Lindsey Davis is one of the most gifted writers about the Greco-Roman world, and in particular about Rome and its complexities that is out there. She is witty, has excellent prose style, makes the learning of that world fun, and has vivid and interesting characters dealing with the period of the late first century A.D. during the reign of the Flavians— Vespasian, Titus, and finally Domitian. This particular novel, set in the late 80s is the second one dealing with... Read more

I can think of few things more patriotic on this day than listening to Copland’s wonderful Lincoln Portrait, which of course has been recorded many times. I hope you will listen right through this to where the quotes from Lincoln are offered by the composer of the musical piece himself— Aaron Copland. It’s not about the fireworks and the hot dogs. It’s about the freedom and the democracy, which is under attack from Russia and others these days. God blessed... Read more

I confess to having a pet peeve when it comes to Athens and Biblical tours of Athens. The locale of ‘Mars Hill’=the Areopagus is perpetually misidentified. There is a little slippery, dangerous, marble hill with a sign in front of it saying Mars Hill and with the text of the relevant Acts 17 passage at the base of the steps leading up to the acropolis. This is surely not the local of the council meeting at the Areopagus that Paul... Read more

Cycladic art and artifacts come from the islands known as the inner and outer Cyclades near Greece. What we know of these islands is that they were populated very early on from peoples from what we call Cyprus and Crete, and in particular the Minoan people. Even as early as 3,000 B.C. they had reached a level of culture that would not soon be matched again. Here is some of the cycladic pottery and human figurines. What is especially interesting... Read more

Was Homer color blind? He talks about the ‘wine dark’ seas of the Aegean, and they are dark colored. It’s just that the color is a very dark blue…… I do mean dark blue. The wake of the boat churns up the water and makes it look greener, but if not churned up it is a deep navy blue (can’t call it a Duke blue). And the only way to travel between the islands is this JetBoat—- As you can... Read more

Philippi is one of the most interesting sites in Greece, not merely for what it tells us about the Biblical period when it was a Roman colony city that Paul visited and planted a church, but also because it continued to be a center of Christian faith for many years thereafter. This post is about the Byzantine remains of the basilica there. One of the more interesting features of the Christian remains in Philippi is an octagonal church building…. Here’s... Read more

After a days worth of looking at artifacts in the Athens museum (some would say I was going to pot….) , evenings in Athens these days are spectacular….. But what really is the Parthenon, and what did it originally look like? We have a rather clear idea in regard to the latter. And now with the acropolis museum it is easier than ever to imagine it. But here in this post, I would just point out the following. The Greek... Read more

What happened when the Romans came to Greece? As elsewhere they imposed their will, in one way or another. Octavian aka Augustus might appear to have had boyish charm, and been harmless, and he was not much of a fighter, indeed he let others mostly do his fighting during the period when he was battling Brutus and co. including near Philippi, but in fact he was rather ruthless. This statue as well was lost at sea between two of the... Read more

Further to the post on grave stele’s we learn a lot about the values and afterlife thought of a culture by studying how they treat the dead. These ancient honor and shame cultures would often honor those who have gained honor and glory on the battlefield. A good example of this would be the memorial at Amphipolis in Greece which Paul is likely to have seen when he went south from Philippi and Berea. Here is the lion of Amphipolis.... Read more

The civilizations in the inner Cyclades islands, in southern Greece, on Crete, Cyprus, and in Egypt all cross fertilized and traded with one another, which is why one finds syncretistic statues in Greece with the head of a Kore (boy) and the body of an Egyptian sphinx. Here is a helpful map and description of what was going on from at least 1700 B.C. in this region…. As we shall see later in these posts, the Minoan civilization on Crete... Read more