The Greeks (2001) s01e03 Episode Script
Chasing Greatness
1 [RAIN.]
NARRATOR: IT'S A RAINY SEPTEMBER MORNING IN ATHENS, AND SOME 350 ATHLETES FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE GATHERING UNDER THE ACROPOLIS TO REENACT THE MOST HIGH-STAKES RUN IN HISTORY.
FOR THE NEXT 36 HOURS, THEY WILL ATTEMPT TO RUN FROM THE HEART OF ATHENS, ACROSS SOME OF GREECE'S MOST TREACHEROUS TERRAIN, TO SPARTA, SIX MARATHONS AWAY.
IT WOULD SEEM BEYOND THE LIMITS OF HUMAN ENDURANCE.
BUT 2,500 YEARS AGO, FACING ANNIHILATION BY THE PERSIAN EMPIRE, ATHENS SEN A SINGLE RUNNER ON THIS SAME DESPERATE RACE TO PLEAD FOR SPARTA'S HELP.
HIS NAME WAS PHEIDIPPIDES; HE SEEMED THEIR ONLY HOPE.
DEAN KARNAZES: PHEIDIPPIDES KNEW THE PERSIANS WOULD WIPE ATHENS FROM THE MAP.
HE KNEW DEMOCRACY WOULD BE COMPLETELY OBLITERATED.
NARRATOR: DEMOCRACY THEN WAS MERELY 17 YEARS OLD, AND IT WAS ABOUT TO SE OFF A CHAIN REACTION OF ART, DRAMA, PHILOSOPHY, AND SCIENCE THA WOULD HAVE BEEN UNTHINKABLE ANYWHERE ELSE.
JOSH OBER: IT IS A WORLD OF ALMOST CONSTANT INNOVATION.
THEY NEVER SIT AND JUS REST ON THEIR LAURELS.
BETTANY HUGHES: THEY WERE WORKING OUT THE BEST WAY TO BE HUMAN, THE BEST WAY TO LIVE IN THE WORLD AND THAT'S AN IDEA THAT IS AS STRONG NOW AS IT WAS WHEN IT WAS FIRS CONCEIVED 25 CENTURIES AGO.
NARRATOR: IN THE CRUCIBLE UNDER THE ACROPOLIS, THE MODERN MIND HAD BEEN UNLEASHED.
BUT IT ALMOST NEVER HAPPENED.
THE GREEKS.
RIGHT NOW ON THIS NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SPECIAL.
[NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC THEME MUSIC PLAYS.]
.
NARRATOR: THE 152-MILE SPARTATHLON, FROM ATHENS TO SPARTA, HONORS A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN GREECE'S QUEST FOR GREATNESS, WHEN THE EARLIEST SPARKS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION WERE NEARLY STAMPED OUT.
IT WAS 490 BC.
AND GREECE WASN' ANYTHING LIKE THE NATION WE THINK OF TODAY.
IT WAS A NETWORK OF SOME 1,500 OFTEN WARRING CITY-STATES, EACH WITH VASTLY DIFFEREN SIZES, STRENGTHS, AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT.
SUSAN ALCOCK: IF YOU WALKED UP TO A GUY IN 5TH-CENTURY ATHENS, AND YOU SAY, ARE YOU A GREEK? HE WOULDN'T HAVE A CLUE.
HE'D SAY NO, I'M AN ATHENIAN.
AND IF YOU WENT TO THEBES, I'M A THEBAN.
IF YOU WENT TO SPARTA, I'M A SPARTAN.
GREECE AS A WHOLE DID NOT EXIST.
NARRATOR: ATHENS, THE LARGEST CITY-STATE, WAS UNIQUE AMONG THEM.
IT HAD UNDERGONE A MAJOR POLITICAL REVOLUTION LESS THAN TWO DECADES EARLIER, WHERE ORDINARY PEOPLE REJECTED TYRANNY AND INSTITUTED A RADICAL NEW FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
DEMOCRACY.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, POWER WAS TRULY IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE.
THEY COULD SERVE IN GOVERNMENT AND VOTE ON EVERYTHING FROM TAX RATES TO DECLARATIONS OF WAR.
IN A WORLD OF KINGS AND TYRANTS, THE ATHENIANS RECOGNIZED THAT BY EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALS, FROM THE WEALTHIEST LANDOWNER TO THE LOWLIEST FOOT SOLDIER, THEY COULD BE FAR GREATER THAN THE SUM OF THEIR PARTS.
BETTANY HUGHES: HOW INCREDIBLE WOULD IT HAVE BEEN TO SPEND SOME TIME IN ATHENS IN THE 5TH CENTURY BC? JUST ELECTRICALLY EXCITING.
DEMOCRACY IS REALLY FETISHIZED AND CHERISHED.
IT COMES TO BE WORSHIPED AS A GODDESS, AS A FANTASTIC STONE STEELY IN ATHENS OF DEMOCRACY AS A GODDESS CROWNING HO DEMOS, THE COMMON PEOPLE.
NARRATOR: IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE ANCIENT GREECE WE THINK WE KNOW, THAT 170-YEAR-LONG GOLDEN AGE WHOSE LEGACY IS INVOKED EVERYWHERE, FROM THE STREETS OF MODERN ATHENS TO THE STEPS OF THE U.
S.
SUPREME COURT.
BUT DEMOCRACY ALMOST DIED IN ITS TEENS.
EDITH HALL: SO ATHENS HAD BECOME A DEMOCRACY IN 507 BC.
BUT JUST 17 YEARS LATER, SHE FACED THE GREATES CHALLENGE SHE'D EVER FACED, THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
NARRATOR: THE PERSIANS HAD AMASSED THE WORLD'S FIRS GLOBAL EMPIRE, UNDER POWERFUL KING DARIUS, CONQUERING SOUTH TO EGYPT, EAST TO INDIA, AND WEST TO TURKEY.
NOW, THEY HAD THEIR SITES SET ON EUROPE, AND ONLY LITTLE ATHENS, AND ITS VASTLY OUTNUMBERED ARMY HERE ON THE SHORES OF MARATHON, STOOD IN THEIR WAY.
THAT'S WHERE PHEIDIPPIDES' STORIED RUN COMES IN.
DEAN KARNAZES: PHEIDIPPIDES WAS WHAT THEY CALLED AN ALL-DAY RUNNER.
THAT WAS A STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE THE GREEKS HAD TO COMMUNICATE.
IT WAS LIKE THE INTERNET, YOU KNOW, 2500 YEARS AGO, AND THEY DID IT ON FOOT.
