2007
ATHENS
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Our company, first established in 1976, enjoys a number of years of experience and expertise in the tourism and travel industry. A wide range of Hotel and Self-Catering Apartments i the Greek Islands to suit requirements and budgets, as well as a selection of Luxury Villas with pool. We offer a wide selection of Special Interests programs for individuals and groups, such as Yachting, Golfing, Religious and Cultural Tours, Single Travellers, Senior Citizens, Walking and Trekking tours, Mediterranean Cruises, Classical Tours, etc. All apartments are located by or near the beach (between 10m to max. 350m walking distance) some with their own private swimming pools, whilst all modern amenities, such as shops, mini-markets, restaurants and bars can be found in the immediate neighbourhood. For the experienced sailors , we offer the possibility of chartering your own sailing boat, with or without a local skilled skipper.
The Mediterranean is renowned for its ancient history, its civilisation, its light and its beauty. The Greek archpelago is its crowning jewel. These islands crowd the northeast part of the Mediterranean, sparklihg in the sun. There are inluded the number reaches 9500, 140 of which are inhabited. Most of them are in the Aegean, the sea that lies between Greece and Asia Minor. Delos is at the center of this sea, the home of Apollo, the god of light according to mythology. What islands could have more light than those in Aegean?. .But these islands are not only unique for their sun and light. These is also their natural beauty, their lcy coastline with its dazzling white beaches and the blue sea ruffled in summer by the cooling meltemi wind. These are the villages, gazing at the sea from on high, the castles, churches and monasteries. History and civilization stretch back to five thousand years here. One must not forget the simple, good-hearted residents who welcome you in their melodious voices. All the islands are beatiful but each one has its own charm and history. In the space at our disposal we will supply as much information as we can, at the very least givihg the distinctive mark of 777 of these islands, be they large or small. You of course will find other beauties we have not described.
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The Areopagus
Athens entered the Archaic Period
in the same way so many of its neighbors, as a city-state ruled by a
basileus , or "king." Unlike Sparta, however, Athens' history was not
dominated by invasion of a neighbor, for the land around Athens was
agriculturally rich and the city had a harbor so that it could trade easily
with city-states around the Aegean. The power of the basileus slowly faded;
underneath the basileus was a council of nobles, which were called the
Areopagus, from the name of the hill on which they met. In the eighth
century BC, these nobles gradually became very wealthy, particularly off of
the cash crops of wine and olive oil, both of which require great wealth to
get started. As their wealth increased, the nobles of the Areopagus slowly
stripped the king of power until Athenian government imperceptibly became an
oligarchy. The Areopagus consisted of a varying number of members, and it
elected nine archons, or "rulers," to run the state. The archons, however,
always had to submit to the approval or veto of the Areopagus, and they also
became members of the Areopagus when their term in office expired, so, in
reality, the Areopagus ruled the country.
Rule by the wealthy, however, is often inherently unstable. In Athens,
the farmers in the surrounding countryside produced mainly wheat, while the
wealthy and nobility owned estates that produced wine and olive oil.
Wheat-farming was badly managed, however; the average Athenian farmer didn't
rotate crops or let fields lie fallow. Production of wheath plummeted at the
same time that Athenians began to import wheat and to export olive oil and
wine. So not only did production of wheat fall, so did its price. Pretty
soon, even though the wealthy farmers were making money hand over fist, the
average farmer had fallen deeply into debt to the wealthiest members of
society. To pay for that debt, farmers sold their children, their wives, and
even themselves into (limited) slavery both in Athens and abroad. The
situation was a powder-keg waiting to go off; suffering under unmanageable
debts, sold into slavery, with the government under the control of the
wealthy people that were the causes of their problems, the average Athenian
farmer was primed for revolution.
The Reforms of Solon
But history takes strange turns
sometimes. Recognizing the danger of the situation, in 594 BC, the Areopagus
and the people of Athens agreed to hand over all political power to a single
individual, Solon. In effect a tyrant, Solon's mission was to reform the
government to stem the tide of privation and exploitation and set up a
system to guarantee that Athens didn't slip into such a situation again.
Solon immediately dismissed all outstanding debts, and he freed as many
Athenians as he could from the slavery they had sold themselves into. He
banned any loans that are secured by a promise to enter into slavery if the
loan is defaulted, and he tried to bring people who had been sold into
slavery abroad back to Athens. In addition, he encouraged the development of
olive and wine production, so that by the end of the century, most of
Athenian land was dedicated to these lucrative crops.
As far as government is concerned, he divided Athenian society into four
classes based on wealth. The two wealthiest classes were allowed to serve on
the Areopagus. The third class were allowed to serve on an elected council
of four hundred people. This council was organized according to the four
tribes making up the Athenian people; each tribe was allowed to elect one
hundred representatives from this third class. This council of four hundred
served as a kind of balance or check to the power of the Areopagus. The
fourth class, the poorest class, was allowed to participate in an assembly;
this assembly voted on affairs brought to it by the council of four hundred,
and even elected local magistrates. This class also participated in a new
judicial court that gradually drew civil and military cases out of the hands
of the wealthiest people, the Areopagus.
Peisistratus and the Tyranny
The Athenians considered Solon
the great hero of their state and pointed to the reforms of Solon as the
basis of their state. Solon's new state, however, lasted very briefly.
Although he brilliantly reformed the government, he really didn't solve the
economic crisis, and within a few years, Athens was collapsing in anarchy. A
nobleman, Peisistratus, swept into power during this anarchy and set about
restoring order. The tyranny of Peisistratus, however, was as important to
the foundation of Athenian democracy as Solon's reforms had been. Although
he was a military leader who backed up his power with a frightening
mercenary army, Peisistratus began to actively build in and around Athens,
and actively reform Athenian religion and religious practices, and, in
particular, devoted his government to cultural reform. He sought out poets
and artists in order to make Athens a culturally sophisticated and dynamic
society. But, in particular, he launched a full attack on the power of the
nobility. He increased the power of the Assembly and the courts associated
with the poorest classes, and used all his power to make sure that the
Solonian government worked smoothly and that elections were held (provided
his supporters were elected).
Like most tyrants, Peisistratus had monarchical ambitions; on his death,
the tyranny fell to his son, Hippias. The life of a tyrant is not a
comfortable one, and although Hippias began in the mold of his father, the
assassination of his brother caused him great fright and consternation. He
became suspicious and withdrawn and increasingly arbitrary. His enemies,
which were many, if they hadn't already started, began plotting his
overthrow. In particular, a wealthy family, the Alcmaeonids, who had been
exiled by Peisistratus, prevailed on
Sparta
to assist them in the overthrow of Hippias. Under the Spartan king,
Cleomenes I, Athens was overcome in 510 BC and Hippias ran to exile in
Persia
Cleisthenes
The Spartans followed their usual
practice and entered into a truce with Athens and installed their own
hand-picked Athenians to lead the government. The Spartans, however, were
too clever for their own good. They chose an individual, Isagoras, whom they
felt was the most loyal to Sparta; Isagoras, however, was a bitter rival of
the Alcmaeonids, who had been the original allies of Sparta. Isagoras, for
his part, set about restoring the Solonic government, but he also set about
"purifying" Athenian citizenship. Under Solon and later Peisistratus, a
number of people had been enfranchised as citizens even though they weren't
Athenian or who were doubtfully Athenian. For in the Greek world, you could
only be the citizen of a city-state if you could trace your ancestorship
back to the original inhabitants of the state. Isagoras, however, began to
throw people off the citizenship rolls in great numbers. Cleisthenes, an
Alcmaeonid noble, rallied popular support and threatened the power of
Isagoras, who promptly called for the Spartans again. The Spartans invaded a
second time, and Cleisthenes was expelled, but soon a popular uprising swept
Isagoras from power and installed Cleisthenes.
