1.
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
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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
3.
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
4.
Attalus II Philadelphus
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Attalus II Philadelphus was a King of Pergamon and the founder of modern-day Turkish city Antalya. Prior to becoming King, Attalus was already a military commander. In 190 BC, he resisted an invasion by the Seleucids, in 182 BC he again fought the Seleucids, successfully meeting the army of Pharnaces I of Pontus. Finally, he assisted the Romans again in 171 BC, joining Publius Licinius Crassus in Greece for the Third Macedonian War, Attalus II also made frequent diplomatic visits to Rome, and sent frequent envoys such as Andronicus of Pergamum, gaining the esteem of the Romans. At one point, they offered him assistance to overthrow his brother, Attalus expanded his kingdom with the help of his good friend Ariarathes V of Cappadocia, and founded the cities of Philadelphia and Attalia. He was well known as a patron of the arts and sciences, in his old age, he relied upon his chief minister, named Philopoemen, to help him govern. Polybius, Histories, Evelyn S. Shuckburgh, London, New York, strabo, Geography, Books 13–14, translated by Horace Leonard Jones, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, London, William Heinemann, Ltd
5.
Pergamon
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Pergamon /ˈpɜːrɡəmən/ or /ˈpɜːrɡəmɒn/ or Pergamum /ˈpɜːrɡəməm/ was a rich and powerful ancient Greek city in Aeolis. It is located 26 kilometres from the coastline of the Aegean Sea on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus. Many remains of its monuments can still be seen and especially the outstanding masterpiece of the Pergamon Altar. It became the capital of the Kingdom of Pergamon during the Hellenistic period under the Attalid dynasty in 281–133 BC, Pergamon is cited in the Book of Revelation as one of the seven churches of Asia. Xenophon provides the earliest surviving mention of Pergamon. Captured by Xenophon in 399 BC and immediately recaptured by the Persians, in 261 BC he bequeathed his possessions to his nephew Eumenes I, who increased them greatly, leaving as heir his cousin Attalus I. The Attalids became some of the most loyal supporters of Rome in the Hellenistic world, for their support against the Seleucids, the Attalids were rewarded with all the former Seleucid domains in Asia Minor. As a consequence of its rise to power, the city expanded greatly, until 188 BC, it had not grown significantly since its founding by Philetaerus, and covered c.21 hectares. After this year, a new city wall was constructed,4 kilometres long and enclosing an area of approximately 90 hectares. The Attalids ruled with intelligence and generosity, many documents survive showing how the Attalids supported the growth of towns by sending in skilled artisans and by remitting taxes. They allowed the Greek cities in their domains to maintain nominal independence and they sent gifts to Greek cultural sites like Delphi, Delos, and Athens. They remodeled the Acropolis of Pergamon after the Acropolis in Athens, when Attalus III died without an heir in 133 BC, he bequeathed the whole of Pergamon to Rome in order to prevent a civil war. Not everyone in Pergamon accepted Romes rule, aristonicus, who claimed to be Attalus brother as well as the son of Eumenes II, an earlier king, led a revolt among the lower classes with the help of Blossius. The revolt was put down in 129 BC, and Pergamon was divided among Rome, Pontus, Pergamon was briefly the capital of the Roman province of Asia, before the capital was transferred to Ephesus. After a slow decline, the city was favoured by several imperial initiatives under Hadrian, in addition, at the city limits the shrine to Asclepius was expanded into a lavish spa. This sanctuary grew in fame and was considered one of the most famous therapeutic, galen, after Hippocrates the most famous physician of antiquity, was born at Pergamon and received his early training at the Asclepeion. Pergamon reached the height of its greatness under Roman Imperial rule and was home to about 200,000 inhabitants, the city was an early seat of Christianity and was granted a bishopric by the 2nd century. The city suffered badly during the century and was badly damaged by an earthquake in 262 and was sacked by the Goths shortly after
6.
Hellenistic period
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It is often considered a period of transition, sometimes even of decadence or degeneration, compared to the enlightenment of the Greek Classical era. The Hellenistic period saw the rise of New Comedy, Alexandrian poetry, the Septuagint, Greek science was advanced by the works of the mathematician Euclid and the polymath Archimedes. The religious sphere expanded to include new gods such as the Greco-Egyptian Serapis, eastern deities such as Attis and Cybele, the Hellenistic period was characterized by a new wave of Greek colonization which established Greek cities and kingdoms in Asia and Africa. This resulted in the export of Greek culture and language to new realms. Equally, however, these new kingdoms were influenced by the cultures, adopting local practices where beneficial, necessary. Hellenistic culture thus represents a fusion of the Ancient Greek world with that of the Near East, Middle East and this mixture gave rise to a common Attic-based Greek dialect, known as Koine Greek, which became the lingua franca through the Hellenistic world. Scholars and historians are divided as to what event signals the end of the Hellenistic era, Hellenistic is distinguished from Hellenic in that the first encompasses the entire sphere of direct ancient Greek influence, while the latter refers to Greece itself. The word originated from the German term hellenistisch, from Ancient Greek Ἑλληνιστής, from Ἑλλάς, Hellenistic is a modern word and a 19th-century concept, the idea of a Hellenistic period did not exist in Ancient Greece. Although words related in form or meaning, e. g, the major issue with the term Hellenistic lies in its convenience, as the spread of Greek culture was not the generalized phenomenon that the term implies. Some areas of the world were more affected by Greek influences than others. The Greek population and the population did not always mix, the Greeks moved and brought their own culture. While a few fragments exist, there is no surviving historical work which dates to the hundred years following Alexanders death. The works of the major Hellenistic historians Hieronymus of Cardia, Duris of Samos, the earliest and most credible surviving source for the Hellenistic period is Polybius of Megalopolis, a statesman of the Achaean League until 168 BC when he was forced to go to Rome as a hostage. His Histories eventually grew to a length of forty books, covering the years 220 to 167 BC, another important source, Plutarchs Parallel Lives though more preoccupied with issues of personal character and morality, outlines the history of important Hellenistic figures. Appian of Alexandria wrote a history of the Roman empire that includes information of some Hellenistic kingdoms, other sources include Justins epitome of Pompeius Trogus Historiae Philipicae and a summary of Arrians Events after Alexander, by Photios I of Constantinople. Lesser supplementary sources include Curtius Rufus, Pausanias, Pliny, in the field of philosophy, Diogenes Laertius Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers is the main source. Ancient Greece had traditionally been a collection of fiercely independent city-states. After the Peloponnesian War, Greece had fallen under a Spartan hegemony, in which Sparta was pre-eminent but not all-powerful
7.
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
8.
Mount Pentelicus
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Mount Pentelicus or Pentelikon is a mountain range in Attica, Greece, situated northeast of Athens and southwest of Marathon. Its highest point is the peak Pyrgari, elevation 1,109 m, the mountain is covered in large part with forest, and can be seen from southern Athens, the Pedia plain, Parnitha, and the southern part of the northern suburbs of Athens. Houses surround the mountain, especially in Vrilissia, Penteli, Ekali, Dionysos, in ancient times it was also called Brilissos or Brilittos which is the origin of the name of the nearby suburb of Vrilissia. Even since antiquity, Mount Pentelicus has been famous for its marble, pentelic marble is flawless white with a uniform, faint yellow tint, which makes it shine with a golden hue under sunlight. The ancient quarry is protected by law, and used exclusively to obtain material for the Acropolis Restoration Project, the roadway used to transport marble blocks from the quarry to the Acropolis in antiquity is a continual downhill, and follows the natural lay of the land. It has been researched and fully documented by the chief Acropolis restoration architect, Professor Manolis Korres, a monastery is also located in the middle of the mountain, north-east of city centre. A fire in early July 1995 consumed much of the mountain forest, the volume of smoke was tremendous, it nearly covered the entire northeastern part of Athens, and all terrestrial televisual media covered the fire. The blaze lasted about 5 days, it reached east of Penteli about 5,30 p. m and it consumed three quarters of the slopes of Mount Pentelicus, and was the worst forest fire Athens and Greece had seen in the 20th century. Housing development took place in the half of the mountain which removed what was left of nature from the mountain. Many are luxurious and several houses were added, a mining area also removed what was left from nature in the eastern half. The northern half remains heavily forested, a series of fires also occurred after the major fire devastated the mountain range, from 1998 to 2001. Many of the fires were arson-related and suspects were arrested, the fire even burnt its dry grass which was the chief pattern of spread, the people of the area now favour removal of dry grass from future wildfires. The blaze burnt tens of hectares and lasted through the afternoon to the late-night hours. One and a months later, a huge fire yet again battered the forests adjoining Penteli. This time the wildfire was larger and more destructive, with flames towering as high as 50 to 60m, and almost blocking any view of the sky, along with an attendant smoke. The blaze spread, burning tens or hundreds buildings, many of them near the areas, and a western portion 10 km long from north to south. Firefighters along with the panicked residents battled the blaze on neighbourhood streets. The fire had begun in the hours and quickly spread
9.
