Booty of war, a rare case

Speaking of the booty of war raises images of soldiers plundering palaces or the houses of the wealthy citizens in the territory they just conquered. In antiquity, the booty was the soldier’s pay or the common citizen’s way to take revenge on their lords for the suffering they had endured. 

Philip II, Alexander’s father, was the first to introduce a regular professional army and pay his soldiers for their services. Alexander followed suit, but old habits are hard to break, and his soldiers did not shy away from helping themselves to the enemies’ wealth when the opportunity arose. 

There were cases where Alexander forbade his troops from appropriating the treasures they found (see: Fire over Persepolis) and restrained his army from looting Babylon and Susa. But once they arrived in Persepolis, he let them loose to rampage the city, all but the palace. The Macedonians were unstoppable in their insatiable greed, storming through the houses and plundering the premises. The Persian wealth had rubbed off onto the common people, and it was said they possessed much silver and gold. Diodorus speaks of an “orgy of plunder”. Alexander’s proud army definitely was drunk with craving. The rampage became so outrageous that Alexander had to intervene in person.  

Today’s warfare is totally different from antiquity and can hardly be compared, but looting still exists. 

Let me, for instance, stop the time clock at WW2. Although it is hardly 80 years ago, it is difficult to separate looting from saving an artifact from bombed or burned buildings. If it happens to be a museum, we can speak of looting when the precious content is carried off as a trophy. However, it can be labeled as stolen when it is taken illegally out of the country of origin, although it may be retrieved for safekeeping. 

No matter the qualifier used, the object has been removed unknowingly from its established and documented environment. 

[Picture from Smithsonian Magazine]

Recently, an intriguing case made headlines. A Roman tombstone from the 2nd century AD was found in a garden in New Orleans, USA. The fine marble slab carried an inscription in Latin, reading: “To the Spirits of the Dead for Sextus Congenius Verus, soldier of the praetorian fleet Misenensis, from the tribe (natio) of the Bessi [i.e., a Thracian], (who) lived 42 years (and) served 22 in the military, on the [trireme] Asclepius. Atilius Carus and Vettius Longinus, his heirs, made (this) for him well deserving.” 

The tombstone was clearly out of place and out of its context. After further in-depth research, the New Orleans owners discovered that this artefact had been reported missing from the Archaeological Museum of Civitavecchia, near Rome, after it was bombed by Allied forces during WW2. In the process, the museum and its collection were destroyed. The museum reopened as late as 1970. 

The tombstone had been part of an ancient cemetery in Civitavecchia that contained some twenty graves of Roman soldiers. It had been discovered in the 1860s, and its Latin inscription had been carefully recorded in a catalogue from 1910 before the stone was moved to the local Archaeological Museum. This being established, and with the help of professionals, the American and Italian authorities are presently in the process of returning the stone to Civitavecchia. 

How exactly this tombstone ended up in New Orleans is another story. The previous owners of the house came forward when the media reported on this odd discovery. The lady of the house had received the plaque from her grandparents, who lived in Italy during WW2. Her grandmother was Italian, and her grandfather was from New Orleans. 

Our world is not perfect, as we are still debating whether the Parthenon friezes, now at the British Museum, should be returned to Athens. In antiquity, the strongest or the most powerful party simply took what they wanted. 

I developed the concept of looting in antiquity in an earlier post entitled, Wartime looting in antiquity. We have come a long way since then, yet not long enough.

Hecate, an ancient Greek goddess still honored today

Hecate is a very recognizable goddess, the only one to be depicted with three heads or three bodies, as her realm includes the heavens, the earth, and the sea. Since she could easily move from one to the other, she was known to be the guardian of crossroads. That is where we often find her striking statues, but also at cemeteries, as she was associated with communication with the dead. 

A very well-preserved example of Hecate is this statue made in Italy after an original created by the sculptor Alcamenes between 430 and 420 BC for the Acropolis in Athens, where she marked the transition from the sacred hill to the rest of the city. 

Hecate’s roots go back 8,000 years, when she was seen as ‘the guardian of the threshold’, standing at city gates, for instance. In the figurative sense, she became an inner guide to those coping with a personal crisis. 

Hecate had her own temple, and the largest is to be found in Lagina, near the modern city of Muğla in southwest Turkey. It stood in the center of the sacred precinct and dates to the 2^nd century BC.  Her sanctuary invites even today’s visitor to look beyond the archaeological site to find a place of profound energy. 

