Archaeologist Aristotle Koskinas discusses the counterfactual trajectory of ancient world history had Alexander the Great not died in 323 BCE.
Opinion
Koskinas: British loans were crucial to Greek independence despite never funding combat
“Although there are historians that would disagree with that, but an important factor in the success of the War of Independence was those two loans. They were, yes, they were divisive. They were never used for the war itself, but politically, they played an imp…”
What-if
Koskinas: Preserved pre-1960s Athens would be as beautiful as Prague
“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.”
Assertion Supported
Koskinas: Ancient Greek history is distorted by an Athenocentric bias
“Because most of the history of Greece was written by Athenians, or by people who were living in Athens, or they were writing about. Athens. It's an Athenocentric perspective that we get about ancient Greek history.”
Opinion
Koskinas: Plato's dialogues are 70% Plato and only 30% real Socrates
“So, personally, I think that Plato use, use, Socrates has his own mouthpiece. And, ok, he has, say, 30% real Socrates and 70% Plato. But, ok, that's my view.”
Assertion Supported
Koskinas: 1.5 million Greeks and 500,000 Turks were relocated in 1923 exchange
“One and a half million Greeks left their villages and towns in, in Turkey, and they were settled in Greece, and about half a million Turks and Muslims left northern Greece, and they went to Turkey.”
Assertion Supported
Koskinas: Most Greek statues globally are Roman-era copies
“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…”