Fascinating History

View of the Acropolis from the Agora. View of the Acropolis. The Acropolis, the citadel of Athens, was primarily used as a sanctuary and refuge in ancient times. Built on hard limestone which rises from the Athenian landscape at around 150 metres above sea level, the sun-baked rock has gone through numerous constructions and demolitions from the Bronze Age to the 19th century. During the 5th century B.C. the Acropolis became a key part of the Golden Age of Pericles, a time when democracy was born and exercised as well as a time of great architectural and artistic accomplishments.  The acropolis became indeed the focus of Pericles' rebuilding of the city and under the direction of the great Pheidias, the Propylea, the Parthenon and the Erehthion were copmpleted in the second half of the 5th century B.C. which can still be seen today, albeit in ruins and in the process of being meticulously restored by the Greek government.  Nowadays it is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

A very interesting lecture by Neil Faulkner, also author of "Rome:  Empire of the Eagles".  Please click on link below to listen.

Byzantium, the medieval Eastern remnant of the ancient Roman empire, a powerful empire in its own right, dominated the Eastern Mediterranean and Asia Minor for over 1,000 years, from the 4th c.AD to its eventual fall to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 AD. The Byzantine empire was a melting pot of East and West, with the Eastern Orthodox church reigning supreme and influencing almost all aspects of people's lives, while the pagan elements from the time when Emperor Constantine relocated Rome to Byzantium as an intended new capital for the Roman empire, provided for an interesting and strange mixture of pious and fanatical Orthodoxy with a simultaneous exploration of ancient thought and lifestyle. As might be expected in such a situation there were many contrasts within the empire's way of life and belief-system, the Byzantine eunuch being one of these. Over the centuries we see eunuchs, essentially castrated men, employed as guards for the mighty in many cultures including ancient Egy

In republican ancient Rome banquets where just about the only place where a respectable patrician could be fickle and indulge in sensuality without damaging his carefully cultivated reputation. Once the men had been relaxed sufficiently by the wine, in the absence of family women and children, the noble Roman could indulge in the presence of salacious dancers, good-looking flute-players, and performers of various kinds and of both sexes. These activities were not considered serious and anything that occurred during a banquet would be conveniently brushed aside by the next day. Banquet love affairs were in fact common, even if sexual relations hardly ever took place during the actual banquet. The attendees, despite all knowing each other's identity, would assume nicknames for the evening and dress up in exotic costumes - perhaps in a further effort to highlight the fickle and non-serious nature of any subsequent activities and separate it from everyday life. The poet Catullus for

Lucius Cornelius Sulla (138-78 BC) was born into a poor aristocratic family in Rome, a very unfortunate situation for an ambitious young patrician. Fortunately for him and not necessarily for the thousands who would have good reason to dread and fear him in later life, he was a man who always seemed to have luck on his side. As a young man with golden-blond hair, piercing grey-blue eyes, striking good looks and a charming personality, Sulla managed to create such a strong and lasting impression on one of Rome’s richest courtesans that when she died she left all her money to him, thus enabling him, along with an inheritance from his step-mother, to pursue the cursus honorum, the expected but costly career path for a male member of the Roman aristocracy. Thus, via a combination of good looks, luck and no-doubt careful cultivating of his political acquaintances, Sulla became the Consul Marius’s Quaestor in 107 BC. (The Quaestorship being the first step of the cursus honorum). After taking

The father of emperor Tiberius, called Tiberius Claudius Nero, was a quaestor to Julius Caesar in 48 BC and Praetor in 42 BC. (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiberius_Nero ) We know little about him but Cicero offers some interesting insight on the young man in a letter to Minucius Thermus, governor of Asia, in April 50 BC. The letter reads: "My friend Nero has told me of his enormous gratitude to you in the best of terms, absolutely unbelievable...In all our patrician families there is no man I value more." [ Cicero, Letters to Friends, Letter 138 (XIII.64)]

The Forum was the center of the ancient city, a place to see and to be seen, to catch up on the latest news and gossip, do some shopping, business and even to be entertained. Nowadays all we see are ruins, mostly due to the plundering which took place in the Middle Ages as the great monuments were ravaged and had their marble and other elements stripped off them for the building of the Vatican and other Papal palaces and churches . Despite this it is still the best example of an open-air museum, offering the visitor a chance to go back in time somewhat and walk in the footsteps of the ancient Romans. Over the centuries the Forum has gone through many changes. After a big fire in AD 283 it was already 1,000 years old and had been remodelled several times. The Forum started life as a marshy area, a meeting place for the early inhabitants of the surrounding hills. By the 5 th century BC it had evolved into Rome's city-centre, a place for political assemblies, riots, demonstrations,