1
00:00:04,840 --> 00:00:10,240
The Aegean Sea and its collection
of beautiful islands are framed by

2
00:00:10,280 --> 00:00:13,480
the coastlines of mainland
Greece and Turkey.

3
00:00:16,000 --> 00:00:20,800
Millions of tourists of all
nationalities come here every year.

4
00:00:22,360 --> 00:00:26,520
3,000 years ago,
it was just as popular.

5
00:00:26,560 --> 00:00:29,280
The ports of the Aegean
would've been crammed

6
00:00:29,320 --> 00:00:33,720
with families, workers,
soldiers and kings,

7
00:00:33,760 --> 00:00:37,440
travelling for trade, and to fight.

8
00:00:37,480 --> 00:00:41,600
The cities of Ancient Greece were
often at war with each other.

9
00:00:42,880 --> 00:00:47,960
I want to find out more about this
vast and complicated civilisation,

10
00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:51,400
to dig out the real stories
behind the myths.

11
00:00:51,440 --> 00:00:54,120
And I'm not just going to
the well-known tourist spots.

12
00:00:54,160 --> 00:00:59,000
Of course not -
I'm headed off the beaten track.

13
00:00:59,040 --> 00:01:03,360
I'm Alice Roberts, and I'm
travelling hundreds of miles through

14
00:01:03,400 --> 00:01:07,560
what is now Greece and Turkey,
looking into the flowering

15
00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:12,080
of classical civilisation,
from Ancient Greece to the Romans...

16
00:01:12,120 --> 00:01:14,680
Oh, my goodness! That's wonderful.

17
00:01:16,480 --> 00:01:19,400
..to discover this region's
vital role

18
00:01:19,440 --> 00:01:22,880
as the birthplace of
Plato, Socrates,

19
00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:24,680
and Alexander the Great,

20
00:01:24,720 --> 00:01:28,200
mythology, theatre, and democracy.

21
00:01:46,520 --> 00:01:48,520
SHE SPEAKS GREEK

22
00:02:05,560 --> 00:02:09,280
Taking the train is such a brilliant
way to explore a country.

23
00:02:11,040 --> 00:02:14,080
I love finding quirky,
rural stations...

24
00:02:16,040 --> 00:02:20,080
..and then seeing how the
landscape gradually changes.

25
00:02:32,960 --> 00:02:36,480
I started my journey
in Thessaloniki,

26
00:02:36,520 --> 00:02:37,960
and from there I took the train to

27
00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:43,440
the historic sites at Vergina
and Delphi, home of the Oracle

28
00:02:43,480 --> 00:02:47,160
and the temples of
Apollo and Athena.

29
00:02:47,200 --> 00:02:51,440
Today, I'm on a 90-minute train
journey from Livadia to

30
00:02:51,480 --> 00:02:53,080
the Greek capital.

31
00:02:55,840 --> 00:02:59,280
Heading away from those
lovely mountains,

32
00:02:59,320 --> 00:03:05,520
and the Temple of Athena,
but I'm now on my way to

33
00:03:05,560 --> 00:03:10,000
the city that bears her name -
Athens itself.

34
00:03:16,280 --> 00:03:21,480
Halfway to Athens, and Delphi is
still very much on my mind.

35
00:03:21,520 --> 00:03:24,360
It's such a stunning
mountainside city,

36
00:03:24,400 --> 00:03:28,920
with incredible examples of
precious ancient architecture

37
00:03:28,960 --> 00:03:31,120
and thousands of tourists.

38
00:03:32,200 --> 00:03:36,000
It's such a difficult balance
to strike - making these sites

39
00:03:36,040 --> 00:03:40,480
accessible to the public,
while protecting their heritage.

40
00:03:40,520 --> 00:03:44,000
It's a hot topic in Greece,
and one I hope to discuss

41
00:03:44,040 --> 00:03:46,680
with the Greek Minister of Culture.

42
00:03:50,080 --> 00:03:53,160
Arriving into the metropolis
of Athens,

43
00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:56,360
and new renovation at
the station reminds you of

44
00:03:56,400 --> 00:03:58,240
the depth of history here.

45
00:03:59,640 --> 00:04:02,560
As they work to build
two new platforms,

46
00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:06,240
every scoop of earth is monitored
by archaeologists.

47
00:04:24,040 --> 00:04:28,640
Athens is an ancient city
with a history dating back

48
00:04:28,680 --> 00:04:30,360
thousands of years.

49
00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,840
It's had a huge influence on
western civilisation,

50
00:04:34,880 --> 00:04:39,800
in everything from art and science
to philosophy and politics.

51
00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:49,120
My first meeting, though,
is some distance away

52
00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:53,280
in the Pentelic hills, just 15
minutes from the city centre.

53
00:05:00,680 --> 00:05:04,280
These small mountains are all
part of the Mount Penteli,

54
00:05:04,320 --> 00:05:09,160
which is the source of the famous,
famous Pentelic marble,

55
00:05:09,200 --> 00:05:12,160
the beautiful white marble
that was used to build

56
00:05:12,200 --> 00:05:14,920
the Parthenon on the Acropolis,
and as you can see,

57
00:05:14,960 --> 00:05:17,120
the quarries are still busy today.

58
00:05:22,560 --> 00:05:25,800
Alongside this road is
an archaeological site

59
00:05:25,840 --> 00:05:28,640
rarely visited by tourists.

60
00:05:28,680 --> 00:05:31,760
I'm heading to the
Sanctuary of Dionysus

61
00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:34,440
that dates to the 8th century BCE.

62
00:05:36,120 --> 00:05:39,440
I'm meeting Nicky, who's spent
years researching here

63
00:05:39,480 --> 00:05:41,560
and has a fascinating theory

64
00:05:41,600 --> 00:05:44,960
about the origins of theatre
and democracy.

65
00:05:46,240 --> 00:05:48,520
Nicky. Hello.

66
00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:53,320
Hi. Kalispera. Yasu. Hello.

67
00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:55,360
Tell me about this place, then,
cos it's meant to be

68
00:05:55,400 --> 00:05:57,120
the birthplace of theatre.

69
00:05:57,160 --> 00:06:02,440
Yes, indeed.
This is the birthplace of Thespis.

70
00:06:02,480 --> 00:06:07,400
You may know of the word "thespian",
so it comes from him.

71
00:06:07,440 --> 00:06:11,120
Thespis lived here, this is his
home village... Yeah.

72
00:06:11,160 --> 00:06:15,200
..and this village happened to
have a very important

73
00:06:15,240 --> 00:06:17,760
cult of Dionysus, the God of Wine.

74
00:06:17,800 --> 00:06:19,520
So, Nicky, where are we
standing right here, then?

75
00:06:19,560 --> 00:06:20,880
There's archaeology all around us.