From 508 to 502 BC, Cleisthenes began a series of major reforms that
would produce Athenian democracy. He enfranchised as citizens all free men
living in Athens and Attica (the area surrounding Athens). He established a
council which would be the chief arm of government with all executive and
administrative control. Every citizen over the age of thirty was eligible to
sit on this council; each year the members of the council would be chosen by
lot. The Assembly, which included all male citizens, was allowed to veto any
of the council's proposals and was the only branch of government that could
declare war. In 487, long after Cleisthenes, the Athenians added the final
aspect of Athenian democracy proper: ostracism. The Assembly could vote
(voting was done on potsherds called ostra ) on expelling citizens from the
state for a period of ten years. This ostracism would guarantee that
individuals who were contemplating seizing power would be removed from the
country before they got too powerful.
So by 502 BC, Athens had pretty much established its culture and
political structure, just as Sparta had pretty much established its culture
and political structure by 550 BC. Athens was more or less a democracy; it
had become primarily a trading and commercial center; a large part of the
Athenian economy focussed on cash crops for export and crafts; it had become
a center of art and literature; the city had become architecturally rich
because of the building projects of Peisistratus—an architectural richness
that far outshone other Greek city-states; and Athenian religious fesitivals
were largely in place. The next one hundred years would be politically and
culturally dominated by Athens; the event that would catapult Athens to the
center of the Greek world was the invasion of the Persians in 490 BC.
Like the Trojan War,
the
Persian Wars were a defining
moment in Greek history. The Athenians, who would dominate Greece culturally
and politically through the fifth century BC and through part of the fourth,
regarded the wars against Persia as their greatest and most characteristic
moment. For all their importance, though, the Persian
Wars began
inauspiciously. In the middle of the sixth century BC, the Greek city-states
along the coast of Asia Minor came under the control of the Lydians and
their king, Croesus (560-546 BC). However, when the Persians conquered the
Lydians in 546 BC, all the states subject to the Lydians became subject to
the Persians. The Persians controlled their new subject-states very closely;
they appointed individuals to rule the states as tyrants. They also required
citizens to serve in the Persian army and to pay fairly steep taxes.
Smarting under these new burdens and anxious for independence, the tyrant of
Miletus, Aristagoras, began a democratic rebellion in 499 BC. Aristagoras
was an opportunist. He had been placed in power by the Persians, but when he
persuaded the Persians to launch a failed expedition against Naxos, he began
to fear for his life. So he fomented a popular rebellion against the
Persians and went to the Greek mainland for support. He went first to the
Spartans, since they were the most powerful state in Greece, but the
Spartans seem to have seen right through him. When he approached the
Athenians, they promised him twenty ships. In 498 BC, the Athenians
conquered and burned Sardis, which was the capital of Lydia, and all the
Greek cities in Asia Minor joined the revolt. The Athenians, however, lost
interest and went home; by 495 BC, the Persians, under king Darius I
(521-486 BC), had restored control over the rebellious Greek cities.
And there it should have ended. But Athens had gotten the attention of
the Persians, who desired that Athens be punished for the role it played in
the destruction of Sardis. The Persians also had Hippias, the tyrant of
Athens who had been deposed by Cleisthenes in 508 BC. So in 490 BC, the
Persians launched an expedition against Athens. They were met, however, by
one of their former soldiers, Miltiades. He had been an outstanding soldier
in the Persian army, but he took to his heels when he angered Darius. Unlike
other Athenians, he knew the Persian army and he knew its tactics. The two
armies, with the Athenians led by Miltiades, met at Marathon in Attica and
the Athenians roundly defeated the invading army. This battle, the battle of
Marathon (490 BC), is perhaps the single most important battle in Greek
history. Had the Athenians lost, Greece would have eventually come under the
control of the Persians and all the subsequent culture and accomplishmenst
of the Greeks would probably not have taken the form they did.
For the Athenians, the battle at Marathon was their greatest achievement.
From Marathon onwards, the Athenians began to think of themselves as the
center of Greek culture and Greek power. This pride, or chauvinism, was the
foundation on which much of their cultural achievements were built. The
first great dramas, for instance, were the dramas of Aeschylus; the
principle subject of these dramas is the celebration of Athenian greatness.
The great building projects of the latter half of the fifth century were
motivated by the need to display Athenian wealth, greatness, and power.
The Persians, however, weren't done. For the Persians, Marathon barely
registered; the Persians, after all, controlled almost the entire world:
Asia Minor, Lydia, Judah, Mesopotamia, and Egypt. While Marathon stands as
one of the greatest of Greek military accomplishments, it was really more of
an irritation to the Persians. The Persian government, however, was
embroiled in problems of its own, and it wasn't until Xerxes (486-465 BC)
became king, that the Persians really got down to business and launched a
punitive expedition against Athens. This time the Persians were determined
to get it right. In 481 BC, Xerxes gathered together an army of some one
hundred fifty thousand men and a navy of six hundred ships; he was
determined that the whole of Greece would be conquered by his army.
The Athenians, however, were prepared. While many Athenians celebrated
their victory at Marathon and thought that the Persians had gone home
permanently, the Greek poitician, Themistocles, convinced the Athenians
otherwise. So while Persia delayed through the 480's, Themistocles and the
Athenians began a navy-building project of epic proportions. Themistocles
convinced the Athenians to invest the profits from a newly discovered silver
mine into this project; by 481 BC, Athens had a navy of two hundred ships.
When Xerxes gathered his army at the Hellespont, the narrow inlet to the
Black Sea that separates Asia Minor from Europe, most Greeks despaired of
winning against his powerful army. Of several hundred Greek city-states,
only thirty-one decided to resist the Persian army; these states were led by
Sparta, Corinth, and Athens: the Greek League. Sparta was made leader of all
land and sea operations.
Themistocles, however, understood that the battle would be won or lost at
sea; he figured that the Persian army could only succeed if it were
successfully supported by supplies and communications provided by the fleet.
He also understood that the Aegean Sea was a violent place, subject to
dangerous winds and sudden squalls. While he kept the Athenian fleet safe in
harbor, many of Xerxes' boats were destroyed at sea. He also waited his
time; if the Persians could be delayed on land, then he could destroy the
Persian fleet when the time was right.
That time came in a sea battle off the island of Salamis. The Greeks had
slow, clumsy boats in comparison with the Persian boats, so they turned
their boats into fighting platforms. They filled their boats with soldiers
who would fight with the opposing boats in hand-to-hand combat; it was a
brilliant innovation, and the Athenians managed to destroy the majority of
the Persian fleet. The Persians withdrew their army.
