1.
Acropolis of Athens
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The word acropolis comes from the Greek words ἄκρον and πόλις. Although there are many other acropoleis in Greece, the significance of the Acropolis of Athens is such that it is known as The Acropolis without qualification. The Acropolis is located on a rock that rises 150 m above sea level in the city of Athens. It was also known as Cecropia, after the legendary serpent-man, Cecrops, while the earliest artifacts date to the Middle Neolithic era, there have been documented habitations in Attica from the Early Neolithic. There is little doubt that a Mycenaean megaron stood upon the hill during the late Bronze Age, nothing of this megaron survives except, probably, a single limestone column-base and pieces of several sandstone steps. Soon after the palace was constructed, a Cyclopean massive circuit wall was built,760 meters long, up to 10 meters high and this wall would serve as the main defense for the acropolis until the 5th century. The wall consisted of two built with large stone blocks and cemented with an earth mortar called emplekton. There were two lesser approaches up the hill on its side, consisting of steep, narrow flights of steps cut in the rock. Homer is assumed to refer to this fortification when he mentions the strong-built House of Erechtheus, at some point before the 13th century BC, an earthquake caused a fissure near the northeastern edge of the Acropolis. This fissure extended some 35 meters to a bed of marl in which a well was dug. An elaborate set of stairs was built and the served as an invaluable. There is no evidence for the existence of a Mycenean palace on top of the Athenian Acropolis. However, if there was such a palace, it seems to have been supplanted by later building activity, not a lot is known about the architectural appearance of the Acropolis until the Archaic era. In the 7th and the 6th centuries BC, the site was taken over by Kylon during the failed Kylonian revolt, nevertheless, it seems that a nine-gate wall, the Enneapylon, had been built around the biggest water spring, the Clepsydra, at the northwestern foot. A temple to Athena Polias, the deity of the city, was erected around 570–550 BC. Whether this temple replaced an older one, or just a sacred precinct or altar, is not known, probably, the Hekatompedon was built where the Parthenon now stands. Between 529–520 BC yet another temple was built by the Peisistratids and this temple of Athena Polias was built upon the Doerpfeld foundations, between the Erechtheion and the still-standing Parthenon. Arkhaios Neōs was destroyed by the Persian invasion in 480 BC, however, the temple may have been burnt down in 406/405 BC as Xenophon mentions that the old temple of Athena was set on fire
2.
Ancient Greek
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Ancient Greek includes the forms of Greek used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around the 9th century BC to the 6th century AD. It is often divided into the Archaic period, Classical period. It is antedated in the second millennium BC by Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Hellenistic phase is known as Koine. Koine is regarded as a historical stage of its own, although in its earliest form it closely resembled Attic Greek. Prior to the Koine period, Greek of the classic and earlier periods included several regional dialects, Ancient Greek was the language of Homer and of fifth-century Athenian historians, playwrights, and philosophers. It has contributed many words to English vocabulary and has been a subject of study in educational institutions of the Western world since the Renaissance. This article primarily contains information about the Epic and Classical phases of the language, Ancient Greek was a pluricentric language, divided into many dialects. The main dialect groups are Attic and Ionic, Aeolic, Arcadocypriot, some dialects are found in standardized literary forms used in literature, while others are attested only in inscriptions. There are also several historical forms, homeric Greek is a literary form of Archaic Greek used in the epic poems, the Iliad and Odyssey, and in later poems by other authors. Homeric Greek had significant differences in grammar and pronunciation from Classical Attic, the origins, early form and development of the Hellenic language family are not well understood because of a lack of contemporaneous evidence. Several theories exist about what Hellenic dialect groups may have existed between the divergence of early Greek-like speech from the common Proto-Indo-European language and the Classical period and they have the same general outline, but differ in some of the detail. The invasion would not be Dorian unless the invaders had some relationship to the historical Dorians. The invasion is known to have displaced population to the later Attic-Ionic regions, the Greeks of this period believed there were three major divisions of all Greek people—Dorians, Aeolians, and Ionians, each with their own defining and distinctive dialects. Often non-west is called East Greek, Arcadocypriot apparently descended more closely from the Mycenaean Greek of the Bronze Age. Boeotian had come under a strong Northwest Greek influence, and can in some respects be considered a transitional dialect, thessalian likewise had come under Northwest Greek influence, though to a lesser degree. Most of the dialect sub-groups listed above had further subdivisions, generally equivalent to a city-state and its surrounding territory, Doric notably had several intermediate divisions as well, into Island Doric, Southern Peloponnesus Doric, and Northern Peloponnesus Doric. The Lesbian dialect was Aeolic Greek and this dialect slowly replaced most of the older dialects, although Doric dialect has survived in the Tsakonian language, which is spoken in the region of modern Sparta. Doric has also passed down its aorist terminations into most verbs of Demotic Greek, by about the 6th century AD, the Koine had slowly metamorphosized into Medieval Greek
3.
Greek language
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Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean. It has the longest documented history of any living language, spanning 34 centuries of written records and its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history, other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic and many other writing systems. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world, during antiquity, Greek was a widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world and many places beyond. It would eventually become the official parlance of the Byzantine Empire, the language is spoken by at least 13.2 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey, and the Greek diaspora. Greek roots are used to coin new words for other languages, Greek. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, the earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the worlds oldest recorded living language. Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now extinct Anatolian languages, the Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods, Proto-Greek, the unrecorded but assumed last ancestor of all known varieties of Greek. The unity of Proto-Greek would have ended as Hellenic migrants entered the Greek peninsula sometime in the Neolithic era or the Bronze Age, Mycenaean Greek, the language of the Mycenaean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 15th century BC onwards, Ancient Greek, in its various dialects, the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of the ancient Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman Empire, after the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial bilingualism of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. The origin of Christianity can also be traced through Koine Greek, Medieval Greek, also known as Byzantine Greek, the continuation of Koine Greek in Byzantine Greece, up to the demise of the Byzantine Empire in the 15th century. Much of the written Greek that was used as the language of the Byzantine Empire was an eclectic middle-ground variety based on the tradition of written Koine. Modern Greek, Stemming from Medieval Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the Byzantine period and it is the language used by the modern Greeks, and, apart from Standard Modern Greek, there are several dialects of it. In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia, the historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language is often emphasised. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language and it is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, Homeric Greek is probably closer to demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English, Greek is spoken by about 13 million people, mainly in Greece, Albania and Cyprus, but also worldwide by the large Greek diaspora. Greek is the language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population
4.
Athens
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Athens is the capital and largest city of Greece. In modern times, Athens is a cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime. In 2015, Athens was ranked the worlds 29th richest city by purchasing power, Athens is recognised as a global city because of its location and its importance in shipping, finance, commerce, media, entertainment, arts, international trade, culture, education and tourism. It is one of the biggest economic centres in southeastern Europe, with a financial sector. The municipality of Athens had a population of 664,046 within its limits. The urban area of Athens extends beyond its administrative city limits. According to Eurostat in 2011, the Functional urban areas of Athens was the 9th most populous FUA in the European Union, Athens is also the southernmost capital on the European mainland. The city also retains Roman and Byzantine monuments, as well as a number of Ottoman monuments. Athens is home to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites, the Acropolis of Athens and the medieval Daphni Monastery, Athens was the host city of the first modern-day Olympic Games in 1896, and 108 years later it welcomed home the 2004 Summer Olympics. In Ancient Greek, the name of the city was Ἀθῆναι a plural, in earlier Greek, such as Homeric Greek, the name had been current in the singular form though, as Ἀθήνη. It was possibly rendered in the later on, like those of Θῆβαι and Μυκῆναι. During the medieval period the name of the city was rendered once again in the singular as Ἀθήνα, an etiological myth explaining how Athens has acquired its name was well known among ancient Athenians and even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon. The goddess of wisdom, Athena, and the god of the seas, Poseidon had many disagreements, in an attempt to compel the people, Poseidon created a salt water spring by striking the ground with his trident, symbolizing naval power. However, when Athena created the tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. Different etymologies, now rejected, were proposed during the 19th century. Christian Lobeck proposed as the root of the name the word ἄθος or ἄνθος meaning flower, ludwig von Döderlein proposed the stem of the verb θάω, stem θη- to denote Athens as having fertile soil. In classical literature, the city was referred to as the City of the Violet Crown, first documented in Pindars ἰοστέφανοι Ἀθᾶναι. In medieval texts, variant names include Setines, Satine, and Astines, today the caption η πρωτεύουσα, the capital, has become somewhat common
5.
Greece
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Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, historically also known as Hellas, is a country in southeastern Europe, with a population of approximately 11 million as of 2015. Athens is the capital and largest city, followed by Thessaloniki. Greece is strategically located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, situated on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, the Republic of Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. Greece consists of nine regions, Macedonia, Central Greece, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, Epirus, the Aegean Islands, Thrace, Crete. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, the Cretan Sea and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin and the 11th longest coastline in the world at 13,676 km in length, featuring a vast number of islands, eighty percent of Greece is mountainous, with Mount Olympus being the highest peak at 2,918 metres. From the eighth century BC, the Greeks were organised into various independent city-states, known as polis, which spanned the entire Mediterranean region and the Black Sea. Greece was annexed by Rome in the second century BC, becoming a part of the Roman Empire and its successor. The Greek Orthodox Church also shaped modern Greek identity and transmitted Greek traditions to the wider Orthodox World, falling under Ottoman dominion in the mid-15th century, the modern nation state of Greece emerged in 1830 following a war of independence. Greeces rich historical legacy is reflected by its 18 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, among the most in Europe, Greece is a democratic and developed country with an advanced high-income economy, a high quality of life, and a very high standard of living. A founding member of the United Nations, Greece was the member to join the European Communities and has been part of the Eurozone since 2001. Greeces unique cultural heritage, large industry, prominent shipping sector. It is the largest economy in the Balkans, where it is an important regional investor, the names for the nation of Greece and the Greek people differ from the names used in other languages, locations and cultures. The earliest evidence of the presence of human ancestors in the southern Balkans, dated to 270,000 BC, is to be found in the Petralona cave, all three stages of the stone age are represented in Greece, for example in the Franchthi Cave. Neolithic settlements in Greece, dating from the 7th millennium BC, are the oldest in Europe by several centuries and these civilizations possessed writing, the Minoans writing in an undeciphered script known as Linear A, and the Mycenaeans in Linear B, an early form of Greek. The Mycenaeans gradually absorbed the Minoans, but collapsed violently around 1200 BC and this ushered in a period known as the Greek Dark Ages, from which written records are absent. The end of the Dark Ages is traditionally dated to 776 BC, the Iliad and the Odyssey, the foundational texts of Western literature, are believed to have been composed by Homer in the 7th or 8th centuries BC. With the end of the Dark Ages, there emerged various kingdoms and city-states across the Greek peninsula, in 508 BC, Cleisthenes instituted the worlds first democratic system of government in Athens
6.