76
00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:24,280
Yes. So you can notice,
there are these stone seats.

77
00:06:24,320 --> 00:06:28,000
This is certain that it was
a small theatre. OK.

78
00:06:28,040 --> 00:06:30,080
It's a local theatre.
Oh, so this is the stage, here?

79
00:06:30,120 --> 00:06:32,040
Yes. We're standing on the stage.
More or less, yes.

80
00:06:32,080 --> 00:06:33,240
More or less.

81
00:06:33,280 --> 00:06:37,560
So we have to think in terms
of small-scale activity,

82
00:06:37,600 --> 00:06:40,120
but of extreme importance
because this is where it all began.

83
00:06:40,160 --> 00:06:42,520
Yeah. And is it... There must be a
settlement, then. There must be...

84
00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:44,560
Yes, of course. There is a...
Must be a town around it.

85
00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:46,240
Of course, there's a town.
It's not...

86
00:06:46,280 --> 00:06:51,200
It hasn't been excavated fully,
only this area,

87
00:06:51,240 --> 00:06:54,240
and you see the site also looks
kind of abandoned.

88
00:06:56,360 --> 00:07:00,680
Legend has it that Thespis invented
theatre when he stepped away from

89
00:07:00,720 --> 00:07:05,160
a chorus of dancers and singers to
speak to them, and it's somehow

90
00:07:05,200 --> 00:07:09,840
connected to the Greek God Dionysus,
the God of Wine.

91
00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:13,480
So you have to imagine
a group of revellers,

92
00:07:13,520 --> 00:07:18,600
Thespis jumped out of this little
crowd, and addressed a question,

93
00:07:18,640 --> 00:07:21,960
and the group answered
the question. Yes.

94
00:07:22,000 --> 00:07:24,560
So this is a rudiment
of Greek theatre -

95
00:07:24,600 --> 00:07:27,360
the actor and the chorus.

96
00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:28,960
And the reason why it is
so important is

97
00:07:29,000 --> 00:07:31,640
because the actor represents
the individual... Yeah.

98
00:07:31,680 --> 00:07:33,360
..and the chorus represents
a collecting.

99
00:07:33,400 --> 00:07:36,960
And it starts with a drunken dance?
A drunken dance, absolutely.

100
00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:40,440
A drunken dance gives birth
to theatre. Yes. It's brilliant.

101
00:07:40,480 --> 00:07:42,440
We shouldn't think
of theatre as secular,

102
00:07:42,480 --> 00:07:43,560
the way we do today. Yeah.

103
00:07:43,600 --> 00:07:48,200
It was under the protection of this
very important God, Dionysus...

104
00:07:48,240 --> 00:07:50,360
Yeah, yeah. ..who is a protector.

105
00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:52,400
That's all part of the religious
worship? Absolutely, yes.

106
00:07:52,440 --> 00:07:53,640
Yeah. Yes, yes.

107
00:07:55,840 --> 00:07:59,040
The site was first discovered
by a German archaeologist

108
00:07:59,080 --> 00:08:00,960
in the late 19th century,

109
00:08:02,360 --> 00:08:05,160
and then excavated by
an American team.

110
00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:11,440
How do you know that
Dionysus was worshipped here?

111
00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:16,320
Because right where this big
rectangular stone is,

112
00:08:16,360 --> 00:08:18,240
we found the archaic statue
of Dionysus was discovered.

113
00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:20,600
And it's recognisable as
that particular God?

114
00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:24,160
Yes, absolutely, because
he's holding the kantharos,

115
00:08:24,200 --> 00:08:25,320
the drinking cup.

116
00:08:26,920 --> 00:08:31,160
And of course, there are
always the stylistic criteria

117
00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:34,200
to recognise Gods when
you find the statues,

118
00:08:34,240 --> 00:08:36,520
let alone the fact that
he's larger than

119
00:08:36,560 --> 00:08:39,400
the natural size, so... He's
in the National Museum.

120
00:08:39,440 --> 00:08:41,440
I really recommend that
you visit him.

121
00:08:41,480 --> 00:08:42,480
So, this is extraordinary.

122
00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:45,720
You've got a really wonderful
connection here between

123
00:08:45,760 --> 00:08:49,080
archaeology and history
and mythology. Yes, yes.

124
00:08:49,120 --> 00:08:50,720
It's all coming together.
Of course.

125
00:08:51,840 --> 00:08:53,960
Nicky has written extensively about

126
00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:58,760
the surprising link between
theatre and democracy.

127
00:08:58,800 --> 00:09:01,720
So when democracy was
founded a few years later,

128
00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:06,120
democracy utilised this
very important dialogue

129
00:09:06,160 --> 00:09:08,760
between individuals and
collectives... Yeah.

130
00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:12,040
..as a foundation for tremendous
intellectual growth

131
00:09:12,080 --> 00:09:14,200
and political growth.

132
00:09:14,240 --> 00:09:17,840
And what I've found interesting,
looking at Hellenistic towns,

133
00:09:17,880 --> 00:09:22,160
actually, into the Roman period,
is that you have the...

134
00:09:22,200 --> 00:09:24,560
..the buildings, the architecture
kind of reflects that link,

135
00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:25,920
because you have the buildings,

136
00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:28,280
which are the odeion or
the bouleuterion,

137
00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:30,880
where the town council sits,
and it looks like a small theatre.

138
00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:32,040
Yes. Yeah.

139
00:09:33,200 --> 00:09:39,200
I can show you this pillar here,
it has been identified and read.

140
00:09:39,240 --> 00:09:43,680
It has letters here, as you see.
Oh, yeah, yeah. Yes.

141
00:09:43,720 --> 00:09:46,560
Cor, they're really subtle,
aren't they, underneath that lichen?

142
00:09:47,760 --> 00:09:50,360
Do we know how old this is?
This dates... Do you have any idea?

143
00:09:50,400 --> 00:09:51,760
Yes, yes, we do. We know very well.

144
00:09:51,800 --> 00:09:55,160
It dates all the way from
the 4th century BC.

145
00:09:55,200 --> 00:09:57,400
OK. So you've got some
letters on here. Yeah.

146
00:09:57,440 --> 00:10:00,280
What does this relate to?
Is it readable, is it legible?

147
00:10:00,320 --> 00:10:02,680
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It was much more legible.

148
00:10:02,720 --> 00:10:06,000
Those are names of the sponsors.
Oh, OK. Yes.

149
00:10:06,040 --> 00:10:07,760
The patrons of the theatre,
effectively. Yeah, patrons.

150
00:10:07,800 --> 00:10:09,920
The patrons of the theatre here,
held here.

151
00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:11,960
So the patrons get their names here.
Exactly.

152
00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:14,040
That's the important thing, isn't
it? This is the important thing.