The frieze that ran around the temple walls can now be seen at the Archaeological Museum of Istanbul, where the scenes are astutely presented high above the ground to mimic their original placement. We recognize mythological scenes, including the life of Zeus and the Carian gods, as well as scenes of Gigantomachy and Amazonomachy.

[Picture from Turkish Archaeological News]

In Hellenistic times, the Seleucids expanded the sanctuary to become one of the most important in Caria. Lagina continued flourishing under Roman rule. Emperor Augustus helped rebuild the sacred shrine after it was damaged by a Parthian attack in 40 BC. Thereafter, the Romans popularized the Temple of Hecate by creating a yearly festival that attracted people from all over the Empire. 

Lagina kept its importance until it was destroyed by the catastrophic earthquake of 365 AD that hit the entire Eastern Mediterranean. The rise of Christianity led to building a large Basilica on the ruins between the central altar and the Temple of Hecate. It is known to have served until the 6^th century AD. 

Lagina was connected to nearby Stratonikeia by a Sacred Road, 8.5 kilometers long and about 3.5 meters wide. This situation clearly reminds me of the Sacred Road that linked Miletus to Didyma (see: Miletus, Alexander’s first siege in Asia). A similar stone-paved road was lined with Nymphaea and wells, and dotted with small settlements offering comfort to the pilgrims. Yearly processions in honor of Hecate were organized between Stratonikeia and Lagina, beside the grand religious festivities that were held every four years, like those between Miletus and Didyma. 

Unique and significant was the key-carrying ceremony that symbolized the ability to move between life and death, the conscious and the unconscious, the old and the new. A young girl, the key-bearer, would carry a sacred key between Lagina and Stratonikeia, accompanied by a choir of young girls singing hymns. They would enter the sanctuary and start religious ceremonies. At this point, the gates of the temple would be opened by the key-bearer as the participants would take their places on the steps along the western edge of the sanctuary to attend the ceremony. 

Amazingly, even today, Lagina continues to be a place of pilgrimage where many visitors still bring their offerings of pomegranates, apples, wheat, garlic, and, occasionally, even fish. Archaeologists do not support this kind of gift as they fear damaging the fragile ruins. 

All in all, today’s visitors have their own way to interpret the worship of Hecate. It must be said that the journey feels very symbolic because her temple of Lagina stands close to a power plant, near a three-way junction. The location still underscores the role of the goddess of the crossroads. 

Although initially, Hecate was known for positive qualities as a protector, a source of wisdom, and a cosmic force, modern pilgrims and devotees particularly revere Hecate as a goddess of pathways and a bringer of light. 

What a beautiful support and safe haven in our troubled world!

Delphic Hymns and ancient Greek music

My first discovery of Greek musical annotations happened in 2012 when I saw the Seikilos column at the Allard Pierson Museum in Amsterdam. This temporary exhibition held a copy of the Seikilos Epitaph from Copenhagen that showed ancient Greek music (see: Revealing ancient Greek music, the Seikilos Epitaph). It was presented as the oldest surviving example of musical composition in the world, dating back to between 200 BC and 100 AD. At that time, I learned that older Greek music inscriptions existed but only fragmentarily, as is the case for the Delphic Hymns. 

While the Seikilos Epitaph is the only complete song we have, the Delphic Hymns are simply the oldest surviving examples so far, dating from the 2^nd century BC. These Hymns were carved on the southern wall of the Treasury of the Athenians in Delphi. They contain hymns praising Apollo, his birth, his life, and his protection of Athens and Delphi, with music to be played on a shrill-sounding flute and a golden, sweet-sounding cithara. These hymns to Apollo were performed during the Pythian Games, a major venue for musical contests that originally focused on art and dance. 

The two inscriptions from the Treasury of the Athenians, now exhibited at the Museum of Delphi, belong to a series of about fifty similar hymns from ancient Greece. A study revealed that these songs of praise or triumph were composed for the Pythian Games of 128 BC, i.e., the ritual procession of the Athenians towards Delphi. Apollo is also hailed for his help in fighting the Galatians in 189 BC, as the Romans won the battle against these Celtic tribes in Asia Minor. 

Like the Seikilos inscriptions, the Delphic Hymns hold musical symbols for the instruments and other notations for the singing voice next to the lyrics. We owe the interpretation of these symbols to Alypius of Alexandria, a musicographer who lived in the 3^rd century AD. 