Fifth-century Athens
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Fifth-century Athens is the Greek city-state of Athens in the time from 480 BC-404 BC. This was a period of Athenian political hegemony, economic growth, Athens patron goddess was Athena, from whom they derived the name. These strategoi were given duties which included planning military expeditions, receiving envoys of other states, during the time of the ascendancy of Ephialtes as leader of the democratic faction, Pericles was his deputy. Pericles was a speaker, this quality brought him tremendous success in the Assembly. One of his most popular reforms was to allow thetes to occupy public office, another success of his administration was the creation of the misthophoria, a special salary for the citizens that attended the courts as jurors. This way, these citizens were able to dedicate themselves to service without facing financial hardship. With this system, Pericles succeeded in keeping the full of jurors. As Athens ruler, he made the city the first and most important polis of the Greek world, acquiring a resplendent culture, the sovereign people governed themselves, without intermediaries, deciding matters of state in the Assembly. Athenian citizens were free and only owed obedience to their laws and they achieved equality of speech in the Assembly, the word of a poor person had the same worth as that of a rich person. The censorial classes did not disappear, but their power was limited, they shared the fiscal and military offices. The principle of equality granted to all citizens had dangers, since citizens were incapable of exercising political rights due to their extreme poverty or ignorance. To avoid this, Athenian democracy applied itself to the task of helping the poorest in this manner, to seek and supply work to the poor. To grant lands to dispossessed villagers, public assistance for war widows, invalids, orphans and indigents. Among those selected by lot to a body, specific office was always rotated so that every single member served in all capacities in turn. This was meant to ensure that political functions were instituted in such a way as to run smoothly, the magistrates were people who occupied a public post and formed the administration of the Athenian state. They were submitted to public control. The magistrates were chosen by lot, using fava beans, black and white beans were put in a box and depending on which color the person drew out they obtained the post or not. This was a way of eliminating the influence of rich people and possible intrigues
7.
History of Athens
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Athens is one of the oldest named cities in the world, having been continuously inhabited for at least 5000 years. Following a period of decline under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. The name of Athens, connected to the name of its patron goddess Athena, the etiological myth explaining how Athens acquired this name through the legendary contest between Poseidon and Athena was described by Herodotus, Apollodorus, Ovid, Plutarch, Pausanias and others. It even became the theme of the sculpture on the West pediment of the Parthenon, both Athena and Poseidon requested to be patrons of the city and to give their name to it, so they competed with one another for the honour, offering the city one gift each. Poseidon produced a spring by striking the ground with his trident, Athena created the olive tree, symbolizing peace and prosperity. The Athenians, under their ruler Cecrops, accepted the olive tree, a sacred olive tree said to be the one created by the goddess was still kept on the Acropolis at the time of Pausanias. It was located by the temple of Pandrosus, next to the Parthenon, according to Herodotus, the tree had been burnt down during the Persian Wars, but a shoot sprung from the stump. The Greeks saw this as a symbol that Athena still had her there on the city. Plato, in his dialogue Cratylus, offers his own etymology of Athenas name connecting it to the phrase ἁ θεονόα or hē theoû nóēsis. The site on which Athens stands was first inhabited in the Neolithic period, perhaps as a settlement on top of the Acropolis. The Acropolis is a defensive position which commands the surrounding plains. The settlement was about 20 km inland from the Saronic Gulf, in the centre of the Cephisian Plain, to the east lies Mount Hymettus, to the north Mount Pentelicus. Ancient Athens, in the first millennium BC, occupied a small area compared to the sprawling metropolis of modern Greece. The Acropolis was situated just south of the centre of this walled area, the Agora, the commercial and social centre of the city, lay about 400 m north of the Acropolis, in what is now the Monastiraki district. The hill of the Pnyx, where the Athenian Assembly met, the Eridanus river flowed through the city. One of the most important religious sites in ancient Athens was the Temple of Athena, known today as the Parthenon, which stood on top of the Acropolis, where its evocative ruins still stand. Two other major sites, the Temple of Hephaestus and the Temple of Olympian Zeus or Olympeion also lay within the city walls. According to Thucydides, the Athenian citizens at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War numbered 40,000, making with their families a total of 140,000 people in all
8.
Democracy
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Democracy, in modern usage, is a system of government in which the citizens exercise power directly or elect representatives from among themselves to form a governing body, such as a parliament. Democracy is sometimes referred to as rule of the majority, Democracy was originally conceived in Classical Greece, where political representatives were chosen by a jury from amongst the male citizens, rich and poor. The English word dates to the 16th century, from the older Middle French, in the 5th century BC, to denote the political systems then existing in Greek city-states, notably Athens, the term is an antonym to aristocracy, meaning rule of an elite. While theoretically these definitions are in opposition, in practice the distinction has been blurred historically, the political system of Classical Athens, for example, granted democratic citizenship to free men and excluded slaves and women from political participation. In 1906, Finland became the first government to harald a more inclusive democracy at the national level. Democracy contrasts with forms of government where power is held by an individual, as in an absolute monarchy, or where power is held by a small number of individuals. Nevertheless, these oppositions, inherited from Greek philosophy, are now ambiguous because contemporary governments have mixed democratic, oligarchic, and monarchic elements. Karl Popper defined democracy in contrast to dictatorship or tyranny, thus focusing on opportunities for the people to control their leaders, No consensus exists on how to define democracy, but legal equality, political freedom and rule of law have been identified as important characteristics. These principles are reflected in all eligible citizens being equal before the law, other uses of democracy include that of direct democracy. In some countries, notably in the United Kingdom which originated the Westminster system, in the United States, separation of powers is often cited as a central attribute. In India, parliamentary sovereignty is subject to the Constitution of India which includes judicial review, though the term democracy is typically used in the context of a political state, the principles also are applicable to private organisations. Majority rule is listed as a characteristic of democracy. Hence, democracy allows for political minorities to be oppressed by the tyranny of the majority in the absence of legal protections of individual or group rights. An essential part of a representative democracy is competitive elections that are substantively and procedurally fair, i. e. just. It has also suggested that a basic feature of democracy is the capacity of all voters to participate freely and fully in the life of their society. While representative democracy is sometimes equated with the form of government. Many democracies are constitutional monarchies, such as the United Kingdom, the term democracy first appeared in ancient Greek political and philosophical thought in the city-state of Athens during classical antiquity. The word comes from demos, common people and kratos, strength, led by Cleisthenes, Athenians established what is generally held as the first democracy in 508–507 BC
9.
Syntagma Square
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Syntagma Square, is the central square of Athens. The Square is named after the Constitution that the first King of Greece Otto was obliged to grant, after a popular and it is located in front of the 19th century Old Royal Palace, housing the Greek Parliament since 1934. Syntagma Square is the most important square of modern Athens from both a historical and social point of view, at the epicentre of activity and Greek politics. The square is bordered by Amalia Avenue to the east, Otto Street to the south, the street bordering the square to the west, connecting Stadiou Street with Fillelinon Street, is simply named Syntagma Square. The eastern side of the square is higher than the western, the stairs emerge below between a pair of outdoor cafes, and are a popular city-centre gathering place. Syntagma also includes two areas to the north and south, planted with shade trees, while in the centre of the square there is a large mid-19th century water fountain. On certain days, a changing of the guard occurs with an army band. The Square was designed and constructed in the early 19th century and it was designed as one of the two central squares of modern Athens, situated to what were then the eastern boundaries of the city. The second square was Omonoia Square, to the north of the city, even though King Ottos Royal Palace was at first planned to be erected on Omonia Square, a location overlooking the eastern square was deemed a better option. Thus, the squares first name was Palace Square, work for the construction of the Old Palace to the north of the Square, started in 1836 and lasted until 1843. About a month after the installation of King Otto and his wife Amalia in late July 1843, soldiers under Dimitrios Kallergis gathered in front of the Palace and demanded the granting of constitution. King Otto was then obliged to grant the first Constitution of Greece, in memory of the event, the Palace square was renamed to Constitution Square or Syntagma Square in Greek. Some of the demonstrations amassed crowds of the order of 10,000 people, according to police reports, since the inception of the Unity Government, the occupation has been removed from the Square and demonstrations are less frequent. Travel between Syntagma Square and the Eleftherios Venizelos Airport is available via special airport bus and metro lines, free wireless Internet access at high speeds is offered by the Municipality of Athens at the Square. The square is also a hub for buses to the northern suburbs, in 2015, the fifth of the film The Bourne Identity was filmed in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. To do this, the city was set to simulate the Greek cities of Athens. The Plaza de España of Santa Cruz was set to represent Syntagma Square of Athens, Syntagma Square Public Wireless Internet service Syntagma Square Public Wireless Internet service
10.
Cleisthenes
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Cleisthenes was a noble Athenian of the Alcmaeonid family. He is credited with reforming the constitution of ancient Athens and setting it on a footing in 508/7 BC. For these accomplishments, historians refer to him as the father of Athenian democracy and he was the maternal grandson of the tyrant Cleisthenes of Sicyon, as the younger son of the latters daughter Agariste and her husband Megacles. Also, he was credited with increasing the power of the Athenian citizens’ assembly, historians estimate that Cleisthenes was born around 570 BC. Cleisthenes was the uncle of Pericles mother Agariste and of Alcibiades maternal grandfather Megacles, with help from the Alcmaeonidae, he was responsible for overthrowing Hippias, the tyrant son of Pisistratus. After the collapse of Hippias tyranny, Isagoras and Cleisthenes were rivals for power and he did so on the pretext of the Alcmaeonid curse. Consequently, Cleisthenes left Athens as an exile, and Isagoras was unrivalled in power within the city, Isagoras set about dispossessing hundreds of Athenians of their homes and exiling them on the pretext that they too were cursed. He also attempted to dissolve the Boule, a council of Athenian citizens appointed to run the affairs of the city. However, the council resisted, and the Athenian people declared their support of the council, Isagoras and his supporters were forced to flee to the Acropolis, remaining besieged there for two days. On the third day they fled the city and were banished, Cleisthenes was subsequently recalled, along with hundreds of exiles, and he assumed leadership of Athens. After this victory, Cleisthenes began to reform the government of Athens and he commissioned a bronze memorial from the sculptor Antenor in honor of the lovers and tyrannicides Harmodius and Aristogeiton, whom Hippias had executed. It is thought there may have been 139 demes which were organized into three groups called trittyes, with ten demes divided among three regions in each trittyes. Cleisthenes also abolished patronymics in favour of demonymics, thus increasing Athenians sense of belonging to a deme and he also established sortition - the random selection of citizens to fill government positions rather than kinship or heredity, a true test of real democracy. He reorganized the Boule, created with 400 members under Solon and he also introduced the bouletic oath, To advise according to the laws what was best for the people. The court system was reorganized and had from 201–5001 jurors selected each day and it was the role of the Boule to propose laws to the assembly of voters, who convened in Athens around forty times a year for this purpose. The bills proposed could be rejected, passed or returned for amendments by the assembly, Cleisthenes also may have introduced ostracism, whereby a vote from more than 6,000 of the citizens would exile a citizen for 10 years. The initial trend was to vote for a citizen deemed a threat to the democracy, however, soon after, any citizen judged to have too much power in the city tended to be targeted for exile. Under this system, the exiled mans property was maintained, Cleisthenes called these reforms isonomia, instead of demokratia
11.