153
00:10:14,080 --> 00:10:16,160
You write it in stone, you make
sure everybody knows.

154
00:10:16,200 --> 00:10:17,480
Everybody knows. Yeah.

155
00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:21,600
And then this gave you a lot of
social visibility.

156
00:10:21,640 --> 00:10:23,560
Status. Yeah. A status, exactly.

157
00:10:23,600 --> 00:10:26,200
And then setting up a monument
to say, "I've done this."

158
00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:28,160
Yes, yes, yes. Yeah.

159
00:10:28,200 --> 00:10:30,720
Does every village have a theatre?
We think so.

160
00:10:30,760 --> 00:10:33,920
This just happens to be
a very exceptional village

161
00:10:33,960 --> 00:10:37,520
because it produced
the birth of theatre.

162
00:10:37,560 --> 00:10:40,720
Does it mean it becomes a
really important central pillar

163
00:10:40,760 --> 00:10:43,480
of Greek culture? Absolutely.
Yeah, yeah.

164
00:10:43,520 --> 00:10:46,920
Well, Plato was annoyed by that.

165
00:10:46,960 --> 00:10:51,120
He talked about theatrecratia,
like we say democratia. Yeah.

166
00:10:51,160 --> 00:10:55,200
You know, this is like
the overpowering theatre,

167
00:10:55,240 --> 00:10:57,080
you know, addiction.

168
00:10:57,120 --> 00:10:59,600
Being ruled by theatre.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.

169
00:10:59,640 --> 00:11:02,160
Did he go to the theatre, though?
Do you think he...?

170
00:11:02,200 --> 00:11:05,520
We don't know if he went,
but he must have.

171
00:11:05,560 --> 00:11:07,760
He sounds a bit miserable,
Plato, I always think.

172
00:11:07,800 --> 00:11:13,040
He is a little bit, yes, detached.
Yeah. And too intellectual.

173
00:11:13,080 --> 00:11:15,560
I like... I prefer Aristotle.
NICKY LAUGHS

174
00:11:15,600 --> 00:11:18,520
I think he'd have been more fun.
I would've liked to have met him.

175
00:11:18,560 --> 00:11:20,640
Yes. Yeah. It would be nice
to meet any of them.

176
00:11:20,680 --> 00:11:22,120
Yeah, it would, wouldn't it?

177
00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:26,840
I'd like to meet some of
the playwrights, though.

178
00:11:26,880 --> 00:11:29,800
Yes. Aristophanes, he'd have
been a laugh. Oh, my God.

179
00:11:29,840 --> 00:11:33,440
He would have been a
real treat to meet. Yeah.

180
00:11:36,240 --> 00:11:38,920
It's a very quiet
archaeological site.

181
00:11:38,960 --> 00:11:41,760
Very, very much so, yes. Yeah.

182
00:11:41,800 --> 00:11:44,720
Which would be nice if more
people knew about it.

183
00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:48,600
Yeah. If, as you say, this really
is the birthplace of theatre. Yeah.

184
00:11:48,640 --> 00:11:51,600
It's an important place.
Very much so, yes. Yeah.

185
00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:08,240
Back in the city centre of Athens
and I'm in the district of Plaka,

186
00:12:08,280 --> 00:12:12,480
famous for its narrow,
winding streets, bars and cafes.

187
00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:16,400
Plaka sits in the shadow
of the Acropolis,

188
00:12:16,440 --> 00:12:18,360
which dominates the skyline.

189
00:12:31,040 --> 00:12:34,880
It seems a bit strange to find
a street here named after

190
00:12:34,920 --> 00:12:39,760
the English romantic poet, Byron,
but he was here in Athens

191
00:12:39,800 --> 00:12:44,360
200 years ago, and he was a
champion of Greek independence

192
00:12:44,400 --> 00:12:46,040
from the Ottoman Empire.

193
00:12:47,280 --> 00:12:51,600
He was also very critical of
the British diplomat, Lord Elgin,

194
00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:55,200
about removing marble sculptures
from the Parthenon

195
00:12:55,240 --> 00:12:57,320
and taking them back to Britain.

196
00:12:57,360 --> 00:12:59,600
It's a controversy that rumbles on,

197
00:12:59,640 --> 00:13:02,200
and that I want to
understand more about.

198
00:13:21,720 --> 00:13:22,760
Hello.

199
00:13:24,360 --> 00:13:26,000
Are you gonna come
and man my bag?

200
00:13:30,360 --> 00:13:31,760
Efharisto.

201
00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:41,400
Mm...

202
00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:46,360
Tomorrow, I'm going to look at
some very ancient inscriptions

203
00:13:46,400 --> 00:13:50,360
which hold clues to Athens'
power and wealth.

204
00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:55,800
But for now, I'm just going
to enjoy the evening light

205
00:13:55,840 --> 00:14:00,120
with my new friend,
and raise a glass to Dionysus.

206
00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:02,160
CAT PURRS

207
00:14:14,240 --> 00:14:18,720
I'm in Athens, looking for evidence
of this city's ancient past.

208
00:14:20,080 --> 00:14:24,480
Today, Athens has a population
of just over three million,

209
00:14:24,520 --> 00:14:27,560
but it brings in
twice as many visitors.

210
00:14:27,600 --> 00:14:31,640
Some six and a half million
tourists come here each year.

211
00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:36,480
I want to discover what
lies behind its success.

212
00:14:38,560 --> 00:14:43,640
Five metres below street level,
ancient Athens reveals itself.

213
00:14:45,000 --> 00:14:49,800
In the 1990s, engineers extending
the metro came face to face with

214
00:14:49,840 --> 00:14:52,320
the engineering of their ancestors.

215
00:14:53,760 --> 00:14:58,120
Getting water into and out of the
growing city was a challenge,

216
00:14:58,160 --> 00:15:01,200
and amongst these remains
of ancient Athenian buildings

217
00:15:01,240 --> 00:15:07,280
are stone channels, including a very
large one dating to the 5th century,

218
00:15:07,320 --> 00:15:09,760
called the Great Drain.

219
00:15:13,320 --> 00:15:16,760
One of the reasons we know
so much about Ancient Greece

220
00:15:16,800 --> 00:15:21,120
is because of their obsession
with writing things down.

221
00:15:21,160 --> 00:15:26,800
Public notices, new laws, and as I
saw at the Sanctuary of Dionysus,

222
00:15:26,840 --> 00:15:32,360
lists of patrons who funded
the arts were all written on stone

223
00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:34,880
and have lasted thousands of years.

224
00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:41,120
There's a whole museum dedicated
just to inscriptions on stone in

225
00:15:41,160 --> 00:15:43,920
the city centre north
of the Acropolis.

