I seem to be having a Greek day today. And on the hunt for those revered Ancients.

They seem to’ve got lost somewhere around the Middle Ages. Oh dear!

 

Here are some quotes about Ancient Greece, written by Historians

(the Real Ones. So they deserve a capital H)

 

“In what concerns the fate of the Athenian monuments – they have remained in obscurity for the most part… for centuries the Greeks have wallowed in the ruins of their ancient history… some of the most beautiful ancient constructions have tempted the Athenian Christians to transform them into churches. We know nothing of where the first transformation of an ancient Athenian temple into a Christian church occurred. The history of the Athenian churches is extremely unclear”

 

“We have no factual proof of the existence of either schools or public libraries in Athens. The same
obscurity covers the mechanisms of civil rule of the city of Athens in this epoch”

 

“After the fall of the empress Theophano, Athens, as well as the rest of Hellas, leaves the historical scene in such a radical way that one can barely find a mention of the town’s name anywhere… The Slavs, who have rooted themselves in Peloponnesus, provided the Byzantines with the main reason to mingle in Greek affairs”

 

“Neither history, nor tradition break the silence that the fate of the glorious city is bathed in. This quietude is so impenetrable that the historian that looks for signs of life of the famous city during the centuries in question rejoices at the sight of the most exiguous pieces of information, such as the mention of St. Luke visiting Athens in the hagiography of the thaumaturge”.

 

“The total absence… of foreign chroniclers in Athens and Hellas in general is most woeful indeed. Since the Byzantine chronographers didn’t consider the Hellenic history worthy of attention, the Hellenes were the only ones that their descendants could turn to for this kind of information”

 

“The West… had become reconciled to the decline of Greece, and had almost completely forgotten it… Already in 1493 a German humanist had considered it sufficient to make the following passing remark in his chronicle: “the city of Athens used to be the most glorious one in all of Attica; only a few traces of its existence remain””

 

Nope. Gone. Lost.

They can’t find Ancient Greece anywhere.

Maybe they should MAKE IT ALL UP?

:o)