I followed the history of ancient Greek music and the reconstruction of ancient instruments, mainly the lyre/cithara and the flute, from 2016 onward, with several updates after Reconstructing ancient Greek music, an impossible task? We still find it difficult to accept that Homer's epics or the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides originally were sung partially or in their entirety.

The sounds produced by ancient instruments are a far cry from today’s music, even from what is considered classical music or medieval troubadours. Modern music is mostly loud, to be heard beyond the daily noises of traffic, airplanes, and too many people attending the open-air events with screaming amplifiers. It is hard to imagine a quiet, tranquil spot in nature where we could catch the sound of a faraway flute or a string instrument floating on the wind. The basic essence of musical notes no longer reaches us.

With new discoveries and future in-depth research, we may expect to learn more about the music played in antiquity that could have been familiar to Alexander. I hope.

[Pictures from the Delphi Archaeological Museum]

The Parthenon, a moment in time

Now is the moment to see the Athenian Parthenon (see: Experiencing the perfection of a Greek temple) free of scaffolding. This is the first time in the past 200 years.

Not for long though, as the plans are to start further conservation works next month!

Those who will be able to visit this treasure are among the happy few!

[Picture from GoodNewsNetwork]

Plato’s Grave in Athens

According to the Greek Reporter, the Italian archaeologist Graziano Ranocchia located the site of Plato’s grave in the garden of his Academy in Athens near the sacred shrine to the Muses. 

[The archaeological site of Plato’s academy. Credit: Tomisti, CC BY-SA 3.0/Wikipedia]

This discovery is based on the latest deciphering of a carbonized papyrus from Herculaneum (see: Reading Papyrus scrolls from Herculaneum). The scroll revealed the history of the Academy by Philodemus of Gadara, a poet and philosopher who lived in Herculaneum. 

Plato's Academy included thinkers such as Theaetetus of Sunium (from Cape Sounion), Archytas of Tarentum, a Pythagorean scientist and philosopher, Leodamas of Thasos, and Neocleides, both Greek mathematicians. 

The garden where Plato decided to establish his Academia was originally a sacred grove of olive trees dedicated to Athena, appropriately the goddess of wisdom, situated outside Athens’ city walls. 

Although Plato’s grave site has been established, nothing is said about whatever remains. Is there a tombstone or any kind of marker, something for us to see? After all, the garden is a large area. 

Wikipedia writes that “The site of the Academy is located near Colonus, approximately, 1.5 km north of Athens' Dipylon gates. The site was rediscovered in the 20th century, in modern Akademia Platonos neighbourhood; considerable excavation has been accomplished.” ... “the Peristyle Building (4th century BC), which is perhaps the only major building that belonged to the actual Academy of Plato”.

The modern Academy of Athens is Greece’s National Academy, established in 1926 based on the same principles as the ancient Academy of Plato. The main building in Greek neoclassical style is a landmark in the city and a clear reminder of ancient Greece.

Iraq’s Kurdistan honoring the memory of Alexander the Great

Several years ago, there were talks between Athens and Baghdad to intensify cultural cooperation. One point on the agenda was that Athens would provide financial aid to reconstruct the National Museum of Baghdad (see: The Museum of Baghdad, what's new?). The other point was plans to erect a statue of Alexander the Great in Kurdistan, northern Iraq. 

[National Museum Baghdad]

The foreign ministries of both Greece and Iraq agreed to honor the memory of Alexander by building a statue of Alexander in Mosul, near the ancient site of the Battle of Gaugamela, where King Darius (see: The Battle of Gaugamela) was defeated in 331 BC. 

It is remarkable to hear Iraq’s wish to celebrate the victory of Alexander over the Persian King Darius, which led to the demise of the Persian Empire that included Iraq as well. 

Athens vowed to help the Iraqi government recover thousands of artifacts looted from Baghdad’s National Museum after the American invasion in 2003. 

These mutual promises apparently went no further than good intentions by both parties, as mentioned during a Lecture by Andreas P. Parpas at the Cyprus Centre of Cultural Heritage in Nicosia on 25 April 2018. 

Since then, nothing more has been heard about this project. 

Meanwhile, looted and stolen artifacts are slowly returning to the National Museum of Baghdad. In 2010, 540 treasures were returned, and 638 objects were located in the office of Iraq’s Prime Minister. In 2012, 45 relics of Sumerian and Assyrian art were returned by Germany. The US also returned 17,000 looted artifacts in 2021. And in 2023, the FBI was involved in the recovery of a gold and ivory piece of furniture dated to 5,500 BC. Despite serious efforts, it is estimated that about 10,000 treasures from the Baghdad Museum are still missing. 