Ancient Agora of Athens
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Some of these included, The Middle stoa which was the most extensive monument built during the 100s B. C. E. A small Roman temple was added in front of the Middle stoa, an Altar of Zeus Agoraios was added just to the east of the Monument to the Eponymous Heroes. The Temple of Ares, dedicated to Ares, the god of war, was added in the north half agora, the Odeon of Agrippa and accompanying gymnasium were added in the centre of the agora. The substantial Stoa of Attalos was built along the edge of the agora. A collection of buildings were added to the south-east corner, the East stoa, the Library of Pantainos, the Nymphaeum, there is evidence of a Synagogue in the Agora of Athens in the 3rd century. A statue of the Roman emperor Hadrian was located near the metroon, the Temple of Zeus Phratrios and Athena Phratria dated to the 300s B. C. E. and is located near the Temple of Apollo Patroos. The south end of what is believed to be a Basilica has been uncovered near Hadrian Street and is dated to the mid 100s C. E, the Monopteros was located south of the Basilica and also dated to the mid 100s C. E. It had no walls, was a dome supported by columns and was about 8 meters in diameter, the Bema was a speakers platform and was located near the Stoa of Attalos. The ancient Athenian agora has been excavated by the American School of Classical Studies at Athens since 1931 under the direction of T and they continue to the present day, now under the direction of John McK Camp. The museum is housed in the Stoa of Attalos, and its exhibits are connected with the Athenian democracy. Ecclesia Roman Agora Church of the Holy Apostles Hellenic Ministry of Culture, The Ancient Agora of Athens – official site with a schedule of its hours, tickets. Agora Excavations – American School of Classical Studies Agora excavation project, map of the Agora of Athens in Socrates and Platos time Agora of Athens in 421 BC The Athenian Agora, A Short Guide in Color The Athenian Agora
12.
Pericles
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Pericles was a prominent and influential Greek statesman, orator and general of Athens during the Golden Age—specifically the time between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. He was descended, through his mother, from the powerful, Pericles had such a profound influence on Athenian society that Thucydides, a contemporary historian, acclaimed him as the first citizen of Athens. Pericles turned the Delian League into an Athenian empire, and led his countrymen during the first two years of the Peloponnesian War. Pericles promoted the arts and literature, it is principally through his efforts that Athens holds the reputation of being the educational and cultural center of the ancient Greek world and he started an ambitious project that generated most of the surviving structures on the Acropolis. This project beautified and protected the city, exhibited its glory, Pericles also fostered Athenian democracy to such an extent that critics call him a populist. Pericles was born c.495 BC, in Athens, Greece and he was the son of the politician Xanthippus, who, though ostracized in 485–484 BC, returned to Athens to command the Athenian contingent in the Greek victory at Mycale just five years later. Agariste was the great-granddaughter of the tyrant of Sicyon, Cleisthenes, according to Herodotus and Plutarch, Agariste dreamed, a few nights before Pericles birth, that she had borne a lion. Interestingly, legends say that Philip II of Macedon had a dream before the birth of his son. Pericles belonged to the tribe of Acamantis and his early years were quiet, the introverted young Pericles avoided public appearances, instead preferring to devote his time to his studies. His familys nobility and wealth allowed him to pursue his inclination toward education. He learned music from the masters of the time and he is considered to have been the first politician to attribute importance to philosophy and he enjoyed the company of the philosophers Protagoras, Zeno of Elea, and Anaxagoras. Anaxagoras, in particular, became a friend and influenced him greatly. Pericles manner of thought and rhetorical charisma may have been in part products of Anaxagoras emphasis on emotional calm in the face of trouble and his proverbial calmness and self-control are also often regarded as products of Anaxagoras influence. In the spring of 472 BC, Pericles presented The Persians of Aeschylus at the Greater Dionysia as a liturgy, Plutarch says that Pericles stood first among the Athenians for forty years. If this was so, Pericles must have taken up a position of leadership by the early 460s BC- in his early or mid-thirties, throughout these years he endeavored to protect his privacy and to present himself as a model for his fellow citizens. For example, he would often avoid banquets, trying to be frugal, in 463 BC, Pericles was the leading prosecutor of Cimon, the leader of the conservative faction who was accused of neglecting Athens vital interests in Macedon. Although Cimon was acquitted, this proved that Pericles major political opponent was vulnerable. The leader of the party and mentor of Pericles, Ephialtes, the Ecclesia adopted Ephialtes proposal without opposition
13.
Aristides
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Aristides was an ancient Athenian statesman. Nicknamed the Just, he flourished in the quarter of Athens Classical period and is remembered for his generalship in the Persian War. The ancient historian Herodotus cited him as the best and most honourable man in Athens, Aristides was the son of Lysimachus, and a member of a family of moderate fortune. Of his early life, it is told that he became a follower of the statesman Cleisthenes. Pursuing a conservative policy to maintain Athens as a land power, the conflict between the two leaders ended in the ostracism of Aristides at a date variously given between 485 and 482. It is said that, on occasion, an illiterate voter who did not recognise Aristides approached the statesman. The latter asked if Aristides had wronged him, no, was the reply, and I do not even know him, but it irritates me to hear him everywhere called the Just. Aristides then wrote his own name on the ballot, early in 480, Aristides profited by the decree recalling exiles to help in the defence of Athens against Persian invaders, and was elected strategos for the year 480–479. His assessment was universally accepted as equitable, and continued as the basis of taxation for the part of the league’s duration. He continued to hold a predominant position in Athens, at first he seems to have remained on good terms with Themistocles, whom he is said to have helped in outwitting the Spartans over the rebuilding of the walls of Athens. He is said by authorities to have died at Athens. The date of his death is given by Nepos as 468, at any rate, he lived to witness the ostracism of Themistocles, towards whom he always displayed generosity, Herodotus is practically the only trustworthy authority on Aristides life. Aristides is praised by Socrates in Platos dialogues Gorgias and Meno as an instance of good leadership. This article incorporates text from a now in the public domain, Chisholm, Hugh
14.
Alcibiades
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Alcibiades, son of Cleinias, from the deme of Scambonidae, was a prominent Athenian statesman, orator, and general. He was the last famous member of his mothers family, the Alcmaeonidae. He played a role in the second half of that conflict as a strategic advisor, military commander. During the course of the Peloponnesian War, Alcibiades changed his political allegiance several times, in Sparta, he served as a strategic adviser, proposing or supervising several major campaigns against Athens. In Sparta too, however, Alcibiades soon made powerful enemies, there he served as an adviser to the satrap Tissaphernes until his Athenian political allies brought about his recall. He then served as an Athenian general for years. Once restored to his city, however, he played a crucial role in a string of Athenian victories that eventually brought Sparta to seek a peace with Athens. He favored unconventional tactics, frequently winning cities over by treachery or negotiation rather than by siege and his mother was Deinomache, the daughter of Megacles, and could trace her family back to Eurysaces and the Telamonian Ajax. His maternal grandfather, also named Alcibiades, was a friend of Cleisthenes, after the death of Cleinias at the Battle of Coronea, Pericles and Ariphron became his guardians. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades had several teachers, including Socrates. He was noted, however, for his behavior, which was mentioned by ancient Greek. It was believed that Socrates took Alcibiades as a student because he believed he could change Alcibiades from his vain ways, Xenophon attempted to clear Socrates name at trial by relaying information that Alcibiades was always corrupt and that Socrates merely failed in attempting to teach him morality. Alcibiades took part in the Battle of Potidaea in 432 BC, Alcibiades had a particularly close relationship with Socrates, whom he admired and respected. According to Plutarch, Alcibiades feared and reverenced Socrates alone, Alcibiades was married to Hipparete, the daughter of Hipponicus, a wealthy Athenian. According to Plutarch, Hipparete loved her husband, but she attempted to divorce him because he consorted with courtesans and she lived with him until her death, which came soon after, and gave birth to two children, a daughter and a son, Alcibiades the Younger. Alcibiades first rose to prominence when he began advocating aggressive Athenian action after the signing of the Peace of Nicias, disputes over the interpretation of the treaty led the Spartans to dispatch ambassadors to Athens with full powers to arrange all unsettled matters. He urged them to renounce their diplomatic authority to represent Sparta, the representatives agreed and, impressed with Alcibiades, they alienated themselves from Nicias, who genuinely wanted to reach an agreement with the Spartans. The next day, during the Assembly, Alcibiades asked them what powers Sparta had granted them to negotiate and they replied, as agreed and this ploy increased Alcibiadess standing while embarrassing Nicias, and Alcibiades was subsequently appointed General
15.
Athena
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Athena or Athene, often given the epithet Pallas, is the goddess of wisdom, craft, and war in ancient Greek religion and mythology. Minerva is the Roman goddess identified with Athena, Athena is known for her calm temperament, as she moves slowly to anger. She is noted to have fought for just reasons. Athena is portrayed as a companion of heroes and is the patron goddess of heroic endeavour. She is the patroness of Athens. The Athenians founded the Parthenon on the Acropolis of her city, Athens. Veneration of Athena was so persistent that archaic myths about her were recast to adapt to cultural changes, in her role as a protector of the city, many people throughout the Greek world worshipped Athena as Athena Polias. While the city of Athens and the goddess Athena essentially bear the same name, Athena is associated with Athens, a plural name, because it was the place where she presided over her sisterhood, the Athenai, in earliest times. Mycenae was the city where the Goddess was called Mykene, at Thebes she was called Thebe, and the city again a plural, Thebae. Similarly, at Athens she was called Athena, and the city Athenae, Athena had a special relationship with Athens, as is shown by the etymological connection of the names of the goddess and the city. According to mythical lore, she competed with Poseidon and she won by creating the olive tree, the Athenians would accept her gift and name the city after her. In history, the citizens of Athens built a statue of Athena as a temple to the goddess, which had piercing eyes, a helmet on her head, attired with an aegis or cuirass, and an extremely long spear. It also had a shield with the head of the Gorgon on it. A large snake accompanied her and she held Nike, the goddess of victory, therefore, Mylonas believes that Athena was a Mycenaean creation. On the other hand, Nilsson claims that she was the goddess of the palace who protected the king, a-ta-no-dju-wa-ja is also found in Linear A Minoan, the final part being regarded as the Linear A Minoan equivalent of the Linear B Mycenaean di-u-ja or di-wi-ja. Divine Athena also was a weaver and the deity of crafts, whether her name is attested in Eteocretan or not will have to wait for decipherment of Linear A. Perhaps, however, the name Theonoe may mean she who knows divine things better than others. Thus for Plato her name was to be derived from Greek Ἀθεονόα, Plato also noted that the citizens of Sais in Egypt worshipped a goddess whose Egyptian name was Neith, and which was identified with Athena. Neith was the war goddess and huntress deity of the Egyptians since the ancient Pre-Dynastic period, in addition, ancient Greek myths reported that Athena had visited many mythological places such as Libyas Triton River in North Africa and the Phlegraean plain
16.