NARRATOR: MODERN MARATHONS ARE BASED ON THE LEGEND THA PHEIDIPPIDES RAN ABOUT 26 MILES FROM MARATHON TO ATHENS, NAKED OF COURSE, TO ALER LEADERS OF THE BATTLE'S OUTCOME, AND PROMPTLY DROPPED DEAD FROM EXHAUSTION.
IT'S A TALE IMMORTALIZED IN POETRY AND PAINTINGS.
BUT IT TURNS OUT THAT OUR MARATHONS MAY ONLY REPRESEN THE LAST PIDDLING 26 OF A MUCH LONGER RUN.
JOHN HALE: GREEKS WOULD'VE LAUGHED THEIR HEADS OFF A THIS IDIOTIC STORY.
26 MILES? THAT'S NOTHING! NARRATOR: THE HISTORIAN HERODOTUS TELLS US THAT BEFORE THE BATTLE OF MARATHON EVEN BEGAN, PHEIDIPPIDES HAD TO RUN 150 MILES TO SPARTA, AND BACK TO PLEAD FOR SUPPOR FROM THE WARRIOR SPARTANS.
TODAY'S SPARTATHLETES ARE TRYING TO COMPLETE THAT FIRST LEG.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
.
SOME TAKE IT MORE SERIOUSLY THAN OTHERS.
ULTRA-MARATHONER DEAN KARNAZES IS TRYING TO MANAGE IT ON ONLY THE FOODS PHEIDIPPIDES WOULD HAVE EATEN.
DEAN KARNAZES: IT'S BASICALLY A GROUND SESAME PASTE.
FIGS.
CURED MEAT.
NUTS.
NARRATOR: HE FEELS THIS RUN IN HIS BLOOD.
DEAN KARNAZES: I AM 100% GREEK AND MY DAD ALWAYS INSISTS WE'RE FROM, YOU KNOW, THIS SAME REGION AS PHEIDIPPIDES.
CAN YOU IMAGINE, PHEIDIPPIDES OUT HERE, BY HIMSELF, RUNNING TO SAVE DEMOCRACY? NARRATOR: WITHOUT ROADS, OVER MOUNTAINS, AND THROUGH THE DARK OF NIGHT, PHEIDIPPIDES IS SAID TO HAVE REACHED SPARTA IN JUST 36 HOURS, ONLY TO FACE ONE OF HISTORY'S CRUELEST REJECTIONS.
IN THE MIDST OF A SACRED FESTIVAL, THE SPARTANS WOULDN' FIGHT UNTIL THE FULL MOON.
DEAN KARNAZES: THEY SAID, WE'LL COME HELP YOU BUT IT'S JUST GONNA BE THREE OR FOUR DAYS.
NARRATOR: AND SO PHEIDIPPIDES MADE THE 176-MILE RETURN TRIP BACK TO THE BATTLEFIELD AT MARATHON, TO ALERT THE GENERALS THAT THE SPARTANS WOULD BE "DELAYED.
" THE ATHENIANS WOULD FACE DOWN THE WORLD'S FIRST TRUE SUPERPOWER WITHOUT THEM, OUTNUMBERED BY MORE THAN 2 TO 1.
PATRICK HUNT: THIS IS A CRITICAL, CRITICAL MOMENT.
TO PUSH BACK AGAINS THE PERSIANS.
NO ONE'S DONE I SUCCESSFULLY BEFORE.
NARRATOR: BUT THERE'D NEVER BEEN AN ARMY LIKE THIS BEFORE.
THE 10,000 ATHENIANS WERE NOW FREE AND EQUAL MEN.
BOUND BY A COMMUNAL SENSE OF BROTHERHOOD, THEY WEREN'T ABOUT TO SURRENDER THEIR HARD-WON RIGHTS OVER TO AN AUTOCRATIC RULER.
WAYNE LEE: ONE OF THE REALLY UNIQUE THINGS ABOUT GREECE IS THE WAY IN WHICH THOSE BONDS OF COMMUNITY TRANSLATE INTO THE WAY THAT THEY FIGHT.
IT IS INTIMATELY COOPERATIVE.
NARRATOR: RIGHT DOWN TO THE WAY THEY HOLD THEIR 16-POUND SHIELDS.
WAYNE LEE: THE SHIELD QUITE FAMOUSLY EXTENDS A FOOT AND A HALF TO THE LEF OF AN INDIVIDUAL FIGHTER.
WHEN HE IS HOLDING THE SHIELD UP, HALF OF THE SHIELD IS COVERING THE PERSON TO HIS LEFT.
THE WHOLE ETHIC OF THE FIGHT IS BUILT AROUND THAT MUTUAL PROTECTION.
STAND THERE AND PROTECT YOUR NEIGHBOR.
NARRATOR: THE GREEKS STOOD SHIELD OVER SHIELD IN A FOUR-DAY STANDOFF AGAINST THE PERSIANS.
UNTIL FINALLY, IN WHA SEEMED A DESPERATE MOVE, THEY CHARGED THE MUCH LARGER ARMY.
WHEN THE ATHENIAN CENTER SEEMED TO FALTER, THE PERSIANS PUSHED FORWARD, ONLY TO FIND THEMSELVES SURROUNDED BY THE GREEKS' STRONGER FLANKS.
IT WAS A ROUT.
THE PERSIANS LOST 6,400 SOLDIERS, ACCORDING TO HERODOTUS.
THE GREEKS, ONLY 192.
DEMOCRACY WAS SAFE, FOR THE MOMENT.
AND PHEIDIPPIDES' FABLED CRY OF VICTORY WITH HIS DYING BREATH, AFTER NOW RUNNING MORE THAN 350 MILES, EVEN THE ANCIENT ATHENIANS WOULDN'T BEGRUDGE AN EPIC DEMISE LIKE THAT.
THE BATTLE OF MARATHON LEFT THE YOUNG DEMOCRACY FEELING INVINCIBLE.
AND IT SOON FOUND ITSELF WEALTHY AS WELL, STRIKING A RICH VEIN OF SILVER IN A MINE NEAR CAPE SOUNION, LATER HOME TO THE TEMPLE OF POSEIDON.
IT WAS WORTH ABOU $60 MILLION IN TODAY'S MONEY, AND ATHENIANS WERE EAGER FOR THEIR SHARE OF THE SPOILS.
BUT ONE GENERAL, THEMISTOCLES, KNEW FULL WELL THAT THE PERSIANS WOULD BE BACK, AND HE WANTED THAT SILVER TO MOUNT A DEFENSE.