226
00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:48,520
I'm meeting the museum
director, Dimos,

227
00:15:48,560 --> 00:15:52,080
who has a team of people still
working on conserving

228
00:15:52,120 --> 00:15:55,400
and decoding many of these texts.

229
00:15:57,080 --> 00:15:58,640
Dimos. Hi.

230
00:16:00,360 --> 00:16:04,320
Good morning. Kalimera.
Oh, it's very nice you speak Greek.

231
00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:06,640
A little bit. A very tiny bit. OK.

232
00:16:06,680 --> 00:16:10,160
And I can read it a little bit
as well. Yes, this is very good.

233
00:16:10,200 --> 00:16:13,000
And it is good here, because
it's all about... Yes, it's...

234
00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:14,400
..inscriptions.
..all about inscriptions

235
00:16:14,440 --> 00:16:15,600
and a lot about writing.

236
00:16:16,880 --> 00:16:19,640
It was founded in 1886.

237
00:16:19,680 --> 00:16:24,160
It's a museum that has
Greek inscriptions, mainly,

238
00:16:24,200 --> 00:16:27,880
from 8th century to modern times.
Yeah, yeah.

239
00:16:27,920 --> 00:16:30,160
How many inscriptions
have you got here?

240
00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:34,480
14,000. 14,000 inscriptions.
Have you read them all?

241
00:16:34,520 --> 00:16:37,040
Me, personally? Yeah.
Not all. Not all of them.

242
00:16:37,080 --> 00:16:41,520
Not all. I know most of them,
but I have not read them all.

243
00:16:41,560 --> 00:16:44,040
Do you hope to read them all?
Yes, of course. Yeah?

244
00:16:44,080 --> 00:16:46,840
I have some years in front of me.
Yeah, yeah.

245
00:16:46,880 --> 00:16:51,560
So, I have to read some inscriptions
that I have not read yet. Yeah.

246
00:16:51,600 --> 00:16:54,520
So these inscriptions relate
to lots of different things.

247
00:16:54,560 --> 00:16:58,960
Some of them are
decrees, or... Decrees.

248
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,960
..laws carved in stone.
Decrees, laws, catalogues,

249
00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:05,120
what we call catalogues that
are usually the catalogue

250
00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:06,680
to many things.

251
00:17:06,720 --> 00:17:11,280
And they had many things from
the sacred...from the temples.

252
00:17:11,320 --> 00:17:15,000
And I presume that they're put
up in public places where...

253
00:17:15,040 --> 00:17:16,600
Yes, of course.
..where people can read them.

254
00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:18,840
Acropolis, usually on Acropolis...
Yeah.

255
00:17:18,880 --> 00:17:24,960
..on Acropolis it was written...
HE SPEAKS GREEK

256
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:27,880
.."put them on Acropolis".

257
00:17:27,920 --> 00:17:29,440
Because when you look
at these inscriptions,

258
00:17:29,480 --> 00:17:31,040
there are no gaps
between the words.

259
00:17:31,080 --> 00:17:34,440
Yes, of course. The way they
were writing had no gaps.

260
00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:37,880
Yeah. I find it very difficult
because I can read the letters,

261
00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:40,800
I studied Ancient Greek,
but when they're all just

262
00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:43,320
in a string, I find it
really difficult.

263
00:17:43,360 --> 00:17:48,680
OK. You, with the years,
you are used to.

264
00:17:48,720 --> 00:17:51,480
You're just used to it.
You're used to read them.

265
00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:54,200
It is not... Even if you come here
and you stay one month,

266
00:17:54,240 --> 00:17:56,960
after one month, you are
going to read them easily.

267
00:17:57,000 --> 00:17:58,240
Yeah, yeah.

268
00:17:58,280 --> 00:18:00,840
So what should I look out
for as I'm wandering round?

269
00:18:00,880 --> 00:18:04,480
Well, from there, that are
the earliest inscriptions

270
00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:08,080
and afterwards you have the room
back there from here, that there.

271
00:18:08,120 --> 00:18:10,960
OK. I'll go and explore.
Thank you very much.

272
00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:12,080
You're welcome.

273
00:18:22,360 --> 00:18:26,960
There are four large galleries
containing inscriptions on smaller

274
00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:29,120
and larger stones.

275
00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:32,640
And back rooms where the
researchers decode the texts

276
00:18:32,680 --> 00:18:34,840
and carefully catalogue each item.

277
00:18:36,680 --> 00:18:40,280
I'm looking, though, for the oldest
piece in the collection.

278
00:18:41,560 --> 00:18:44,040
This is one of the smallest
fragments in the museum,

279
00:18:44,080 --> 00:18:47,280
but definitely not to be missed
cos it's also the oldest,

280
00:18:47,320 --> 00:18:51,240
dating back to the 8th century BCE.

281
00:18:51,280 --> 00:18:55,720
So this is incredibly
early Greek writing.

282
00:18:55,760 --> 00:18:59,480
I can make out a kappa there,
and an alpha.

283
00:18:59,520 --> 00:19:01,720
What they're doing is they're
taking a written language

284
00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:04,080
that already existed,
the Phoenician language,

285
00:19:04,120 --> 00:19:08,520
the language of trade around
the eastern Mediterranean,

286
00:19:08,560 --> 00:19:11,200
and they're adapting it to the
language that they're speaking.

287
00:19:11,240 --> 00:19:14,720
They're adapting it to that
Greek spoken language,

288
00:19:14,760 --> 00:19:18,560
using those Phoenician letters
but also adding in new ones,

289
00:19:18,600 --> 00:19:21,520
because Phoenician
didn't have any vowels.

290
00:19:21,560 --> 00:19:26,200
And so the creation of the
Greek alphabet also involves

291
00:19:26,240 --> 00:19:28,600
vowel sounds as well as consonants.

292
00:19:29,720 --> 00:19:33,160
8th century? I mean,
that's mind-blowing.

293
00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:39,920
We're seeing the origins of
the Greek alphabet here,

294
00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:41,880
and it really caught on.

295
00:19:44,320 --> 00:19:47,280
There's something amazing
about still being able

296
00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:49,400
to read these words today.

297
00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:55,160
But some inscriptions are harder
to decode than others.

298
00:19:57,880 --> 00:20:00,320
These earlier ones look
like they're back to front.

299
00:20:00,360 --> 00:20:01,600
It's mirror writing.

300
00:20:02,600 --> 00:20:05,600
This is from the 7th century BCE,

301
00:20:05,640 --> 00:20:08,280
and it's read from right to left,

302
00:20:08,320 --> 00:20:11,760
so this is a gravestone
for Keramosstebe.