On the other hand, the US pledged almost $700,000 to restore the ancient city of Babylon that was damaged by the US troops using the site as a military base (see: Babylon, victim of war). 

Notion in Asia Minor

In antiquity, the coast of Asia Minor was a string of famous and powerful cities and towns, each with its own history. Some are only slowly revealing their presence and their treasures. 

One such relic is Notion, located roughly 50 kilometers from Izmir. One day, driving back from Izmir to Ephesos, I skirted the peninsula's entire south coast, passing cities like Teos and Claros. However, my intention was to stop at Clazomena, Colophon, and Notion. Life is such that it deviates us from our initial plan. It so happened that I frequently stopped to take in the vistas leading me from promontories into deep bays - a landscape from the beginning of time, I thought. As a result, I never made it to Notion … 

[Picture from Kelsey Museum of Archaeology, University of Michigan]

I may not have missed much because the first archaeological surveys started in 2014. Mapping Notion revealed a city laid out conform to the Hippodamian plan sitting on two promontories overlooking the Aegean Sea. Inside the remains of sturdy fortification walls, research exposed beside the ever-present Agora, a Theater, a Bouleuterion, a Heroon, a Temple of Athena, and a large housing district. Notion flourished from the 2^nd century BC until the 1^st century AD, after which it was abandoned in favor of Ephesos which became the major center of commerce in Roman times. 

The city’s origin goes back to at least the 6^th century BC when it was part of the Persian Empire like the rest of Asia Minor. Inevitably, it got involved in the Graeco-Persian Wars of the 5^th and 4^th centuries BC and was conquered in turn by Athens and Persia. 

During those uncertain times, it is thought that Notion was occupied and/or defended by “barbarian” mercenaries. This is documented through the hoard of Persian gold darics found under the floor of one of the houses. The coins were probably buried there to be recovered later on. The daric with its particular face featuring the figure of a kneeling archer was the equivalent of a month’s pay for a mercenary foot soldier. Based on their style, these darics were probably minted during the 5^th century BC in Sardes, which lies about 100 kilometers to the north. 

Darics rarely surface in Greek or Hellenistic cities and to find such a collection buried in a jar is astonishing. 

I remember seeing my first Darics in Sicily at The Medagliere, the strong room of the Archaeological Museum in Syracuse. It was quite a shock because I knew the coins only from pictures and was not expecting to find them here. On the other hand, their presence raised the question of how they had reached Sicily – probably carried west by early colonists from mainland Greece who settled in Magna Graecia. 

Life surely is full of surprises.

About decrees and multilingual inscriptions

In antiquity, news was carried by word of mouth, but legal matters and other important information were cut in stone and placed in a conspicuous spot for everyone to see. 

The majority of inscriptions are Decrees of which I can only mention a selection. 

At the Acropolis Museum, there is a stele with decrees for the construction of the temple and altar of Nike by Kallikrates, for the reorganization of the cult, and for the salary of the priestess of the goddess dated 427-424 BC (side A) and 424-423 BC (side B).

Also a stele with a series of Decrees by which the Athenians bestowed economic, commercial, and military privileges on their ally Methone in Pieria. 

It shows the goddess Athena shaking hands with perhaps Artemis, dated 430-423 BC.

Very broken but still readable is the Athenian Decree honoring Neapolis (modern Kavala) for its support in the war against Thasos and its constant commitment to her. 

In the upper right corner, we recognize the goddess Athena extending her hand towards another figure, probably the goddess Parthenos of Neapolis, dated from 410-409 BC.

A very elegant stele with a horse and an olive wreath carries an inscription in which the Athenians honored King Alcetas of Epirus for his help during their military expedition to Corcyra (modern Corfu) in 373-372 BC.

And finally, still at the Acropolis Museum, there is the long Decree of Chalkis on the island of Euboia in which the islanders were forced to swear loyalty to Athens after failing in their revolt of 446-445 BC. 

The people of Chalkis could punish their own citizens, except in cases that involved death, exile, or the loss of their rights as citizens, where the power of Athens prevailed.

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens has its own rich collection of Decrees. A good example is the honorary inscription from Piraeus dating from 347-346 BC. 