DEMOCRACY BEING WHAT IT IS, HE FIRST HAD TO CONVINCE THE CITIZENS OF ATHENS TO PART WITH IT, A POLITICAL REALITY NO TYRANT EVER HAD TO DEAL WITH.
JOHN HALE: IT'S NOT POPULAR TODAY IN THE WORLD OF SCHOLARSHIP TO ADMI THAT YOU'VE GOT HEROES, BUT I'VE GOT ONE, AND THA HERO IN THE ENTIRE ANCIENT WORLD IS THEMISTOCLES.
FOLKS WERE DECIDING WHA TO DO WITH THAT SILVER, AND HE PLAYED UPON THEIR SENSE OF PRIDE, THEIR SENSE OF SECURITY, THEIR SENSE, ABOVE ALL, OF POTENTIAL GREATNESS AS A CITY, WHICH ATHENS HAD NOT ACHIEVED.
BJORN LOVEN: THEMISTOCLES CONVINCED THEM TO USE THIS SILVER TO BUILD A HUGE NAVY.
NARRATOR: HERE A ATHENS' PORT OF PIRAEUS, ARCHAEOLOGIST BJORN LOVEN AND HIS TEAM ARE EXCAVATING THE IMMENSE HARBOR THA THEMISTOCLES BUILT FOR HIS DREAM NAVY.
WITH IT ARE CLUES ABOU HOW HE MIGHT HAVE SWAYED PUBLIC OPINION INTO BUILDING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
THE DIVERS CAN BARELY SEE A FOOT IN FRONT OF THEM.
BUT BY SIFTING THROUGH THE MURK OF ALMOST 2,500 YEARS, THEY'RE STARTING TO UNCOVER THE ACTUAL STRUCTURES THA HOUSED AND LAUNCHED THEMISTOCLES' FLEET.
BJORN LOVEN: SO IT WAS A MASSIVE STRUCTURE.
IMAGINE THE WHOLE SHORELINE LINED WITH SHIP SHEDS.
NARRATOR: THE SHIP SHEDS WOULD FORM ONE OF THE LARGEST STRUCTURES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD, HOUSING 200 OF THE GREATES FIGHTING GALLEYS OF THE DAY.
TRIREMES: BATTLESHIP, SPEEDBOAT, AND TORPEDO ALL IN ONE.
THEMISTOCLES THOUGH DIDN'T PITCH TRIREMES AS JUS WEAPONS OF WAR, BU AS ENGINES OF DEMOCRACY, GIVING LOWER CLASS CITIZENS A CHANCE TO RISE THROUGH ATHENS' POLITICAL RANKS.
JOHN HALE: YOU GET POWER AS CITIZENS BY FIGHTING FOR YOUR CITY.
NARRATOR: EACH TRIREME REQUIRED 200 CREW MEMBERS.
SO FOR 200 SHIPS.
BJORN LOVEN: YOU WOULD NEED CLOSE TO 40,000 MEN.
JOHN HALE: POORER-CLASS CITIZENS WERE DOING THE MATHEMATICS, AND SAYING, THERE'S A CREW OF 200 AT EVERY TRIREME.
THAT SOUNDS LIKE ME.
ULTIMATELY EVERY POST IN THE LAND OF ATHENS WAS OPEN TO THE POOREST CITIZEN BECAUSE OF THE NAVY.
NARRATOR: IN 480 BC, JUS TEN YEARS AFTER MARATHON, THEMISTOCLES' WORS FEARS CAME TRUE.
THE PERSIANS STRUCK FIRST HERE, AT THE NARROW PASS OF THERMOPYLAE, WHERE FOR DAYS MORE THAN 100,000 BESIEGED AN ALLIED GREEK FORCE OF ONLY 7,000.
BUT THIS TIME IT WOULD BE SPARTA'S FINEST HOUR.
UNDER THEIR KING, LEONIDAS, 300 SPARTANS FAMOUSLY FOUGH TO THE DEATH, HOLDING BACK THE PERSIANS LONG ENOUGH FOR THEIR GREEK ALLIES TO ESCAPE.
BUT THE PASS EVENTUALLY FELL, AND THE PERSIANS POURED INTO THE GREEK PENINSULA, BEN ON REVENGE AGAINST ATHENS.
THEMISTOCLES HAD TO DO SOMETHING DRASTIC.
IN AN URGENT ORDER, HE CALLED FOR THE COMPLETE EVACUATION OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND THE ELDERLY FROM THE CITY, ALL MEN TO THE TRIREMES OF HIS NEW NAVY.
ATHENS ITSELF WOULD BE LEF TO THE MERCY OF THE PERSIANS, WHO'D BURN IT TO THE GROUND.
THEMISTOCLES WOULD NOW TAKE THE BATTLE TO SEA, TO THE NEARBY STRAITS OF SALAMIS.
BJORN LOVEN: THE ATHENIANS BROUGHT 200 WARSHIPS TO THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS, AND THE ALLIES BROUGHT AROUND 200.
SO AROUND 80,000 PEOPLE AT SEA ON THAT MORNING.
NARRATOR: AND THAT'S JUST THE GREEK ALLIES.
THE PERSIAN FLEE WAS TWICE AS BIG.
LURING THE PERSIANS INTO SALAMIS' NARROW STRAIGHTS, THEMISTOCLES SPRUNG A TRAP.
HIS TRIREMES RAN CIRCLES AROUND THE HULKING PERSIAN SHIPS, TORPEDOING THEM WITH THEIR RAMS, AND SENDING NEARLY HALF OF THEM TO THE BOTTOM.
IT WAS THE FIRST MAJOR NAVAL VICTORY IN RECORDED HISTORY.
BJORN LOVEN: THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS IS A TURNING POINT IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION.
THE YOUNG MEN THAT WERE SITTING AT THE OARS THEY HAD FOUGHT TOGETHER AGAINST INCREDIBLE ODDS AND THEY HAD WON.
NARRATOR: MEN OF FREE WILL HAD PULLED TOGETHER TO DEFEAT THE SUPERPOWER OF THE DAY.
DEMOCRACY, IT SEEMED, WAS NO FLASH IN THE PAN, BUT A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH.
BETTANY HUGHES: THEY'D DEFEATED, AGAINST THE ODDS, THE VAST PERSIAN EMPIRE AND THAT SEEMS TO GIVE THEM AN EXTRAORDINARY SENSE OF THEMSELVES AS A PEOPLE AND AS A CULTURE.
NARRATOR: FREE FROM TYRANNICAL RULERS AND IMPERIAL THREATS, ATHENIANS WERE NOW FREE TO BUILD A NEW SOCIETY, AN IDEAL STATE THAT ACTIVELY SOUGHT PERFECTION IN ALL THINGS,/f FROM GOVERNMEN AND ARCHITECTURE, TO PHILOSOPHY AND ART.