Marble
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Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite. Geologists use the marble to refer to metamorphosed limestone, however. Marble is commonly used for sculpture and as a building material and this stem is also the basis for the English word marmoreal, meaning marble-like. In Hungarian it is called márvány, Marble is a rock resulting from metamorphism of sedimentary carbonate rocks, most commonly limestone or dolomite rock. Metamorphism causes variable recrystallization of the carbonate mineral grains. The resulting marble rock is composed of an interlocking mosaic of carbonate crystals. Primary sedimentary textures and structures of the carbonate rock have typically been modified or destroyed. Pure white marble is the result of metamorphism of a very pure limestone or dolomite protolith, green coloration is often due to serpentine resulting from originally magnesium-rich limestone or dolostone with silica impurities. These various impurities have been mobilized and recrystallized by the intense pressure, examples of historically notable marble varieties and locations, White marble has been prized for its use in sculptures since classical times. This preference has to do with its softness, which made it easier to carve, relative isotropy and homogeneity, construction marble is a stone which is composed of calcite, dolomite or serpentine which is capable of taking a polish. More generally in construction, specifically the dimension stone trade, the marble is used for any crystalline calcitic rock useful as building stone. For example, Tennessee marble is really a dense granular fossiliferous gray to pink to maroon Ordovician limestone that geologists call the Holston Formation. Ashgabat, the city of Turkmenistan, was recorded in the 2013 Guinness Book of Records as having the worlds highest concentration of white marble buildings. According to the United States Geological Survey, U. S. domestic marble production in 2006 was 46,400 tons valued at about $18.1 million, compared to 72,300 tons valued at $18.9 million in 2005. Crushed marble production in 2006 was 11.8 million tons valued at $116 million, of which 6.5 million tons was finely ground calcium carbonate and the rest was construction aggregate. For comparison,2005 crushed marble production was 7.76 million tons valued at $58.7 million, of which 4.8 million tons was finely ground calcium carbonate, U. S. dimension marble demand is about 1.3 million tons. The DSAN World Demand for Marble Index has shown a growth of 12% annually for the 2000–2006 period, the largest dimension marble application is tile. In 1998, marble production was dominated by 4 countries that accounted for almost half of production of marble
10.
Limestone
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Limestone is a sedimentary rock, composed mainly of skeletal fragments of marine organisms such as coral, forams and molluscs. Its major materials are the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of calcium carbonate, about 10% of sedimentary rocks are limestones. The solubility of limestone in water and weak acid solutions leads to karst landscapes, most cave systems are through limestone bedrock. The first geologist to distinguish limestone from dolomite was Belsazar Hacquet in 1778, like most other sedimentary rocks, most limestone is composed of grains. Most grains in limestone are skeletal fragments of organisms such as coral or foraminifera. Other carbonate grains comprising limestones are ooids, peloids, intraclasts and these organisms secrete shells made of aragonite or calcite, and leave these shells behind when they die. Limestone often contains variable amounts of silica in the form of chert or siliceous skeletal fragment, some limestones do not consist of grains at all, and are formed completely by the chemical precipitation of calcite or aragonite, i. e. travertine. Secondary calcite may be deposited by supersaturated meteoric waters and this produces speleothems, such as stalagmites and stalactites. Another form taken by calcite is oolitic limestone, which can be recognized by its granular appearance, the primary source of the calcite in limestone is most commonly marine organisms. Some of these organisms can construct mounds of rock known as reefs, below about 3,000 meters, water pressure and temperature conditions cause the dissolution of calcite to increase nonlinearly, so limestone typically does not form in deeper waters. Limestones may also form in lacustrine and evaporite depositional environments, calcite can be dissolved or precipitated by groundwater, depending on several factors, including the water temperature, pH, and dissolved ion concentrations. Calcite exhibits a characteristic called retrograde solubility, in which it becomes less soluble in water as the temperature increases. Impurities will cause limestones to exhibit different colors, especially with weathered surfaces, Limestone may be crystalline, clastic, granular, or massive, depending on the method of formation. Crystals of calcite, quartz, dolomite or barite may line small cavities in the rock, when conditions are right for precipitation, calcite forms mineral coatings that cement the existing rock grains together, or it can fill fractures. Travertine is a banded, compact variety of limestone formed along streams, particularly there are waterfalls. Calcium carbonate is deposited where evaporation of the leaves a solution supersaturated with the chemical constituents of calcite. Tufa, a porous or cellular variety of travertine, is found near waterfalls, coquina is a poorly consolidated limestone composed of pieces of coral or shells. During regional metamorphism that occurs during the building process, limestone recrystallizes into marble
11.
Doric order
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The Doric order was one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture, the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognised by the simple circular capitals at the top of columns and it was the earliest and in its essence the simplest of the orders, though still with complex details in the entablature above. The Greek Doric column was fluted or smooth-surfaced, and had no base, the capital was a simple circular form, with some mouldings, under a square cushion that is very wide in early versions, but later more restrained. In stone they are purely ornamental, the relatively uncommon Roman and Renaissance Doric retained these, and often introduced thin layers of moulding or further ornament, as well as often using plain columns. The Doric order was used in Greek Revival architecture from the 18th century onwards, often earlier Greek versions were used, with wider columns. Since at least Vitruvius it has been customary for writers to associate the Doric with masculine virtues and it is also normally the cheapest of the orders to use. In their original Greek version, Doric columns stood directly on the pavement of a temple without a base. The Parthenon has the Doric design columns and it was most popular in the Archaic Period in mainland Greece, and also found in Magna Graecia, as in the three temples at Paestum. These are in the Archaic Doric, where the capitals spread wide from the column compared to later Classical forms, pronounced features of both Greek and Roman versions of the Doric order are the alternating triglyphs and metopes. The triglyphs are decoratively grooved with two vertical grooves and represent the original wooden end-beams, which rest on the plain architrave that occupies the half of the entablature. Under each triglyph are peglike stagons or guttae that appear as if they were hammered in from below to stabilize the post-and-beam construction and they also served to organize rainwater runoff from above. The spaces between the triglyphs are the metopes and they may be left plain, or they may be carved in low relief. The spacing of the triglyphs caused problems which some time to resolve. The architecture followed rules of harmony, since the original design probably came from wooden temples and the triglyphs were real heads of wooden beams, every column had to bear a beam which lay across the centre of the column. Triglyphs were arranged regularly, the last triglyph was centred upon the last column and this was regarded as the ideal solution which had to be reached. Changing to stone instead of wooden beams required full support of the architrave load at the last column. At the first temples the final triglyph was moved, still terminating the sequence, even worse, the last triglyph was not centered with the corresponding column. That “archaic” manner was not regarded as a harmonious design, the resulting problem is called the doric corner conflict
12.
Ionic order
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The Ionic order forms one of the three classical orders of classical architecture, the other two canonic orders being the Doric and the Corinthian. There are two orders, the Tuscan, and the rich variant of Corinthian called the composite order. The Ionic columns are the thinnest and smallest columns out of the three canonic orders, the Ionic capital is characterized by the use of volutes. The Ionic columns normally stand on a base which separates the shaft of the column from the stylobate or platform, since Vitruvius a female character has been ascribed to the Ionic, in contrast to the masculine Doric. The major features of the Ionic order are the volutes of its capital, the only tools required to design these features were a straight-edge, a right angle, string and a compass. Originally the volutes lay in a plane, then it was seen that they could be angled out on the corners. Ionic columns are most often fluted, after a little early experimentation, the number of hollow flutes in the shaft settled at 24. This standardization kept the fluting in a proportion to the diameter of the column at any scale. Roman fluting leaves a little of the surface between each hollow, Greek fluting runs out to a knife edge that was easily scarred. In some instances, the fluting has been omitted, mohr included 8 unfluted Ionic frontal columns on his 1928 design for the railroads St. Louis suburban stop Delmar Station. Pictorial often narrative bas-relief frieze carving provides a feature of the Ionic order. Roman and Renaissance practice condensed the height of the entablature by reducing the proportions of the architrave, the Ionic order originated in the mid-6th century BC in Ionia, the southwestern coastland and islands of Asia Minor settled by Ionian Greeks, where an Ionian dialect was spoken. The Ionic order column was being practiced in mainland Greece in the 5th century BC and it was most popular in the Archaic Period in Ionia. The first of the great Ionic temples was the Temple of Hera on Samos and it stood for only a decade before it was leveled by an earthquake. A longer-lasting 6th century Ionic temple was the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, the Parthenon, although it conforms mainly to the Doric order, also has some Ionic elements. A more purely Ionic mode to be seen on the Athenian Acropolis is exemplified in the Erechtheum, following the conquests of Alexander the Great in the east, a few examples of the Ionic order can be found as far as Pakistan with the Jandial temple near Taxila. Several examples of capitals displaying Ionic influences can seen as far away as Patna, especially with the Pataliputra capital. Renaissance architectural theorists took his hints, to interpret the Ionic order as matronly in comparison to the Doric order, the Ionic is a natural order for post-Renaissance libraries and courts of justice, learned and civilized
13.