The stele honors the three sons of Leukon (depicted), king of the Cimmerian Bosporus, thanking them for services rendered to the people of Athens and allowing them to import grain free of duty.

A particular stele from 355-354BC was found near the Monument of Lysicrates in Athens. 

It honors Philiskos, son of Lykos of Sestos in the Thracian Hellespont as a public guest and benefactor of Athens. In 356 BC, Philiskos had warned the Athenians of the hostile presence of the fleet of Byzantium that threatened the city’s grain supply.

The Eleusis Museum, in turn, exhibits a decree providing for the construction of a footbridge across Lake Rheitoi on the Sacred Way from Athens to Eleusis, dated 421 BC.

Two fragments from an unidentified monument carry a Royal Decree of Alexander, which defines the limits of ‘land’, meaning the agricultural area that Philippi supervised. 

The (partial) inscription dates from 336-334 BC, just before Alexander started his campaign East. It is kept at the Museum of Philippi.

On a different level, there is a Decree sanctioning the people and city of Iasos for conspiring against King Mausolos of Caria. 

It is kept at the Louvre in Paris and dates to 370-350 BC. 

 

The Foundation Decree of Cyrene in North Africa is a covenant between the citizens of Cyrene in ca. 322 BC and those of their mother-state of Thera. 

The exact purpose is uncertain, but it is thought that the citizens of Thera, including the early settlers of 631 BC, were granted the same rights and freedoms as the Cyreneans, even though Cyrene was wealthier than Thera at the time.

Of another level is, for instance, the trilingual stele from Letoon in the Xanthos Valley found near the Temple of Apollo. It holds a public Decree authorizing the cult of the deities and establishing the provisions for its officers.
The Decree is written in Lycian, Greek, and Aramaic, which are not verbatim translations of each other. Each version contains information that is not translated into the two other tongues. The Aramaic text with 27 lines is the shortest, followed by Greek with 35 lines, and Lycian with 51 lines. Useless to point out that this stele helped to decipher the peculiar Lycian language. This unique document can be seen at the Fethiye Museum.

The story of this stele reminds us of the Rosetta Stone, which helped to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphs and Demotic script using the Greek version carved on the same stone. The text is a Decree issued by King Ptolemy V of Egypt in 196 BC and was key to deciphering the hitherto unknown hieroglyphic signs. 

Trilingual inscriptions are not isolated cases. In ancient Persia, it was a common practice to leave inscriptions in three languages to make sure everyone in the vast empire would be notified: Elamite, Old Persian, and Babylonian. The best-known lines are carved on the cliff wall of Bisutun, where Darius I celebrates his victory over Gaumata and eight more pretenders to the throne in 518 BC, as represented above.

The trilingual inscriptions on the Palace walls of Pasargadae and Persepolis are mainly continuous reminders of the power of the King of Kings who ruled by the grace of Ahuramazda, repeating their title of Great King. These were defined in full by Cyrus the Great: Great King, King of Persia, King of Anshan, King of Media, King of Babylon, King of Sumer and Akkad, and King of the Four Corners of the World.

Perhaps the most remarkable panels are set in the spectacular landscape close to the fast-running mountain river and lovely waterfalls of Ganj Nameh, some five kilometers southwest of Hamadan. As is customary, each text starts by praising Ahuramazda and continues describing the lineage and deeds of Darius I on the left panel and his son Xerxes on the right. It reads: "The Great God [is] Ahuramazda, greatest of all the gods, who created the earth and the sky and the people; who made Xerxes king, and outstanding king as outstanding ruler among innumerable rulers; I [am] the great king Xerxes, king of kings, king of lands with numerous inhabitants, king of this vast kingdom with far-away territories, son of the Achaemenid monarch Darius." (see: The Bisutun relief of King Darius I).

I’d like to close with the impressive Monument of Opramoas in Rhodiapolis. He was a great benefactor who contributed lavishly to the reconstruction of most Lycian cities after the devastating earthquake of 141 AD. He must have been terribly wealthy, for it seems that every single Lycian city mentioned his name in thanks. The construction blocks of the Monument listing his good deeds were strewn over a wide area until, in 2016, archaeologists managed to sort them out and reconstruct the walls of his Monument (see: The Monument in honor of Opramoas of Rhodiapolis is taking shape).

Its text, the longest ever found in Lycia or perhaps even in all of Anatolia, contains 12 letters Opramoas exchanged with the Roman Emperors and Antoninus Pius in particular, 19 letters to the Roman Procurator, and 33 various documents related to the Lycian League. 