MICHAEL COSMOPOULOS: THEY TRIED TO REACH AND UNDERSTAND THAT PERFECT WORLD.
EVERYTHING THAT WE DO MUST BE PERFECT.
NARRATOR: THE GREAT GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS HAD DAWNED.
AND UNDER THE RULE OF A POWERFUL NEW STATESMAN NAMED PERICLES, IT WOULD TRUMPET ITS ARRIVAL FROM THE UNOCCUPIED HEIGHTS ABOVE THE CITY.
EDITH HALL: PERICLES DECIDES HE'S GOING TO MAKE A LASTING MEMORIAL TO ATHENS GREATNESS FOR ALL TIME.
SO HE COMMISSIONS THE BEST ARCHITECTS, THE BEST SCULPTORS, THE BEST ARTISTS, AND HE DESIGNS THE BUILDING PLAN OF THE ACROPOLIS.
NARRATOR: LIKE THEMISTOCLES, PERICLES APPEALED TO THE NEW DEMOCRACY'S SENSE OF CIVIC PRIDE TO FOOT THE BILL, TO THE TUNE OF HALF A BILLION DOLLARS IN TODAY'S MONEY.
100,000 TONS OF THE FINEST MARBLE, HUNDREDS OF BREATHTAKING SCULPTURES THAT SEEMED TO BREATHE LIFE INTO STONE, AND A FANTASTIC, 4-STORY STATUE OF ATHENA, DECORATED IN GOLD AND IVORY, AS EXPENSIVE AS THE BUILDING ITSELF.
AFTER 15 YEARS, IT WAS DONE, AND ATHENS HAD ANNOUNCED ITS SUPREMACY TO THE WORLD.
2500 YEARS LATER, THE PARTHENON HAS SHOWN ITS AGE.
NATURAL DISASTERS.
WARS.
CONVERSIONS INTO A CHURCH, A MOSQUE, A TREASURY, HAVE ALL TAKEN THEIR TOLL.
IN 1687 GUNPOWDER STORED INSIDE EXPLODED, NEARLY DESTROYING IT.
ELGIN CHISELED OFF HALF THE INNER SANCTUM'S MARBLE FRIEZE AND SHIPPED IT TO LONDON, WHERE IT CONTROVERSIALLY RESIDES TO THIS DAY.
DESPITE ALL IT'S BEEN THROUGH, THOUGH, THE PARTHENON STILL STANDS AS DEMOCRACY'S LIGHT ON A HILL, A PROUD SYMBOL OF GREEK AND HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT.
BUT IN ANCIENT ATHENS, THE REAL BUSINESS OF HUMANS DURING THE GOLDEN AGE DIDN'T TAKE PLACE UP ON THE ACROPOLIS, BUT FAR BELOW.
JOHN CAMP: THE THING UP ON THE HILL IS THE SANCTUARY TO ATHENA, AND SHE IS TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT.
BUT DOWN HERE IS THE CIVIC LIFE OF THE CITY.
THIS AREA BEHIND ME IS THE AGORA.
IT'S BASICALLY, IN ANTIQUITY, A GREAT BIG OPEN SQUARE, WHERE YOU CAN GET ALL THE PEOPLE TOGETHER FOR A VARIETY OF FUNCTIONS.
YOU COULD COME DOWN HERE ONE DAY, AND IT WOULD BE SE UP FOR AN ELECTION.
YOU COULD COME DOWN THE NEXT DAY, IT'D BE SET UP AS A MARKETPLACE.
NEXT DAY, THERE'D BE ATHLETIC CONTESTS.
SO IT'S THE CENTRAL SQUARE WHERE YOU CAN GET ALL THE CITIZENS TOGETHER.
NARRATOR: BY THE TIME ARCHAEOLOGISTS ARRIVED TO EXCAVATE THE AGORA IN 1931, THERE WAS A TRAIN RUNNING THROUGH THE SITE, AND THEY'VE BEEN DIGGING AROUND IT EVER SINCE.
JOHN CAMP HAS LED THE EXCAVATIONS HERE FOR TWO DECADES.
JOHN CAMP: WE ARE STANDING BASICALLY AT GROUND ZERO FOR DEMOCRACY.
THIS IS WHERE THE CONCEP WAS FIRST INVENTED, AND WHERE IT WAS PRACTICED FOR 150 YEARS.
NARRATOR: DEMOCRACY, WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT, REQUIRES BUREAUCRACY AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE AGORA BUILDINGS SHOW THAT'S AS IT'S ALWAYS BEEN.
THERE WAS A SENATE, A MINT, COURTS OF LAW, BUILDINGS YOU MIGH FIND IN CAPITALS TODAY.
BUT THIS NEWBORN DEMOCRACY WOULD BARELY BE FAMILIAR TO US NOW.
FOR STARTERS, ATHENIANS DIDN' ELECT MOST OF THEIR LEADERS; ELECTIONS COULD BE BOUGHT AND RIGGED.
SO THEY SELECTED MOS OFFICIALS JURY-DUTY STYLE.
JOHN CAMP: THEY WOULD PULL 500 NAMES OUT OF A HAT, AND THOSE GUYS WOULD SERVE FOR 1 YEAR.
THEY WOULD MEET EVERY DAY, EXCEPT FESTIVAL DAYS, AND THEY WOULD CONSIDER LEGISLATION.
NARRATOR: PARTICIPATION WASN' SIMPLY VOLUNTARY EITHER, IT WAS A SACRED DUTY.
BETTANY HUGHES: IF YOU DIDN' GET INVOLVED IN PUBLIC LIFE OR IN POLITICS, YOU WERE DESCRIBED AS ONE OF THE IDIOTI, AS AN IDIOT, AND IT IS WHERE WE GET OUR WORD IDIOT FROM.
AND IF YOU LOOKED JUST TO SERVE YOURSELF RATHER THAN THE COMMON GOOD YOU WERE DESCRIBED AS A PARASATOI, A PARASITE.
NARRATOR: ONCE IN OFFICE, THE LEADERS COULDN'T VOTE ON NEW LAWS, THEY COULD ONLY PROPOSE THEM.
PASSING THEM CAME DOWN TO ORDINARY CITIZENS, WHO VOTED BY A SHOW OF HANDS.
JEREMY MCINERNEY: EVERY ATHENIAN VOTED ON WHETHER THEY WERE GOING TO RAISE TAXES, OR WHETHER THEY WERE GOING TO BUILD THE PARTHENON.