Eumenes II
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Eumenes II of Pergamon was king of Pergamon and a member of the Attalid dynasty. He married Stratonice of Pergamon, daughter of Ariarathes IV and his wife Antiochis, since their son was still a minor, the throne was assumed by his brother Attalus II, who married Eumenes widow Stratonice. He also built a stoa on the Athenian acropolis, ithaca, New York, Cornell University Press, London, Cornell University Press Ltd. Kosmetatou, Elizabeth The Attalids of Pergamon, in Andrew Erskine, a Companion to the Hellenistic World
14.
Herules
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In the third century, they were named along with Goths as one of the most important Scythian groups who attacked Greece from the Black Sea by sea, and marauded around the Balkans for several years. In the fourth century, they were subjugated by the empires of Ermanaric the Ostrogoth, and later Attila the Hun and they established their own kingdom and many joined Odoacer, who deposed the last Western Roman Emperor Romulus Augustus in 476 AD. They became well known both as soldiers in various Roman armies, in the Italian kingdom of Odoacer, and as sea raiders on the Atlantic coast, the Danubian kingdom broke up and remnants settled in the Balkans and other places. The last known political entity which was described as Herulian seem to have been in the area of modern Belgrade in the 550s, as a settlement within the Roman empire, the details of their history are difficult to reconstruct. The Herules are possibly first mentioned as the Hirri in the writings of Pliny the Elder, plinius stated that the territory extending from the Vistula river, as far as Eningia, is inhabited by the following nations, the Wends, the Scirii and the Hirri. According to Procopius, they maintained links with Thule and some even moved there after the conquest of their Danubian kingdom and their request was granted, and a new king arrived with 200 young men. The first clear mention of the Herules by Roman writers is generally taken to be in the reign of Gallienus and this is based on accepting the later writer Jordanes, who equated the Herules of his time and the Elouri mentioned by Dexippus. These Elouri accompanied the Goths and other Scythians ravaging the coasts of the Black Sea and later entering the Aegean, sacks of Byzantium, Chrysopolis, Lemnos, Scyros, Sparta, Corinth and Argos followed. Armed groups moved around Greece and the Balkans, and the East Roman military took several years to contain the threat. After suffering a defeat at the river Nessos one surrendering Herul chief named Naulobatus became the first barbarian known from written records to receive imperial insignia from the Romans. It seems to have been the Herules specifically who sacked Athens despite the construction of a new wall and this was the occasion for a famous defense made by Dexippus, whose writings were a source for later historians. Herules were also seen in western Europe before the empire of Attila, in 268 Claudius Mamertinus reported the victory of Maximian over a group of Herules and Chaibones attacking Gaul. In 406, a number of barbarian groups crossed the Rhine, entering the Roman empire. However this list is thought to have drawn on historical lists for literary effect. Some historians have speculated that there must have been a western Herul group with a power base somewhere in northern Europe. After this nothing is heard of again in that region. After the death of Attila his sons and their Ostrogoth allies lost power over the peoples of his empire at the Battle of Nedao in 454. The centre of this alliance was now settled upon the Roman border, Herules on the winning side of the Gepids were subsequently among the several peoples now able to form a kingdom on the northern banks of the Danubian area
15.
American School of Classical Studies at Athens
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The American School of Classical Studies at Athens is one of 17 foreign archaeological institutes in Athens, Greece. The center is a member of the Council of American Overseas Research Centers, the ASCSA offers graduate students enrolled in member universities an unparalleled immersion into the sites and monuments of Greek civilization. The program for Regular Members is a participatory program over nine months. Regular Members are expected to be in attendance for the full nine-month program, students receive comprehensive training through visits to the principal archaeological sites and museums of Greece as well as in seminars led by resident and visiting scholars. They also take part in the program at the Corinth excavations. The School accepts 15 to 20 students in this program, in these sessions, the School condenses its academic year program into an intensive introduction to the sites, museums, and monuments of Greece. The Summer programs are open to 20 participants each session, the School welcomes scholars to its libraries year-round for research. Throughout its existence, the ASCSA has been involved in a number of archaeological projects. It is responsible for two of the most important archaeological sites in Greece, the Athenian Agora and Ancient Corinth, the Corinth Excavations commenced in 1896 and have continued to present day with little interruption, and the Athenian Agora excavations first broke ground in 1932. At both sites, the ASCSA operates important museums and extensive facilities for the study of the archaeological record, excavation records and artifacts are made available to wider audiences via ASCSA. Lykaion, Nichoria and the Palace of Nestor at Pylos, Haghia Irini, as well as Azoria, Mochlos, Gournia, Kavousi and these books range in format from large hardbacks to slim paperback guides. William W. Goodwin, first director Lewis R. Packard Frank B, tarbell Henry S. Robonson Henry R. Immerwahr Stephen V. Tracy Jack L. Davis James C. Wright, current incumbent E. Korka et al, foreign Archaeological Schools in Greece,160 Years, Athens, Hellenic Ministry of Culture,2006, p. 18-29. L. Lord, A History of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, An Intercollegiate Experiment, L. Shoe Meritt, A History of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens, 1939-1980
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Rockefeller family
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The family is also known for its long association with and control of Chase Manhattan Bank. They are considered to be one of the most powerful families, if not the most powerful family, one of the founding members of the Rockefeller family was businessman William Rockefeller Sr. born in Granger, New York, to a Protestant family. He had six children with his first wife Eliza Davison, the most prominent of which were oil tycoons John Davison Rockefeller and William Rockefeller, Oil baron John D. Rockefeller was a devout Northern Baptist, and he supported many church-based institutions. The family was involved in numerous real estate construction projects in the U. S. during the 20th century. In Manhattan by fourteen major institutions that were based in the area, the result, in 1951, was the six-building apartment complex known as Morningside Gardens. Seniors donations led to the formation of the University of Chicago in 1889, the Central Philippine University in the Philippines and this was one instance of a long family and Rockefeller Foundation tradition of financially supporting Ivy League and other major colleges and universities over the generations—seventy-five in total. John D Jr. established International House at Berkeley, beginning with John Sr. the family has been a major force in land conservation. John Jr. and his son Laurance were particularly prominent in this area, at the event, the societys president, John Flicker, notably stated, Cumulatively, no other family in America has made the contribution to conservation that the Rockefeller family has made. Nelson, John D. III, John D. IV, Peggy Dulany, Rockefeller Foundation, the Trilateral Commission -David, Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The Bilderberg Group - David, John D. IV, the Asia Society - John D. III, John D. IV, Charles, David. The Population Council - John D. III, the Council of the Americas - David. The Group of Thirty - The Rockefeller Foundation, the World Economic Forum - David. The Peterson Institute - David, Monica, the International Executive Service Corps - David. The Institute for Pacific Relations - Junior, the League of Nations - Junior. The United Nations - Junior, John D. III, Nelson, David, Peggy Dulany, the United Nations Association - David. These include, the Commonwealth Fund, Charles E. Culpeper Foundation, Lucille P. Markey Charitable Trust, in total, it holds over 70 million pages of documents and contains the collections of forty-two scientific, cultural, educational and philanthropic organizations. Only the expurgated records of deceased family members are available to scholars and researchers. He reports that it will be years before all the papers will be open to the public
17.