The reasons for leaving an inscription widely vary, and the list is endless. I stopped at a few of the most telling examples that caught my attention.

A few words of praise for Oliver Stone’s vision of Alexander

Oliver Stone received loads of criticism for his Alexander movie, revisions, and comments as if he had it all wrong. Well, nobody from Alexander’s lifetime is still alive to contest what’s right or not. 

As said in my earlier blog post about Stone’s book Responses to Oliver Stone’s Alexander, it is so much easier to point out the shortcomings than to consider the author’s considerable merit. The critics seem to forget that Alexander’s life was far too complex, too active, too magnanimous, and too genial to be told in a movie of three hours for a public largely unacquainted with history or Alexander the Great. 

At the end of his book, Oliver Stone added a highly interesting chapter “Afterward”, an excellent explanation and justification for his vision of Alexander. I can only admire his stamina.  I saved this text from some link back in 2006 and had a fresh look at it today. It is striking to read how, nearly twenty years later, Stone’s approach to Alexander is still so close to the truth! 

His plea for humankind to understand Alexander is worthy of Demosthenes, the great Athenian orator. Here is an excerpt worth reading:

The response is in what Alexander did, and not his motives, which I suspect were something like most of ours: highly ambivalent, at times glorious, at times wretched. I sometimes feel professional historians, generally apart from the human give and take of the marketplace, expect too much from their leaders -- requiring them to act from abstract principles in a world harsh with chaos, greed and infighting. We can certainly say in Alexander’s defense that he kept the expedition marching eastward for 7 more years after Babylon, with a greatness of vision that could motivate a 120,000-man army. By leading from the front and sharing the burdens of his men, he showed himself above the comfort lines of materialism, and as a known foe of official corruption, he set high standards by punishing those found guilty of stealing, raping, plundering (including his school friend Eumenes). From all accounts written of Alexander, we see time and again, his great passion, pain, and self-torture in incidents such as the murder of Cleitus, the burning of Persepolis, the mutiny in India, the kissing of Bagoas in front of his men, and the bestowing of official acceptance on Asian men and womenfolk. There is no ancient ruler, outside of legend, that I have ever heard commit such potentially self-incriminating actions. This is, of course, one of the reasons his name continues to endure – who was ever remotely like him? ‘In the doing, always in the doing’, Alexander. 

Conquest is also a form of evolution. If Alexander had a smaller vision, he would’ve retreated long before to Babylon and consolidated his empire. He would’ve brought his mother, his sister and his entourage to the Persian Court. He would’ve made a stronger, more patient effort to combine Macedonian and Persian custom. This unification of cultures would’ve been the lifetime challenge for any emperor, and would’ve certainly changed the course of history. Why did he not? 

I see Alexander more as an explorer, like many others of such a nature, not quite knowing what’s going to come up on the horizon, yet boldly reaching for the new electrical charge of change. He stayed in motion until the end, and never returned to his Rome, London, Paris, Berlin, or Mongolia, as other conquerors have. He comes across in many ways as a man who was making it up as he went along -- from Babylon through Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and back to Babylon -- where in the end, he remained unsatisfied, dreaming of his expedition to the West. I would call him not an imperialist as present fashion would have it, but rather a ‘proto-man’, an enlightened monarch naturally in search of one land, one world -- the unity, so to speak, of the womb. Given that Alexander might’ve had a longer lifetime to develop this experiment, his empire might’ve yielded perhaps six or seven centers -- such as Babylon, Alexandria, Athens, Carthage, Rome, South Spain, a world with nerve centers that supposes, to a surprising degree, the global world centers we have today – but with one world government, centered on enlightened monarchy, or, barring that, some form of governing body. 

In unconsciously pursuing this ‘one world’ concept, under the guise of a personal quest, the Alexander of the drama we created would have to be a man who believed he was the right force to bring the world into a greater sense of unification and prosperity, that he was a step in the evolutionary process. And given the cataclysms possible, I do think Alexander ruled extraordinarily well for 12 years over men, both noble and bestial, in a social fabric that not only maintained itself, but greatly expanded in terms of culture, scientific discovery, and economic progress. It’s so easy to dismiss this great effort, I think too easy, to declare it broken after 12 years of rule. But can we say it really broke apart? Even if dissolved in four parts, the basic communal energies remained in place, and his creation culminated shortly, within 150 years, in the burgeoning Roman Empire.

