The Rise and Fall of the Greek Empire

And, what does this mean for us?

Maybe you’ll get to visit. I hope at least you’ll get good rates.

BTW – the Canadian dollar has been rising steadily since January.

Current exchange rate of euro  is $1.3227

Pat, 

“No ancient history, no parade of amazing thinkers, has held such fascination for me.”  That’s true for me, too.  But there were also the epics and stories from Greece that kept me fascinated my entire life.  My mother would drive my brother and sisters and I into town every Sat. and drop us off at the library as she shopped for groceries and anything else she needed and went around to pay bills (heaven help them if they wasted money on a stamp). 

I read everything and anything about ancient Greece (and by extension, Rome–though it was Greece I loved most).  I had read the Iliad, Odyssey, Aeneid, and all the various myths and had read the Oedipus cycle of plays, too by the time I reached in high school.  In fact, the librarian had my number and would call me when they received a new book on Greece.

I finally got to travel there.  It was being almost in heaven as far as I was concerned.  I sure hope you get there someday, and I hope Greece recovers somehow.

 ”Almost Heaven”
What a great way to describe it Diana.

 ”In fact, the librarian had my number and would call me when they received a new book on Greece . . . ”

To me, that’s the most evocative line in your comment, Diana.  That makes me long for what wonderful exotic adventures books used to be in my youth; what a mystical place the little local library used to be . . .

But, oowawa, I think Obummer was trying to channel, instead, some of the crazy emperors of Rome, not anyone from Greece. 

Those Romans sometimes felt they could excape any type of payback for their dirty deeds in life by making sure they underwent an apotheosis after they died.  Livia, Augustus’ wife, perhaps guilty of many poisonings to get the awful Tiberius to the throne, tried to get her crazy grandson Calligula to promise to make her a goddess after she died.  He was the wrong person to ask, of course.  Later, the kinder Claudius did that for her.

So, this kind of old-fashioned typological thinking is fun for me.  There’s the crazy world banker grandmother who dies before his “coronation.”  I’m imagining the whispered requests on her death bed, the false promises from O, and she remains under the bus.  There’s the Frank Davis connection, too.  Was he, perhaps, the father in spirit that O dreamed of?  Livia’s son (not Augustus’ however), Tiberius, was one of the raunchiest most decadent of them all (get the Davis connection?) and he ended up, perhaps, being the one who really did the major warping of Calligulus’s mind.

I like to think like that–putting our current famous in an imagined history book that someone will read centuries from now. 

The question remains?  Who will be the traitor?  Will O get his apotheois? (NOT IF I CAN HELP IT!)  Who will be the Sejanus to take down the Emperor and set up a new one?, etc. etc.

Those Romans ***********************That gave us the representative,  Republican form of Government

Which they, after Augustus, turned into something else.  There were Emperors and Imperial Gaurds and conscripted soldiers, and horrible, bloody arena shows, and emperors forcing the nobles to listen as they described making love to those nobles’ wives by force.  Don’t even get me started on what went on with Calligula and Nero.  The Republic didn’t last long before it was corrupted by the infighting of the noble houses (Repubs and Dims much?) 

We owe much to the ideas of Greech and Rome, and to the other great political thinkers—Magna Carta, anyone?  Too bad despotic rulers ruin things and idiotic followers allow it to happen.

Oh Diana, that’s way too much thinking about “Thee One” I could get there a lot quicker by thinking he’s a fraud!
Why write a book when a sentence will do

Lived there when I was an infant after evacuated from Pakistan (pop was in the foreign service), My great aunt Lou came to visit. She always thereafter refered to the Acropolis as ” nothin’ but a pile of rocks”.

Go to Easter Island Larry. Great place, see it before it’s ruined by tourism.
Total eclipse this year…

Yep.  Some nights Beck scares the crap out of me!  Some nights I’m scared for him and his family and some nights I’m scared for me and my family and most nights I am scared for all of us!!  I haven’t watched yet, but will right now on my DVR!

oowawa—vomitorium??? Love it!

Actually US corporations ran by oligarchs ruined the world economy. But what it is… think of the middle classes of the world as livestock… lets say sheep out of simplicity. The sheep eat, sleep and work and get fat and happy. They grow a nice luxurious fleece. Every so often the oligarchs come in and round us up and shear us. This led to the last global financial crisis. They don’t want us to completely freeze to death and die, so they leave us just enough fleece to recover. We work extra hard, sleep and start to grow more coat. The day will come when they return for our fleece. You could say we are bees and the oligarchs beekeepers… same idea.

He told us in no uncertain terms if anything happens to him, it is this group of thugs that did it.

He’s scared.

I’m scared.

This is real.

>:o

Diana L.C. it seems from your writing you have a certain disdain for anything Roman.  I could cite those horrors you cite about many societies–starting here in the US.  A republic that last how many hundreds of years–but you speak of two despots–what country hasn’t had them?  Funny how the Magna Carta and English Law use Latin words–funny how the MAGNA CARTA are Latin words.  Give it a rest on the Roman bashing.