Treaty of Accession 2003
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The Treaty of Accession 2003 was the agreement between the member states of the European Union and ten countries, concerning these countries accession into the EU. At the same time it changed a number of points which were laid down in the Treaty of Nice. The treaty was signed on 16 April 2003 in Athens, Greece and it entered into force on 1 May 2004, the European Union comprises a large number of overlapping legal structures which is a result of it being defined by successive international treaties. Otherwise the decision in question shall not be adopted, the Treaty of Accession was selected as a main motif in numerous collectors coins. One of sample is the €10 Greece EU Presidency commemorative coin, minted in 2003 to celebrate the event
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Cyprus
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Cyprus, officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean and the third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean. It is located south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and Palestine, north of Egypt, the earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC, Cyprus was placed under British administration based on Cyprus Convention in 1878 and formally annexed by Britain in 1914. While Turkish Cypriots made up 18% of the population, the partition of Cyprus and creation of a Turkish state in the north became a policy of Turkish Cypriot leaders, following nationalist violence in the 1950s, Cyprus was granted independence in 1960. On 15 July 1974, a coup détat was staged by Greek Cypriot nationalists and elements of the Greek military junta in an attempt at enosis and these events and the resulting political situation are matters of a continuing dispute. The Cyprus Republic has de jure sovereignty over the island of Cyprus, as well as its territorial sea and exclusive economic area, another nearly 4% of the islands area is covered by the UN buffer zone. The international community considers the part of the island as territory of the Republic of Cyprus occupied by Turkish forces. The occupation is viewed as illegal under law, amounting to illegal occupation of EU territory since Cyprus became a member of the European Union. Cyprus is a major tourist destination in the Mediterranean, on 1 January 2008, the Republic of Cyprus joined the eurozone. The earliest attested reference to Cyprus is the 15th century BC Mycenaean Greek
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Czech Republic
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The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, is a nation state in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometres with mostly temperate continental climate and it is a unitary parliamentary republic, has 10.5 million inhabitants and the capital and largest city is Prague, with over 1.2 million residents. The Czech Republic includes the territories of Bohemia, Moravia. The Czech state was formed in the late 9th century as the Duchy of Bohemia under the Great Moravian Empire, after the fall of the Empire in 907, the centre of power transferred from Moravia to Bohemia under the Přemyslid dynasty. In 1002, the duchy was formally recognized as part of the Holy Roman Empire, becoming the Kingdom of Bohemia in 1198 and reaching its greatest territorial extent in the 14th century. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, the whole Crown of Bohemia was gradually integrated into the Habsburg Monarchy alongside the Archduchy of Austria, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt against the Catholic Habsburgs led to the Thirty Years War. After the Battle of the White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule, reimposed Roman Catholicism, the Czech part of Czechoslovakia was occupied by Germany in World War II, and was liberated in 1945 by the armies of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Czech country lost the majority of its German-speaking inhabitants after they were expelled following the war, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia won the 1946 elections. Following the 1948 coup détat, Czechoslovakia became a one-party communist state under Soviet influence, in 1968, increasing dissatisfaction with the regime culminated in a reform movement known as the Prague Spring, which ended in a Soviet-led invasion. Czechoslovakia remained occupied until the 1989 Velvet Revolution, when the communist regime collapsed, on 6 March 1990, the Czech Socialistic Republic was renamed to the Czech Republic. On 1 January 1993, Czechoslovakia peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004, it is a member of the United Nations, the OECD, the OSCE, and it is a developed country with an advanced, high income economy and high living standards. The UNDP ranks the country 14th in inequality-adjusted human development, the Czech Republic also ranks as the 6th most peaceful country, while achieving strong performance in democratic governance. It has the lowest unemployment rate in the European Union, the traditional English name Bohemia derives from Latin Boiohaemum, which means home of the Boii. The current name comes from the endonym Čech, spelled Cžech until the reform in 1842. The name comes from the Slavic tribe and, according to legend, their leader Čech, the etymology of the word Čech can be traced back to the Proto-Slavic root *čel-, meaning member of the people, kinsman, thus making it cognate to the Czech word člověk. The country has traditionally divided into three lands, namely Bohemia in the west, Moravia in the southeast, and Czech Silesia in the northeast. Following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia at the end of 1992, the Czech part of the former nation found itself without a common single-word geographical name in English, the name Czechia /ˈtʃɛkiə/ was recommended by the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs
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Estonia
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Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea, to the south by Latvia, across the Baltic Sea lies Sweden in the west and Finland in the north. The territory of Estonia consists of a mainland and 2,222 islands and islets in the Baltic Sea, covering 45,339 km2 of land and water, and is influenced by a humid continental climate. The territory of Estonia has been inhabited since at least 6500 BC, in 1988, during the Singing Revolution, the Estonian Supreme Soviet issued the Estonian Sovereignty Declaration in defiance of Soviet rule, and independence was restored on 20 August 1991. Estonia is a parliamentary republic divided into fifteen counties. Its capital and largest city is Tallinn, with a population of 1.3 million, it is one of the least-populous member states of the European Union, Eurozone, North Atlantic Treaty Organization, OECD and Schengen Area. Estonia is a country with an advanced, high-income economy that is among the fastest growing in the EU. Its Human Development Index ranks very highly, and it performs favourably in measurements of economic freedom, civil liberties, the 2015 PISA test places Estonian high school students 3rd in the world, behind Singapore and Japan. Citizens of Estonia are provided with health care, free education. Since independence the country has developed its IT sector, becoming one of the worlds most digitally advanced societies. In 2005 Estonia became the first nation to hold elections over the Internet, in the Estonian language, the oldest known endonym of the Estonians was maarahvas, meaning country people or people of the land. The land inhabited by Estonians was called Maavald meaning Country Parish or Land Parish, one hypothesis regarding the modern name of Estonia is that it originated from the Aesti, a people described by the Roman historian Tacitus in his Germania. The historic Aesti were allegedly Baltic people, whereas the modern Estonians are Finno-Ugric, the geographical areas between Aesti and Estonia do not match, with Aesti being further down south. Ancient Scandinavian sagas refer to a land called Eistland, as the country is called in Icelandic. Early Latin and other ancient versions of the name are Estia and Hestia, esthonia was a common alternative English spelling prior to 1921. Human settlement in Estonia became possible 13,000 to 11,000 years ago, the oldest known settlement in Estonia is the Pulli settlement, which was on the banks of the river Pärnu, near the town of Sindi, in south-western Estonia. According to radiocarbon dating it was settled around 11,000 years ago, the earliest human inhabitation during the Mesolithic period is connected to Kunda culture, which is named after the town of Kunda in northern Estonia. At that time the country was covered with forests, and people lived in communities near bodies of water
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Latvia
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Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, one of the three Baltic states. It is bordered by Estonia to the north, Lithuania to the south, Russia to the east, Latvia has 1,957,200 inhabitants and a territory of 64,589 km2. The country has a seasonal climate. Latvia is a parliamentary republic established in 1918. The capital city is Riga, the European Capital of Culture 2014, Latvia is a unitary state, divided into 119 administrative divisions, of which 110 are municipalities and 9 are cities. Latvians and Livs are the people of Latvia. Latvian and Lithuanian are the two surviving Baltic languages. Despite foreign rule from the 13th to 20th centuries, the Latvian nation maintained its identity throughout the generations via the language, Latvia and Estonia share a long common history. Until World War II, Latvia also had significant minorities of ethnic Germans, Latvia is historically predominantly Protestant Lutheran, except for the Latgale region in the southeast, which has historically been predominantly Roman Catholic. The Russian population has brought a significant portion of Eastern Orthodox Christians. The Republic of Latvia was founded on 18 November 1918, however, its de facto independence was interrupted at the outset of World War II. The peaceful Singing Revolution, starting in 1987, called for Baltic emancipation of Soviet rule and it ended with the Declaration on the Restoration of Independence of the Republic of Latvia on 4 May 1990, and restoring de facto independence on 21 August 1991. Latvia is a democratic and developed country and member of the European Union, NATO, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, CBSS, the IMF, NB8, NIB, OECD, OSCE, and WTO. For 2014, Latvia was listed 46th on the Human Development Index and it used the Latvian lats as its currency until it was replaced by the euro on 1 January 2014. The name Latvija is derived from the name of the ancient Latgalians, one of four Indo-European Baltic tribes, henry of Latvia coined the Latinisations of the countrys name, Lettigallia and Lethia, both derived from the Latgalians. The terms inspired the variations on the name in Romance languages from Letonia. Around 3000 BC, the ancestors of the Latvian people settled on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. The Balts established trade routes to Rome and Byzantium, trading local amber for precious metals, by 900 AD, four distinct Baltic tribes inhabited Latvia, Curonians, Latgalians, Selonians, Semigallians, as well as the Livonians speaking a Finnic language
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Lithuania
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Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in Northern Europe. One of the three Baltic states, it is situated along the shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.9 million people as of 2015, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. For centuries, the shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, the King of Lithuania, and the first unified Lithuanian state, with the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772–95, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuanias territory. As World War I neared its end, Lithuanias Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, in the midst of the Second World War, Lithuania was first occupied by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As World War II neared its end and the Germans retreated, Lithuania is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, a full member of the Eurozone, Schengen Agreement and NATO. It is also a member of the Nordic Investment Bank, the United Nations Human Development Index lists Lithuania as a very high human development country. Lithuania has been among the fastest growing economies in the European Union and is ranked 21st in the world in the Ease of Doing Business Index, the first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC. Over a millennium, the Indo-Europeans, who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population, the first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Annals of Quedlinburg, in an entry dated 9 March 1009. Initially inhabited by fragmented Baltic tribes, in the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, after his assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania was a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order. Despite the devastating century-long struggle with the Orders, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded rapidly, by the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was one of the largest countries in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. The geopolitical situation between the west and the east determined the multicultural and multi-confessional character of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the ruling elite practised religious tolerance and Chancery Slavonic language was used as an auxiliary language to the Latin for official documents. In 1385, the Grand Duke Jogaila accepted Polands offer to become its king, Jogaila embarked on gradual Christianization of Lithuania and established a personal union between Poland and Lithuania. It implied that Lithuania, the fiercely independent land, was one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity, after two civil wars, Vytautas the Great became the Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1392. During his reign, Lithuania reached the peak of its expansion, centralization of the state began
