The impact of Romans on Greek philosophy


It has been said that Romans merely copied the Greek philosophers without providing any original ideas. I aim to either prove or disprove this statement by looking over some of the chief Greek and Roman contributors to philosophy. However, considering the brevity of this article and the scope of its subject, not all names and philosophical schools have been included. Still, a general conclusion of the impact of Romans on Greek philosophy should be able to be drawn.
 Socrates veered from physics into ethics, which was a tremendous turning point in philosophy. Sadly, because he never wrote anything down, we have no works from his hand. Everything we know of him we know through the works of Plato where Socrates is a character. Socrates is known for his irony (e.g. being lighthearted when serious or apologising for being a pore speaker while outbesting profesional rhetorists) and for socratic ignorance: knowing more then your telling. In Phaedo, were Socrates dies, we are shown the death of a philosophic martyr. This greatly influenced later philosophers, such as Cato and Seneca, who followed this example of 'self murder whilst still a virtuous man'.
Plato keeps his morality within the current religion but rejects the popular view of the gods in favor of  more defensible moral arguments. At the end of his works he often uses myth to accentuate his arguments. At the end of Republic Plato uses the myth of Er who has returned to life to tell of the afterlife. Cicero copied it, and used an edited version at the end of Of the State. The differences are boh in style and in content: Plato uses a narrative style, his account is apolitical and Er is a common man, whilst Cicero uses a didactic style, has political purposes and uses the (revered) elder Scipio for his account. Plato's most important literary legacy is his dialogue form, giving different viewpoints through the use of different characters instead of just a single treatise.
Allthough Aristotle used dialogues aswell, he, in contrast to Plato, included himself in them and the characters had longer monologues. This style was later emulated by Cicero en Plutarch who refrained from the quick banter and quips in Plato's dialogues. Unfortunatly, none of Aristotle's dialogues remains and all we have are long treatises on a wide variety of subjects. After Aristotle, in the hellenistic age, three dominant schools emerged: platonism, stoicism and epicurism, each with different and sometimes opposite ideas.
Later the school of platonism emerged that continued on the teachings of these three great philosophers. A well known platonist was Plutarch, who's Paralel Lives is one of the finest biographies in antiquity. He also wrote vast volumes about a wide variety of topics, some in dialogue and some in essays, often called his Moralia. These were either about specific vices or  simply arguments against epicurism and stoicism. Following the example of Cicero he aplied both philosophy and rhetorics in his work. His ethical views were sometimes directed at politics, advicing consuls and high placed Greeks on how to rule. Another key area of his, as a platonist, was religion; His dialogues often figure himself and his close friends discussing about the Delphic Oracle.
 Cicero, more known as a rethorist, wrote extensively about philosophy and philosophic works and infused them with his rethorics. Allhough he wrote little original philosophic work, he aimed to bring Greek philosophy to a Roman audience by translating many works and inventing many new Roman words for the technical Greek philosophic terms. He mostly wrote about people and how they should live, with practical examamples from his own life (i.e. how philosophic principles should be aplied to life). His works preserved older philosophic ideas and gave the Roman late republic view on them, thus allowing us a view of the morals of that time. His On the Gods explains much of contemporary and previous religous ideas. It also gives an account of epicursm and stoicism and rebuts them.
 The school of epicurism, founded by Epicuris, tought that 'calm' was the highest achievable. Pleasure should be sought and pain avoided, however, contrary to popular believe, it did not promote hedonism. Epicurism promoted the withdrawel from society with just a few friends since ambition in society only leads to suffering. Life itself has little meaning and it should be led as painlessly as possible. The world was made of atoms arranged randomly and with no divine plan. When someone dies, the atoms just scatter again. The gods are on a different plane of existence and are unconcerned with the lives of men. 
Our knowledge of epicurism is for the most part derived from works of Cicero and Lucretius' On the Nature of the Universe, which is a poem of 6 books about the beliefs of epicurus. Typical to Lucretius is the use of myth to illustrate and enliven philosophic themes. He took myths and, similar to Plato, adds ethical meaning to them.
 The School of Stoicism, founded by Zeno, believed virtue was its own reward and everything else was deemed unimportant; A wise and virtueous man is happy always. The gods are everywhere and there is a spark of divinity in everyone. Stoicism had high ethical standards and believed that everyone should work together for the common good; Virtue expressed in action.
In the early empire epicurism lost favor to stoicism while platonism was most dominant by the third century. During this period three writers dominated: the younger Seneca; Epictetus, a Greek freeman; and Marcus Aurelius, a stoic Roman emporer. Seneca wrote about a wide variety of topics, but always with the stoic morality in mind. The topic of death and escape through suicide is constantly present. His Moral Letres to Lucillius, which he wrote at the end of his career when he was done with politics, are moddeled on Cicero's lettres to Aticus and show the influence of Horace's epistles. Epictetus, like Socrates before him, didn't write anything down. We know of him almost solely through Arrian. Epictetus speaks of the importance of the freedom of the soul. He catagorizes things into that which is within our own power (i.e. our morals), and that which is not in within our own power, (i.e. everything else such as wealth, health, political power, opinions of others, etc). To endure and abstain are his core virtues.
 It can be interferred from the above that indeed all of the major schools of philosophy had been established in Greece before the Romans conquered it. However, many of the greater philosophers of these schools were in fact Romans. The Roman practice of picking bits and pieces from different schools and combining those with rethoric meant a far greater audience were able to read, discuss and bring into practice the ideas and morals of the Greek philosophers. It might be said that the impact of this is equal to the contribution of the original Greek philosophers