages and the...

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