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Hungary
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Hungary is a unitary parliamentary republic in Central Europe. With about 10 million inhabitants, Hungary is a member state of the European Union. The official language is Hungarian, which is the most widely spoken language in Europe. Hungarys capital and largest metropolis is Budapest, a significant economic hub, major urban areas include Debrecen, Szeged, Miskolc, Pécs and Győr. His great-grandson Stephen I ascended to the throne in 1000, converting the country to a Christian kingdom, by the 12th century, Hungary became a middle power within the Western world, reaching a golden age by the 15th century. Hungarys current borders were established in 1920 by the Treaty of Trianon after World War I, when the country lost 71% of its territory, 58% of its population, following the interwar period, Hungary joined the Axis Powers in World War II, suffering significant damage and casualties. Hungary became a state of the Soviet Union, which contributed to the establishment of a four-decade-long communist dictatorship. On 23 October 1989, Hungary became again a democratic parliamentary republic, in the 21st century, Hungary is a middle power and has the worlds 57th largest economy by nominal GDP, as well as the 58th largest by PPP, out of 188 countries measured by the IMF. As a substantial actor in several industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds 36th largest exporter and importer of goods, Hungary is a high-income economy with a very high standard of living. It keeps up a security and universal health care system. Hungary joined the European Union in 2004 and part of the Schengen Area since 2007, Hungary is a member of the United Nations, NATO, WTO, World Bank, the AIIB, the Council of Europe and Visegrád Group. Well known for its cultural history, Hungary has been contributed significantly to arts, music, literature, sports and science. Hungary is the 11th most popular country as a tourist destination in Europe and it is home to the largest thermal water cave system, the second largest thermal lake in the world, the largest lake in Central Europe, and the largest natural grasslands in Europe. The H in the name of Hungary is most likely due to historical associations with the Huns. The rest of the word comes from the Latinized form of Medieval Greek Oungroi, according to an explanation the Greek name was borrowed from Proto-Slavic Ǫgǔri, in turn borrowed from Oghur-Turkic Onogur. Onogur was the name for the tribes who later joined the Bulgar tribal confederacy that ruled the eastern parts of Hungary after the Avars. The Hungarians likely belonged to the Onogur tribal alliance and it is possible they became its ethnic majority. The Hungarian endonym is Magyarország, composed of magyar and ország, the word magyar is taken from the name of one of the seven major semi-nomadic Hungarian tribes, magyeri
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Malta
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Malta, officially known as the Republic of Malta, is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies 80 km south of Italy,284 km east of Tunisia, the country covers just over 316 km2, with a population of just under 450,000, making it one of the worlds smallest and most densely populated countries. The capital of Malta is Valletta, which at 0.8 km2, is the smallest national capital in the European Union, Malta has one national language, which is Maltese, and English as an official language. John, French and British, have ruled the islands, King George VI of the United Kingdom awarded the George Cross to Malta in 1942 for the countrys bravery in the Second World War. The George Cross continues to appear on Maltas national flag, the country became a republic in 1974, and although no longer a Commonwealth realm, remains a member state of the Commonwealth of Nations. Malta was admitted to the United Nations in 1964 and to the European Union in 2004, in 2008, Catholicism is the official religion in Malta. The origin of the term Malta is uncertain, and the modern-day variation derives from the Maltese language, the most common etymology is that the word Malta derives from the Greek word μέλι, meli, honey. The ancient Greeks called the island Μελίτη meaning honey-sweet, possibly due to Maltas unique production of honey, an endemic species of bee lives on the island. The Romans went on to call the island Melita, which can be considered either as a latinisation of the Greek Μελίτη or the adaptation of the Doric Greek pronunciation of the same word Μελίτα. Another conjecture suggests that the word Malta comes from the Phoenician word Maleth a haven or port in reference to Maltas many bays, few other etymological mentions appear in classical literature, with the term Malta appearing in its present form in the Antonine Itinerary. The extinction of the hippos and dwarf elephants has been linked to the earliest arrival of humans on Malta. Prehistoric farming settlements dating to the Early Neolithic period were discovered in areas and also in caves. The Sicani were the tribe known to have inhabited the island at this time and are generally regarded as being closely related to the Iberians. Pottery from the Għar Dalam phase is similar to found in Agrigento. A culture of megalithis temple builders then either supplanted or arose from this early period, the temples have distinctive architecture, typically a complex trefoil design, and were used from 4000 to 2500 BCE. Animal bones and a knife found behind an altar stone suggest that temple rituals included animal sacrifice. Tentative information suggests that the sacrifices were made to the goddess of fertility, the culture apparently disappeared from the Maltese Islands around 2500 BC. Archaeologists speculate that the builders fell victim to famine or disease
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Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
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Slovakia
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Slovakia, officially the Slovak Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Slovakias territory spans about 49,000 square kilometres and is mostly mountainous. The population is over 5 million and comprises mostly ethnic Slovaks, the capital and largest city is Bratislava. The Slavs arrived in the territory of present-day Slovakia in the 5th and 6th centuries, in the 7th century, they played a significant role in the creation of Samos Empire and in the 9th century established the Principality of Nitra. In the 10th century, the territory was integrated into the Kingdom of Hungary, which became part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War I and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, a separate Slovak Republic existed in World War II as a client state of Nazi Germany. In 1945, Czechoslovakia was reëstablished under Communist rule as a Soviet satellite, in 1989 the Velvet Revolution ended authoritarian Communist rule in Czechoslovakia. Slovakia became an independent state on 1 January 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. The country maintains a combination of economy with universal health care. The country joined the European Union in 2004 and the Eurozone on 1 January 2009, Slovakia is also a member of the Schengen Area, NATO, the United Nations, the OECD, the WTO, CERN, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group. The Slovak economy is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and its legal tender, the Euro, is the worlds 2nd most traded currency. Although regional income inequality is high, 90% of citizens own their homes, in 2016, Slovak citizens had visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to 165 countries and territories, ranking the Slovak passport 11th in the world. Slovakia is the world’s biggest per-capita car producer with a total of 1,040,000 cars manufactured in the country in 2016 alone, the car industry represents 43 percent of Slovakia’s industrial output, and a quarter of its exports. Radiocarbon datingputs the oldest surviving archaeological artefacts from Slovakia – found near Nové Mesto nad Váhom – at 270,000 BC and these ancient tools, made by the Clactonian technique, bear witness to the ancient habitation of Slovakia. Other stone tools from the Middle Paleolithic era come from the Prévôt cave near Bojnice, the most important discovery from that era is a Neanderthal cranium, discovered near Gánovce, a village in northern Slovakia. The most well-known finds include the oldest female statue made of mammoth-bone, the statue was found in the 1940s in Moravany nad Váhom near Piešťany. Numerous necklaces made of shells from Cypraca thermophile gastropods of the Tertiary period have come from the sites of Zákovská, Podkovice, Hubina and these findings provide the most ancient evidence of commercial exchanges carried out between the Mediterranean and Central Europe. The Bronze Age in the territory of modern-day Slovakia went through three stages of development, stretching from 2000 to 800 BC
27.
Slovenia
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Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia, is a nation state in southern Central Europe, located at the crossroads of main European cultural and trade routes. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the south and southeast, and it covers 20,273 square kilometers and has a population of 2.06 million. It is a republic and a member of the United Nations, European Union. The capital and largest city is Ljubljana, additionally, the Dinaric Alps and the Pannonian Plain meet on the territory of Slovenia. The country, marked by a significant biological diversity, is one of the most water-rich in Europe, with a river network, a rich aquifer system. Over half of the territory is covered by forest, the human settlement of Slovenia is dispersed and uneven. Slovenia has historically been the crossroads of South Slavic, Germanic, Romance, although the population is not homogeneous, the majority is Slovene. South Slavic language Slovene is the language throughout the country. Slovenia is a largely secularized country, but its culture and identity have been influenced by Catholicism as well as Lutheranism. The economy of Slovenia is small, open, and export-oriented and has strongly influenced by international conditions. It has been hurt by the Eurozone crisis, started in the late 2000s. The main economic field is services, followed by industry and construction, Historically, the current territory of Slovenia was part of many different state formations, including the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire, followed by the Habsburg Monarchy. In October 1918, the Slovenes exercised self-determination for the first time by co-founding the State of Slovenes, Croats, in December 1918, they merged with the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes. During World War II, Slovenia was occupied and annexed by Germany, Italy, and Hungary, with a tiny area transferred to the Independent State of Croatia, in June 1991, after the introduction of multi-party representative democracy, Slovenia split from Yugoslavia and became an independent country. Present-day Slovenia has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and there is evidence of habitation from around 250,000 years ago. A pierced cave bear bone, dating from 43100 ±700 BP, in the 1920s and 1930s, artifacts belonging to the Cro-Magnon such as pierced bones, bone points, and needle were found by archaeologist Srečko Brodar in Potok Cave. It shows that wooden wheels appeared almost simultaneously in Mesopotamia and Europe, in the transition period between the Bronze age to the Iron age, the Urnfield culture flourished. Archaeological remains dating from the Hallstatt period have been found, particularly in southeastern Slovenia, among them a number of situlas in Novo Mesto, in the Iron Age, present-day Slovenia was inhabited by Illyrian and Celtic tribes until the 1st century BC
28.