Stan—I enjoyed your comment…it was like visiting the Travel Channel for a minute!
But you didn’t mention Greek coffee—Now THAT’s what I love.
And Turkish, Armenian, Lebanese coffee…  all of ‘em made basically the same, in a briki, with the sludge in the bottom—-yummy.

Tarpon Springs…wonder what the sponge docks will smell like after about a month of ou ‘d BP slicker scent flam bay coming in from the Gulf? It’s heart breaking.

Never been to Greece but would love to go, do own some Greek dry bulk shipping stock, wonder if Angeleki can keep it going. She’s suppose to be pretty tough.

We have a tendency to create optimistic assumptions that we could not face the same situation as Greece. The reality of our debts tell a different story!
China and India have an increasing middle class that creates markets for their own products, resulting in a reduced need for imports.
We are losing jobs, have trade imbalances, and declining tax revenue, all while accruing more debt!

Ah–I do get to Florida on business on rare occasion.  Will see if I can fit that in next time.  Thanks for the tip.  We do have a Greek Orthodix Church here and I love the annual festival.

One of my gr-grandfathers was named Trajan after the, supposedly, “last great Emperor”.

sowsear, in the provincial capitol of Benevento (my area) there stands(in the center of a traffic circle) a Triumphal Arch honoring Trajan –it is one of the few still standing and not deteriorated in existence. He rose to Emperor from humble birth and was responsible for constructing many civil engineering projects beneficial to the people/inhabitants.

And—notice my mention of studying also the great epic written by the Roman writer Virgil, The Aeneid.

Wow Diana I think you too may need to read without taking things a little too personally.  
You sound like one of those people who accuse me of racist actions just because I like Arizona’s laws.
This makes me sad that as regulars we would need to lower the bar this far and accuse each other of racism. We sometimes forget we all have different backgrounds and something that appeals to one may not appeal to another. At times we need to show compassion for each other. We are living in very sensitive times and being receptive to another’s feelings (as a regular poster) is what will get us through this together.

Thank you AC. Where is Benevento, in case I ever get back to Italy?

My gr-grandfather’s uncle was also named Trajan. I guess the family, who lived in VT in the late 1700s, must have had some education. I’ve not found any evidence of a classical education, however.

Wonderful cartoon.  Well, we wanted to be like other European Nations and so why would we not be surprised that we might be next?  Let’s see, 50% of the people do not pay taxes, so if the government spends more, why should they care? Giving people things for free or no cost to them wins votes so why should people in government care?  Corporations that get special access and free passes give money to politicians, so why should corporations or government officials care?  And we do not have a personal responsibility ethic, for the most part, so let’s see who can we blame?

Benevento is just north of Naples.  A tiny colorful town, who prides itself on Strega (both the liquor and the tradition).

Spent three months there in 2008 doing research on pre-Christian traditions.  400 yr old walnut tree, temple to Diana on the lake, and fantastic folklore and history.  Go see it before the euro falls off the cliff

Get a grip, AC.  I took a benign comment by oowawa and tried to turn it into a comment about BO, that’s all!  Since I live in Denver, the most common comment I overheard about the columns was that they were ROMAN columns.  That is what reminded me of some of the worst of the emperors, and you have to be a fool to think that the long history of the Roman Empire didn’t have some pretty shady characters.  I must still assert (and based on the fact that I can clearly cite specifics about Roman history from my memory) that I was NOT bashing Rome and that I also liked studying things about Rome.  You just really, really misread what I wrote because you wanted to. I brought up the racist crap because it appeared to me that you were accusing me of “Roman bashing”–wait a minute, you did do that.  If I can bash certain American leaders or German leaders, since that is my ethnic background, I feel it’s o.k. to bash some Roman leaders without that meaning I was bashing all things Roman.

Anthony, Benevento has at least 70 thousand inhabitants hardly a “tiny colorful town”  Historically significant since at least the first Samnite Wars versus the Roman Republic.  What’s the Euro got to do with it?  It was there before the Euro and will be there after.  In fact the lower the Euro the better for American travelers–correct?

Wow Brits!

I live in Manhattan. Benevento is is a lovely town. 70,000 residents are not really a lot of people. Same as a suburb in New Jersey.  

The euro is danger right now because of whats going on in Greece. If the European economy fails, the unrest that will ensue will be broadcast in the same light as whats happening in Greece.  Tourism will virtually disappear.

I guess its a matter of perspective, don’t you think?

Dude – I thought you said you lived in Benevento?

To me, its a town.  Nothing wrong with that.  One of the most interesting places I’ve visited. Either way, its a matter of perspective. Do you need to take a nap or something? You sound a little cranky

No way! thats disgusting!