Sulla’s Devastation of Athens
Puzzled by a dream of Venus, Consul Lucius Cornelius Sulla launched an offensive on Athens, where the Pontic army of Mithridates the Great was stationed under the command of Archelaus.
JM Thursby
Philhellenes from Switzerland
Though still recovering from the Napoleonic Wars, the Swiss from Zurich to Geneva, Catholic and Protestant, united to play a low-keyed but invaluable part in the Greek War of Independence.
Filothei: A Saintly Athenian
Wealth was no hindrance for a lady whose charity to girls and cripples outraged medieval Athens.
Three kings came from the East
Eumenes, Attalus I and Attalus II, the Hellenistic rulers of Pergamon, in Asia Minor, looked to the West for inspiration and education. The Pergamene link with Athens enriched both the Hellenic capital and the eastern “pretender”.
Suicide in the Ancient Pagan World
Pythagoras believed it ‘interference with the divine rhythm’ and, up until the 1960s, even an ‘attempt’ was considered a crime in Europe. From classical times, suicide has been a thorny moral and philosophical dilemma.
From Rethymnon to the Harem: Evmenia Boryia
A 17th century Cretan girl, seized by Turkish slavers, was dispatched to Constantinople and became the mother of two sultans.
Was Napoleon Greek?
The Greeks of Corsica always claimed Bonaparte was descended from the aristocratic Kalomeros family. Whatever his origins, however, the emperor was a philhellene: he was a close friend of’ Prince’Demetrios Comnenos.
A Case for the Patriarchate
The patriarchate – and even the Patriarchy – are threatened by neglect and the dwindling ranks of Orthodox ‘Turks’, but the attention of statesmen and laypeople, and timely renovation, are reviving this diminished Christian citadel.
Orchomenos: a Bronze Age Minyan Cipher
This Bronze Age site once ranked in power and glory with Troy and Mycenae. The Three Graces were worshiped here, Pausanius visited, and Schliemann excavated.
The Second “Ohi”
General Metaxas’ “No!” is well remembered but Prime Minister Alexander Koryzis, who replaced the dictator, also had his day – when Prince Erbach visited him the morning of 6 April 1941, and was shown the door.