European Union
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The European Union is a political and economic union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe. It has an area of 4,475,757 km2, the EU has developed an internal single market through a standardised system of laws that apply in all member states. Within the Schengen Area, passport controls have been abolished, a monetary union was established in 1999 and came into full force in 2002, and is composed of 19 EU member states which use the euro currency. The EU operates through a system of supranational and intergovernmental decision-making. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community, the community and its successors have grown in size by the accession of new member states and in power by the addition of policy areas to its remit. While no member state has left the EU or its antecedent organisations, the Maastricht Treaty established the European Union in 1993 and introduced European citizenship. The latest major amendment to the basis of the EU. The EU as a whole is the largest economy in the world, additionally,27 out of 28 EU countries have a very high Human Development Index, according to the United Nations Development Programme. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, through the Common Foreign and Security Policy, the EU has developed a role in external relations and defence. The union maintains permanent diplomatic missions throughout the world and represents itself at the United Nations, the World Trade Organization, the G7, because of its global influence, the European Union has been described as an emerging superpower. After World War II, European integration was seen as an antidote to the nationalism which had devastated the continent. 1952 saw the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community, the supporters of the Community included Alcide De Gasperi, Jean Monnet, Robert Schuman, and Paul-Henri Spaak. These men and others are credited as the Founding fathers of the European Union. In 1957, Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and West Germany signed the Treaty of Rome and they also signed another pact creating the European Atomic Energy Community for co-operation in developing nuclear energy. Both treaties came into force in 1958, the EEC and Euratom were created separately from the ECSC, although they shared the same courts and the Common Assembly. The EEC was headed by Walter Hallstein and Euratom was headed by Louis Armand, Euratom was to integrate sectors in nuclear energy while the EEC would develop a customs union among members. During the 1960s, tensions began to show, with France seeking to limit supranational power, Jean Rey presided over the first merged Commission. In 1973, the Communities enlarged to include Denmark, Ireland, Norway had negotiated to join at the same time, but Norwegian voters rejected membership in a referendum
29.
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
30.
Kleroterion
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The kleroterion was a randomization device used by the Athenian polis during the period of democracy to select citizens to the boule, to most state offices, to the nomothetai, and to court juries. The kleroterion was a slab of stone incised with rows of slots, citizens tokens—pinakia—were placed in the slots and the tube was filled with different-colored dice. The dice were released one by one, each die corresponding to a row of pinakia, the color of each die determined whether the owners of the pinakia in the corresponding row were selected for seats on the boule or juries. Allotment and Democracy in Ancient Greece
31.
Cimon
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Cimon or Kimon was an Athenian statesman and general in mid-5th century BC Greece. He was the son of Miltiades, the victor of the Battle of Marathon, Cimon played a key role in creating the powerful Athenian maritime empire following the failure of the Persian invasion of Greece by Xerxes I in 480-479 BC. Cimon became a military hero and was elevated to the rank of admiral after fighting in the Battle of Salamis. One of Cimon’s greatest exploits was his destruction of a Persian fleet, in 462 BC, he led an unsuccessful expedition to support the Spartans during the helot uprisings. For this participation in policy, he has often been called a laconist. Cimon also led the Athenian aristocratic party against Pericles and opposed the revolution of Ephialtes seeking to retain aristocratic party control over Athenian institutions. Cimon was born into Athenian nobility in 510 BC and he was a member of the Philaidae clan, from the deme of Laciadae. His grandfather was Cimon the Silly, who won three Olympic victories with his chariot and was assassinated by the sons of Peisistratus. His father was the celebrated Athenian general Miltiades and his mother was Hegesipyle, daughter of the Thracian king Olorus, while Cimon was a young man, his father was fined 50 talents after an accusation of treason by the Athenian state. As Miltiades could not afford to pay this amount, he was put in jail, Cimon inherited this debt and, according to Diodorus, some of his fathers unserved prison sentence in order to obtain his body for burial. As the head of his household, he also had to look after his sister or half-sister Elpinice, according to Plutarch, the wealthy Callias took advantage of this situation by proposing to pay Cimons debts for Elpinices hand in marriage. He later married Isodice, Megacles granddaughter and a member of the Alcmaeonidae family and their first children were twin boys named Lacedaemonius and Eleus. During the Battle of Salamis, Cimon distinguished himself by his bravery and he is mentioned as being a member of an embassy sent to Sparta in 479 BC. Between 478 BC and 476 BC, a number of Greek maritime cities around the Aegean Sea did not wish to submit to Persian control again, there, they formed the Delian League, and it was agreed that Cimon would be their principal commander. As strategos, Cimon commanded most of the League’s operations until 463 BC, during this period, he and Aristides drove the Spartans under Pausanias out of Byzantium. Cimon also captured Eion on the Strymon from the Persian general Boges and he also conquered Scyros and drove out the pirates who were based there. On his return, he brought the “bones” of the mythological Theseus back to Athens, to celebrate this achievement, three Herma statues were erected around Athens. Around 466 BC, Cimon carried the war against Persia into Asia Minor, Cimons land and sea forces captured the Persian camp and destroyed or captured the entire Persian fleet of 200 triremes manned by Phoenicians
32.
Farnese Hercules
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Like much Ancient Roman sculpture it is a copy or version of a much older Greek original that was well-known, in this case an original by Lysippos that would have been made in the fourth century BC. The enlarged copy was made for the Baths of Caracalla in Rome, where the statue was recovered in 1546, the heroically-scaled Hercules is one of the most famous sculptures of antiquity, and has fixed the image of the mythic hero in the European imagination. The Farnese Hercules is a marble statue, following a lost original cast in bronze through a method called lost wax casting. It depicts a muscular, yet weary, Hercules leaning on his club, in myths about Heracles, killing the lion was his first task. He has just performed one of the last of The Twelve Labours, the type was well known in antiquity, and among many other versions a Hellenistic or Roman bronze reduction, found at Foligno is in the Musée du Louvre. A small Roman marble copy can be seen in the Museum of the Ancient Agora, the rediscovered statue quickly made its way into the collection of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, grandson of Pope Paul III. Alessandro Farnese was well placed to one of the greatest collections of classical sculpture that has been assembled since Antiquity. The Farnese statue was moved to Naples in 1787 with most of the Farnese Collection and is now displayed in the Museo Archeologico Nazionale there, the sculpture has been reassembled and restored by degrees. The original legs, from the Borghese collection, were not reunited with the sculpture until 1787, goethe, in his Italian Journey, recounts his differing impressions upon seeing the Hercules with each set of legs, however, marvelling at the clear superiority of the original ones. Hercules is caught in a moment of repose. Leaning on his club which is draped with the pelt of the Nemean Lion, he holds the apples of the Hesperides. Many engravings and woodcuts spread the fame of the Farneses Hercules, in 1590–91, during his trip to Rome, Hendrik Goltzius sketched the statue in the palazzo courtyard. Later Goltzius recorded the less-common rear view, in a bravura engraving, the young Rubens made quick sketches of the planes and massing of the statue of Hercules. Before photography, prints were the way to put the image into many hands. The sculpture was admired from the start, reservations about its exaggerated musculature only surfacing in the eighteenth century. Napoleon remarked to Antonio Canova that its omission from the museum he accumulated in Paris was the most important gap in the collection, more than once, the sculpture was crated and made ready for shipment to Paris before the Napoleonic regime fled Naples. Ancient copies of the include, Hercules, 2nd century AD, Roman copy, Uffizi Gallery. The “Weary Herakles” is a Roman marble statue that was excavated in 1980 in Perge, Turkey, colossal statue of Hercules, uncovered at the baths in Hippo Regius, Algeria
33.
Herodotus
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Herodotus was a Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus in the Persian Empire and lived in the fifth century BC, a contemporary of Socrates. The Histories is the work which he is known to have produced. Despite Herodotus historical significance, little is known of his personal life and his place in history and his significance may be understood according to the traditions within which he worked. His work is the earliest Greek prose to have survived intact, of these only fragments of Hecataeuss work survive yet they allow us glimpses into the kind of tradition within which Herodotus wrote his own Histories. In his introduction to Hecataeus’s work, Genealogies, This points forward to the ‘folksy’ yet ‘international’ outlook typical of Herodotus. Yet, one scholar has described the work of Hecataeus as “a curious false start to history” since despite his critical spirit. It is possible that Herodotus borrowed much material from Hecataeus, as stated by Porphyry in a recorded by Eusebius. But Hecataeus did not record events that had occurred in living memory, unlike Herodotus, Herodotus claims to be better informed than his predecessors by relying on empirical observation to correct their excessive schematism. For example, He argues for continental asymmetry as opposed to the theory of a perfectly circular earth with Europe. Yet, he retains idealizing tendencies, as in his notions of the Danube. His debt to previous authors of prose ‘histories’ might be questionable, however, this point is one of the most contentious issues in modern scholarship. It is on account of the strange stories and the folk-tales he reported that his critics in early modern times branded him “The Father of Lies”. Even his own contemporaries found reason to scoff at his achievement, similarly, the Athenian historian Thucydides dismissed Herodotus as a “logos-writer”. Moreover, Thucydides developed a historical topic more in keeping with the Greek world-view, the interplay of civilizations was more relevant to Greeks living in Anatolia, such as Herodotus himself, for whom life within a foreign civilization was a recent memory. Modern scholars generally turn to Herodotus’s own writing for reliable information about his life, supplemented with ancient yet much later sources, modern accounts of his life typically go something like this, Herodotus was born at Halicarnassus around 484 BC. His name is not mentioned later in the tribute list of the Athenian Delian League, the epic poet Panyassis – a relative of Herodotus – is reported to have taken part in a failed uprising. Herodotus expresses affection for the island of Samos, and this is an indication that he might have lived there in his youth. So it is possible that his family was involved in an uprising against Lygdamis, leading to a period of exile on Samos, Herodotus wrote his Histories in the Ionian dialect, yet he was born in Halicarnassus, which was a Dorian settlement
34.
