The romans did envy the Greek culture quite a lot - Pompeii and Herculan are filled with “copies of greek statues”. And they did copy the mythology wholesale.
But speaking about this I can’t not mention the hilarious sketch from Monty Python - [what did the romans ever do for us](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uvPbj9NX0zc) TL;DR; Quite a lot given the relative cultures and civilizations of the time.
Most of what I know about Romans comes from listening to my gamer friends slash military history buffs, while we sat around pounding Mountain Dew and waiting for someone to finish their turn.
I was always impressed by how open Romans were to assimilating other people's culture, gods, tech, whatnot. I can't help but think that the Roman strategy of an ever expanding definition of "us" (vs them) was critical to their success.
I wish we knew more about the Etruscans. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etruscan_civilization I have the impression that they were the first culture assimilated by the Romans. Conquered militarily (or economically) and then basically fostered into the Roman society. So much so that it's now hard to discern the differences between the two.
But speaking about this I can’t not mention the hilarious sketch from Monty Python - [what did the romans ever do for us](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uvPbj9NX0zc) TL;DR; Quite a lot given the relative cultures and civilizations of the time.
Have in mind that a lot of the greeks were themselves a bunch of cruel slaving rednecks too - https://acoup.blog/2019/08/16/collections-this-isnt-sparta-p...