Demosthenes
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Demosthenes was a Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens. His orations constitute a significant expression of contemporary Athenian intellectual prowess and provide an insight into the politics, Demosthenes learned rhetoric by studying the speeches of previous great orators. He delivered his first judicial speeches at the age of 20, for a time, Demosthenes made his living as a professional speech-writer and a lawyer, writing speeches for use in private legal suits. Demosthenes grew interested in politics during his time as a logographer and he went on to devote his most productive years to opposing Macedons expansion. He idealized his city and strove throughout his life to restore Athens supremacy, after Philips death, Demosthenes played a leading part in his citys uprising against the new king of Macedonia, Alexander the Great. However, his efforts failed and the revolt was met with a harsh Macedonian reaction, to prevent a similar revolt against his own rule, Alexanders successor in this region, Antipater, sent his men to track Demosthenes down. Demosthenes took his own life, in order to avoid being arrested by Archias, the Alexandrian Canon compiled by Aristophanes of Byzantium and Aristarchus of Samothrace recognised Demosthenes as one of the ten greatest Attic orators and logographers. Longinus likened Demosthenes to a thunderbolt, and argued that he perfected to the utmost the tone of lofty speech, living passions, copiousness, readiness. Quintilian extolled him as lex orandi, and Cicero said about him that inter omnis unus excellat, Demosthenes was born in 384 BC, during the last year of the 98th Olympiad or the first year of the 99th Olympiad. His father—also named Demosthenes—who belonged to the tribe, Pandionis. Aeschines, Demosthenes greatest political rival, maintained that his mother Kleoboule was a Scythian by blood—an allegation disputed by modern scholars. Demosthenes was orphaned at the age of seven, although his father provided well for him, his legal guardians, Aphobus, Demophon and Therippides, mishandled his inheritance. As soon as Demosthenes came of age in 366 BC, he demanded they render an account of their management, according to Demosthenes, the account revealed the misappropriation of his property. Although his father left an estate of nearly fourteen talents, Demosthenes asserted his guardians had left nothing except the house, and fourteen slaves and thirty silver minae. At the age of 20 Demosthenes sued his trustees in order to recover his patrimony and delivered five orations, the courts fixed Demosthenes damages at ten talents. When all the trials came to an end, he succeeded in retrieving a portion of his inheritance. According to Pseudo-Plutarch, Demosthenes was married once, the only information about his wife, whose name is unknown, is that she was the daughter of Heliodorus, a prominent citizen. Demosthenes also had a daughter, the one who ever called him father
17.
Philip II of Macedon
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Philip II of Macedon was the king of the Ancient Greek kingdom of Macedon from 359 BC until his assassination in 336 BC. He was a member of the Argead dynasty of Macedonian kings, the son of King Amyntas III. However, his assassination led to the succession of his son Alexander. Philip was the youngest son of the king Amyntas III and Eurydice I, in his youth, Philip was held as a hostage in Thebes, which was then the leading city of Greece. In 364 BC, Philip returned to Macedon, the deaths of Philips elder brothers, King Alexander II and Perdiccas III, allowed him to take the throne in 359 BC. Originally appointed regent for his infant nephew Amyntas IV, who was the son of Perdiccas III, Philips military skills and expansionist vision of Macedonian greatness brought him early success. He first had to remedy a predicament which had greatly worsened by the defeat against the Illyrians in which King Perdiccas himself had died. Using diplomacy, Philip pushed back the Paionians and Thracians promising tributes, momentarily free from his opponents, he concentrated on strengthening his internal position and, above all, his army. Philip had married Audata, great-granddaughter of the Illyrian king of Dardania, however, this did not prevent him from marching against the Illyrians in 358 and crushing them in a ferocious battle in which some 7,000 Illyrians died. By this move, Philip established his authority inland as far as Lake Ohrid, the Athenians had been unable to conquer Amphipolis, which commanded the gold mines of Mount Pangaion. So Philip reached an agreement with Athens to lease the city to them after its conquest, however, after conquering Amphipolis, Philip kept both cities. As Athens had declared war against him, he allied Macedon with the Chalkidian League of Olynthus and he subsequently conquered Potidaea, this time keeping his word and ceding it to the League in 356. In 357 BC, Philip married the Epirote princess Olympias, who was the daughter of the king of the Molossians, Alexander was born in 356, the same year as Philips racehorse won at the Olympic Games. During 356 BC, Philip conquered the town of Crenides and changed its name to Philippi and he then established a powerful garrison there to control its mines, which yielded much of the gold he later used for his campaigns. In the meantime, his general Parmenion defeated the Illyrians again, in 355–354 he besieged Methone, the last city on the Thermaic Gulf controlled by Athens. During the siege, Philip was injured in his eye, despite the arrival of two Athenian fleets, the city fell in 354. Philip also attacked Abdera and Maronea, on the Thracian coast, Philip was involved in the Third Sacred War which had begun in Greece in 356. In summer 353 he invaded Thessaly, defeating 7,000 Phocians under the brother of Onomarchus, the latter however defeated Philip in the two succeeding battles
18.
Philippics
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A philippic is a fiery, damning speech, or tirade, delivered to condemn a particular political actor. The term is most famously associated with two noted orators of the ancient world, Demosthenes of Athens and the Roman Cicero, although it can be applied to any speech of this type. The original philippics were delivered by Demosthenes, Greek statesman and orator of ancient Athens who delivered several attacks on Philip II of Macedon in the 4th century BC, a First, Second, and Third Philippic have been ascribed to Demosthenes. A Fourth Philippic is also extant, but is of disputed authorship and they were also called the Antonian Orations by Latin author and grammarian Aulus Gellius. After the death of Caesar, Cicero privately expressed his regret that the murderers of Caesar had not included Antony in their plot, Cicero even promoted illegal action, such as legitimatizing the private army of Gaius Octavius, or Octavian. In all, Cicero delivered fourteen Phillipics in less than two years, ciceros focus on Antony, however, contributed to his downfall as he failed to recognize the threat of Octavian to his republican ideal. Ciceros attacks on Antony were neither forgiven nor forgotten, with the result that he was proscribed and killed in 43 BC and his head and hands were publicly displayed in the Roman Forum to discourage any who would oppose the new Triumvirate of Octavian, Mark Antony and Lepidus. According to Roman historian Tacitus, this work, together with the Pro Milone, In Catilinam, and In Verrem, made Cicero famous, others would have it that the Pro Ligario, in which Cicero defends Ligarius before Caesar, was the vehicle of his renown. Demosthenes First, Second, Third and Fourth Philippic Jeremiad Mary Renault Philippicae Polemic Tantrum
19.
Ecclesia (ancient Athens)
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The ecclesia or ekklesia was the principal assembly of the democracy of ancient Athens during its Golden Age. It was the assembly, open to all male citizens with 2 years of military service. In 594 BCE, Solon allowed all Athenian citizens to participate, regardless of class, the assembly was responsible for declaring war, military strategy and electing the strategoi and other officials. It was responsible for nominating and electing magistrates, thus indirectly electing the members of the Areopagus and it had the final say on legislation and the right to call magistrates to account after their year of office. In the 5th century BC its members numbered about 43,000 people and it would have been difficult, however, for non-wealthy people outside of the urban center of Athens to attend until payments for attendance were introduced in the late 5th century. It originally met once every month, but later it met three or four times per month, the agenda for the ekklesia was established by the Boule, the popular council. Votes were taken by a show of hands, counting of stones, the assembly consist of, the general, a little group of daily government and judges. A quorum of 6,000 members was required sometimes to do business, the ecclesia elected by lot annually the Boule or council. Some of their power under Solon was delegated to the Court by Pericles in his reforms, in ancient Greece an ekklesiasterion was a building specifically built for the purpose of holding the meetings of the ecclesia. Like many other cities Athens did not have an ekklesiasterion, instead, the regular meetings of the assembly were held on the Pnyx and two annual meetings took place in the Theater of Dionysus. Around 300 BC all the meetings of the ekklesia were moved to the theater, the meetings of the assembly could attract large audiences,6,000 citizens might have attended in Athens during the fifth century BC. A police force of 300 Scythian slaves carried red ochre-stained ropes to induce the citizens who loitered in the agora of Athens to attend the meetings of the assembly, anyone with red-stained clothes who was not in the meeting was liable to a penalty. Apella Athenian democracy Heliaia Areopagus Constitution of the Athenians Mytilenian Debate Citations Bibliography
20.
Bema
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The bema, or bima, is an elevated platform used as an orators podium in ancient Athens. In Jewish synagogues, it is known as a bimah and is for Torah reading during services. In an Orthodox Jewish synagogue, a bema is the area around the aron kodesh. In antiquity it was made of stone, but in times it is usually a rectangular wooden platform approached by steps. The Ancient Greek bema means both ‘platform’ and ‘step’, being derived from bainein, the original use of the bema in Athens was as a tribunal from which orators addressed the citizens as well as the courts of law, for instance, in the Pnyx. In Greek law courts the two parties to a dispute presented their arguments each from separate bemas, the bimah in synagogues is also known as the almemar or almemor among some Ashkenazim. The post-Biblical Hebrew bima, ‘platform’ or ‘pulpit’, is almost certainly derived from the Ancient Greek word for a raised platform, among the Sephardim, it is known as a tevah or migdal-etz. It is typically elevated by two or three steps, as was the bimah in the Temple, at the celebration of the Shavuot holiday when synagogues are decorated with flowers, many synagogues have special arches that they place over the bimah and adorn with floral displays. The importance of the bimah is to show that the reader is the most important at that moment in time, a raised bimah will typically have a railing. This was a requirement for safety in bimah more than 10 handbreadths high. A lower bimah will typically have a railing as a measure to prevent someone from inadvertently stepping off. The bimah became a fixture in synagogues from which a portion from the Torah. In Orthodox Judaism, the bimah is located in the center of the synagogue, in other branches of Judaism, the bimah and the Ark are joined together. The ceremonial use of a bema carried over from Judaism into early Christian church architecture and it was originally a raised platform with a lectern and seats for the clergy, from which lessons from the Scriptures were read and the sermon was delivered. In Western Christianity the bema developed over time into the chancel and it may be approached by one or several steps. The bema is composed of the altar, the soleas, Orthodox laity do not normally step up onto the bema except to receive Holy Communion. Ambo Templon Tribune Media related to Bimot at Wikimedia Commons
21.