I cannot agree more!

The unique Temple of Apollo in Bassae

Many years ago, I drove around the Peloponnese exploring antique sites other than the well-known remains of Corinth and Olympia. 

One of my roads led me to the Temple of Bassae, which, according to my travel guide, was the only temple of Antiquity to combine Doric, Ionian, and Corinthian styles. Relying on the signposts I drove up a narrow winding road the width of my car through a landscape that seemed untouched by time. It was a most beautiful scenery dotted with circular threshing floors used to separate the grain from the straw and husks by beating it manually. These ‘floors’ also served as dancing on festive occasions. Time had clearly come to a standstill. 

As in the middle of nowhere, the grey columns of a temple appeared with behind it a normal asphalt road… I had found Bassae the hard way but certainly the most beautiful one.

[Picture from Albion Gould]

Just the other day, I came across the picture of an odd-looking temple in Figaleia dressed in ghostly white hailed as the “second Parthenon”. Where? What? It turned out to be the Temple of Apollo Epicurius in Bassae, now heavily studded. It brought me right back to that exciting drive so long ago. What happened here? 

Well, I praise myself lucky to have been there before the series of drastic restorations started. The first works were carried out between 1902 and 1908 but did not affect the appearance of the temple. Later interventions changed the glorious view I had enjoyed forever. In 1985, an anti-seismic scaffold was installed followed by a lightning protection. Since 1987 the entire temple has been wrapped in a tent to protect the monument against extreme weather conditions. This is said to be a temporary measure but after almost forty years we may wonder if this cover will ever be removed. There is not much worth seeing right now, is there? 

The Temple of Apollo Epicurius (the Helper) of 38 x 14.5 meters was erected between 420-400 BC by the citizens of Figaleia to thank the god for delivering them from the plague of 429-427 BC. It was designed by Ictinus, who also was the architect of the Parthenon in Athens. 

The Temple in Bassae built with local grey limestone is remarkable for several reasons. Unlike the general east-west orientation of the Greek temple, this one is set north-south because of the terrain or perhaps to comply with some religious traditions of the people of Figaleia. Access to the temple would be through a door on the east side, another anomaly. And, this temple of Apollo is the only known example from antiquity to combine all three orders of ancient Greece: Doric for the outside columns, Ionian for the inside, and three Corinthian columns at the southern end. What struck me also during my visit were the Ionic columns inside the cella that were attached to the wall. Two Corinthian columns were attached at a 45-degree angle to the wall and the third one stood between them. I was deeply impressed by these exceptional architectural details. 

The temple was abandoned around the 4^th-5^th century AD. As it stood in a relatively remote area outside the city of Figaleia, it was not plundered. Eventually, the roof collapsed and severely damaged the interior of the temple. The outer colonnade remained standing and that is what I witnessed during my visit. 

The excavations were first started in 1811 by a group of European archaeologists led by Charles Cockerell after receiving permission from the local Pasha. The agreement was that the booty would be split between the Pasha and the archaeologists. After a few weeks, 23 metopes were recovered. Twelve of them depicted the Battle between Greeks and Amazons and the remaining eleven told the mythical Battle between Lapiths and Centaurs. 

When the Pasha saw the reliefs, he was very disappointed as he had expected gold and other precious artifacts. For him, the find had no value and he refused to take his share. After giving him the sum of £400, the archaeologists took the metopes to be auctioned in Zakynthos. The highest bidder was the British Museum, which paid £19,000 for the lot. That is how the entire length of the frieze (31 meters) has been fitted in a room of its own at the BM. 

During a later visit to the Museum of the Louvre in Paris, I came across two sitting Maenads from Bassae. They were clearly resting after their frenzy dances in a state of divine madness and ecstasy which was illustrated by their sweaty wet chiton clinging to their body! Only a highly skilled sculptor could render this state of mind in such a palpable way. 

There must have been a statue of Apollo inside since the sanctuary was dedicated to this god, but I have not heard about its presence. 

It sounds strange to say that I did not miss seeing any metopes or statues in or around the temple. At the time, this isolated sanctuary impressed me by its location, as the roughness of its grey limestone blended in so well with the landscape that the picture seemed complete. 

The white tent covering the temple is said to protect the building against the region's extreme weather conditions. I do not understand this reasoning for after all Apollo protected the temple against the elements for the past 2,500 years.