EVERY ATHENIAN MALE VOTED.
THEY DIDN'T DELEGATE IT TO A GROUP OF REPRESENTATIVES.
IF YOU HAD A TIME MACHINE AND IF AN ATHENIAN DROPPED INTO THE US, AN ATHENIAN WOULD SAY, WELL, YOU ARE NOT A DEMOCRACY.
YOU KNOW, YOU YOURSELF DIDN'T VOTE ON THE LATEST TAX INCREASE OR OBAMACARE OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT.
THAT WAS DECIDED FOR YOU.
JOHN HALE: WE COULD BE A DEMOCRACY, BUT WE ARE NOT.
WE LIKE TO CALL OURSELVES THAT; WE ARE NOT A DEMOCRACY.
IT IS NOT POWER TO THE PEOPLE, IT IS POWER TO A CHOSEN SET OF LEADERS, WHO THE PEOPLE HAVE YES CHOSEN, BUT THEN HAVE TO PUT UP WITH ONCE THEY ARE IN THE CORRUPTING POSITION OF BEING IN POWER.
NARRATOR: ATHENIANS KNEW POWER CORRUPTED, AND CAME UP WITH THEIR OWN WAY TO DEAL WITH IT.
ALL ALONG THE ROADS OF THE AGORA, ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE FOUND DISCARDED SHARDS OF POTTERY, CALLED OSTRACA.
ONCE A YEAR, CITIZENS COULD CARVE THE NAMES OF DUBIOUS POLITICIANS ONTO THE CLAY FRAGMENTS AND CAST THEM INTO A JAR.
IF ENOUGH VOTES WERE TALLIED, THE OFFICIAL WAS OSTRACIZED, BANNED FROM THE CITY FOR 10 YEARS.
JOHN CAMP: PRETTY MUCH EVERY PROMINENT ATHENIAN IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 5TH-CENTURY BC TOOK ONE OF THESE 10-YEAR VACATIONS, COURTESY OF THE ATHENIAN PEOPLE.
NARRATOR: EVEN THEMISTOCLES, THE HERO OF SALAMIS, WASN'T IMMUNE.
OSTRACA WITH HIS NAME ON THEM SHOW HE WAS BANISHED ABOUT 10 YEARS AFTER THE WAR.
JOHN CAMP: IF SOMEBODY GETS TOO HIGH, BY DEFINITION IN A DEMOCRACY, YOU HAVE TO CU 'EM DOWN TO SIZE.
IT WOULD BE NICE IF WE HAD THE OPTION TODAY OF VOTING A WASHINGTON POLITICIAN OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY ONCE A YEAR.
NARRATOR: IT ALL SOUNDS NICE, IN THEORY.
BUT IN PRACTICE, ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY WAS ALSO PROFOUNDLY LIMITED; FEWER THAN 20 PERCEN OF THE POPULATION COULD VOTE.
JOHN CAMP: WOMEN DIDN'T COUNT; LOTS OF PEOPLE CAME FROM OTHER GREEK CITIES, AND LIVED HERE, BUT THEY WEREN'T CITIZENS; AND THERE WERE PLENTY OF SLAVES.
SO YES, IN THAT SENSE IT IS NOT A VERY DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY.
SUSAN ALCOCK: SO THIS IDEA THAT THEY ARE ALL WALKING AROUND AND, YOU KNOW, WHITE TUNICS, AND GOING TO THE THEATER, AND GOING TO WORSHIP, THAT IS ALL HAPPENING, BUT I IS NOT THE FULL STORY BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION.
NARRATOR: ONE THING ATHENIANS WERE VERY GOOD AT WAS NETWORKING, AND THE AGORA WAS THE PLACE TO BE.
HERE, RIFFRAFF RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH THE GREATES MINDS TO GRACE THE EARTH.
JOHN CAMP: YOU CAN IMAGINE, AND IT'S TRUE THAT THEY WERE HERE, PERICLES, SOPHOCLES, THUCYDIDES, ALL THESE GREAT ATHENIANS, SPENDING TIME IN THE SQUARE AND IN THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS AROUND THE SQUARE.
NARRATOR: AND AT THE CENTER OF THEM ALL, A HYPNOTIC FIGURE WHOSE RADICAL, NEW WAY OF THINKING COULD ONLY HAVE TAKEN ROOT IN THIS FREE SOCIETY.
THE FATHER OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, SOCRATES.
YANNIS SIMONIDES: SOCRATES EXPLORED EVERYTHING, WHATEVER, WHATEVER WAS THE ISSUE OF THE DAY.
AND HE WOULD ENGAGE.
PEOPLE WOULD BE INTERESTED IN HIM, LOOKING AT HIM, THIS STRANGE, SMELLY, VERY UGLY [AMBULANCE HONKS HORN.]
AND A PUG NOSE, AND BULGING EYES, AND THICK LIPS.
BUT TOTALLY MAGNETIC.
NARRATOR: ACTOR AND PRODUCER, YANNIS SIMONIDES, HAS PLAYED THE INQUISITIVE SOCRATES IN PERFORMANCES AROUND THE GLOBE.
YANNIS SIMONIDES: HE SAYS "THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING.
" IF YOU DO NOT EXPLORE IT, IF YOU DO NOT EXAMINE IT, YOU MIGHT AS WELL GO DIE.
NARRATOR: SOCRATES' NOTORIOUS LINE OF QUESTIONING, THOUGH, WAS ALSO RELENTLESS.
AND IN THE AGORA, HE BECAME A PROFESSIONAL THORN IN THE SIDE OF ALMOST EVERYONE.
JOHN CAMP: JUST A PAIN IN THE ASS.
HE'S JUST BOTHERING EVERYBODY, BUT HE'S NOT SHUTTING UP, AND QUESTIONING PEOPLE AND HARASSING THEM.
AS HE CALLS HIMSELF, A GADFLY.
NARRATOR: LIKE A GADFLY STINGING A SLEEPY HORSE AWAKE, SOCRATES CONFRONTED POLITICIANS AND POETS, CRAFTSMEN, AND KIDS, QUESTIONING THEM AD NAUSEUM ABOUT THEIR VIEWS ON EVERYTHING FROM DEMOCRACY AND TYRANNY TO LOVE, WAR AND DEATH.
IT WOULD BE CALLED THE SOCRATIC METHOD, A QUESTION-AND-ANSWER DIALOGUE IN WHICH HE CHALLENGED ALL ASSUMPTIONS, ALWAYS IN SEARCH OF A DEEPER TRUTH.
ESPECIALLY IF THAT TRUTH WAS EXCEEDINGLY ANNOYING TO THOSE IN POWER.