303
00:20:17,840 --> 00:20:21,160
And then in this inscription
of the 5th century,

304
00:20:21,200 --> 00:20:24,000
the direction of the
writing changes every line,

305
00:20:24,040 --> 00:20:26,160
so you can just see that
they're going this way,

306
00:20:26,200 --> 00:20:29,280
left to right, then
we're going right to left.

307
00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:30,600
And left to right.

308
00:20:32,880 --> 00:20:35,440
And this style is
called boustrophedon

309
00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:38,680
because it's like
cattle pulling a plough,

310
00:20:38,720 --> 00:20:42,760
and turning at the ends
of the field.

311
00:20:47,360 --> 00:20:50,200
Tall stone slabs
covered in inscriptions

312
00:20:50,240 --> 00:20:52,680
were erected in public spaces.

313
00:20:52,720 --> 00:20:54,920
They're called stele.

314
00:20:54,960 --> 00:20:58,440
They'd inform the citizens
of new laws, treaties,

315
00:20:58,480 --> 00:21:04,400
or record financial dealings,
a bit like a newsletter.

316
00:21:04,440 --> 00:21:09,720
So this is the stele that relates
to the first Athenian League,

317
00:21:09,760 --> 00:21:13,440
and this is when the city
states came together

318
00:21:13,480 --> 00:21:16,080
in an alliance against the Persians.

319
00:21:17,280 --> 00:21:22,680
And Athens was at
the heart of that alliance,

320
00:21:22,720 --> 00:21:28,560
and what Athens was doing
was asking for money

321
00:21:28,600 --> 00:21:32,120
from the other city states.
So it was asking for a tribute.

322
00:21:32,160 --> 00:21:33,600
And what we've got here, then,

323
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:36,440
are all of these tributes recorded.

324
00:21:37,640 --> 00:21:39,560
So it is the kind of accounts
that go

325
00:21:39,600 --> 00:21:42,880
with this Athenian League,
with this alliance.

326
00:21:43,880 --> 00:21:47,320
And what we've got here are numbers,

327
00:21:47,360 --> 00:21:50,440
a little bit like numbers in Latin,

328
00:21:50,480 --> 00:21:53,720
but instead, here, we've
got Greek letters, so...

329
00:21:53,760 --> 00:21:56,280
..each one of these
represents a hecton,

330
00:21:56,320 --> 00:21:58,360
so that's actually 400,

331
00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:00,200
so it's basically saying how much

332
00:22:00,240 --> 00:22:04,280
each city should be paying to
Athens.

333
00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,480
And you can see some of the
names of cities round here.

334
00:22:11,280 --> 00:22:12,840
They're arranged
geographically, look,

335
00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:15,640
so we've got cities
around the Hellespont.

336
00:22:15,680 --> 00:22:17,680
"Hellespontios."

337
00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:21,640
And they're all listed
here, like Neandreia.

338
00:22:21,680 --> 00:22:26,800
And then every few years,
Athens has a reassessment,

339
00:22:26,840 --> 00:22:29,920
and decides that everybody
should be paying a bit more tax.

340
00:22:35,760 --> 00:22:38,040
Themos said I can go in
here, in to the research lab,

341
00:22:38,080 --> 00:22:41,720
it says "No entrance. No photos."

342
00:22:41,760 --> 00:22:44,080
I'm going in anyway.

343
00:22:53,280 --> 00:22:56,920
Now, that's lovely.
A little grave marker

344
00:22:56,960 --> 00:23:00,800
with somebody's name on it,
look, Zosime Heraklionos,

345
00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:03,920
so Zosime, daughter of Heraklion,

346
00:23:03,960 --> 00:23:07,400
Apamitis, from Apamea.

347
00:23:07,440 --> 00:23:10,120
And these two hands are praying,

348
00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:13,200
so hands raised in
vocational prayer.

349
00:23:14,960 --> 00:23:16,720
That's lovely.

350
00:23:19,360 --> 00:23:24,200
Politics, ancient lives,
deaths, they're all here.

351
00:23:25,800 --> 00:23:28,480
And they'll be here long
after I've gone.

352
00:23:42,480 --> 00:23:46,760
The centre of Athens has
three huge hills,

353
00:23:46,800 --> 00:23:49,760
completely uninhabited today.

354
00:23:49,800 --> 00:23:53,520
The most famous is the Acropolis,
but I'm heading

355
00:23:53,560 --> 00:23:55,280
to a neighbouring hill.

356
00:23:58,840 --> 00:24:02,680
And here, I'm on the edge
of the old city.

357
00:24:04,440 --> 00:24:07,920
This is part of the ancient
fortifications of Athens.

358
00:24:07,960 --> 00:24:11,960
There was an enormous,
long wall, and then this is

359
00:24:12,000 --> 00:24:16,120
the remains of one of
the gates into the city.

360
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:18,400
In fact, one of the
towers at the gates.

361
00:24:18,440 --> 00:24:20,520
It had two towers, or dipylon.

362
00:24:34,560 --> 00:24:36,440
Look at the city.

363
00:24:36,480 --> 00:24:40,280
It's like a vast sea,
lapping up against these islands.

364
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:47,720
The Acropolis is of course
the most famous landmark in Athens,

365
00:24:47,760 --> 00:24:51,080
but I think, in some ways,
this hill is even more important.

366
00:24:51,120 --> 00:24:53,040
It's called the Pnyx.

367
00:24:53,080 --> 00:24:55,800
Seems to come from a word that
means "tightly packed together"

368
00:24:55,840 --> 00:25:00,400
because throngs of people
would gather up here

369
00:25:00,440 --> 00:25:04,120
and this was where
the Athenian assembly met.

370
00:25:04,160 --> 00:25:08,640
This is the beginning of
the world's first democracy.

371
00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:12,760
Thousands of people could fit
in to this semi-natural hollow,

372
00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:16,560
and the speaker, whoever it was that
was going to address the crowd,

373
00:25:16,600 --> 00:25:20,920
would step on to that platform
there, called the vima,

374
00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:23,680
and a really important principle
was that everybody had

375
00:25:23,720 --> 00:25:26,960
the right to speak to the assembly.

376
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,600
Although, when I say everybody,
it was every citizen,

377
00:25:30,640 --> 00:25:32,240
and not everybody was a citizen.

378
00:25:32,280 --> 00:25:34,400
So if you were a slave,
you were not going to be able

379
00:25:34,440 --> 00:25:36,280
to speak to the assembly.

380
00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:38,920
And also, you had to be a man.

381
00:25:38,960 --> 00:25:43,200
But apart from that, it is the
beginnings of democracy.

382
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:50,480
Tomorrow, I have a very
important meeting with

383
00:25:50,520 --> 00:25:52,840
a minister in the Greek government.

384
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:55,840
I want to talk about the
challenges of protecting

385
00:25:55,880 --> 00:25:59,720
Ancient Greek archaeology,
the effects of tourism,

386
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:04,000
and, hopefully, the Parthenon
Marbles that ended up in London.