Antoninus Pius
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Antoninus Pius, also known as Antoninus, was Roman Emperor from 138 to 161. He was one of the Five Good Emperors in the Nerva–Antonine dynasty and he died of illness in 161 and was succeeded by his adopted sons Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus as co-emperors. He was born as the child of Titus Aurelius Fulvus. The Aurelii Fulvii were therefore a new senatorial family from Gallia Narbonensis whose rise to prominence was supported by the Flavians. The link between Antoninus family and their home province explains the importance of the post of Proconsul of Gallia Narbonensis during the late Second Century. Antoninus was born near Lanuvium and his mother was Arria Fadilla, the Arrii Antoninii were an older senatorial family from Italy, very influential during Nervas reign. Arria Fadilla, Antoninus mother, married afterwards Publius Julius Lupus, a man of rank, suffect consul in 98. Some time between 110 and 115, Antoninus married Annia Galeria Faustina the Elder and they are believed to have enjoyed a happy marriage. Faustina was the daughter of consul Marcus Annius Verus and Rupilia Faustina, Faustina was a beautiful woman, and despite rumours about her character, it is clear that Antoninus cared for her deeply. Faustina bore Antoninus four children, two sons and two daughters and they were, Marcus Aurelius Fulvus Antoninus, his sepulchral inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome. Marcus Galerius Aurelius Antoninus, his sepulchral inscription has been found at the Mausoleum of Hadrian in Rome and his name appears on a Greek Imperial coin. Aurelia Fadilla, she married Lucius Lamia Silvanus, consul 145 and she appeared to have no children with her husband and her sepulchral inscription has been found in Italy. Annia Galeria Faustina Minor or Faustina the Younger, a future Roman Empress, married her maternal cousin, when Faustina died in 141, Antoninus was greatly distressed. In honour of her memory, he asked the Senate to deify her as a goddess and he had various coins with her portrait struck in her honor. These coins were scripted ‘DIVA FAUSTINA’ and were elaborately decorated and he further created a charity which he founded and called it Puellae Faustinianae or Girls of Faustina, which assisted destitute girls of good family. Finally, Antoninus created a new alimenta, instead, he lived with Galena Lysistrata, one of Faustinas freed women. Concubinage was a form of female companionship sometimes chosen by powerful men in Ancient Rome, especially widowers like Vespasian and their union could not produce any legitimate offspring who could threaten any heirs, such as those of Antoninus. Also, as one could not have a wife and a concubine at the same time
35.
Acropolis Museum
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The Acropolis Museum is an archaeological museum focused on the findings of the archaeological site of the Acropolis of Athens. The museum was built to house every artifact found on the rock and on the slopes, from the Greek Bronze Age to Roman. It also lies over the ruins of a part of Roman, the museum was founded in 2003, while the Organization of the Museum was established in 2008. It opened to the public on 20 June 2009, nearly 4,000 objects are exhibited over an area of 14,000 square metres. The Organization for the Construction of the new museum is chaired by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Professor Emeritus of Archaeology, the first museum was on the Acropolis, it was completed in 1874 and underwent a moderate expansion in the 1950s. However, successive excavations on the Acropolis uncovered many new artifacts which significantly exceeded its original capacity, creation of a gallery for the display of the Parthenon Marbles has been key to all recent proposals for the design of a new museum. The first architectural competition to design a new museum was held in 1976 and was limited to participants from Greece, both the 1976 competition and one that followed it in 1979 failed to produce any results mainly because the plots of land selected for the proposed constructions were deemed unsuitable. In 1989, a competition for the design of the new Acropolis Museum was announced that would be international. A choice of three sites was provided. This competition was won by the Italian architects, Manfredi Nicoletti, in retrospect, the location of the new museum was rather straightforward, the large lot of the unused Camp Makrygianni gendarmerie barracks, opposite the Theater of Dionysus. The barracks were built on land and a limited number of expropriations of surrounding private houses were needed to free up the necessary space. The main building of the old barracks, the neoclassical Weiler Building, has been renovated, the fourth competition had made no provision for the preservation of the ancient site. These were met to a degree only after local and international campaigners exposed this oversight, the new plans were adjusted so that the building was elevated above ground, on pillars. Competition was open only to architectural practices by invitation and it was won by New York–based architect, Bernard Tschumi, excavation has revealed two layers of modest, private roadside houses and workshops, one from the early Byzantine era and another from the classical era. Once the layout and stratigraphy of the findings were established, suitable locations for the pillars were identified. These traverse the soil to the bedrock and float on roller bearings able to withstand a Richter scale magnitude 10 earthquake. Greek officials expressed their hope that the new museum will help in the campaign for the return of the Parthenon Marbles, the museum is located by the southeastern slope of the Acropolis hill, on the ancient road that led up to the sacred rock in classical times. The entrance to the building is on Dionysiou Areopagitou Street and directly adjacent to the Akropoli metro station the red line of the Athens Metro, the design by Bernard Tschumi was selected as the winning project in the fourth competition
36.
Epigraphical Museum
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The Epigraphical Museum of Athens, Greece, is unique in Greece and the largest of its kind in the world. Its collection comprises 14,078, mostly Greek, inscriptions and it is situated in the south wing of the National Archaeological Museum of Athens. Only the courtyards, lobby and four rooms are open to the public, a full photographic archive of the collection is being assembled for future visitors. Inscriptiones Graecae, Consilio Et Auctoritate Academiae Scientiarium Berolinensis Et Brandenburgensis Editae Ministry of Culture, delphi, The Bellybutton of the Ancient World
37.
Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art
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The Nicholas P. Goulandris Foundation - Museum of Cycladic Art is one of the great museums of Athens. It houses a collection of artifacts of Cycladic art. The museum was founded in 1986 in order to house the collection of Cycladic and Ancient Greek art belonging to Nicholas, starting in the early 1960s, the couple collected Greek antiquities, with special interest in the prehistoric art from the Cyclades islands of the Aegean Sea. The Museums main building, erected in the centre of Athens in 1985, was designed by the Greek architect Ioannis Vikelas, in 1991, the Museum acquired a new wing, the neo-classical Stathatos Mansion at the corner of Vassilissis Sofias Avenue and Herodotou Street. Cycladic art Cycladic civilization List of museums in Greece Museum of Cycladic Art official site Ministry of Culture and Tourism www. athensinfoguide. com
38.
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
39.
Museum of Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulou
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The Museum of Pavlos and Alexandra Kanellopoulou is a museum of antiquities in Athens, Greece. Founded in 1976, it comprises the collection of Paul. It is housed in the mansion of the Michalea family, situated on the north slope of the Acropolis. The mansion was purchased by the Greek state in the 1960s-1970s and was restored to house the collection. The items of the collection include clay and stone vases and figurines, busts, jewellery, weapons, coins and inscriptions, hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism City of Athens www. athensinfoguide. com
40.
National Archaeological Museum, Athens
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The National Archaeological Museum in Athens houses some of the most important artifacts from a variety of archaeological locations around Greece from prehistory to late antiquity. It is considered one of the greatest museums in the world, the first national archaeological museum in Greece was established by prime minister of Greece Ioannis Kapodistrias in Aigina in 1829. The initial name for the museum was The Central Museum and it was renamed to its current name in 1881 by Prime Minister of Greece Charilaos Trikoupis. In 1887 the important archaeologist Valerios Stais became the museums curator, during World War II the museum was closed and the antiquities were sealed in special protective boxes and buried, in order to avoid their destruction and looting. In 1945 exhibits were displayed under the direction of Christos Karouzos. The south wing of the houses the Epigraphic Museum with the richest collection of inscriptions in the world. The inscriptions museum expanded between 1953 and 1960 with the designs of Patroklos Karantinos. The museum has an imposing neo-classical design which was popular in Europe at the time and is in accordance with the classical style artifacts that it houses. The initial plan was conceived by the architect Ludwig Lange and it was modified by Panagis Kalkos who was the main architect, Armodios Vlachos. At the front of the museum there is a large neo-classic design garden which is decorated with sculptures, the building has undergone many expansions. These expansions were necessary to accommodate the growing collection of artifacts. The most recent refurbishment of the museum more than 1.5 years to complete. The Minoan frescoes rooms opened to the public in 2005, on May 2008 the Culture Minister Mihalis Liapis inaugurated the much anticipated collection of Egyptian antiquities and the collection of Eleni and Antonis Stathatos. Today, there is a discussion regarding the need to further expand the museum to adjacent areas. A new plan has made for a subterranean expansion at the front of the museum. The museums collections are organised in sections, The prehistoric collection displays objects from the Neolithic era, Early and Mid-Bronze age, objects classified as Cycladic and Mycenaean art. There are ceramic finds from various important Neolithic sites such as Dimini and Sesclo from middle Helladic ceramics from Boeotia, Attica, some objects from Heinrich Schliemann excavations in Troy are also on display. Cycladic collection features the famous marble figurines from the Aegean islands of Delos and Keros including the Lutist, of great interest are the two golden cups from Vafeio showing a scene of the capture of a bull
41.