However, one Persian general, Mardonius, remained. He wintered in Greece,
but he was met in 479 BC by the largest Greek army history had ever known.
Under the leadership of the Spartan king, Pausanias, Mardonius was killed in
the battle of Plataea, and his army retreated back to Persia.
It's difficult to assess all the consequences of the Greek victory over
the Persians. While the Spartans were principally responsible for the
victory, the Athenian fleet was probably the most important component of
that victory. This victory left Athens with the most powerful fleet in the
Aegean, and since the Persians hadn't been completely defeated, all the
Greeks feared a return. The majority of Greek city-states, however, didn't
turn to Sparta; they turned, rather, to Athens and the Athenian fleet. The
alliances that Athens would make following the retreat of the Persians, the
so-called Delian League, would suddenly catapult Athens into the major power
of the Greek city-states. This power would make Athens the cultural center
of the Greek world, but it would also spell their downfall as the Spartans
grew increasingly frightened of Athenian power and increasingly suspicious
of Athenian intentions.
When the Persians retreated from
Greece, the Greek League began show tensions. Although Sparta had
contributed the most to the war and had fought the deciding battle at
Plataea, the victory over the Persians would not have been possible without
the Athenian navy, which remained powerful after the war. All the Greek
cities in Asia Minor lived under the direct threat of Persian invasion and
revenge; Sparta, being a land-based military, was in no position to defend
these city-states. So these city-states, and the city-states of the islands
in the Aegean, turned to Athens and her powerful navy for protection and
alliance. The city-states in the south of Greece, and some in the north,
turned to Sparta, which had led the Greek League in the war against the
Persians. Thus was set up the great rivalry between these two diametrically
opposed Greek states and cultures, a rivalry that would lift Athens to the
height of empire only to be finally defeated by an increasingly distrustful
Spartan alliance.
The Persians had become a permanent fixture in Greek life; Greek
experience throughout the fifth century BC was lived under the shadow of a
possible Persian return. For Persia remained powerful and revenge was always
on the horizon. In 478 BC, one year after the final defeat of the Persians,
representatives from the Greek city-states of Asia Minor and the islands
scattered throughout the Aegean Sea, met on the island of Delos—a sacred
island associated with the cult of Apollo—to discuss an alliance with the
Athenians. They swore oaths of alliance to each other and to Athens; thus
was born the Delian League. This new league had several purposes besides
defense; one of these was to wage a military campaign against the Persians
to free those Greek cities that were still under the control of the
Persians. Alhtough Athens was the leader of the League, each city-state had
one vote—the League was essentially a democratic alliance between equals.
The League busily set about fighting the Persians, freeing city after
city until they achieved a decisive victory against the Persians in 467 BC.
This battle freed several Greek cities, all of which joined the league. Many
cities joined unwillingly; they were coerced by the League members sometimes
under threat of destruction. Although the League was essentially democratic,
they believed that the safety of the League and its objectives would be
seriously compromised by states independent of the League.
Athens during all this time was led by a powerfully brilliant political
leader named Cimon, who was the son of Miltiades, the great hero of the
battle of Marathon. Under his leadership, Athens and the League constantly
and aggressively attacked the Persians; as the League grew, the power of
Athens, as leader of the League, grew proportionately.
Athens itself grew tremendously wealthy during this time; part of the
agreement of the League involved tax payments by other members of the League
to Athens for maintaining the fleet. With all that wealth, Athens began to
invest in large building projects (such as the Acropolis), in drama, in art,
and in crafts. The great flowering of Athenian culture begins in the heyday
years of the Delian League, as wealth and power seemed to flow to Athens as
if it were the center of the world.
The turning point in the Delian League came with the revolt of a small
island city, Thasos. Unhappy with the League and payments to Athens, Thasos
rebelled against the League. Cimon promptly squashed this revolt; however,
the reaction to the Thasos rebellion was the first time in the League
history where a decision was made only in regard to the interests of Athens
rather than the interests of the League as a whole. At home, Cimon became
unpopular, and a radical democratic movement, under the leadership of
Pericles, challenged his authority. As Athens stood on the brink of becoming
a democratic state, Pericles stood ready to move the Delian League into an
Athenian Empire.
The First Peloponnesian War
In 461 BC, under the leadership
of Pericles, Cimon was ousted from power. Athens overnight changed direction
in domestic and foreign politics. In foreign affairs, Athens began to define
its role in direct relationship with Sparta rather than in relationship with
Persia. Immediately after the exile of Cimon, the Athenians formed an
alliance with Argos, a long-standing rival of Sparta. They later formed an
alliance with Megara, the city which lay directly in the path of the route
from Athens to the Peloponnesus, the southern part of Greece. To get at
Athens, then, the Spartans would first have to go through the Megarans. The
Spartans, as you can imagine, grew suspicious of these moves, particularly
the alliance with Megara, and began a campaign against the Athenians: the
First Peloponnesian War.
Athens dominated the war in its early years, but a disastrous campaign
against the Persians in Egypt decimated the Athenian navy and inspired
several members of the Delian League to revolt. For the Delian League had
imperceptibly become the Athenian Empire; the alliance was less about the
security of the League as equal states, and more about Athenian power
politics in Greece. Reeling from the Egyptian defeat and the various
rebellions, Athens made peace with the Spartans. In 449 BC, Athens stopped
the war with Persia that it had been aggressively pursuing since 478 BC.
The Athenian empire, though, which was maintained not so much through
good will as through the threat of force, began to fray at the edges. When
Megara and a neighboring state, Boeotia, revolted from the alliance, Athens
no longer had a buffer zone between it and the Peloponnesian states allied
with Sparta. In 445 BC, Pericles, however, diverted disaster by making a
thirty year peace with Sparta. Both sides got they wanted. Athens gave up
political power over the states on the Greek mainland; in return, Sparta
recognized the Athenian Empire as a legitimate political institution. The
Athenian Empire, which had been gradually forming, was now official.
The Empire
Before the peace with Sparta, Athens
benefitted from the taxes paid into the League and began growing quite
wealty; after the peace, the Athenians moved the treasury to Athens and
began keeping one sixtieth of all the revenue. The Athenians began to grew
especially wealthy. The League, after all, was no longer at war with Persia,
but the tribute money kept rolling in. At this stage, when the League had
lost its military justification and when the tribute money was no longer
really going for defense, the League in reality had become an Athenian
empire. Reaction among the tribute states was mixed; some city-states
eagerly participated in the empire, but most fumed under the onerousness of
Athenian control and taxation. As Athens grew more and more powerful and the
city more opulent, discontent grew among the tribute states. However, the
Spartans, in particular, grew increasingly distrustfull of Athenian power
and wealth. They had agreed to recognize the Athenian Empire in exchange for
Athens giving up claims to continental territories; however, it was becoming
apparent that even without the continental territory, the Athenians were a
major threat to Sparta and its influence.