387
00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:10,040
I love the way that people
come out at night and sit

388
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:14,000
on these little rocky islands
that poke up over the city.

389
00:26:14,040 --> 00:26:18,040
There's a few people up here,
but there's loads of people on

390
00:26:18,080 --> 00:26:22,240
the Areopagus rock over there.
That's a favourite spot.

391
00:26:23,320 --> 00:26:26,800
And it gets even more spectacular
as the sun goes down

392
00:26:26,840 --> 00:26:28,360
and they light up the Acropolis.

393
00:26:34,960 --> 00:26:38,200
The Acropolis -
literally, "the high city" -

394
00:26:38,240 --> 00:26:40,520
still dominates Athens.

395
00:26:40,560 --> 00:26:45,240
Its crowning glory is the
Parthenon, the temple dedicated

396
00:26:45,280 --> 00:26:46,840
to Athena herself.

397
00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,200
There are other monuments
up there, too,

398
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:53,120
all dating to the 5th century BCE.

399
00:26:55,320 --> 00:26:58,120
The Parthenon looks
remarkably intact,

400
00:26:58,160 --> 00:27:00,280
but it's been reconstructed.

401
00:27:00,320 --> 00:27:03,720
It was damaged by earthquakes
in antiquity,

402
00:27:03,760 --> 00:27:08,520
and in the 17th century it was used
as a gunpowder store by the Ottomans

403
00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:11,840
and was blown up by
Venetian artillery.

404
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:17,200
In the 19th century, the British
Ambassador, Lord Elgin,

405
00:27:17,240 --> 00:27:19,840
claimed to have made
a deal with the Turks,

406
00:27:19,880 --> 00:27:22,960
allowing him to take marble
sculptures from the site,

407
00:27:23,000 --> 00:27:24,200
which he did.

408
00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:28,520
And they ended up a long way
from the Parthenon,

409
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:30,120
in the British Museum.

410
00:27:31,800 --> 00:27:37,440
The debate about their return
has been rumbling on ever since.

411
00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:59,840
I'm in Athens and I have
an important meeting.

412
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:06,680
I've got to be at the Minister of
Culture's office at 12 sharp.

413
00:28:21,080 --> 00:28:23,520
To get to the Ministerial
Department of Culture,

414
00:28:23,560 --> 00:28:26,200
I'm walking through
the National Gardens,

415
00:28:26,240 --> 00:28:29,360
a calm and peaceful short cut
through the city centre.

416
00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,840
It wasn't always open to
the public like this, though.

417
00:28:34,880 --> 00:28:38,360
It was the Royal Gardens originally,
and reserved for

418
00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:40,920
the exclusive use of
the royal family.

419
00:28:44,120 --> 00:28:49,120
The park ends at Hadrian's Gate,
also known as the Arch of Hadrian,

420
00:28:49,160 --> 00:28:52,080
a classic example of Roman Athens.

421
00:28:53,240 --> 00:28:57,400
But now time is tight, and I want
to look smart for my meeting.

422
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:05,040
So, I've got an appointment
to see Dr Lina Mendoni,

423
00:29:05,080 --> 00:29:08,000
who is an archaeologist
with a special expertise

424
00:29:08,040 --> 00:29:10,080
in ancient inscriptions.

425
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:13,120
She also happens to be
the Minister for Culture.

426
00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:15,840
I want to talk to her
about inscriptions,

427
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,560
but I'm also wondering if
she'll answer a question

428
00:29:19,600 --> 00:29:22,160
about some very
particular marbles.

429
00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:35,880
As with all politicians,
time is very precious.

430
00:29:35,920 --> 00:29:40,000
The minister has two meetings today
with her Turkish counterpart,

431
00:29:40,040 --> 00:29:44,000
so I'm very grateful that she has
managed to squeeze me in.

432
00:29:45,600 --> 00:29:48,720
We have just a few minutes
to get our cameras in place,

433
00:29:48,760 --> 00:29:50,880
and then...it's on.

434
00:29:54,960 --> 00:29:57,000
Dr Mendoni, I wanted to
ask you about inscriptions -

435
00:29:57,040 --> 00:30:01,040
that is your particular passion,
your particular expertise.

436
00:30:01,080 --> 00:30:04,760
So what is the importance
of inscriptions

437
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:06,760
to understanding
Ancient Greek culture?

438
00:30:45,080 --> 00:30:49,480
I mean, I think that's what's
incredible, is being able

439
00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:53,120
to read the words that
were written in antiquity.

440
00:30:53,160 --> 00:30:55,960
It's like somebody in
the past talking to you.

441
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,880
Exactly. Yeah, yeah. Exactly.

442
00:30:58,920 --> 00:31:00,600
I thought it was
interesting at Delphi,

443
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:03,760
the importance of protecting
that landscape

444
00:31:03,800 --> 00:31:06,800
so that you do feel like you're
stepping back in time, actually.

445
00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:27,800
And an important part of
your job now is

446
00:31:27,840 --> 00:31:31,960
looking at how you can achieve that
balance of making these sites

447
00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:35,120
accessible to the public,
but protecting the archaeology.

448
00:31:35,160 --> 00:31:36,880
That must be a huge challenge.

449
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:35,560
Yeah. So new policies
are making a difference, then, yeah.

450
00:32:35,600 --> 00:32:38,120
I would like to ask you
one final question... Please.

451
00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:39,840
..and you can say that you
don't want to answer it

452
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:40,960
if you don't want to.

453
00:32:41,960 --> 00:32:45,960
In your lifetime, would you like
to see the marbles come back

454
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:47,800
from Britain to the Parthenon?

455
00:32:49,040 --> 00:32:50,200
Hmm...

456
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:43,040
What would it mean to Greece
to have those marbles back?

457
00:34:19,680 --> 00:34:20,720
Absolutely.

458
00:34:48,400 --> 00:34:50,720
I don't know why it seems
so complicated.

459
00:34:50,760 --> 00:34:55,480
To me, it is very straightforward -
they should be back here in Athens.

460
00:34:57,640 --> 00:34:58,640
Yeah, yeah.

461
00:35:12,160 --> 00:35:13,680
Amazing. Thank you.

462
00:35:13,720 --> 00:35:14,960
You're very welcome.

463
00:35:20,560 --> 00:35:23,800
The minister dashed off
to her next meeting.

464
00:35:23,840 --> 00:35:26,320
The impression I have is
that she's a politician

465
00:35:26,360 --> 00:35:28,080
who likes to get things done.

466
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,800
I've just two hours left in
Athens before I'm back on

467
00:35:32,840 --> 00:35:35,520
the train for my next destination.

