The Exchanges

Q What's the history of Athens, the city itself?

A Well, we have to go back to the fourth, uh, millennium, about 3400, uh, BC, when the, we have the first inhabitants, uh, who settled on the Acropolis and in the surrounding plain, and from, since that time, the city has a continuous habitation, so you say that the city has a history of six thousand years, and several meters of archaeological remains beneath The modern city. Um, you had a period, well, until the 10th century BC, we cannot say that, well, you can say that we have the city-state of Athens. Just note, in ancient Greece, ah, you have, we have hundreds of independent city-states. Ah, Athens, Sparta, Corinth, just to name the three of the most, ah, important. Um, but we believe that the city-states were formed during the 10th century. B.C. So, up since that time, since the 10th century on, you have the formation of the ancient city, started, started spreading out around the, the Acropolis, and the heyday of, of Athens was the fifth century B.C., when was the, had the strongest navy, they controlled all the, the Aegean, they had multiple sources of revenue from the harbor of Piraeus, they had silver mines, Manufacturing activities, and in this period when the Athena democracy was developed, you had philosophy, art, so the, but when we say the fifth century B.C., that's a period between four 80 to four 30 B.C., about that period, when Athens is at its strongest and the …

AI assessment note: “we have to go back to the fourth, uh, millennium, about 3400, uh, BC”

Q And did Greece go back to city-states?

A Greece, we still had the city-states, but most of Greece was under the control of the, of the Macedonians. So you had Macedonian garrisons in, in the cities, Ah, important fortresses were under Macedonian control. Ah, the kingdom of the Ptolemies, who were ruling Egypt, ah, who, who wanted to fight against, to undermine the Macedonians, were supporting the Greeks when they wanted to have, to start a rebellion against the, the Macedonian garrisons. Ah, it happened a couple of, ah, of times, but with With meager successes, just for a few years. Uh, and that's, uh, that's why when the Romans finally arrived, and they defeated for the first time the kingdom of Macedonia, they declared the independence of the Greeks. It was very fashionable of declaring the independence of the Greeks, but always independence, man. Ok, you can take care of your own affairs. But we call the, the shots in important issues of diplomacy and, uh, independent to an extent. Yeah. You, you, you have a municipal independence.

AI assessment note: “we still had the city-states, but most of Greece was under the control”

Q So what did they mean when they said Greek culture?

A And when they latched on to you? Well, you can say, uh, philosophy, the art, primarily the arts, and literature. That's when you say, when you say, in a historical perspective, what the Romans took from the, from the Greeks, uh, was first of all the, the arts, which they adjusted to their own social and political, uh, requirements. Reality, yeah. Ah, they also took the, the luxury of the, of the Greeks, because by the time the Romans had occupied, occupied Greece, you had Greek and Oriental elements. They were fused, and you have all this idea of, of good living, of drinking, of commensality, perfumes, textiles, carpets, things that the Romans There were some Roman, uh, traditionalists who said, no, no, these are degrading things. We, we, we don't need them. Not even the, we don't even need their statues and, uh, poetry. They're, they're not for, worthy for us, our Roman, uh, warriors. Uh, but, uh, by the first century BC, you start having all the Roman, uh, elite, uh, assimilating the Greek, uh, ways of, of life and entertainment, uh, collecting Greek, uh, arts. When the original, when they ran out of originals, they started producing copies, so there was an entire industry of producing copies or reworkings of early, earlier Greek statues. You go to several, you know, all around the world, and most of the statues that we have, the exception is Greece, but we have a lot of orig…

AI assessment note: “Well, you can say, uh, philosophy, the art, primarily the arts, and literature.”

Q Do you want to tell us a little bit about yourself, Aristotle?

A Well, yeah, my name is Aristotle Koskinas. I'm an archaeologist and qualified tourist guide. I was, well, I was born in Athens, and I have lived in this city for most of my, of my life. Although I had to go out from my university studies to be trained as a tourist guide, so I'm I have been outside of Athens for several years, but I have returned to this, uh, big city to, and I'm working since, uh, say, 2003 as a, as a tourist guide, which is my full-time job, and archaeology now has become a passion. I wouldn't call it a hobby, but I pursue my study, my research, when I have some spare time, which, fortunately, Uh, it is limited. I'm, unfortunately, financially, because I'm busy, I'm, I'm working. On the other hand, I have a ton of roof tiles waiting for me to, to study them, and I'm getting phone calls from my, from the, from the directors of the Dixie. Okay, Aristotle, we have, we have found some new roof tiles where you're coming over to see them. So, November, December, next year, probably. Anyway.