Democracy and the Age of Pericles
The great Athenian leader of this age,
Pericles, was swept into power in a popular democratic movement. A member of
a noble and venerable family, Pericles led the Athenians against Cimon for
harboring autocratic intentions. Pericles had been the leader of the
democratic faction of Athenian politics since 462 BC. Ephialtes was the
Athenian leader who had finally divested the Areopagus of all its power;
Athens was now solely governed by the council and the democratic Assembly.
Pericles quickly brought forward legislation that let anyone serve as the
archon (one of the nine central leaders of the country) despite birth or
wealth. The Assembly became the central power of the state. Consisting of
all the free-born (no freed slaves) male citizens of Athens, the Assembly
was given sole approval or veto power over every state decision. The
Assembly was not a representative government, but instead consisted of every
male citizen. In terms of numbers, this still was not a democratic state:
women weren't included, nor were foreigners, slaves, or freed slaves.
Pericles also changed the rules of citizenship: before the ascendancy of
Pericles, anyone born of a single Athenian parent was an Athenian citizen;
Pericles instituted laws which demanded that both parents be Athenian
citizens. So, in reality, the great democracy of Periclean Athens was in
reality only a very small minority of the people living in Athens. It was,
however, the closest human culture has come to an unadulterated democracy.
The Assembly was given unprecedented power over the selections of
officials; elected officials, such as military generals, were not chosen by
the Assembly, but the Assembly did hire and fire all other public officials.
In addition, the Assembly served as a law court hearing major cases. Any
decision made in a court of law could be appealed to the Assembly where a
court of free citizens would hear the case. There was no standing army,
either, as there was in Sparta; free citizens could choose to serve in the
military.
One figure towers over this new democratic state: Pericles. This Age of
Athens, which begins either in 462 or 450 or 445 BC and lasts until 404 BC,
when Athens is defeated by Sparta, is called the Athenian Age, the Classical
Age, or, after its most important political figure, the Age of Pericles.
Just about everything that you associate with Greek culture is squeezed into
this half century of wealth, energy, creativity, and chauvinism in Athens.
All the great works of Greek tragedy and comedy, the plays of Aeschylus,
Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, were written in this time in the
city of Athens. Most of the monumental works of architecture, built off of
the wealth that literally poured into Athens from her imperial possessions,
were built at this time: the Acropolis, the rebuilding of the Agora. Flush
with wealth and at peace with Persia and Sparta, the Athenians had nothing
better to do with this wealth then invest it in a massive cultural flowering
of art, poetry, philosophy, and architecture.
And still there remains the figure of Pericles himself. There is no
question that the democratic reforms of the Age of Pericles owe their
existence to the energy of this political figure. He was a man of immense
persuasiveness and an orator of great power. Although he was eventually
ostracized by the Athenians (he later returned), he dominated the democratic
government of Athens with his formidable capacity to speak and to persuade.
He had two central policies: democratic reform and the maintenance of the
empire.
Sparta, however, growing increasinly wary of Athenian prosperity, would
soon find itself entangled once again with its old rival. The thirty year
peace managed to hang on for only fourteen years before hostilities broke
out again. In 431, a second war broke out, called simply The Peloponnesian
War; this war would see the death of Pericles in its second year, but
eventually witness the foolish destruction of the Athenian navy, the defeat
of Athens, and the end of Athenian democracy.
Suspicious and fearful of Athenian
power and wealth, the Spartans were not happy with the thirty year peace
they had agreed to. The Athenians themselves had become chauvinistic and
power hungry, and seemed ready to begin to reassert their power on the
mainland of Greece. In 431, spurred on by a relatively trivial event in a
distant part of the Greek mainland, Sparta and Athens fell into another war
which is simply called,
The Peloponnesian War.
The Spartans wished to fight a land war, which they were very good at.
They outnumbered the Athenians two to one, odds they believed the Athenians
could stand up to only for a very short time. At the outbreak of the war,
then, they invaded Attica and began burning crops in order to starve the
Athenians into submission.
The Athenians, however, had a harbor and a powerful navy. Pericles knew
that they could hold out against the Spartans for several years on the
tribute money from the Empire. He also knew that he could take the war right
to the doorsteps of Spartan allies, by sailing troops along the coast of
Greece and landing them far from Athenian lines. Although Pericles died in
the second year of the war in a plague that devestated Athens, the
Athenians, nevertheless, kept to the Periclean strategy of prosecuting the
war.
Both sides believed that their strategy would wear down the other side
and force a surrender. However, this really didn't happen. After ten years
of fighting and some disastrous events among allied cities, the situation
was no different than it was at the beginning of the war. Both sides had
become worn down, so Sparta and Athens signed a fifty year peace called the
Peace of Nicias, after the Athenian politician and general who was leading
Athens at the time. Essentially similar in view and ability to Pericles,
Nicias was a brilliant and cautious man who managed to pull off an effective
truce. Everyone was allowed to go home, and the territorial status as it
stood at the time of the peace, was allowed to remain in place. Athens kept
its continental territories and allies, and Sparta got to keep all the
territories it had acquired.
Nicias, however, had rivals in the democratic assembly. Perhaps the most
talented of these rivals was a young, brilliant follower of the philosopher
Socrates named Alcibiades. With creativity, energy, and immense oratorical
ability, Alicibiades in 415 BC convinced the Athenians to attack the Greek
city-states on the island of Sicily and bring them under the glove of the
Athenian Empire. Although the expedition was in part under the leadership of
Nicias, it soon turned into a disaster. In 413 BC, the entire army was
defeated and captured and a large part of the great, powerful fleet of the
Athenians was destroyed in the harbor of Syracuse. Athenian power since the
Persian Wars had rested solely on the power of the navy; the disastrous
Sicilian expedition left Athens almost completely powerless.
Knowing a good thing when they saw it, the Spartans soon attacked Athens
and—worse news piled on top of bad news—they were soon joined by the
Persians who were still smarting from the war Athens had so vigorously
prosecuted in the first half of the fifth century. For awhile the Athenians
hung on, even enjoying tremendous victories when the war was shifed to the
Aegean Sea. But in 405, the rest of their navy was destroyed in a surprise
attack, and by the next year the situation was hopeless. In 404 BC, the
Athenians surrendered totally to the Spartans, who tore down the walls of
the city, barred them from ever having a navy, and installed their own
oligarchic government, the Thirty. The Age of Athens, the Age of Pericles,
the Classical Age, the Athenian Empire, had come to an end.
After the unconditional surrender
of Athens at the end of the Peloponnesian War, Sparta became the undisputed
major power among the Greek city-states. Stripped of its navy and its
empire, Athens simply became just one more city under the political control
of its more powerful neighbor in the south. This period in Greek history is
called the Spartan hegemony, for although Sparta didn't rule the city
-states of Greece as if it were an empire, Sparta did exercise considerable
influence over the domestic and foreign decisions of these independent
states: it exercised, then, hegemonic control over these states.
In Athens, the Spartan general who defeated the city, Lysander, pulled
down the democratic government and established an oligarchy. Members of the
democratic factions fled the city and raised armies in Corinth and in
Thebes. The oligarchy ruled with an iron fist, often ordering summary
executions of its political opponents (as Socrates tells us in
The Apology);
for this, the thirty members of the oligarchy were called "the Thirty
Tyrants," or simply, "the Thirty." Eventually the Athenians were allowed by
Sparta to return to a democratic constitution.
