[ffusco]

"pagans had no compassion whatsoever for weaklings and children who were born with any physical defects were killed at birth."

It was legal for a Father to kill a only a horribly deformed child in the witness of 5 neighbors. Infant mortality rates wre high and medicine was crude. A mercy killing was often the best solution.

War and oppression were not merely a means to an end, but were seen as the most glorious of human endevours.
The Romans didn' see it that way:
 
Vergil's Aeneid
"Roman, remember by your strength to rule
Earth's peoples - for your arts are to be these:
to pacify, to impose the rule of law,
to spare the conquered, battle down the proud."

They thought it was their mission to civilize the world-and they did, just as we did with Manifest Destiny and our latest foray into Iraq.

Greece and Rome were not half as glorious as modern day armchair historians make them out to be.
The water in some aquaeducts still flows as well as echoes of Cicero and Plato in our laws and customs.

[TheAngryClam]

Not to mention the laws of Europe (the civil code is a direct descendant from Roman Law) and well, in a good part, those of America.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Greece and Rome were not half as glorious as modern day armchair historians make them out to be.

Not to mention the fact that both were built on the backs of massive slavery that made the antebellum South look trivial and benign in comparison.