Athenian democracy
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Other Greek cities set up democracies, most following the Athenian model, but none are as well documented as Athens. It was a system of democracy, in which participating citizens voted directly on legislation. The longest-lasting democratic leader was Pericles, after his death, Athenian democracy was twice briefly interrupted by oligarchic revolutions towards the end of the Peloponnesian War. It was modified somewhat after it was restored under Eucleides, the most detailed accounts of the system are of this fourth-century modification rather than the Periclean system, Democracy was suppressed by the Macedonians in 322 BC. The Athenian institutions were revived, but how close they were to a real democracy is debatable. Solon, Cleisthenes, and Ephialtes contributed to the development of Athenian democracy and he broke up the power of the nobility by organizing citizens into ten groups based on where they lived rather than on their wealth. The word democracy combines the elements dêmos and krátos, and thus means literally people power, in the words monarchy and oligarchy, the second element comes from archē, meaning beginning, and hence also first place or power, sovereignty. One might expect the term demarchy to have adopted, by analogy. However, the word demarchy had already taken and meant mayoralty. We are not certain that the democracy was extant when systems that came to be called democratic were first instituted. The word is attested in Herodotus, who some of the earliest surviving Greek prose. Around 460 BC an individual is known with the name of Democrates, a name possibly coined as a gesture of democratic loyalty, Athens was not the only polis in Ancient Greece that instituted a democratic regime. Aristotle cites many other cities as well, yet, it is only with reference to Athens that we can attempt to trace some of specific sixth century events that led to the institution of democracy at the end of the century. Before the first attempt at government, Athens was ruled by a series of archons or chief magistrates. The members of these institutions were generally aristocrats, who ruled the polis for their own advantage, in 621 BC Draco codified a set of notoriously harsh laws that were a clear expression of the power of the aristocracy over everybody else. This did not stop the aristocratic families feuding amongst themselves to obtain as much power as possible, however, the enfranchisement of the local laboring classes was succeeded by the development of chattel slavery, the enslavement of, in large part, foreigners. Solon, the mediator, reshaped the city by absorbing the traditional aristocracy in a definition of citizenship which allotted a political function to every resident of Attica. Athenians were not slaves but citizens, with the right, at the very least, under these reforms, the position of archon was opened to all with certain property qualifications, and a Boule, a rival council of 400, was set up
22.
France
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France, officially the French Republic, is a country with territory in western Europe and several overseas regions and territories. The European, or metropolitan, area of France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, Overseas France include French Guiana on the South American continent and several island territories in the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans. France spans 643,801 square kilometres and had a population of almost 67 million people as of January 2017. It is a unitary republic with the capital in Paris. Other major urban centres include Marseille, Lyon, Lille, Nice, Toulouse, during the Iron Age, what is now metropolitan France was inhabited by the Gauls, a Celtic people. The area was annexed in 51 BC by Rome, which held Gaul until 486, France emerged as a major European power in the Late Middle Ages, with its victory in the Hundred Years War strengthening state-building and political centralisation. During the Renaissance, French culture flourished and a colonial empire was established. The 16th century was dominated by civil wars between Catholics and Protestants. France became Europes dominant cultural, political, and military power under Louis XIV, in the 19th century Napoleon took power and established the First French Empire, whose subsequent Napoleonic Wars shaped the course of continental Europe. Following the collapse of the Empire, France endured a succession of governments culminating with the establishment of the French Third Republic in 1870. Following liberation in 1944, a Fourth Republic was established and later dissolved in the course of the Algerian War, the Fifth Republic, led by Charles de Gaulle, was formed in 1958 and remains to this day. Algeria and nearly all the colonies became independent in the 1960s with minimal controversy and typically retained close economic. France has long been a centre of art, science. It hosts Europes fourth-largest number of cultural UNESCO World Heritage Sites and receives around 83 million foreign tourists annually, France is a developed country with the worlds sixth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest by purchasing power parity. In terms of household wealth, it ranks fourth in the world. France performs well in international rankings of education, health care, life expectancy, France remains a great power in the world, being one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council with the power to veto and an official nuclear-weapon state. It is a member state of the European Union and the Eurozone. It is also a member of the Group of 7, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, the World Trade Organization, originally applied to the whole Frankish Empire, the name France comes from the Latin Francia, or country of the Franks
23.
Stoa
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A stoa, in ancient Greek architecture, is a covered walkway or portico, commonly for public use. Early stoas were open at the entrance columns, usually of the Doric order, lining the side of the building, they created a safe, enveloping. Later examples were built as two stories, with a roof supporting the inner colonnades where shops or sometimes offices were located and these buildings were open to the public, merchants could sell their goods, artists could display their artwork, and religious gatherings could take place. Stoas usually surrounded the marketplaces or agora of large cities and were used as a framing device, the name of the Stoic school of philosophy derives from stoa
24.
Peloponnesian War
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The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens and its empire against the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases and this period of the war was concluded in 421 BC, with the signing of the Peace of Nicias. That treaty, however, was undermined by renewed fighting in the Peloponnese. In 415 BC, Athens dispatched an expeditionary force to attack Syracuse in Sicily. This ushered in the phase of the war, generally referred to either as the Decelean War. The destruction of Athens fleet at Aegospotami effectively ended the war, Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens should be destroyed and all its citizens should be enslaved, but Sparta refused. The Peloponnesian War reshaped the ancient Greek world, the economic costs of the war were felt all across Greece, poverty became widespread in the Peloponnese, while Athens found itself completely devastated, and never regained its pre-war prosperity. Greek warfare, meanwhile, originally a limited and formalized form of conflict, was transformed into a struggle between city-states, complete with atrocities on a large scale. Indeed, the fifty years of Greek history that preceded the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War had been marked by the development of Athens as a major power in the Mediterranean world. The city proceeded to conquer all of Greece except for Sparta and its allies, by the middle of the century, the Persians had been driven from the Aegean and forced to cede control of a vast range of territories to Athens. This tribute was used to support a fleet and, after the middle of the century, to fund massive public works programs in Athens. According to Thucydides, although the Spartans took no action at this time, conflict between the states flared up again in 465 BC, when a helot revolt broke out in Sparta. The Spartans summoned forces from all of their allies, including Athens, Athens sent out a sizable contingent, but upon its arrival, this force was dismissed by the Spartans, while those of all the other allies were permitted to remain. According to Thucydides, the Spartans acted in this way out of fear that the Athenians would switch sides and support the helots, the offended Athenians repudiated their alliance with Sparta. When the rebellious helots were finally forced to surrender and permitted to evacuate the country, a fifteen-year conflict, commonly known as the First Peloponnesian War, ensued, in which Athens fought intermittently against Sparta, Corinth, Aegina, and a number of other states. The war was ended by the Thirty Years Peace, signed in the winter of 446/5 BC. The Thirty Years Peace was first tested in 440 BC, when Athens powerful ally Samos rebelled from its alliance with Athens, the rebels quickly secured the support of a Persian satrap, and Athens found itself facing the prospect of revolts throughout the empire. The Spartans, whose intervention would have been the trigger for a war to determine the fate of the empire
25.
Sparta
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Sparta was a prominent city-state in ancient Greece. In antiquity the city-state was known as Lacedaemon, while the name Sparta referred to its settlement on the banks of the Eurotas River in Laconia. Around 650 BC, it rose to become the dominant military land-power in ancient Greece, given its military pre-eminence, Sparta was recognized as the overall leader of the combined Greek forces during the Greco-Persian Wars. Between 431 and 404 BC, Sparta was the enemy of Athens during the Peloponnesian War, from which it emerged victorious. Spartas defeat by Thebes in the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC ended Spartas prominent role in Greece, however, it maintained its political independence until the Roman conquest of Greece in 146 BC. It then underwent a period of decline, especially in the Middle Ages. Modern Sparta is the capital of the Greek regional unit of Laconia, Sparta was unique in ancient Greece for its social system and constitution, which completely focused on military training and excellence. Its inhabitants were classified as Spartiates, mothakes, perioikoi, Spartiates underwent the rigorous agoge training and education regimen, and Spartan phalanges were widely considered to be among the best in battle. Spartan women enjoyed more rights and equality to men than elsewhere in the classical world. Sparta was the subject of fascination in its own day, as well as in the West following the revival of classical learning and this love or admiration of Sparta is known as Laconism or Laconophilia. At its peak around 500 BC the size of the city would have been some 20,000 –35,000 free residents, plus numerous helots, olliers theory of the Spartan mirage has been widely accepted by scholars. The ancient Greeks used one of three words to refer to the location of the Spartans. The first refers primarily to the cluster of settlements in the valley of the Eurotas River. The second word was Lacedaemon, this was used sometimes as an adjective and is the name commonly used in the works of Homer. Herodotus seems to denote by it the Mycenaean Greek citadel at Therapne and it could be used synonymously with Sparta, but typically it was not. It denoted the terrain on which Sparta was situated, in Homer it is typically combined with epithets of the countryside, wide, lovely, shining and most often hollow and broken. The hollow suggests the Eurotas Valley, Sparta on the other hand is the country of lovely women, a people epithet. The name of the population was used for the state of Lacedaemon
26.
Chaeronea
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Chaeronea is a village and a former municipality in Boeotia, Greece, located about 80 kilometers east of Delphi. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Livadeia, the municipal unit has an area of 111.445 km2, the community 26.995 km2. It is located by the mountain Thourion and in the Kifisós river valley, first settled in the Prehistoric period at the site now known as Magoula Balomenou, its older name was Arne. Chaeronea was subject to Orchomenus which was, beginning in 600 BCE, in the late 5th century BCE, Chaironeia belonged to one of the 11 Boeotian districts along with Acraephnium and Copia. Chaeronea was the site of historical battles. Best known is that of 338 BCE, between Philip II of Macedon and a coalition of various Greek states, mainly Thebes and Athens, during the battle, the elite unit of Theban soldiers known as the Sacred Band of Thebes was wiped out completely. In 1818, the so-called Lion of Chaeronea, a nearly 20-foot-tall funerary monument erected in honor of the Sacred Band, was rediscovered by English travellers. The fragmentary monument was reassembled and installed in 1902 by a called the Order of Chaeronea atop a pedestal at the site of its discovery. The ancient biographer and essayist Plutarch was born in Chaeronea, and several times refers to these, other battles around Chaeronea, After capturing Chaeronea in 447 BCE the Athenians were attacked and defeated in the same year by the Boeotians at the Battle of Coronea. In 146 BCE the Roman general Matellus defeated a unit of 1,000 Arkadians, in 86 BCE, Archelaus and Taxilos, generals of Mithridates VI of Pontus, landed in Boeotia. They were met by the Roman general Lucius Cornelius Sulla near Chaeronea, Battle between Catalans and Franks in March 15,1311. The Catalan Company defeated the Franks and took control of part of Greece. Turks participated with the side of Catalans, the battle is described by Ramon Muntaner, a Catalan soldier. Battle between Greeks and Turks in 1823 and 1825 during the Greek Revolution, the site of the Theban mass grave was excavated in 1879-80 by P. Stamatakis, and the prehistoric site of Magoula Balamenou 23 years later by the archaeologist G. Soteriadis
27.