Sparta, meanwhile, vigorously went about establishing an empire of its
own. Shortly after the defeat of Athens, they entered into an alliance with
Cyrus, who claimed the Persian throne against his brother, Artaxerxes II,
who occupied the throne. The Persians the the Greeks, under the leadership
of Sparta, managed to make it all the way to the center of Mesopotamia and
the capital itself, where Cyrus was killed. The Greeks escaped, but the
Spartans soon entered into defensive alliances with the Greek city-states of
Asia Minor.
The great figure of this age is Agesilaus, the king of Sparta from 396 to
360 BC. Agesilaus was an energetic and aggressive general who, though
physically lame, was incomprehensibly physically brave whenever in battle.
Soon the Spartan and Greek army was threatening Persia again, but the
Persians destroyed the Spartan sea empire in 394 BC. The Spartans had been
distracted by another war on the Greek mainland, the Corinthian War (395-387
BC), when Athens, Corinth, and Argos formed an alliance against Sparta.
Athens rebuilt the walls of the city and its navy.
This war, like the Peloponnesian War, essentially accomplished nothing.
In the end, all sides agreed to a peace established by the Persian king.
Fearful of the Athenians, the Persian king put Sparta in charge of Greece,
and Agesilaus promptly broke up the Corinthian alliance and any other
alliances that didn't involve Sparta. From 387 BC onwards, Agesilaus and the
Spartans closely controlled political decisions in the individual
city-states and stacked their governments with individuals friendly to
Sparta and its interests.
The period of Spartan hegemony saw the first years of the maturing of
Greek philosophy.
Socrates,
who looms large as a principle foundation of Greek philosophy, had come to
the end of his years when the Age of Pericles closed. He was put to death in
399 BC. However, his pupil, who more than anyone else is responsible for
synthesizing earlier Greek philosophy int a single, overarching system,
began his activities as a philosopher and teacher in these years. Based in
Athens, his school, the Academy, would become the intellectual center of
Greece in the decades to follow.
Agesilaus finally overstepped himself when he captured the city of Thebes
without any provocation whatsoever. When he then turned on Athens, the
Athenians allied themselves with the Thebans, and the Spartan control over
Greece came to a final end in 371 BC.
Under the leadership of two brilliant
generals, Apaminondas and Pelopidas, the Spartans were defeated in 371 BC at
the battle of Leuctra. Life in Greece changed overnight. The Thebans
dismantled the Peloponnesian League and created a new league of states which
didn't include Sparta. The Thebans took territory away from the Spartans,
whose population had been severely depleted because of Agesilaus's wars,
freed all of the helots, and allowed them to set up an independent state.
For the next thirty years, Thebes, a democracy would hold sway over much of
the politics of the Greek mainland. The Thebans, however, were no more
enlightened in their hegemony than the Spartans were, and they soon met
bitter resentment and resistance. In 362, in the face of the rivalry of a
new Peloponnesian coalition and a resurgent Athenian empire, as well as the
deaths of Apaminondas and Pelopidas, Thebes quickly slipped out of its
powerful position.
After the bitter
defeat at the hands of the Spartans and the dismantling of the Athenian
Empire in 404 BC, Athens soon began building its empire even during the
period of
Spartan hegemony. In 378 BC, Athens formed the
Second Athenian Confederation, a league of Aegean city-states; the sole
purpose of this confederation was to resist the growth of Spartan power in
the Aegean Sea. However, after Sparta had been conclusively defeated in 371
BC and Thebes just as conclusively defeated nine years later, the reason for
the league evaporated. Persia no longer seemed to be a threat, and there
seemed no reason to pour tribute money into Athens. The Second Athenian
Empire, then, soon crumbled in a series of revolts. In 355 BC, when the
Athenians gave over the Confederation, Greece had once again become a nation
of independent, unallied city-states. In less than two decades, those
city-states would disappear forever as political units, to be replaced by a
vast kingdom under an ambitious Macedonian king, Philip II.
Hellenism
In spite of the political turbulence and
chaos of the fourth century BC, Greece was poised on its most triumphant
period: the Hellenistic age. The word, Hellenistic, is derived from the
word, Hellene, which was the Greek word for the Greeks. The Hellenistic age
was the "age of the Greeks; during this time, Greek culture and power
extended itself across the known world. While the classical age of Greece
produced great literature, poetry, philosophy, drama, and art, the
Hellenistic age "hellenized" the world. At the root of Hellenism were the
conquests of Philip of Macedon and his son, Alexander. However, the
Macedonians did more than control territory; they actively exported Greek
culture: politics, law, literature, philosophy, religion, and art. This was
a new idea, exporting culture, and more than anything else this exporting of
culture would deeply influence all the civilizations and cultures that would
later erupt from this soil: the Romans, the Christians, the Jewish diaspora,
and Islam.
Macedon
Macedon all during the age
of the Greek city-states was an anomaly: it was a Greek kingdom. Located
north-east of the Greek mainland and northwest of Asia Minor, Macedon was
firmly entrenched on the European continent. The Macedonians were the Greeks
who had to contend, then, with all the European tribes, many of which were
war-like. So the Macedonians served as a kind of buffer for the Greeks, as
the faithful Greeks who stood between the tribal Europeans and the Greek
city-states. For all that, the Macedonians were deeply unappreciated by
their fellow Greeks; they were looked on as no better than barbarians
themselves, particularly since they had never developed or adopted the
polis.
The Macedonians were ruled by a king, much like the Mycenean kings. The
king came to power through inheritance, but first had to be approved by the
army. Beneath the king was an aristocracy of nobles who had a limited amount
of power; like all monarchies that shared power with an aristocracy, the
balance of power frequently shifted from the king to the nobles and back
again. Into this situation, at the peak of the political chaos roiling the
Greek world to the south, stepped a powerful king who unified the country of
Macedon and set his sights on conquering the whole of the Greek world:
Philip of Macedon.
Philip of Macedon ascended the
throne of Macedon in his late twenties. He had found himself regent, that
is, the individual in charge of the kingdom because the king was only an
infant. As regent, he promptly overthrew his infant nephew, the king, and
crowned himself king in 359 BC. In his early twenties, however, he had been
a Macedonian hostage living in Thebes during the heyday of the
Theban hegemony.
Political hostages generally lived a good life, they were simply kept in
order that they may be executed if hostilities commenced between the
government the hostage came from and the government that held him (or her).
Philip lived a good life in Thebes and was well-integrated into the politics
and military. He grew to think of himself as a Greek rather than as a
Macedonian, but he also learned Greek politics and Greek military strategy.
Philip had learned to be a general.
When he assumed the throne of Macedon, he promptly pacified all the
European tribes to his north, seized gold and silver mines by conquering the
city of Amphipolis to his south, and began to build new cities and large
standing armies.