Old Acropolis Museum
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The Old Acropolis Museum was an archaeological museum located in Athens, Greece on the archeological site of Acropolis. It is built in a niche at the edge of the rock and most of it lies beneath the level of the hilltop. It was considered one of the archaeological museums in Athens. Due to its size, the Greek government decided in the late 1980s to build a new museum. The New Acropolis Museum is now built at the foot of the Acropolis, in June 2007 the old museum closed its doors so that its antiquities could be moved to their new home, which opened on 20 June 2009. The museum was home to many of the Greek worlds ancient relics found in and it was designed by architect Panagis Kalkos and was constructed between 1865 and 1874. It was expanded in the 1950s to a modern design executed by Patroklos Karantinos, the Acropolis Museum housed stone sculptures and bronze remains from the monuments of the Acropolis and some artifacts that are excavated on the site. The building is located in the south-east corner of the Acropolis, in 1974 prime minister Konstantinos Karamanlis proposed the construction of a new museum. Initial plans were made under Melina Mercouri and the ground of the Makrygianni former military hospital, the first competition was criticized and a new competition proclaimed some years later. In 2007 the old building was closed to prepare the move to the new building, a new building was designed by Bernard Tschumi and Michali Fotiades, and constructed from 2002-2007 on Areopagitou Street. It was inaugurated on Saturday, June 20,2009, and the fee was 1 euro for the first year. Drainage pipes from the Old Acropolis Museum have been attributed for causing much of the decay of the Acropolis, the museum housed artifacts that were found on the site of the Acropolis of Athens
42.
Byzantine and Christian Museum
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The Byzantine and Christian Museum is situated at Vassilissis Sofias Avenue in Athens, Greece. It is one of the most important museums in the world in Byzantine Art, in June 2004, in time for its 90th anniversary and the 2004 Athens Olympics, the museum reopened to the public after an extensive renovation and the addition of another wing. The gallery is situated on Vassilissis Sofias Avenue 22, down the street from the Hilton Athens and it can be reached with the Athens Metro at the Evangelismos station. Byzantine Art List of museums in Greece Official website Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Tourism
43.
Athens War Museum
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The Athens War Museum, established on July 18,1975, is the museum of the Greek Armed Forces. Its purpose is the exhibition of artifacts and the relevant research in the history of war. It covers the history of war in all ages, the design of the museum was undertaken by a team of distinguished scientists, headed by Professor Thoukidides Valentis of the National Technical university of Athens. On July 18,1975, the President of the Hellenic Republic H. E, constantine Tsatsos and the Minister of National Defense Evangelos Averoff-Tositsas inaugurated the Museum. Its various activities include the publication of books, the establishment and maintenance of monuments and memorials, the War Museum has established Museum Branches at the cities of Nauplion, Chania, Tripoli and Thessaloniki. After building the Hellenic Air Force Museum, some airplanes were brought to this museum, category, Military and war museums in Greece Official website City of Athens www. greece-athens. com
44.
Drossinis Museum
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The museum was founded in 1997 with the aim to preserve and promote Drossinis’ multidimensional work. Going upstairs, the first hall on the right is the Intellectual Hall, numerous exhibits demonstrate his significant presence in letters and his important contribution to education in Greece. Here one can find archived all issues of Estia newspaper, of which Drossinis was editor-in-chief and director, the poet’s collaborations in Greek publications or foreign ones – Cypriot, French, German and American – can also be found in this hall. The hall on the left is the Emotional Hall and it is Drossinis’ bedroom, where the visitor has the feeling that the poet is constantly present. Photos of Mesolonghi, Drossinis’s birthplace, on the walls and others of his friends and relatives, fishing and hunting equipment reveal his great love of nature – Drossinis also wrote books about fishing and hunting – while religious icons express his deep faith. These objects, together with sculptures by Tombros and Vitsaris, surround the figure as portrayed by the sculptor Angeliki Vlachopoulou sitting in his armchair at old age. The third hall is the ‘Folk’ Hall and it is the largest part of the museum and the most interesting one, especially for the younger visitors. The heroes of his writings and his life are here, clay figures in real-life size – most works are by A. Vlachopoulou – represent vividly the world of his prose. Finally, the association organises conferences on topics related to special needs, official website of the Drossinis Museum
45.
Eleftherios Venizelos
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As leader of the Liberal Party, he was elected several times as Prime Minister of Greece, serving from 1910 to 1920 and from 1928 to 1933. Venizelos had such influence on the internal and external affairs of Greece that he is credited with being the maker of modern Greece. His first entry into the scene was with his significant role in the autonomy of the Cretan State. Soon, he was invited to Greece to resolve the political deadlock, not only did he initiate constitutional and economic reforms that set the basis for the modernization of Greek society, but also reorganized both army and navy in preparation of future conflicts. Before the Balkan Wars of 1912–1913, Venizelos catalytic role helped gain Greece entrance to the Balkan League, through his diplomatic acumen, Greece doubled its area and population with the liberation of Macedonia, Epirus, and most of the Aegean islands. In World War I, he brought Greece on the side of the Allies, however, his pro-Allied foreign policy brought him into direct conflict with the monarchy, causing the National Schism. The Schism polarized the population between the royalists and Venizelists and the struggle for power between the two groups affected the political and social life of Greece for decades. Following the Allied victory, Venizelos secured new territorial gains, especially in Anatolia, despite his achievements, he was defeated in the 1920 General Election, which contributed to the eventual Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War. In his subsequent periods in office Venizelos succeeded in restoring relations with Greeces neighbors. In 1935 he resurfaced from retirement to support a military coup and its failure severely weakened the Second Hellenic Republic, the republic that he had created. In the 18th century, the ancestors of Venizelos, named Cravvatas, lived in Mystras, in southern Peloponnese. During the Ottoman raids in the peninsula in 1770, a member of the Cravvatas family, Venizelos Cravvatas and his sons discarded their patronymic and called themselves Venizelos. The family was of Laconic, Maniot, and Cretan origin, Eleftherios was born in Mournies, near Chania in then-Ottoman Crete to Kyriakos Venizelos, a Cretan merchant and revolutionary, and Styliani Ploumidaki. When the Cretan revolution of 1866 broke out, Venizelos family fled to the island of Syros and they were not allowed to return to Crete, and stayed in Syros until 1872, when Abdülaziz granted an amnesty. He spent his year of secondary education at a school in Ermoupolis in Syros from which he received his Certificate in 1880. In 1881 he enrolled at the University of Athens Law School and he returned to Crete in 1886 and worked as a lawyer in Chania. Throughout his life he maintained a passion for reading and was improving his skills in English, Italian, German. The situation in Crete during Venizelos early years was fluid, the Ottoman empire was undermining the reforms, which were made under international pressure, while the Cretans desired to see the Sultan, Abdul Hamid II, abandon the ungrateful infidels
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Goulandris Natural History Museum
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The Goulandris Museum of Natural History is a museum in Kifisia, a northeastern suburb of Athens, Greece. The museum includes collections of insects, mammals, birds, reptiles, shells, rocks, minerals and fossils. The botanical collections number over 200.000 species of plants, among which there are 145 newly discovered ones, the kernel of the botanical collection was formed when it acquired the collection of Constantine Goulimis, the author of Wild Flowers of Greece that was illustrated by Niki Goulandris. In the museums laboratories, scientific research is being carried out in the areas of ecology, botany, in the exhibition rooms are presented in detail the variety and interdependence of the biocommunities and the floral, animal and geological wealth of Greece. The Goulandris Museum of Natural History also functions as an educational institution for all levels of education. Its activities include further education programmes, seminars, lectures, the publication of books and other material and its publications include a scientific journal, the Annales Musei Goulandris. The Museum is linked to international organizations and to Institutes of Higher Education, some of the most important exhibits of the museum are the Zoology Room, the Palaeontology Room and the display of bivalve molluscs from various parts of the world. In 2010, rhizomes of Iris hellenica were given the garden of the Goulandris Natural History Museum, the iris grew well vegetatively for a year, but failed to flower. Unfortunately they did not survive the year, but they survived in Copenhagen. List of museums in Greece Museums in Greece Official website of The Goulandris Museum of Natural History Annales Issue 112006
