Philhellenism ("the love of Greek culture") was an intellectual movement prominent mostly at the turn of the 19th century. It contributed to the sentiments that led Europeans such as Lord Byron, Charles Nicolas Fabvier and Richard Church to advocate for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire.

The later 19th-century European philhellenism was largely to be found among the Classicists. The study of it falls under Classical Reception Studies and is a continuation of the Classical tradition.

In antiquity, the term philhellene ("the admirer of Greeks and everything Greek"), from the (Greek: φιλέλλην, from φίλος - philos, "friend", "lover" + Ἕλλην - Hellen, "Greek") was used to describe both non-Greeks who were fond of ancient Greek culture and Greeks who patriotically upheld their culture. The Liddell-Scott Greek-English Lexicon defines 'philhellene' as "fond of the Hellenes, mostly of foreign princes, as Amasis; of Parthian kings[...]; also of Hellenic tyrants, as Jason of Pherae and generally of Hellenic (Greek) patriots. According to Xenophon, an honorable Greek should also be a philhellene.

Some examples:

The literate upper classes of Ancient Rome were increasingly Hellenized in their culture during the 3rd century BC.

Among Romans the career of Titus Quinctius Flamininus (died 174 BC), who appeared at the Isthmian Games in Corinth in 196 BC and proclaimed the freedom of the Greek states, was fluent in Greek, stood out, according to Livy, as a great admirer of Greek culture. The Greeks hailed him as their liberator. There were some Romans during the late Republic, who were distinctly anti-Greek, resenting the increasing influence of Greek culture on Roman life, an example being the Roman Censor, Cato the Elder and Cato the Younger, who lived during the "Greek invasion" of Rome but towards the later years of his life he eventually became a philhellene after his stay in Rhodes.

The lyric poet Quintus Horatius Flaccus, often anglicized as Horace, was another philhellene. He is notable for his words, "Graecia capta ferum victorem cepit et artis intulit agresti Latio" (Conquered Greece took captive her savage conqueror and brought her arts into rustic Latium), meaning that after the conquest of Greece the defeated Greeks created a cultural hegemony over the Romans.^{[citation needed]}

Horace's contemporary lyric poets, Virgil and Ovid, both produced magnum opuses (the Aeneid and the Metamorphoses, respectively) which were substantially founded upon Hellenic references and culture. Additionally, Virgil's Eclogues were inspired by Theocritus' earlier pastoral poetry in his idylls. The Aeneid, Virgil's story of Rome's founding myth, notably shares several similarities with Homer's earlier epics, particularly the Odyssey, one of which being both his epic and the Odyssey follow a demigod protagonist's military voyage after the Trojan War. It also was influenced by Homer's Iliad; for example, the ekphrasis of Achilles' divine shield from his mother, Thetis, was mirrored by the ekphrasis of Aeneas' divine shield from his mother, Venus. Ovid's work was perhaps even more influenced by ancient Greek culture than Virgil; his Metamorphoses were inspired by the Greek epic tradition and metamorphosis poetry in the Hellenistic tradition, and its content was derived to a large extent from Greek myth and folklore, including the Trojan War. Ovid's treatment of Greek myths was so impactful for later Philhellenism, especially during the Renaissance, that the well-known versions of some myths are actually Ovid's versions (e.g. Echo and Narcissus). Soon after these writers, other Roman lyric poets such as Lucan (inspired by Greek epics with his Pharsalia) or Persius (heavily inspired by Horace with his Life) continued to exhibit strong interests and admirations for Greek literary, artistic, and religious culture.