468
00:35:48,240 --> 00:35:51,920
Ancient Athens was a cosmopolitan
city where people from

469
00:35:51,960 --> 00:35:54,920
different regions and
cultures mixed.

470
00:35:54,960 --> 00:35:57,680
I'm on my way to
a museum dedicated to

471
00:35:57,720 --> 00:36:02,200
the history of one community that
thrived here 2,000 years ago.

472
00:36:03,560 --> 00:36:07,760
Along the avenue, down to the metro
is an arts and crafts market.

473
00:36:10,000 --> 00:36:13,840
I'm suddenly surrounded by
characters from Ancient Greece.

474
00:36:16,080 --> 00:36:21,520
And here is the legendary Theseus -
the man who went to Crete

475
00:36:21,560 --> 00:36:26,400
to slay the minotaur, and he's
credited with founding Athens.

476
00:36:27,760 --> 00:36:30,760
There's no evidence for any of that,
of course, but it's a good story.

477
00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:38,040
As well as the bronze statue,
he has his very own metro station.

478
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:44,200
Thiseio Station is just a couple of
stops from my next destination.

479
00:36:47,840 --> 00:36:50,520
I'm going to see a new
exhibition that reveals

480
00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:53,840
the fascinating story of
the Jews in Ancient Greece.

481
00:36:56,480 --> 00:37:00,200
A five-minute walk brings me
to the Jewish Museum.

482
00:37:00,240 --> 00:37:02,240
DOOR BUZZES

483
00:37:07,440 --> 00:37:11,240
It was founded in 1977
to house thousands

484
00:37:11,280 --> 00:37:15,000
of artefacts from Jewish
communities across Greece,

485
00:37:15,040 --> 00:37:18,560
stretching back from the modern era,
through the Middle Ages,

486
00:37:18,600 --> 00:37:20,000
to antiquity.

487
00:37:21,720 --> 00:37:26,120
And here's one object that captures
centuries' worth of history.

488
00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:30,600
There's a great story
of recycling right here.

489
00:37:30,640 --> 00:37:35,360
This piece of stone has had
at least three cultural lives,

490
00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:37,760
if I can describe it in that way.

491
00:37:37,800 --> 00:37:41,400
It was most recently,
before it ended up in this museum,

492
00:37:41,440 --> 00:37:45,920
part of a Venetian fort at Halkis,
but you can see

493
00:37:45,960 --> 00:37:50,040
there's writing on it,
and that writing is in Hebrew.

494
00:37:50,080 --> 00:37:53,320
So, before it was part of
the fort, it was a tombstone.

495
00:37:53,360 --> 00:37:58,040
And it was a tombstone of,
obviously, a Jewish person

496
00:37:58,080 --> 00:37:59,920
in the 16th century.

497
00:37:59,960 --> 00:38:05,520
Before that though, it was part of a
bit of Ancient Greek architecture -

498
00:38:05,560 --> 00:38:09,600
it's an Ionic capital from
the top of a column.

499
00:38:11,720 --> 00:38:16,880
So it's interesting to see this
Jewish re-use of this earlier

500
00:38:16,920 --> 00:38:21,520
Ancient Greek bit of stonework,
but I know there are much older

501
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:27,120
inscriptions in this museum
which evidence Jews in Greece

502
00:38:27,160 --> 00:38:30,280
going back more than
2,000 years ago.

503
00:38:35,120 --> 00:38:38,320
Occupying what seems to be
an old townhouse,

504
00:38:38,360 --> 00:38:42,760
the museum has four floors arranged
around an octagonal staircase.

505
00:38:44,240 --> 00:38:47,960
The collection here consists
of ritual objects from synagogues

506
00:38:48,000 --> 00:38:49,320
from all over Greece.

507
00:38:50,680 --> 00:38:54,400
There are also personal items,
rare books and a collection

508
00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:57,040
of beautiful textiles from
the Ottoman period.

509
00:38:59,080 --> 00:39:02,400
But it's the new exhibition on the
very top floor

510
00:39:02,440 --> 00:39:03,960
that I've come to see.

511
00:39:05,120 --> 00:39:07,920
I'm meeting the museum's
director, Zanet.

512
00:39:09,360 --> 00:39:11,920
Zanet. Hi.
Hello. Nice to meet you.

513
00:39:11,960 --> 00:39:13,160
Nice to meet you.
Very good to see you.

514
00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:16,680
I've found an inscription downstairs
but it dated to the 16th century,

515
00:39:16,720 --> 00:39:18,520
which is a bit later for me.
Yes, quite.

516
00:39:24,680 --> 00:39:27,880
This gallery is dedicated
to inscriptions,

517
00:39:27,920 --> 00:39:30,200
but this time, Jewish inscriptions.

518
00:39:31,680 --> 00:39:33,560
These artefacts have been collected

519
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:35,600
from mainland Greece
and the islands,

520
00:39:35,640 --> 00:39:38,520
and span different periods
of antiquity.

521
00:39:38,560 --> 00:39:42,240
This is a Hebrew inscription,
dating from 1611... OK.

522
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:44,800
..from the castled city of
Mystras where there was

523
00:39:44,840 --> 00:39:48,920
a strong and vibrant
Jewish community. Yeah.

524
00:39:50,680 --> 00:39:54,960
So here we are moving to
the 5th century Common Era,

525
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:57,600
and this is a fragment from
the Agora of Athens.

526
00:39:57,640 --> 00:40:00,560
That's a menorah, isn't it?
Yes, it's a menorah, and a lulav.

527
00:40:00,600 --> 00:40:03,360
You see part of a lulav here
to the right. What's a lulav?

528
00:40:03,400 --> 00:40:06,800
It's a bunch of plants,
a bouquet of plants that's used

529
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:09,480
for their holiday of Sukkot.

530
00:40:09,520 --> 00:40:12,640
And the menorah is that
typical Jewish candle.

531
00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:14,960
Yes. Yeah. Typical. Yeah.

532
00:40:15,000 --> 00:40:16,840
And do you think they
were Greek-speaking?

533
00:40:16,880 --> 00:40:18,200
Are we talking about
people who were,

534
00:40:18,240 --> 00:40:20,720
you know, part of that wider
Hellenistic culture?

535
00:40:20,760 --> 00:40:22,400
We know they were
Greek-speaking. Yeah.

536
00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:25,480
They had already been
Hellenised by coming into contact

537
00:40:25,520 --> 00:40:29,280
with the Greek language of the time,
and they were speaking Greek,

538
00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:33,240
Hellenistic Greek, amongst
themselves in their everyday life.

539
00:40:33,280 --> 00:40:35,400
It was something like English today.

540
00:40:35,440 --> 00:40:38,440
If you wanted to be part
of a social milieu

541
00:40:38,480 --> 00:40:43,040
and participate, you know,
in socials and in business,

542
00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:44,920
you had to speak Greek at that time.