BUT PHILOSOPHY WAS NO THE ONLY PATH TO TRUTH.
WITHIN JUST A FEW GENERATIONS OF THE PERSIAN DEFEAT, AS CULTURE FLOWERED ALL OVER THE CITY, THE GREEK LOVE OF STORYTELLING, HARKENING ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE EPICS OF HOMER, EXPLODED INTO A WILDLY POPULAR NEW ART FORM.
WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF ACTORS, A CHORUS, A NARRATOR, AND PERHAPS MOS IMPORTANTLY, A THEATER, THE GREEKS INVENTED COMEDY, TRAGEDY AND ALL OF WESTERN DRAMA, CONFRONTING THEMES WE GRAPPLE WITH TO THIS DAY.
MARLENE KAMINSKY: POWER, REVENGE, LOVE, HATE.
THE BIG ONES.
GREG NAGY: IT WAS CIVICS 101 TO LISTEN TO TRAGEDY AND TO TRY TO BECOME MORE MORAL BY PROCESSING THE MOST IMPORTAN QUESTIONS OF LIFE.
THE EXPERIENCE OF DYING IN WAR, FALLING IN LOVE, BEING AWARE OF FORCES AROUND YOU THAT ARE BEYOND THE HUMAN REALM.
HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THEM, AND IF WE CAN'T EXPLAIN THEM, WHAT DO WE CALL THEM THEN? EDITH HALL: SO TRAGEDY GIVES YOU SERIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS.
COMEDY IS THERE TO ACTUALLY PUT YOUR POLITICIANS ON TRIAL, BY LAUGHTER.
NARRATOR: AS IT DOES TODAY, COMEDY OFFERED PEOPLE A PLATFORM TO POKE FUN A THEIR FELLOW CITIZENS AND TO CRITICIZE THOSE IN POWER.
EVEN THAT CELEBRATED VISIONARY BEHIND THE PARTHENON.
EDITH HALL: PERICLES HIMSELF HAD CARICATURES OF HIM IN THE COMIC THEATER.
HE ALWAYS WORE HIS HELMET IN PUBLIC, WE DON'T REALLY KNOW WHY.
SO HE OFTEN HAD AN ONION ON HIS HEAD BUT HE GOT ELECTED YEAR AFTER YEAR.
HE SURVIVED TRIAL BY DEMOCRATIC COMEDY.
NARRATOR: IN DRAMA, AS IN ALL THINGS, THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION CREATED COMPETITION, AND SOMETHING ELSE GREEKS LOVED: PRIZE-GIVING.
ON A STATUE BASE IN THE AGORA, JOHN CAMP HAS FOUND THE ANCIENT ROOTS OF THE OSCARS.
JOHN CAMP: SO HERE YOU CAN SEE WE HAVE THE TWO CATEGORIES, COMEDY AND TRAGEDY.
AND THE NAME OF THE WINNING PRODUCER, AND THE WINNING PLAYWRIGHT IN EACH OF THOSE TWO CATEGORIES.
SO THESE ARE LIKE THE ACADEMY AWARDS, OR THE TONYS.
SO THIS IS WHERE WESTERN DRAMA, AND FROM THAT, ALL OF SHOW BUSINESS BEGINS.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
.
NARRATOR: BY 431 BC, ATHENS HAD BECOME THE CENTER OF A CULTURAL EMPIRE.
EURIPIDES AND SOPHOCLES WERE COMPETING FOR BEST PLAYWRIGHT.
AND THE PARTHENON HAD JUST OPENED TO THE PUBLIC.
THIS TEMPLE TO ATHENA, ALSO PRONOUNCED THE ARRIVAL OF NEW HEROES, THE ATHENIANS THEMSELVES.
IT'S MARBLE FRIEZE, A THIRD OF WHICH SURVIVES IN THE NEARBY ACROPOLIS MUSEUM, DEPICTS THE ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF ATHENA'S BIRTHDAY.
BUT THE REAL FOCUS OF THE SCULPTURES ISN'T GODS, BUT PEOPLE, AND THE PERFECTION OF THE HUMAN FORM.
NIKOS STAMPOLIDIS: GREEKS THOUGHT THAT HUMAN BEINGS ARE IN THE CENTER OF THE WORLD.
THEY WERE THINKING THAT THE PROTAGONISTS WERE THEMSELVES.
NARRATOR: MAN WAS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS, TO QUOTE THE GREEK PHILOSOPHER PROTAGORAS.
HUMANS, NOT GODS, WERE BEHIND ATHENS' EXTRAORDINARY RISE.
OF COURSE, WITH EVERY GREAT RISE, COMES AN EQUALLY FANTASTICAL FALL.
AND IN THE DIN OF SELF-CONGRATULATION, ATHENIANS HAD GROWN TONE DEAF TO THE CAUTIONARY MYTHS THA HAD GUIDED THEIR ANCESTORS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS.
BETTANY HUGHES: ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS AND FAVORITE MYTHS OF THE GREEKS WAS THE STORY OF DAEDALUS AND ICARUS.
SO THE INVENTOR DAEDALUS AND ICARUS HIS SON.
NARRATOR: DAEDALUS BUILT WINGS MADE OF WOOD AND WAX FOR HIS SON ICARUS, ALLOWING HIM TO TAKE TO THE SKIES.
BUT HE ALSO ISSUED A WARNING: FLY TOO LOW, AND THE MOIST SEA AIR WOULD DAMPEN THE WINGS.
FLY TOO HIGH, AND THE SUN WOULD MELT THEM.
WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.
BETTANY HUGHES: ICARUS FLIES UP TO THE SUN, AND THE WAX IN THE WINGS MELT AND ICARUS PLUNGES DOWN TO EARTH.
NARRATOR: ICARUS, TEMPTED TO SEE THE WORLD AS THE GODS DID, BECAME THE ULTIMATE SYMBOL OF HUBRIS, GREEK FOR EXCESSIVE PRIDE, AND PAID THE ULTIMATE PRICE FOR IT.
BETTANY HUGHES: AND THE GREEKS TOLD ONE ANOTHER THIS STORY BECAUSE THEY WERE SAYING GO FOR IT, MAKE YOUR MARK IN THE WORLD, BUT ALSO REMEMBER THAT AS A SPECIES WE HAVE LIMITS.
NARRATOR: IF ATHENS HAD FORGOTTEN THE LESSONS OF HUBRIS, THE REST OF THE GREEKS HAD NOT.
