HISTORY, CIVILIZATION, LANGUAGE TOUR
Discover the History, the roots of the Western Civilization, Culture and Language.
The Sacred Rock of Pnyka, the place where Democracy was born. Democracy (Δημοκρατία – Demokratia) from Δήμος + Κρατώ (Demos + Krato => Public + to Grasp, meaning “the people hold the power”). Archaic Hellenes gathered and voted by raising hand and shouting, their decisions about the matters of the state. It is the place where for hundreds of years, people assembled to listen and decide their future. Pericles, Aristides, Themistocles, Miltiades, Demosthenes and so many others stood on the Sacred Rock and spoke their mind, their message, their opinion, their concerns about matters of state, religion, information etc.
After the Hellenes (Greeks) defeated once and for all the Persians in 479B.C., the Athenians established next to Parthenon the Ancient Agora, where all the "power" of the Athenian State was centered: Bouleuterion (Bouli: opinion => Government), Strategeion (Stratos: army => Ministry of Defence), Mitroon (Mitra: mother, womb => Registry of the Citizens), Dikastirion (Diki: Justice => Tribunals, Courts), Nomismatokopeio (Nomisma: Coin => Mint, Currency Manufacture), Oplostasio (Oplo: Weapon => Arsenal, where they kept the weapons), Bema (step: platform of the speaker), in a mix with temples, fountains, statues. This is the "heart" of the Ancient Athens and Greece.
Areios Pagos (the hill of the God of war Ares), just in front of the Acropolis, where the Body of Justice of the Supreme Court decided the punishment for several "heavy" crimes, such as premeditated murder, arson and rosary. It was secondary used for religious matters. This is where Apostle Paul gave the message of the "Messiah", the "Christ" (Christ is an ancient Greek word meaning "the one with the anointment") to the Greek - Roman World and then to humanity.
The Columns of Olympian Zeus is what is left from the colossal Temple dedicated to the "God of All", Zeus (Δίας - Dias) or Jupiter. It was the biggest temple in Greece and inside it there was one of the largest statues ever created.
Roman Agora is the ruins of an "extension" of the original Ancient Agora of Athens, made mostly during the Roman times. After the death of Alexander the Great, the Greek Generals under his command, unable to come in terms about "who will rule the empire" and unwilling to give the power to his legitimate heir, his unborn son carried by his "barbarian" wife (Roxana of Sogdia/Bactria - a place in deep Asia), they divided his vast empire to 4 parts. These parts, isolated, decayed with time. The Romans (a mixture of immigrants from Greece and native Italians) the new emerging force based in Rome, conquered slowly one by one the 4 so called "hellenistic kingdoms", founding the Roman Empire and "giving their mark" to the Hellenic Civilization. The Hellenistic Era (356B.C.-529A.D.) is the name that the modern historians gave to this almost 1000 years, signifying the expansion of the Ancient Greek Culture to the world.
In the area there are also numerous churches, especially from the Byzantine Empire. After 529A.D. and the end of the Hellenistic Era, Europe fell to the Dark Ages that lasted about a millenia. But not Greece. Under the rule of Byzantium with its base in Constantinople (today's Istambul), the Greek civilization, language, culture was kept away from the Dark Ages, transforming as far as concerns the religion (from pagan=>christinaity)., the state (from military=>modern), the culture, the language etc. Byzantium flourished in the Dark Ages, when Europe was "in darkness". Byzantium lasted until 1453A.D. when Constantinople was conquered by the Othoman Empire. At "the same time" with the fall of Constantinople, in Florence/Italy at the 15th Century, the Ancient Greek Spirit, the Humanism would revive. Even though Greece, "the country that gave the lights of Civilization to the World" was enslaved for almost 400 years (1453-1821 when the Greek Rebellion took place), the "anthropocentric" - human centered - civilization based "on the human being" would survive and form the Western Civilization, ending the Dark Ages and giving birth to the modern eras.
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