He then turned his eyes to the south in 349 BC and began to
systematically conquer all the Greek cities; after a great victory against
Athens and its allies in 338 BC, Philip found himself in control of all
Greece (except Sparta). Philip promptly went to work at securing his power
in Greece, building garrisons at Corinth, Thebes, and Chalcis; in 338 BC, he
created the Federal League of Corinth. Ostensibly an alliance of free
city-states, Philip was its ruler and for all practical purposes had become
king of Greece. The independent city-state, the
polis,
had ceased to exist. But Philip wasn't finished. The Persian Wars still
festered in the Greek memory, and the Spartan invasion of Persia in 379 BC
showed Philip that it was possible to defeat the mightiest empire known to
humanity. So in 337, Philip announced the the League would attack Persia as
revenge for the wars, and in 336 he stood poised to prosecute his mighty
invasion of the Persian Empire, but an assassin's sword ended his great
campaign. It should've ended the brief Macedonian control of Greece; but
Philip's twenty-one year old son stepped into his father's shoes and became
the conqueror of the world.
The
decisive battle of Philip's conquest of Greece occurred in 338 BC at
Chaeronea in Boeotia, when Philip beat the Athenians and their allies. The
military feat that won that day was a cavalry charge by Philip's eighteen
year old son, Alexander. Alexander seems to have inherited much from his
brilliant father: physical courage, arrogance, extreme intelligence, and,
most importantly, unbridled ambition. For when his father died in 336 BC at
an assassin's hand, Alexander quickly consolidated his power and set out to
conquer the world. At the age of twenty-one.
He had been a youth of infinite promise. Physically handsome, strong,
brave, and nothing short of brilliant, he had been schooled by no less a
person than
Aristotle. With all these qualities, he took up
his father's ambition and prosecuted it with a swiftness that is almost
frightening.
In 334 BC, Alexander crossed over into Asia Minor to begin his conquest
of Persia. To conquer Persia was to conquer the world, for the Persian
Empire sprawled over most of the known world: Asia Minor, the Middle East,
Mesopotamia, Egypt, Iran. He didn't have much to go on: his army numbered
thirty thousand infantry and only five thousand cavalry. He had no navy. He
had no money.
His strategy was simple. He would move quickly and begin with a few sure
victories, so he could gain money and supplies. He would focus on the
coastal cities so that he could gain control of the ports; in that way, the
Persian navy would have no place to make landfall. Finally, he took the
battle right to the center of the opposing forces, and he threw himself into
the very worst of the battle. His enemies were stunned and his troops grew
intensely loyal to this man who threw both them and himself right into the
teeth of the wolf.
He quickly overran Asian Minor after defeating the Persian forces that
controlled the territory, and after seizing all the coastal cities, he
turned inland towards Syria in 333 BC. There he engaged the main Persian
army under the leadership of the Persian king, Darius, at a city called
Issus. As he had done at Chaeronia, he led a astounding cavalry charge
against a superior opponent and forced them to break ranks. Darius, and much
of his army, ran inland towards Mesopotamia, leaving Alexander free to
continue south. He seized the coastal towns along the Phoenician and
Palestinian coasts. When he entered Jerusalem, he was hailed as their great
liberator. He continued south and conquered Egypt with almost no resistance
whatsoever; the Egyptians called him king and son of Re.
By this point, Darius understood that the situation was out of his
control. As Alexander moved down the Phoenican coast, he managed to conquer
the city of Tyre, which was absolutely central to Persian naval operations.
Darius knew that he could never recover Asia Minor, Phoenicia, or Palestine,
so he sent an offer to halt hostilities. If Alexander would cease, Darius
would cede to him all of the Persian Empire west of the Euphrates River;
Mesopotamia, Persia (modern day Iran), and the northern territories would
remain Persian.
Alexander would have none of this. In 331 BC, he crossed the Euphrates
river into Mesopotamia. Darius met him near the ancient Assyrian city of
Nineveh, the city that had been destroyed by the Chaldeans only three
centuries earlier. This was the last battle between Darius and Alexander;
the Macedonian king again put the numerically superior Persian army to
flight, and Darius ran also. In January of 330 BC, Alexander entered
Babylon: he had conquered Mesopotamia and now controlled its greatest and
wealthiest city.
The Persians had amassed vast wealth from the tribute paid by the various
states under them. Alexander, who had started with no money at all, was now
in control of the fattest treasury that had ever existed.
Darius, meanwhile, met his death at the hands of a conspiracy. The
Persian nobles no longer felt that he could effectively lead them and, under
the leadership of his brother Bessus, the nobles killed Darius and left his
body for Alexander to find. Alexander, however, pushed on, found Bessus, and
killed him and as many Persian nobles as he could. The Persian Empire had
officially come to a close.
Having conquered what was then the known world, Alexander had pushed his
army to the very limits of civilization as he knew it. But he wanted more;
he saw that the world extended further and partly out of curiosity, and
partly out of a desire to conquer the enitre world within the boundaries of
the river Ocean (the Greeks believed that a great river, called Ocean,
encircled all the land of the world), Alexander and his army pushed east,
through Scythia (northern Iran), and all the way to Pakistan and India. He
had conquered Bactria at the foot of the western Himalayas, gained a huge
Bactrian army, and married a Bactrian princess, Roxane. But when he tried to
push on past Pakistan, his army grew tired, and he abandoned the eastward
conquest in 327 BC.
In 324 BC, Alexander returned to Babylon. He was now, literally, king of
the world, and began to lay down his strategies for consolidating his
empire. He began to plan cities and building works, new conquests, and even
considered deifying himself. But like so many human gods, his own death
caught up with him. In 323 BC, at the age of thirty-three, he fell into a
fever and died.
It's rare in history that human events become so focussed on a single
individual; rarely is that focus justified. Alexander, however, is one of
the notable exceptions. The age of Alexander was the age created by
Alexander, and he would permanently stamp world culture with a Greek
character. He was in many ways a brilliant and selfless person, quite
possibly the most brilliant military leader in human history. With a small
army, little or no supplies, and no money, he conquered the greatest,
wealthiest, and most powerful empire in the world. He never lost a battle,
not once, and he flung himself into battle with intense physical bravery. He
was also a tyrant and a bully, given to fits of uncompromising violence. He
was certainly a drunkard and at times unstable. We will never know if he
could have ruled or unified this huge empire, for it may have crumbled into
nothing within a few years. His death, however, guaranteed that the empire
he had built would never last.
While
there is much controversy among historians about the significance of
Alexander in Greek history and culture, there is no question that the
Alexandrian empire was built because of his military genius and his
unbridled ambition. Whether or not Alexander could have kept this
unimaginably large empire together is an unanswerable and ultimately useless
question. It is clear, however, that his death, only a year after completing
his Herculean conquest of the world, spelled the end of the empire he had
acquired so quickly.
Alexander, who was only thirty-three years old when he died, had made no
preparations for his succession. He had married a Bactrian princess, Roxane,
when he had conquered Bactria; their son, however, was unborn when Alexander
died. Alexander also had a brother, but he was both weak and unintelligent.