THE RICHEST CITY IN THE GREEK WORLD HAD BUILT THE ULTIMATE TEMPLE TO ITSELF ON THE BACKS OF OTHERS, BY EXTORTING EXORBITANT TAXES, PROTECTION MONEY REALLY, FROM HUNDREDS OF NEIGHBORING CITIES.
AND ALL THIS TIME ATHENS WAS FLOURISHING, THAT OTHER GREAT ANCIEN CITY-STATE, SPARTA, HAD BEEN WATCHING WITH GROWING RESENTMENT.
SPARTANS VENERATED ATHLETIC AND MILITARY MIGHT OVER CULTURAL PERFECTION.
BY AGE 7, BOYS WERE TAKEN FROM THEIR MOTHERS AND RAISED AS SOLDIERS.
THEY RAN WITHOUT SHOES TO HARDEN THEIR FEET; THEY WERE BEATEN AND DEPRIVED OF FOOD TO HARDEN THEIR BODIES AND HEARTS.
THEY WOULD HAVE APPROVED OF THE SPARTATHLON.
MAN: GOOD LUCK.
NARRATOR: 100 MILES INTO THE 150-MILE RACE, DEAN KARNAZES IS STRUGGLING ON WITH HIS SELF-IMPOSED 5TH-CENTURY BC DIET.
AND OTHERS AREN' FARING MUCH BETTER.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
.
MAN: YOU'RE ALWAYS SMILING.
WOMAN: YOU LIKE IT? RUNNER: NO.
[ALL LAUGHING.]
.
WOMAN: WE ADMIRE YOU.
YOU'RE A HERO, REALLY.
NARRATOR: THE ONES WHO FORGE ON WILL NOW FACE THEIR MOS PUNISHING CHALLENGE YET: MT.
PARTHENIO, A 4,000-FOOT CLIMB, THROUGH THE DEAD OF NIGHT.
IT'S THEIR LAST BIG HURDLE BEFORE SPARTA, A MERE TWO MARATHONS AWAY, WHERE, BY 432 BC, HARDENED SPARTANS HAD HAD ENOUGH OF ARROGANT ATHENS, AND DECLARED WAR.
THE BLOODY PELOPONNESIAN WAR WOULD EMBROIL THE GREEK CITY-STATES FOR NEARLY THREE DECADES.
AND EVEN THE GODS SEEMED TO HAVE GROWN WEARY OF ATHENS' PRIDE.
A PLAGUE SWEP THROUGH THE CITY, KILLING ABOUT A QUARTER OF THE ATHENIAN POPULATION, INCLUDING PERICLES.
AND, AS THE WAR DRAGGED ON, ATHENS TURNED AGAINS EVERYTHING IT STOOD FOR.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE.]
.
IN 399 BC, NONE OTHER THAN SOCRATES WAS PUT ON TRIAL.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE.]
.
IN THE ONE-MAN SHOW, "SOCRATES NOW," YANNIS SIMONIDES REENACTS PLATO'S ACCOUNT OF SOCRATES' SELF-DEFENSE BEFORE HIS ATHENIAN JURY.
YANNIS (AS SOCRATES): MY FELLOW CITIZENS.
I DON'T KNOW IF MY ACCUSERS HAVE AFFECTED YOU OR NOT.
DESPITE THE FACT THAT THERE'S NO TRUTH IN WHAT THEY SAID.
NARRATOR: SOCRATES' RELENTLESS EXAMINING AND QUESTIONING HAD GROWN INCREASINGLY UNWELCOME TO ATHENS' LEADERS DURING THE LONG WAR, WHEN ORDER AND STABILITY BECAME MORE VALUED THAN NEW IDEAS.
YANNIS (AS SOCRATES): AND THEY HAVE FILLED YOUR EARS WITH WILD STORIES ABOUT ME.
SLANDERING ME.
NARRATOR: THEY DRUMMED UP CHARGES TO SILENCE HIM.
YANNIS (AS SOCRATES): "SOCRATES IS GUILTY OF WRONGDOING BECAUSE HE CORRUPTS THE YOUNG.
HE DOESN'T BELIEVE IN THE GODS OF THE CITY, BUT RATHER IN NEW DEMONS.
HIS SENTENCE SHOULD BE DEATH.
" NARRATOR: FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DEMOCRACY'S SHORT HISTORY, A CITIZEN HAD STRETCHED THE BOUNDS OF FREE SPEECH AND FREE INQUIRY TO THE BREAKING POINT AND ILLUMINATED ITS LIMITATIONS.
THE TRIAL OF SOCRATES IS ONE THAT CONTINUES TO THIS DAY.
YANNIS SIMONIDES: IF HE WAS HERE TODAY WITH US, HE WOULD BE PERSECUTED.
HE WOULD BE VILIFIED, AND GOD KNOWS WHAT WE DO TO ALL THE ONES THAT DARE, YOU KNOW, RESIST.
WE CAN LOOK AT THOSE THAT ARE PUSHING FOR WOMEN'S EQUALITY.
OR FOR GAY EQUALITY, OR FOR EQUITABLE INCOME.
THEY DISTURB THE SYSTEM.
THEY MAKE WAVES, AND WHETHER YOU LIKE THEM OR NOT, THEY MAKE US THINK.
NARRATOR: SOCRATES WAS GIVEN THE CHANCE TO AVOID HIS DEATH SENTENCE, IF HE'D ABANDON HIS INCESSANT QUESTIONING.
HE FAMOUSLY DOWNED A CUP OF POISON HEMLOCK INSTEAD.
THOUGH HIS MESSAGE WOULD SPAN THE AGES, HIS DEATH WOULD MARK THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR ATHENS' GOLDEN AGE.
[THUNDER.]
BETTANY HUGHES: WITH HIS SEVEN MOST FAMOUS WORDS, "THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING," IN A WAY HE GIVES US THE MODERN WORLD.
HE TELLS US THAT INQUIRY AND EXPLORATION AND EXPANDING YOUR MIND SHOULD BE SOMETHING THAT ISN'T SEDITIOUS, BUT THAT IS CENTRAL TO THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE.
NARRATOR: BY THE TIME OF SOCRATES' DEATH, ATHENS HAD LOST THE BRUTAL PELOPONNESIAN WAR WITH SPARTA.
THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE WAS SLOWLY CRUMBLING, AND IN 338 BC, A MERE 170 YEARS AFTER ITS INVENTION, ITS DEMOCRACY FINALLY FELL.
IOANNES GRAEKOS: THE GREEK WORLD WAS UPSIDE DOWN.
I MEAN, THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY WAS FALLING APART.
I MEAN, THE CITY-STATES WERE FIGHTING EACH OTHER.