AI assessment note: “my name is Aristotle Koskinas. I'm an archaeologist and qualified tourist guide.”

Q And what do you find most interesting about, uh, being a professional tour guide?

A That's, that's a strange, that's not strange, that's a difficult question. Well, first of all, well, is that I come in contact with, with different people every time, and I have the opportunity to talk to them about the history of Of Athens and Greece. Of course, it's my version of the history of Athens and Greece. I tried to make them see the country through my eyes. And, yeah, that's what makes it interesting. Sometimes, however, you have people who are not particularly interested about the history. They just want to take a selfie. In which case, yeah, It's not that interesting for me to do that, because you can find a place to take yourself, there are plenty of opportunities in the city to take yourself as, now you cannot see it, the audience cannot see that, but wherever you have, you have a look of the Acropolis, so it's, uh, it's great.

AI assessment note: “I come in contact with, with different people every time”

Q What did it mean to get a Greek education? Like, what was that, what did that consist of back in that period?

A Well, first of all, there was a small number of people who could do it. By the Roman period, only the elite could be educated in that high level. I'm not talking about know how to read and write. I'm talking about, uh, being, uh, Trained in the art of, uh, of rhetorics to, to study philosophy. Um, yes, poets, uh, authors, politicians could do it. Uh, other wealthy people could also do it. Sometimes it would be just, uh, I think that some people would visit Athens and would study in Athens just as a nouveau rich, uh, so often say, look, I have studied in Athens. And I'm speaking, I'm writing the Athenian, ah, dialect of the Athenian way. Uh, so yeah, I think that, ah, during the Roman period, that's what they, they perceived as Greek, ah, culture. The, ah, the Athenian expression of Greek culture. And so, let's face it with, ah, because, um, most of the history of Greece was written by Athenians, or by, by people who were living in Athens, or they were writing about.

AI assessment note: “Trained in the art of, uh, of rhetorics to, to study philosophy.”

Q It's very much how politics still works today, right? Like you have municipal dependence and then provincial or.

A Modern historians say that in the fourth century BC, the institution of the city-state started declining. Um, and you can say that politically, it did, because now the Greek world was not that, all that mosaic of small or large city-states was interacted with each other. Ah, in order to survive, you either had to pledge your allegiance or to be subjugated by one of the great kingdoms, or you had to participate in a federation or an alliance, which were formed To stand against the, the, the, these kingdoms, where again you would lose part of your, uh, independence. But, uh, on the other hand, the idea of the city-state as, um, a model of, uh, civic organization thrived during that time. First of all, you have all these new cities that were created by Alexander the Great. They were, uh, They were modeled, uh, on the system of the, of the city-state. They would have their citizens, their city councils, there are the, the, the, the agora, the theater, the, the sanctuary, the gymnasium, where people would work out and educate it. Uh, then you have, uh, several more, uh, cities that were created by the, by the successors of, of Alexander. So the, the model of the city-state, I would say that it thrives throughout As an organization system. Not politically, yes, it had declined. Because they had lost, they didn't have the resources to cope with the greater powers of the time.

AI assessment note: “Modern historians say that in the fourth century BC, the institution of the city-state”

Q Wait, why was that fortunate for them that it was transferred?

A Because the city, it, it remained a very beautiful, uh, small, uh, city. While Athens was, was also a very beautiful city, especially during the development of the sixties. I don't know if you have walked through the, through the placa already, but imagine that until nine, the, Till 1960, most of the city of Athens had very beautiful architecture of the 19th and the early 20th century, and a few apartment office buildings of the modern style. But, with all the development of the sixties, all the, the old buildings were condemned, so, I would say, Athens, that if we were wise and we have kept Athens as it was in the sixties, we would have been a city as beautiful as Prague, even more beautiful. Northern Greece is usually out of the, of the itineraries, and it's, that's a pity, because it's a very beautiful, uh, area, and with also very rich, uh, archaeology, so if you are interested about Alexander the Great, and that, in this period, definitely a couple of days in, in Thessaloniki, or in the cities close to Thessaloniki. And the islands. Now, the islands can, they can be, I know that people definitely would like to go to Santorini and Mykonos, because that's where everyone is, uh, is going. But I would recommend, if you want to visit the Cycladic islands, to visit Naxos, Paros. Yeah, I think that in 10 days, that will be, 10 days are barely enough just to have a, a good taste. …

AI assessment note: “Because the city, it, it remained a very beautiful, uh, small, uh, city.”