Demetrius of Phalerum
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Demetrius of Phalerum was an Athenian orator originally from Phalerum, a student of Theophrastus, and perhaps of Aristotle, himself, and one of the first Peripatetics. He was exiled by his enemies in 307 BC, and he went first to Thebes and he wrote extensively on the subjects of history, rhetoric, and literary criticism. Demetrius was born in Phalerum, c.350 BC and he was the son of Phanostratus, a man without rank or property. He was educated, together with the poet Menander, in the school of Theophrastus and he began his public career about 325 BC, at the time of the disputes concerning Harpalus, and soon acquired a great reputation by the talent he displayed in public speaking. He belonged to the party of Phocion, and he acted in the spirit of that statesman. When Xenocrates was unable to pay the new tax on metics c.322 BC, after the death of Phocion in 317 BC, Cassander placed Demetrius at the head of the administration of Athens. He filled this office for ten years, instituting extensive legal reforms, the Athenians conferred upon him the most extraordinary distinctions, and no fewer than 360 statues were erected to him. According to Stephen V. Tracy, the story about the statues was not historical and he remained in power until 307 BC when Cassanders enemy, Demetrius Poliorcetes captured Athens, and Demetrius was obliged to take to flight. Carystius of Pergamum mentions that he had a lover by the name of Diognis, after his exile, his enemies contrived to induce the people of Athens to pass the death sentence upon him, in consequence of which his friend Menander nearly fell a victim. All his statues, with the exception of one, were demolished, during his stay at Alexandria, he devoted himself mainly to literary pursuits, ever cherishing the recollection of his own country. On the accession of Ptolemy Philadelphus, Demetrius fell into disfavour, and was sent into exile to Upper Egypt and his death appears to have taken place soon after the year 283 BC. Demetrius was the last among the Attic orators worthy of the name and his orations were characterised as being soft, graceful, and elegant, rather than sublime like those of Demosthenes. These works, which were historical, partly political, partly philosophical. The work On Style which has come down under his name, is the work of a later writer, the performance of tragedy had fallen into disuse in Athens, on account of the great expense involved. In order to afford the people less costly and yet intellectual amusement, he caused the Homeric, according to Strabo, Demetrius inspired the creation of the Mouseion, the location of the Library of Alexandria, which was modeled after the arrangement of Aristotles school. The Mouseion contained a peripatos, a syssition and an organization of scrolls. Other sources claim it was created under the reign of his son Ptolemy II. Diogenes Laërtius devotes a section of his The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers to Demetrius Phalereus, what the exact source was for Hegels claim is unclear
28.
Zeus
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Zeus /ˈzjuːs/ is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter and his mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of the Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin. Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, in most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses. He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe That Zeus is king in heaven is a common to all men. His symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak, in addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical cloud-gatherer also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the Ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses, standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his right hand. The gods name in the nominative is Ζεύς Zeús and it is inflected as follows, vocative, Ζεῦ Zeû, accusative, Δία Día, genitive, Διός Diós, dative, Διί Dií. Diogenes Laertius quotes Pherecydes of Syros as spelling the name, Ζάς, Zeus is the Greek continuation of *Di̯ēus, the name of the Proto-Indo-European god of the daytime sky, also called *Dyeus ph2tēr. The god is known under this name in the Rigveda, Latin, Zeus is the only deity in the Olympic pantheon whose name has such a transparent Indo-European etymology. The earliest attested forms of the name are the Mycenaean Greek
29.
Augustus
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Augustus was the founder of the Roman Principate and considered the first Roman emperor, controlling the Roman Empire from 27 BC until his death in AD14. He was born Gaius Octavius into an old and wealthy equestrian branch of the plebeian gens Octavia and his maternal great-uncle Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BC, and Octavius was named in Caesars will as his adopted son and heir, then known as Octavianus. He, Mark Antony, and Marcus Lepidus formed the Second Triumvirate to defeat the assassins of Caesar, following their victory at the Battle of Philippi, the Triumvirate divided the Roman Republic among themselves and ruled as military dictators. The Triumvate was eventually torn apart by the ambitions of its members. Lepidus was driven into exile and stripped of his position, in reality, however, he retained his autocratic power over the Republic as a military dictator. By law, Augustus held a collection of powers granted to him for life by the Senate, including supreme military command, and it took several years for Augustus to develop the framework within which a formally republican state could be led under his sole rule. He rejected monarchical titles, and instead called himself Princeps Civitatis, the resulting constitutional framework became known as the Principate, the first phase of the Roman Empire. The reign of Augustus initiated an era of peace known as the Pax Romana. Augustus dramatically enlarged the Empire, annexing Egypt, Dalmatia, Pannonia, Noricum, and Raetia, expanding possessions in Africa, expanding into Germania, beyond the frontiers, he secured the Empire with a buffer region of client states and made peace with the Parthian Empire through diplomacy. Augustus died in AD14 at the age of 75 and he probably died from natural causes, although there were unconfirmed rumors that his wife Livia poisoned him. He was succeeded as Emperor by his adopted son Tiberius, Augustus was known by many names throughout his life, At birth, he was named Gaius Octavius after his biological father. Historians typically refer to him simply as Octavius between his birth in 63 until his adoption by Julius Caesar in 44 BC, upon his adoption, he took Caesars name and became Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus in accordance with Roman adoption naming standards. He quickly dropped Octavianus from his name, and his contemporaries referred to him as Caesar during this period, historians. In 27 BC, following his defeat of Mark Antony and Cleopatra and it is the events of 27 BC from which he obtained his traditional name of Augustus, which historians use in reference to him from 27 BC until his death in AD14. While his paternal family was from the town of Velletri, approximately 40 kilometres from Rome and he was born at Ox Head, a small property on the Palatine Hill, very close to the Roman Forum. He was given the name Gaius Octavius Thurinus, his cognomen possibly commemorating his fathers victory at Thurii over a band of slaves. Due to the nature of Rome at the time, Octavius was taken to his fathers home village at Velletri to be raised. Octavius only mentions his fathers equestrian family briefly in his memoirs and his paternal great-grandfather Gaius Octavius was a military tribune in Sicily during the Second Punic War
30.
Metonic cycle
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The Greek astronomer Meton of Athens observed that a period of 19 years is almost exactly equal to 235 synodic months and, rounded to full days, counts 6,940 days. The difference between the two periods is only a few hours, depending on the definition of the year. Considering a year to be 1⁄19 of this 6, 940-day cycle gives a length of 365 + 1⁄4 + 1⁄76 days. To keep a 12-month lunar year in pace with the solar year, when Meton introduced the cycle around 432 BC, it was already known by Babylonian astronomers. A mechanical computation of the cycle is built into the Antikythera mechanism, the cycle was used in the Babylonian calendar, ancient Chinese calendar systems and the medieval computus. It regulates the 19-year cycle of months of the modern Hebrew calendar. The start of the Metonic cycle depends on which of these systems is being used, for Easter, at the time of Meton, axial precession had not yet been discovered, and he could not distinguish between sidereal years and tropical years. Most calendars, like the commonly used Gregorian calendar, are based on the tropical year, nineteen tropical years are about two hours shorter than 235 synodic months. The Metonic cycles error is, therefore, one day every 219 years. 19 tropical years =6,939.602 days,235 synodic months =6,939.688 days. 254 sidereal months =6,939.702 days,255 draconic months =6,939.1161 days. Note that the 19-year cycle is close to 255 draconic months, so it is also an eclipse cycle. The Octon is 1⁄5 of a Metonic cycle, and it recurs about 20 to 25 cycles and this cycle seems to be a coincidence. The periods of the Moons orbit around the Earth and the Earths orbit around the Sun are believed to be independent, an example of a non-coincidental cycle is the orbit of Mercury, with its 3,2 spin-orbit resonance. A lunar year of 12 synodic months is about 354 days, therefore, for a lunisolar calendar, every 2 to 3 years there is a difference of more than a full lunar month between the lunar and solar years, and an extra month needs to be inserted. The Athenians initially seem not to have had a means of intercalating a 13th month, instead. Metons discovery made it possible to propose a regular intercalation scheme, the Babylonians seem to have introduced this scheme around 500 BC, thus well before Meton. Traditionally, for the Babylonian and Hebrew lunisolar calendars, the years 3,6,8,11,14,17, and 19 are the long years of the Metonic cycle
31.
Lunisolar calendar
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A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. As with all calendars which divide the year into months there is a requirement that the year have a whole number of months. In this case ordinary years consist of twelve months but every second or third year is an embolismic year, also, some of the ancient pre-Islamic calendars in south Arabia followed a lunisolar system. The Chinese, Coligny and Hebrew lunisolar calendars track more or less the tropical year whereas the Buddhist, therefore, the first three give an idea of the seasons whereas the last two give an idea of the position among the constellations of the full moon. The Tibetan calendar was influenced by both the Chinese and Hindu calendars, the Germanic peoples also used a lunisolar calendar before their conversion to Christianity. The Metonic cycle, used in the Hebrew calendar and the Julian and Gregorian ecclesiastical calendars, the classic Metonic cycle can be reproduced by assigning an initial epact value of 1 to the last year of the cycle and incrementing by 11 each year. Between the last year of one cycle and the first year of the next the increment is 12 and this adjustment, the saltus lunae, causes the epacts to repeat every 19 years. When the epact goes above 29 an intercalary month is added and 30 is subtracted, the intercalary years are numbers 3,6,8,11,14,17 and 19. Both the Hebrew calendar and the Julian calendar use this sequence, the Buddhist and Hebrew calendars restrict the leap month to a single month of the year, the number of common months between leap months is, therefore, usually 36, but occasionally only 24 months. An alternative way of dealing with the fact that a year does not contain an integer number of months is by including uncounted time in the year that does not belong to any month. Some Coast Salish peoples used a calendar of this kind, for instance, the Chehalis began their count of lunar months from the arrival of spawning chinook salmon, and counted 10 months, leaving an uncounted period until the next chinook salmon run. The Gregorian calendar has a calendar, which is used to determine the date of Easter. The rules are in the Computus, Hebrew calendar Jain calendar Hindu calendar Computus Easter rule for Julian and Gregorian calendars. Lunisolar calendar year 2014 Lunisolar Calendar Calendar studies Model of lunisolar calendar based on observation of the sun and moon position
32.