543
00:40:44,960 --> 00:40:47,360
Like you do now - you have to
speak English. Yeah, yeah.

544
00:40:47,400 --> 00:40:50,720
So, they're speaking Greek on
a day-to-day basis... Yes.

545
00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:52,440
..but speaking Hebrew in a
synagogue?

546
00:40:52,480 --> 00:40:54,720
Exactly. And worshipping
in Hebrew. Yeah.

547
00:40:55,880 --> 00:40:57,520
This is very special.

548
00:40:57,560 --> 00:41:01,120
This is the oldest inscription
in this exhibition,

549
00:41:01,160 --> 00:41:04,360
but also the oldest
archaeological evidence of

550
00:41:04,400 --> 00:41:07,360
the presence of Jews
on Greek soil.

551
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:10,640
Really? Yep.
And when does that date to?

552
00:41:10,680 --> 00:41:15,440
It dates from the end of the 4th to
the first half of the 3rd century

553
00:41:15,480 --> 00:41:19,880
Before Common Era, which means...
BCE. BCE, that's right.

554
00:41:19,920 --> 00:41:22,400
So we're talking, you know,
round the time of Aristotle,

555
00:41:22,440 --> 00:41:25,640
around the time of Alexander
the Great. Yeah. Yeah.

556
00:41:25,680 --> 00:41:27,360
That's incredible.

557
00:41:27,400 --> 00:41:31,640
It was found at the
Temple of Amphiaraos

558
00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:34,960
in a small town called Oropos,
about an hour and a half

559
00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:36,520
from Athens. Yeah.

560
00:41:36,560 --> 00:41:40,280
It's a Manumission inscription.
Quite rare.

561
00:41:40,320 --> 00:41:42,960
OK, so freeing a slave. Yes.

562
00:41:43,000 --> 00:41:47,240
It concerns freeing a slave,
and the text tells us -

563
00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:51,640
in great detail, because it's
actually a legally binding text -

564
00:41:51,680 --> 00:41:57,160
that a man, Moschos,
son of Moschion the Jew,

565
00:41:57,200 --> 00:41:59,960
will be liberated by his master,
Phrynidas,

566
00:42:00,000 --> 00:42:03,960
a year after his inscription
is put up at the wall of

567
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:05,880
the temple where it was found. Yeah.

568
00:42:05,920 --> 00:42:08,240
So a year after that,
he must be liberated.

569
00:42:08,280 --> 00:42:11,040
So this legal document
written in stone... Exactly.

570
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:15,360
..is the first...is the first
inscription that we have

571
00:42:15,400 --> 00:42:17,360
relating to a Jewish person?

572
00:42:17,400 --> 00:42:20,320
Show me, show me where the
word is that says that...

573
00:42:20,360 --> 00:42:21,360
It's right here. ..he's a Jew.

574
00:42:21,400 --> 00:42:26,760
"Moschos Moschionos..." Yes.
..meaning son of Moschion,

575
00:42:26,800 --> 00:42:28,840
"..Ioudaios." Ioudaios,
I can see that. The Jew.

576
00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:30,880
Yeah. That's incredible.

577
00:42:30,920 --> 00:42:33,560
So based on what we know from
the historical documents,

578
00:42:33,600 --> 00:42:36,640
and then this amazing new
work on the epigraphy,

579
00:42:36,680 --> 00:42:39,760
the inscriptions, do you think
there were Jews,

580
00:42:39,800 --> 00:42:43,200
there were Jewish communities in
most Greek cities?

581
00:42:43,240 --> 00:42:47,080
Yes, if we... Especially
if we speak about the time,

582
00:42:47,120 --> 00:42:50,360
in the long term -
we're talking about 2,500 years,

583
00:42:50,400 --> 00:42:53,280
so it is a long term -
yes, absolutely.

584
00:42:53,320 --> 00:42:56,400
They settled in Greek cities
and the islands,

585
00:42:56,440 --> 00:42:59,520
and traded there and
made lives for themselves,

586
00:42:59,560 --> 00:43:01,080
professions they took up.

587
00:43:01,120 --> 00:43:04,400
All the way from Crete,
right to the north. Yeah.

588
00:43:04,440 --> 00:43:08,200
Maybe not in every city,
but in most cities, yes. Yeah.

589
00:43:09,600 --> 00:43:12,160
That's beautiful,
thank you very much.

590
00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:24,680
My time in Athens has
come to an end.

591
00:43:24,720 --> 00:43:29,000
I'm back at the station to catch
the train away from the capital.

592
00:43:30,720 --> 00:43:33,320
I've seen amazing archaeology
here...

593
00:43:35,480 --> 00:43:39,800
..including inscriptions revealing
the political power

594
00:43:39,840 --> 00:43:43,960
of Ancient Athens and the presence
of Jewish communities

595
00:43:44,000 --> 00:43:45,240
in Greek cities.

596
00:43:47,600 --> 00:43:51,760
And I learnt how theatre
and democracy emerged here.

597
00:43:53,520 --> 00:43:56,760
I've caught the train heading
westwards out of Athens,

598
00:43:56,800 --> 00:44:00,720
and you quite quickly get out of the
city and into the countryside.

599
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:04,240
Lovely hills, dotted with
olives and cypress trees.

600
00:44:04,280 --> 00:44:09,520
And I'm going to be crossing across
a very narrow isthmus which connects

601
00:44:09,560 --> 00:44:11,120
to the Peloponnese.

602
00:44:11,160 --> 00:44:15,960
I'm heading for another ancient
city, the city of Corinth,

603
00:44:16,000 --> 00:44:20,360
and I've found an ancient
philosopher to be my guide -

604
00:44:20,400 --> 00:44:22,080
a man called Socrates.

605
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:33,360
Next time, I come face-to-face
with the Greek Gods...

606
00:44:33,400 --> 00:44:35,560
That's incredible, isn't it? Yes.

607
00:44:37,440 --> 00:44:40,840
..meet the workers piecing
together the past...

608
00:44:40,880 --> 00:44:44,120
Are you getting near the end?
Er, no. Oh, no?

609
00:44:44,160 --> 00:44:46,120
SHE LAUGHS

610
00:44:46,160 --> 00:44:47,920
..I take to the seas...

611
00:44:47,960 --> 00:44:50,640
OK. I'm in charge now.

612
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:56,840
..and meet the archaeologist
with the keys to the city...

613
00:44:59,320 --> 00:45:00,720
Oh, it's lovely.

614
00:45:02,160 --> 00:45:05,880
..searching for more evidence
of ancient Greek civilisation.

615
00:45:31,840 --> 00:45:34,480
Subtitles by Red Bee Media