So the generals which had aided him divided the empire among themselves in
order to preserve the empire for the future, as yet unborn, king; this would
guarantee that Alexander's empire would remain in the royal line of
Macedonian kings. Like all powerful and ambitious men, they soon fell into
conflict with one another. In two decades of conflict, several of the
original generals were killed, along with Alexander's son and brother. By
300 BC, all that was left of Alexander's empire were four smaller empires,
each controlled by military generals who declared themselves kings. Greece
and Macedonia fell to Antigonus, who founded the Antigonid dynasty of Greek
kings; this dynasty would eventually control Asia Minor. Asia Minor original
came under the control of Attalid dynasty, but was eventually subsumed under
the Antigonids. Mesopotamia and the Middle East came under the control of
Seleucus, who crowned himself Seleucus I and began the Seleucus dynasty
(every king in this dynasty would be named Seleucus). Egypt came under the
control of Ptolemy, who crowned himself Ptolemy I and began the Ptolemid
dynasty. The Ptolemids maintained Greek learning and culture, but adopted
several Egyptian customs surrounding the kingship, such as inheritance
through the maternal line
These empires periodically fought with one another, for none of these
kings ever fully accepted the fact that the empire had fractured into three
parts. Each believed that they were the rightful heirs to the entire empire
that Alexander had built. Countries, such as Judah, periodically shifted
from one empire to another as the fortunes of war went now to the Ptolemies
and now to the Seleucids.
Despite the constant conflict, the Hellenistic world was an incredibly
prosperous one. Alexander and his successors had liberated an immense amount
of wealth from the Persian empire, and with this new wealth in circulation
the standard of living rose dramatically. Each of the empires embarked on
building projects, on scholarship, on patronage of the arts, and on
literature and philosophy. The Ptolemies built an enormous library in their
capital city of Alexandria, and sponsored the translation of a host of
religious and literary works into Greek.
This period really marked the first international culture in western,
middle eastern, and north African history. The Greeks imported their
culture: political theory, philosophy, art, and literature all over the
known civilized world. This culture would greatly alter the culture and
religion of the Mediterannean. But the flow of culture worked in the
opposite direction as well; non-Greek ideas and non-Greeks flowed into
Greece (and Italy). They took with them their religions, their philosophies,
science, and culture; in this environment, eastern religions in particular
began to take hold in the Greek city-states both in the east and in Greece.
Among these religions was Zoroastrianism and Mithraism; in later years, this
international environment would provide the means for the spread of another
eastern religion, Christianity.
This process of the "hellenization" ("making Greek") of the world took
place largely in the urban centers the Greeks began to zealously build.
While the Greeks had for a long time believed that monarchy was a sign of
barbarity, they had to come to terms with the reality of their new form of
government. So they compromised. While they accepted the monarchy, the set
about building somewhat independent poleis that had the structure of the
polis
without its political independence. The growth of these cities provoked
massive migrations from the Greek mainland, as Greeks settled in these new,
far-flung poleis to assume lucrative positions in the military and
administration.
Spread from Italy to India, from Macedonia to Egypt, Greek culture was
the most significant of its times. The mighty empires of the Greeks hung
onto this vast amount of territory for almost three centuries. Slowly,
however, a new power was rising in the west, steadily building its own,
accidental empire. By the time of Christ, the great Greek empires of the
Hellenistic world had been replaced and unified once more into a single
empire under the control of an Italian people, the Romans.
Athens Sightseeing! tours and excursions in Athens and through Greece
| Half-Day Athens Sightseeing (No1) | ||||
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the
first Olympic Games took place in 1896 (short stop). Pass by the Prime’s
Ministers residence, Ex Royal Palace, (guarded by colourful Evzones)
Zappion (Conference and Exhibition Hall), National Garden, Hadrian’s
Arc, St. Paul’s Church, Parliament, Tomb of the Unknown soldier,
Schlieman’s House (Nomismatic Museum), Catholic Cathedral,
| Half-Day Cape Sounion (No2) | ||||
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 Depart
for a wonderful drive along the scenic coastal road which affords a
splendid view of the Saronic Gulf, passing through some of Athens most
beautiful suburbs (Glyfada,Vouliagmeni, Varkiza) to CAPE
SOUNION where you will visit the 5th century B.C.
TEMPLE of POSEIDON with one of the most breathtaking
panoramic views in the world(on a clear day you can see at least seven
islands).The precipice is a sheer 197 foot drop to the sea.
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| Athens by night (No3) | ||||
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  The
tour starts with a visit to the main Greek port of Piraeus, passing by
the most important points of the city (City Hall, picturesque yacht's
harbour of Microlimano etc). Following the principal avenues and
passing by the Temple of Olympian Zeus, National Garden, Parliament,
Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Catholic Cathedral, Academy, University,
National Library, Old Parliament we arrive at Plaka.
Short pleasant walk through the old unique Athens city to one of the
popular taverns for dinner with live bouzouki music
and Greek folk dances.N.B. Drinks at the tavern are not included in the price.
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| One-Day Delphi (No4) | ||||
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 Depart
from our terminal; we are passing by OLYMPIC STADIUM to see the Athens
2004 Olympics main venue. We continue through Thebes, LEVADIA (short
stop) and Arachova for
Delphi, known in ancient times as the navel of the world.
Pass by CASTALIA SPRING, visit at the archaeological site the
TEMPLE of APOLLO famous for its oracle and the
MUSEUM of Delphi, with it’s spectacular finds, including the
bronze Charioteer, the Naxian Sphinx and the Statue of Antinoos. After
lunch return to Athens via the picturesque mountain village of
ARACHOVA, built on the south slopes of Parnassus, well known
for its attractive hand-woven carpets, rugs and quilts, as well as for
its wine and cheese (short stop).
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| One-Day Epidaurus- Mycenae (No5) | ||||
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 Depart
from our terminal; we are passing by OLYMPIC STADIUM to see the Athens
2004 Olympics main venue. We continue for the CORINTH CANAL
(short stop). Drive to
MYCENAE and visit the archaeological site and the tomb of
Agamemnon (optional stop for souvenirs). After lunch through ARGOS
proceed to
Nauplia the first capital of modern Greece with its Venetian
fortress of PALAMIDI and the fortified islet of
BOURTZI (short stop). Continue to
EPIDAURUS and visit the ancient
theatre, world famous for it's outstanding acoustics. Finally,
drive along the coastal road of Saronic Gulf to Athens.
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| Athens Walking Tour - Plaka and Monastiraki | ||||||||||||||||
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 Strolling
through the old districts of Athens can be a unique experience.
We have introduces a guided walking tour that will
give you the opportunity to visit some of the most interesting
monuments of the city that cannot be seen by the traditional coach
tour. These include the monument of Lysicrates; the churches of St.
Catherine, St. Nicolas Rangavas and the Holy Sepulchre; the old
University of Athens; the Roman Market; the Tower of the Winds; the
Fetihyie Mosque, the Library of Hadrian and much more.Duration: About 3 hours
Price:
NO DURING THE WINTER
* Entrance fee to the Roman market is
not included
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| Four Days Classical Tour with Meteora (No8) | ||||
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1st DAY: Depart from our terminal; we are passing by OLYMPIC STADIUM to see the Athens 2004 Olympics main venue. We continue for the CORINTH CANAL (short stop). Drive to EPIDAURUS and visit the Ancient theatre, world famous for its outstanding acoustics. Proceed to NAUPLIA (short stop) and through the plain of ARGOS arrive to MYCENAE. Visit the archaeological site and the Tomb of Agamemnon. In the afternoon (optional stop for souvenirs) depart for OLYMPIA, the birth place of the Olympic Games, through the cites of Tripolis and MEGALOPOLIS (short stop). Overnight stay in Olympia.