Antikythera mechanism
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Found housed in a 340 millimetres ×180 millimetres ×90 millimetres wooden box, the device is a complex clockwork mechanism composed of at least 30 meshing bronze gears. Its remains were found as one lump, later separated in three fragments, which are now divided into 82 separate fragments after conservation works. Four of these fragments contain gears, while inscriptions are found on many others, the largest gear is approximately 140 millimetres in diameter and originally had 223 teeth. The artefact was recovered probably in July 1901 from the Antikythera shipwreck off the Greek island of Antikythera. Believed to have designed and constructed by Greek scientists, the instrument has been dated either between 150 and 100 BC, or, according to a more recent view, in 205 BC. All known fragments of the Antikythera mechanism are kept at the National Archaeological Museum, in Athens, the Antikythera mechanism was discovered in 45 metres of water in the Antikythera shipwreck off Point Glyphadia on the Greek island of Antikythera. All were transferred to the National Museum of Archaeology in Athens for storage, merely a lump of corroded bronze and wood at the time, the mechanism went unnoticed for two years while museum staff worked on piecing together more obvious statues. On 17 May 1902, archaeologist Valerios Stais was examining the finds, investigations into the object were soon dropped until British science historian and Yale University professor, Derek J. de Solla Price became interested in it in 1951. In 1971, both Price and Greek nuclear physicist Charalampos Karakalos made X-ray and gamma-ray images of the 82 fragments, Price published an extensive 70-page paper on their findings in 1974. Generally referred to as the first known computer, the quality and complexity of the mechanisms manufacture suggests it has undiscovered predecessors made during the Hellenistic period. Its construction relied upon theories of astronomy and mathematics developed by Greek astronomers, in 1974, Derek de Solla Price concluded from gear settings and inscriptions on the mechanisms faces that it was made about 87 BC and lost only a few years later. Jacques Cousteau and associates visited the wreck in 1976 and recovered coins dated to between 76 and 67 BC, though its advanced state of corrosion has made it impossible to perform an accurate compositional analysis, it is believed the device was made of a low-tin bronze alloy. All its instructions are written in Koine Greek, and the consensus among scholars is that the mechanism was made in the Greek-speaking world, syracuse was a colony of Corinth and the home of Archimedes, which might imply a connection with the school of Archimedes. With its many scrolls of art and science, it was second in only to the Library of Alexandria during the Hellenistic period. A busy trading port in antiquity, Rhodes was also a centre of astronomy and mechanical engineering, home to the astronomer Hipparchus and that the mechanism uses Hipparchuss theory for the motion of the moon suggests the possibility he may have designed, or at least worked on it. He regarded the Antikythera mechanism as more valuable than the Mona Lisa, in 2014, a study by Carman and Evans argued for a new dating of approximately 200 BC. Moreover, according to Carman and Evans, the Babylonian arithmetic style of prediction fits much better with the devices predictive models than the traditional Greek trigonometric style, further dives are being undertaken in the hope of discovering more of the mechanism. The original mechanism apparently came out of the Mediterranean as a single encrusted piece, soon afterward it fractured into three major pieces
33.
Ministry of Culture and Sports (Greece)
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The incumbent Minister is Aristides Baltas. The Deputy Minister of Sports is Stavros Kontonis and this ministry was established in 1971 as the Ministry of Culture and Science and it was renamed the Ministry of Culture on 26 July 1985. On 7 October 2009, it was merged with the Ministry of Touristic Development to form the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Culture and Sport was re-established on 25 June 2013. On 27 January 2015 its area of responsibility was assigned to the Ministry of Culture, Education, on 23 September 2015 the Ministry was reintroduced. Ministry of Culture and Sports English language version Lars website
34.
PubMed Identifier
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PubMed is a free search engine accessing primarily the MEDLINE database of references and abstracts on life sciences and biomedical topics. The United States National Library of Medicine at the National Institutes of Health maintains the database as part of the Entrez system of information retrieval, from 1971 to 1997, MEDLINE online access to the MEDLARS Online computerized database primarily had been through institutional facilities, such as university libraries. PubMed, first released in January 1996, ushered in the era of private, free, home-, the PubMed system was offered free to the public in June 1997, when MEDLINE searches via the Web were demonstrated, in a ceremony, by Vice President Al Gore. Information about the journals indexed in MEDLINE, and available through PubMed, is found in the NLM Catalog. As of 5 January 2017, PubMed has more than 26.8 million records going back to 1966, selectively to the year 1865, and very selectively to 1809, about 500,000 new records are added each year. As of the date,13.1 million of PubMeds records are listed with their abstracts. In 2016, NLM changed the system so that publishers will be able to directly correct typos. Simple searches on PubMed can be carried out by entering key aspects of a subject into PubMeds search window, when a journal article is indexed, numerous article parameters are extracted and stored as structured information. Such parameters are, Article Type, Secondary identifiers, Language, publication type parameter enables many special features. As these clinical girish can generate small sets of robust studies with considerable precision, since July 2005, the MEDLINE article indexing process extracts important identifiers from the article abstract and puts those in a field called Secondary Identifier. The secondary identifier field is to store numbers to various databases of molecular sequence data, gene expression or chemical compounds. For clinical trials, PubMed extracts trial IDs for the two largest trial registries, ClinicalTrials. gov and the International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number Register, a reference which is judged particularly relevant can be marked and related articles can be identified. If relevant, several studies can be selected and related articles to all of them can be generated using the Find related data option, the related articles are then listed in order of relatedness. To create these lists of related articles, PubMed compares words from the title and abstract of each citation, as well as the MeSH headings assigned, using a powerful word-weighted algorithm. The related articles function has been judged to be so precise that some researchers suggest it can be used instead of a full search, a strong feature of PubMed is its ability to automatically link to MeSH terms and subheadings. Examples would be, bad breath links to halitosis, heart attack to myocardial infarction, where appropriate, these MeSH terms are automatically expanded, that is, include more specific terms. Terms like nursing are automatically linked to Nursing or Nursing and this important feature makes PubMed searches automatically more sensitive and avoids false-negative hits by compensating for the diversity of medical terminology. The My NCBI area can be accessed from any computer with web-access, an earlier version of My NCBI was called PubMed Cubby
35.
Ancient Greece
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Ancient Greece was a civilization belonging to a period of Greek history from the Greek Dark Ages of the 12th-9th centuries BC to the end of antiquity. Immediately following this period was the beginning of the Early Middle Ages and this was followed by the period of Classical Greece, an era that began with the Greco-Persian Wars, lasting from the 5th to 4th centuries BC. Due to the conquests by Alexander the Great of Macedonia, Hellenistic civilization flourished from Central Asia to the end of the Mediterranean Sea. Classical Greek culture, especially philosophy, had a influence on ancient Rome. For this reason Classical Greece is generally considered to be the culture which provided the foundation of modern Western culture and is considered the cradle of Western civilization. Classical Antiquity in the Mediterranean region is considered to have begun in the 8th century BC. Classical Antiquity in Greece is preceded by the Greek Dark Ages and this period is succeeded, around the 8th century BC, by the Orientalizing Period during which a strong influence of Syro-Hittite, Jewish, Assyrian, Phoenician and Egyptian cultures becomes apparent. The end of the Dark Ages is also dated to 776 BC. The Archaic period gives way to the Classical period around 500 BC, Ancient Periods Astronomical year numbering Dates are approximate, consult particular article for details The history of Greece during Classical Antiquity may be subdivided into five major periods. The earliest of these is the Archaic period, in which artists made larger free-standing sculptures in stiff, the Archaic period is often taken to end with the overthrow of the last tyrant of Athens and the start of Athenian Democracy in 508 BC. It was followed by the Classical period, characterized by a style which was considered by observers to be exemplary, i. e. classical, as shown in the Parthenon. This period saw the Greco-Persian Wars and the Rise of Macedon, following the Classical period was the Hellenistic period, during which Greek culture and power expanded into the Near and Middle East. This period begins with the death of Alexander and ends with the Roman conquest, Herodotus is widely known as the father of history, his Histories are eponymous of the entire field. Herodotus was succeeded by authors such as Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, most of these authors were either Athenian or pro-Athenian, which is why far more is known about the history and politics of Athens than those of many other cities. Their scope is limited by a focus on political, military and diplomatic history, ignoring economic. In the 8th century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, literacy had been lost and Mycenaean script forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to create the Greek alphabet. The Lelantine War is the earliest documented war of the ancient Greek period and it was fought between the important poleis of Chalcis and Eretria over the fertile Lelantine plain of Euboea. Both cities seem to have suffered a decline as result of the long war, a mercantile class arose in the first half of the 7th century BC, shown by the introduction of coinage in about 680 BC
36.
Arch of Hadrian (Athens)
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The Arch of Hadrian, most commonly known in Greek as Hadrians Gate, is a monumental gateway resembling – in some respects – a Roman triumphal arch. It spanned an ancient road from the center of Athens, Greece and it is not certain who commissioned the arch, although it is probable that the citizens of Athens or another Greek group were responsible for its construction and design. There were two inscriptions on the arch, facing in opposite directions, naming both Theseus and Hadrian as founders of Athens. While it is clear that the inscriptions honor Hadrian, it is whether they refer to the city as a whole or to the city in two parts, one old and one new. The arch is located 325m southeast of the Acropolis, the entire monument is made of Pentelic marble, from Mt. Pentelikon,18.2 km northeast of the arch. Pentelic marble was used for the Parthenon and many notable structures in Athens. The marble used for the arch is of a grade that had more inclusions than that used in the best Athenian buildings. The arch was constructed without cement or mortar from solid marble and it is 18m high,13. 5m wide, and 2. 3m in depth. Its design is symmetrical from front to back and side to side. The single arched passageway of the level is 6. 5m wide and was supported by pilasters crowned with Corinthian capitals. Similar, but taller, pilasters flank the outer corners of the lower level, the space between the outer pilasters and the arched opening was filled in with squared stones with drafted edges to emphasize the design. On either side of the passageway was a Corinthian column on a rectangular. The lower level was crowned with an Ionic architrave capped with dentils, the upper level of the arch was composed of a series of Corinthian columns and pilasters dividing the space into three rectangular openings. Each of the openings was crowned with an Ionic architrave capped with dentils. At the peak of the pediment, there was a small vegetal acroterion, the central opening of the upper level was originally closed off by a thin screen of stone, c.7 cm thick. Only the slots for its mounting are now preserved, even a casual examination of this arch, with a few of the many preserved Roman triumphal arches in mind, reveals the significant design variation between the two structures. Roman triumphal arches, however, typically have a massive, solid attic, often filled with a dedicatory inscription, in addition, Roman arches typically supported major stone or bronze statuary, often including a quadriga or similar at top center. As Willers notes, the design of the Arch of Hadrian has a very refined upper level that does not allow the mounting of major decoration on top of the attic
37.
Areopagus
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The Areopagus is a prominent rock outcropping located northwest of the Acropolis in Athens, Greece. Its English name is the form of the Greek name Areios Pagos. In classical times, it functioned as the court for trying deliberate homicide, Ares was supposed to have been tried here by the gods for the murder of Poseidons son Halirrhothius. The origin of its name is not clear, in Ancient Greek, πάγος pagos means big piece of rock. Later, the Romans referred to the hill as Mars Hill, after Mars. Near the Areopagus was also constructed the basilica of Dionysius Areopagites, in pre-classical times, the Areopagus was the council of elders of the city, similar to the Roman Senate. Like the Senate, its membership was restricted to those who had high public office. In 594 BC, the Areopagus agreed to hand over its functions to Solon for reform and he instituted democratic reforms, reconstituted its membership and returned control to the organization. In 462 BC, Ephialtes put through reforms which deprived the Areopagus of almost all its functions except that of a tribunal in favour of Heliaia. In The Eumenides of Aeschylus, the Areopagus is the site of the trial of Orestes for killing his mother and her lover, phryne, the hetaera from 4th century BC Greece and famed for her beauty, appeared before the Areopagus accused of profaning the Eleusinian mysteries. One story has her letting her cloak drop, so impressing the judges with her almost divine form that she was summarily acquitted, in an unusual development, the Areopagus acquired a new function in the 4th century BC, investigating corruption, although conviction powers remained with the Ecclesia. The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth, the term Areopagus also refers to the judicial body of aristocratic origin that subsequently formed the higher court of modern Greece. Areopagus sermon Areopagus of Eastern Continental Greece, a regional Greek administration during the Greek Revolution of 1821, the Constitutional Antiquities of Sparta and Athens by Gustav Gilbert Pantologia by John Mason Good, Olinthus Gregory, Newton Bosworth. P.565 The London Encyclopaedia, Volume 2, P.647 Acts 17, 16-34 – A Biblical account of St. Paul discussing with the Areopagus the nature of the Christian God. Also referred to is the story concerning the altar to The Unknown God
38.
