As part of the celebration of the bicentenary of independence, and in honor of the struggles of our ancestors, six articles on our history will be published.

Centuries before the time of our grandfather Homer (the 9th century BC), a journey of struggle and creation begins. The course of cultural creation would be endangered by the war of the Persians against the Greeks. But fortunately for Greece and Europe:

In 490 BC at Thermopylae, Miltiades will defeat the numerous Persian army.

In 480 BC at Marathon, Leonidas with 300 Spartans and 700 Thespians will fall fighting for the freedom of the homeland.

In 480 BC at Salamis, Themistocles will destroy the Persian fleet.

In 479 BC at Plataea, Pausanias will defeat the Persians. It is the decisive victory over the Persians, which brings the Persian threat to an end. This victory halted the Persian advance against Greece and Europe.

If the Persians had won, Greece would have become part of the eastern empire. And of course, none of the intellectual and cultural developments of the 5th century BC would have followed. There would have been no "Golden Age," with its creations of universal significance.

Of course, the Peloponnesian War followed (431-404 BC), leading to the collapse of both Athens and Sparta. Also, the endless disputes among the city-states would lead to the ascendancy of Philip of Macedon.

Alexander the Great would unite the Greeks and campaign against the Persians, infusing the ends of the earth with Greek civilization. With the death of Alexander the Great, a new period in history begins, the Hellenistic period. The Greek spirit would continue to fertilize the then-known world.

The Stoic philosophers (300-250 BC) would move beyond the narrow limits of the city-state and speak of the whole inhabited world, of the cosmopolis, and would lay the foundations of cosmopolitanism.

The Epicureans would propose the prospect of a pleasant life (to live pleasantly), achieved through the absence of all pain and fear.

In 146 BC the Romans conquered Greece. But, over time, Greece's cultural superiority conquered Rome. As the Roman poet Horace characteristically said: "Greece, conquered by the sword, subdued the rude conqueror and introduced the arts to rude Latium."

Gradually and invisibly, the Roman Empire would be transformed into the Byzantine Empire, a unique phenomenon in human history. And the Byzantine Empire would survive for a thousand years and be the longest-lived empire in history.

The new religion, Christianity, would be grounded in the Greek language and philosophy. Already in the 3rd century BC, the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek by seventy-two Jewish scholars, and thus became known to the Jews. The Gospels (with one exception) and the other books of the New Testament, as well as the works of the Great Fathers of the Church, were written in Greek.

Thanks to the Greek language, the universality of Hellenism met the universality of Christianity to become a support and a hope for the whole world. Later, the transfer of the capital of the Roman state from Rome to Constantinople helped bring Hellenism and Christianity even closer together.

The creative synthesis of ancient Greek thought and Christianity would create Byzantium. Over time, Byzantium became Christian and Greek, and after the schism of the Churches, the world of our part of the East, the Orthodox East, was distinguished from the Catholic West.

Amid the vast diversity of the peoples of the Byzantine state, the Greeks stood out for their civilization.

The radiance of the Byzantine world and civilization survived even after the ten centuries of its existence, thanks to its cultural distinctiveness and Orthodoxy, through which it also had a beneficial influence on other peoples (e.g. the Slavs).

After the Fall of Constantinople, the Phanar (the Ecumenical Patriarchate), Mount Athos, the monasteries, and the few schools took care to preserve the Greek Orthodox tradition, religion, and language.

The sense of this great cultural heritage never died out in the collective memory of the Greeks, even during the period of Ottoman rule. The long history, Greek antiquity, and the Greek Orthodox tradition would be preserved and would become the driving forces behind the Revolution of 1821, and the end of Turkish barbarity (to be continued).

Paul Marantos

marantosp@gmail.com