2nd DAY: Visit the archaeological site with the
Temple of Zeus, the Temple of Hera, the altar of the Olympic flame,
the Stadium and the archaeological Museum. Depart via PATRAS (short
stop) to RION, cross the Corinthian bay by the new bridge to ANTIRION.
Pass by the city of NAFPAKTOS and from there on, along the coastal
road to DELPHI, known in ancient times as the navel
of the world. In the afternoon visit the picturesque mountain village
of ARACHOVA. Overnight stay in Delphi.
3rd DAY: Visit the archaeological site, and, the MUSEUM of Delphi. Depart for KALAMBAKA via Central Greece (short stop by Lamia). Overnight stay in Kalambaka (a small town built at the foot of the majestic grey rocks and crowned by the METEORA Monasteries). 4th DAY: Leave in the morning for nearby Meteora to visit the BYZANTINE MONASTERIES. Return to Athens passing the heroic monument of Leonidas at THERMOPYLAE.
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| Three Days classical tour | ||||
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1st DAY: Depart from our terminal; we are passing by
OLYMPIC STADIUM to see the Athens 2004 Olympics main venue. We
continue for the CORINTH CANAL (short stop). Drive to
EPIDAURUS and visit the Ancient theatre, world famous
for its outstanding acoustics. Proceed to NAYPLIA (short stop) and
through the plain of ARGOS arrive to MYCENAE.
Visit the archaeological site and the Tomb of Agamemnon. In the
afternoon (optional stop for souvenirs) depart for OLYMPIA, the birth
place of the Olympic Games, through the cites of Tripolis and
MEGALOPOLIS (short stop). Overnight stay in Olympia.
2nd DAY: Visit the archaeological site with the Temple of Zeus, the Temple of Hera, the altar of the Olympic flame, the Stadium and the archaeological Museum. Depart via PATRAS (short stop) to RION, cross the Corinthian bay by the new bridge to ANTIRION. Pass by the city of NAFPAKTOS and from there on, along the coastal road to DELPHI, known in ancient times as the navel of the world. In the afternoon visit the picturesque mountain village of ARACHOVA. Overnight stay in Delphi. 3rd DAY: Visit the archaeological site and the MUSEUM of Delphi. In the afternoon return to Athens.
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| MONDAY'S SPECIAL - 5 days classical tour with METEORA | ||||
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1st DAY: Depart from our terminal; for the
CORINTH CANAL (short stop). Drive to EPIDAURUS and visit the
Ancient theatre, world famous for its outstanding acoustics. Proceed
to NAUPLIA for check in our Delux hotel. Free
afternoon for walking around the old town of Nauplia (the first
capital of Greece) or we can visit the Nauplia Gallery of Art with
paintings of famous Greek artists dedicated to the Greek revolution.
Dinner at our hotel.
2nd DAY: After breakfast and through the plain of
ARGOS arrive to MYCENAE. Visit the
archaeological site and the Tomb of Agamemnon. In the afternoon
(optional stop for souvenirs and lunch) depart for OLYMPIA,
the birth place of the Olympic Games, through the
cites of Tripolis and MEGALOPOLIS (short stop).Overnight stay in
Olympia.
3rd DAY: Visit the archaeological site with the Temple of Zeus, the Temple of Hera, the altar of the Olympic flame, the Stadium and the archaeological Museum. Depart via PATRAS (short stop) to RION, cross the Corinthian bay by the new bridge to ANTIRION. Pass by the city of NAFPAKTOS and from there on, along the coastal road to DELPHI, known in ancient times as the navel of the world. In the afternoon visit the picturesque mountain village of ARACHOVA. Overnight stay in Arachova.  4th DAY: Visit the archaeological site, and, the MUSEUM of Delphi. Depart for KALAMBAKA via Central Greece (short stop by Lamia). Overnight stay in Kalambaka (a small town built at the foot of the majestic grey rocks and crowned by the METEORA Monasteries). 5th DAY: Leave in the morning for nearby Meteora to visit the BYZANTINE MONASTERIES. Return to Athens passing the heroic monument of Leonidas at THERMOPYLAE.
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| Four Day Cruise - Golden Classic | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Discover the magnificent Greek Islands & Turkey onboard. Witness the
archaelogical wonders of Ancient Ephessos. Explore Knossos, once the
capitel city of prehistoric Minoan civilisation. Marvel at the
Acropolis of Lindos and wander through the Old Medieval city of
Rhodes. Relax over a coffee in Fira town, the capital of Santorini,
with its superb views of the Caldera. Witness the Book of
Revelations, written by John the Divine in Patmos and shop to your
heart's content in the most cosmopolitan Greek island of them all,
Mykonos.
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| Three Day Cruise - Golden Splendour | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Discover the magnificent Greek Islands & Turkey onboard. Witness the
archaelogical wonders of Ancient Ephessos. Explore Knossos, once the
capitel city of prehistoric Minoan civilisation. Marvel at the
Acropolis of Lindos and wander through the Old Medieval city of
Rhodes. Relax over a coffee in Fira town, the capital of Santorini,
with its superb views of the Caldera. Witness the Book of Revelations,
written by John the Divine in Patmos and shop to your heart's content
in the most cosmopolitan Greek island of them all, Mykonos.
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| Seven Day cruise - Splendours of Greece and Turkey | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The cruise to the Greek islands and Turkey calls at the most
renowned archeological and cultural sights of both nations. Discover
the mistique of Istanbul and explore the ancient city of Ephessos.
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| One Day Aegina- Poros- Hydra (No.10) | ||||
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The ship departs at 8:15 am from the
At 9:30 am the vessel arrives in
Other options include a guided tour of the island and visit to the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Nektarios. A bustling fish market, floating fruit market and
Next port of call the little
Finally, Hydra. Enjoy one of the most cosmopolitan of Greek islands. The favourite of the international jet-set and an artist retreat dotted with art galleries, its narrow picturesque streets (no cars allowed on the island), white washed houses, stores of folklore art and jewellery, local delicacies, crystal waters and multiple cliff face views justly make this island a jewel of the Aegean Sea. Ideal for shopping, swimming and photographs. On the way to the
This cruise is the ideal introduction to the 'Greek Spirit', the life, the culture, the entertainment and the famous Greek hospitality ('filoxenia'). |
continue with SANTORINI
SOMMARIO:
SANTORINI , KAMARI, 2 KAMARI, 3 KAMARI, PERISSA, THIRA, OIA, IOS, NAXOS, PAROS, MILOS
MYKONOS, ATHENS-HOTEL, ATHENS COAST SIDE, CRETE, CRETE (studios-apartments),
www.grecia-voli-appartamenti.com www.spagna-ibiza-formentera.com
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