Lyceum (Classical)
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The Lyceum or Lycaeum was a temple dedicated to Apollo Lyceus. It was best known for the Peripatetic school of philosophy founded there by Aristotle in 334 /335 BCE. The school continued to long after his flight from Athens in 323 BCE under a series of leaders until the Roman general Sulla destroyed the school during his assault on Athens in 86 BCE. The remains of the Lyceum were discovered in modern Athens in 1996 in a park behind the Hellenic Parliament, the Lyceum had been used for philosophical debate long before Aristotle. Philosophers such as Prodicus of Ceos, Protagoras, and numerous rhapsodes had spoken there, the most famous philosophers to teach there were Isocrates, Plato and the best-known Athenian teacher, Socrates. In addition to training and educational pursuits, the Lyceum also housed Athenian Assembly meetings before the Pnyx became the official meeting place in the 5th century BCE. Cult practices of groups were also held at the Lyceum. In 335 BCE, Athens fell under Macedonian rule and Aristotle, aged 50, upon his return, Aristotle began teaching regularly in the morning in the Lyceum and founded an official school called The Lyceum. After morning lessons, Aristotle would frequently lecture on the grounds for the public, the group of scholars who followed the Aristotelian doctrine came to be known as the Peripatetics due to Aristotle’s tendency to walk as he taught. Aristotle’s main focus as a teacher was cooperative research, an idea which he founded through his natural history work and his students were assigned historical or scientific research projects as part of their studies. The school was also student run, the students elected a new student administrator to work with the school leadership every ten days, allowing all the students to become involved in turn. Before returning to Athens, Aristotle had been the tutor of Alexander of Macedonia, throughout his conquests of various regions, Alexander collected plant and animal specimens for Aristotle’s research, allowing Aristotle to develop the first zoo and botanical garden in existence. It is also suspected that Alexander donated what would be the equivalent of more than 4 million dollars to the Lyceum and he passed on his Lyceum to Theophrastus and died later that year in Chalcis, near his hometown. Neleus was an expert on Theophrastus and Aristotle, and it may be that Theophrastus hoped he would prepare a catalogue of the 10,000 rolls of papyrus, at least some of the books seem to have been sold to the library in Alexandria. In the 10th century, a catalogue of the library revealed manuscripts by both Theophrastus and Aristotle which almost had to have obtained from Neleus. The rest seem to have been hidden by his family, known for their ignorance, the library then disappeared for several centuries until it appears to have been bought from Neleuss heirs in the 1st century BCE and returned to the school. However, when Sulla attacked Athens, the books were shipped to Rome, throughout their travels one fifth of Aristotles works were lost and thus are not a part of the modern Aristotelian collection. Still, what did remain of Aristotles works and the rest of the library were arranged and edited for use between 73 and 20 BCE, supposedly by Andronicus of Rhodes, the Lyceum’s eleventh leader
39.
Hadrian's Library
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Hadrians Library was created by Roman Emperor Hadrian in AD132 on the north side of the Acropolis of Athens. The library was on the side where rolls of papyrus books were kept. Adjoining halls were used as reading rooms, and the served as lecture halls. The library was damaged by the Herulian invasion of 267. Around the same period as the cathedral church, Agios Asomatos sta Skalia, was built against the north facade. Media related to Library of Hadrian at Wikimedia Commons
40.
Kerameikos
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The area took its name from the city square or dēmos of the Kerameis, which in turn derived its name from the word κέραμος. The cemetery was also where the Ηiera Hodos began, along which the moved for the Eleusinian Mysteries. The quarter was located there because of the abundance of clay mud carried over by the Eridanos River, the area has undergone a number of archaeological excavations in recent years, though the excavated area covers only a small portion of the ancient dēmos. It was originally an area of marshland along the banks of the Eridanos river which was used as a cemetery as long ago as the 3rd millennium BC. It became the site of a cemetery from about 1200 BC, numerous cist graves. Houses were constructed on the drier ground to the south. During the Archaic period increasingly large and complex grave mounds and monuments were built along the bank of the Eridanos. The building of the new city wall in 478 BC, following the Persian sack of Athens in 480 BC, at the suggestion of Themistocles, all of the funerary sculptures were built into the city wall and two large city gates facing north-west were erected in the Kerameikos. The Sacred Way ran through the Sacred Gate, on the southern side, on the northern side a wide road, the Dromos, ran through the double-arched Dipylon Gate and on to the Platonic Academy a few miles away. State graves were built on side of the Dipylon Gate, for the interment of prominent personages such as notable warriors and statesmen. The construction of such lavish mausolea was banned by decree in 317 BC, the Roman occupation of Athens led to a resurgence of monument-building, although little is left of them today. During the Classical period an important public building, the Pompeion and this served a key function in the procession in honour of Athena during the Panathenaic Festival. It consisted of a courtyard surrounded by columns and banquet rooms. During the 2nd century AD, a storehouse was constructed on the site of the Pompeion, the ruins became the site of potters workshops until about 500 AD, when two parallel colonnades were built behind the city gates, overrunning the old city walls. A new Festival Gate was constructed to the east with three entrances leading into the city and this was in turn destroyed in raids by the invading Avars and Slavs at the end of the 6th century, and the Kerameikos fell into obscurity. It was not rediscovered until a Greek worker dug up a stele in April 1863, Archaeological excavations in the Kerameikos began in 1870 under the auspices of the Greek Archaeological Society. They have continued from 1913 to the present day under the German Archaeological Institute at Athens, during the construction of Kerameikos station for the expanded Athens Metro, a plague pit and approximately 1,000 tombs from the 4th and 5th centuries BC were discovered. The Greek archaeologist Efi Baziotopoulou-Valavani, who excavated the site, has dated the grave to between 430 and 426 BC, thucydides described the panic caused by the plague, possibly an epidemic of typhoid which struck the besieged city in 430 BC
41.
Choragic Monument of Lysicrates
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The choregos was the sponsor who paid for and supervised the training of the dramatic dance-chorus. The monument is known as the first use of the Corinthian order on the exterior of a building and it has been reproduced widely in modern monuments and building elements. The circular structure, raised on a high squared podium, is the first Greek monument built in the Corinthian order on its exterior and it was originally crowned with an elaborate floral support for the bronze tripod that was the prize Lysicrates chorus won. Its frieze sculptures depict episodes from the myth of Dionysus, the god whose rites developed into Greek theatre, in 1658, a French Capuchin monastery was founded by the site, in 1669 the monastery succeeded in purchasing the monument, then being called the Lantern of Demosthenes. It was also called Lantern of Diogenes, a reading of its inscription by Jacob Spon established its original purpose. The young British architects James Athenian Stuart and Nicholas Revett published the first measured drawings of the monument in their Antiquities of Athens, the monument became famous in France and England through engravings of it, and improved versions became eye-catching features in several English landscape gardens. Lord Byron stayed at the monastery during his visit to Greece. In 1818, friar Francis planted in its gardens the first tomato plants in Greece, in 1829, the monks offered the structure to an Englishman on tour, but it proved to be too cumbersome to disassemble and ship. Lord Elgin negotiated unsuccessfully for the monument, by then an icon in the Greek Revival, French archaeologists cleared the rubble from the half-buried monument and searched the area for missing architectural parts. In 1876–1887, the architects François Boulanger and E. Loviot supervised a restoration under the auspices of the French government, the Grade I-listed St John the Evangelists Church, Chichester, now redundant, is topped with a preposterous miniature of the monument. The design of the Portland Breakwater Light in Maine was inspired by the monument and it was adapted for Civil War memorials and capped many Beaux-Arts towers, such as The San Remos towers in New York. The most prominent example is the Soldiers and Sailors Monument designed by architects Charles and Arthur Stoughton, in Australia, there is a version in the Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney in New South Wales. It is also reproduced at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne where it forms an element at the top of the memorials pyramid-like roof. On June,2016, Anarchists vandalised the monument with spray paint, writing, excerpts from guidebooks American Beaux-Arts uses of the Choragic Monument Neoclassic architecture and the influence of Antiquity
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Odeon of Herodes Atticus
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The Odeon of Herodes Atticus is a stone theatre structure located on the southwest slope of the Acropolis of Athens, Greece. The building was completed in 161 AD and then renovated in 1950 and it was built in 161 AD by the Athenian magnate Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife, Aspasia Annia Regilla. It was originally a theater with a three-story stone front wall. It was used as a venue for concerts with a capacity of 5,000. It lasted intact until it was destroyed and left in ruins by the Heruli in 267 AD, the audience stands and the orchestra were restored using pentelic marble in the 1950s. Since then it has been the venue of the Athens Festival. In 1957 Maria Callas performed at the Odeon as part of the Athens Festival, in May 1962 Frank Sinatra gave two Benefit concerts for the city of Athens. The Odeon of Herodes Atticus was the venue for the Miss Universe 1973 pageant, another memorable performance at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus was given by the Greek singer Nana Mouskouri in 1984, after 20 years of absence she returned to her country. Luciano Pavarotti performed at the Odeon twice, in 1991 and in 2004, vangelis Mythodea premiered at Odeon of Herodes Atticus in July 1993 and the venue hosted Yannis Live at the Acropolis performance in September 1993. Sting performed at the venue during his Mercury Falling Tour on May 17,1996, Mario Frangoulis has performed at the historic theatre with Yannis Markopoulos Orpheus in 1996 and also played the role of Erotokritos in his work based on Vitsentzos Kornaros Erotokritos. He also performed Axion Esti poem by Odysseus Elytis music by Mikis Theodorakis, elton John performed two concerts at the venue during his Medusa Tour in 2000. In June 2008 Sylvie Guillem performed Boléro in company with the Tokyo Ballet as part of the Athens Festival, in September 2010, tenor Andrea Bocelli held a concert at the Odeon to raise funds for Cancer research. In the Year 2012 Mario Frangoulis performed the role in Carl Orffs Carmina Burana at the Herodes Atticus theater. List of concert halls List of contemporary amphitheaters The southern slope of the Acropolis and the theatre itself, Hellenic Ministry of Culture
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