BUT GREECE DOESN'T COME TO AN END WHEN ATHENS FALLS.
WE HAVE SOMETHING THAT IS NEW.
NARRATOR: THAT "SOMETHING" CAME IN THE FORM OF AN UNLIKELY FORCE FROM NORTHERN GREECE.
MACEDON, LED NOT BY CITIZENS, BUT A KING, PHILIP THE SECOND.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE WEAKENED GREEK CITY-STATES, PHILIP CONQUERED THEM ALL, EXCEPT FOR SPARTA, AND FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, UNITED THEM INTO ONE KINGDOM.
ARCHAEOLOGIST ANGELIKI KOTTARIDI HELPED EXCAVATE PHILIP'S TOMB IN 1977.
ANGELIKI KOTTARIDI: PHILIP IS A VERY, IS A GENIUS.
HE DEVELOPED A NEW SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT, BY MIXING THE ROYALTY, THE KINGDOM, AND INDEPENDENT CITY-STATES.
NARRATOR: INVITING THE GREATEST ARTISTS, ARCHITECTS AND THINKERS FROM ATHENS AND BEYOND TO HIS PALACE HERE IN VERGINA, PHILIP WANTED TO BE THE FIRS "PHILOSOPHER KING," AN ENLIGHTENED MONARCH AS DESCRIBED BY PLATO, SOCRATES' FAMOUS DISCIPLE.
WITH GREECE CONQUERED, PHILIP LONGED TO INVADE PERSIA, AND THE REST OF THE KNOWN WORLD.
BUT IN 336 BC, AT A WEDDING IN THIS VERY THEATER, PHILIP WAS MURDERED BY HIS OWN BODYGUARD.
THE TASK OF WORLD DOMINATION WOULD INSTEAD FALL TO HIS 20-YEAR-OLD SON, ALEXANDER.
TRAINED BY SPARTAN WARRIORS, AND STEEPED IN PHILOSOPHY BY PLATO'S STAR PUPIL, ARISTOTLE, ALEXANDER WAS IMPATIENT FOR GREATNESS.
WITHIN 2 YEARS OF HIS FATHER'S ASSASSINATION, HE LED A FORCE ALMOS 50,000 STRONG INTO ASIA, AND BROUGHT DOWN GREECE'S OLD ADVERSARY, THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
FROM THERE HE MARCHED ON TO EGYPT, DECLARING HIMSELF PHARAOH, AND ESTABLISHING GREEK RULE THAT WOULD LAST ALL THE WAY TO CLEOPATRA.
ALEXANDER THEN SPEN THE NEXT DECADE EXPANDING HIS EMPIRE ALL THE WAY TO INDIA.
ALONG THE WAY, HE WON HEARTS AND MINDS, PAYING RESPECTS TO LOCAL GODS, MARRYING SEVERAL LOCAL WOMEN, AND FORCING HIS MEN TO DO THE SAME, AND ALWAYS SPREADING THE GREEK IDEALS.
ANGELIKI KOTTARIDI: ALEXANDER TRIED REALLY TO CONNECT PEOPLE.
SO THAT THROUGH MARRIAGE, MIXED TOGETHER, THEY FORGET THE IDEAS OF GREEK AND BARBARIANS.
IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF A BEAUTIFUL NEW ERA.
DIFFERENT PEOPLE, DIFFEREN NATIONS, DIFFERENT RELIGIONS, AND THEY CREATE THIS COMMON CIVILIZATION, THE HELLENISTIC CIVILIZATION.
NARRATOR: UNFORTUNATELY FOR ALEXANDER, IT WAS A CIVILIZATION HE'D NEVER GET TO WITNESS.
IN 323 BC, CARRIED OFF BY TYPHOID FEVER OR PERHAPS POISON, HE WAS DEAD AT JUST 32.
BUT HIS SHORT REIGN WOULD SEED GREEK LANGUAGE, THOUGHT AND CULTURE FROM THE WARM ISLANDS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN TO THE SANDS OF EGYPT TO THE FOOTHILLS OF THE HIMALAYA.
IOANNES GRAEKOS: THE CULTURE THAT IS ROOTED HERE AND WAS SPREAD ALL OVER THE WORLD BY ALEXANDER THE GREA IS LASTING, LASTS TILL NOW, I MEAN, UNTIL TODAY.
YES, OF COURSE.
NARRATOR: OF COURSE, THA THEIR REVOLUTION WOULD BE PASSED ALL THE WAY DOWN TO US WAS IN NO WAY ASSURED.
RUNNER: THANK YOU, MAN: BRAVO, WOW, AMAZING.
NARRATOR: IT'S 6 AM IN MODERN SPARTA, AND CROSSING THE FINISH LINE OF THE IMPOSSIBLY LONG SPARTATHLON IS A CHILD OF ANOTHER GREAT CIVILIZATION.
RUNNING THE 152 MILES IN LESS THAN 23 HOURS, IVAN CUDIN OF ITALY IS FIRST TO KISS THE SPARTAN KING LEONIDAS' FEET.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
.
AND FITTINGLY, IT WAS ITALY'S ANCIENT FOREBEARS, ROME, WHO BEGINNING IN AROUND THE 3RD CENTURY BC, WOULD PICK UP THE GREEK TORCH.
JOHN CAMP: THE ROMANS ADMIRED EVERYTHING THE GREEKS DID.
THEY DIDN'T LIKE THEM AS, WHAT DO WE WANNA SAY, THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE KIND OF EFFEMINATE, THAT THEY WERE DISORGANIZED, BUT THEY RECOGNIZED THAT THEY WERE CREATIVE.
AND SO THEY STOLE GREEK SCULPTURE.
THEY BROUGHT IN TUTORS FROM GREECE FOR THEIR CHILDREN.
ALL SIGNIFICANT ROMANS CAME HERE, CAESAR WAS HERE, POMPEY WAS HERE, CICERO WAS HERE, PRETTY MUCH EVERYBODY.
NARRATOR: ROME CARRIED THE GREEK TRADITION FORWARD FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS UNTIL, IN THE 4TH CENTURY AD, THE ROMAN EMPEROR CONSTANTINE CONVERTED TO AN INSURGENT NEW RELIGION, CHRISTIANITY.
ALL THINGS GREEK WERE SOON GIVEN A NEW LABEL: PAGAN.
SCIENCE BECAME HERETICAL.
PHILOSOPHY, DANGEROUS.
AND ANY CELEBRATION OF THE GRECO-ROMAN GODS BLASPHEMOUS.
AFTER NEARLY TWO MILLENNIA OF CONTINUAL OPERATION, THE CHURCH SHUTTERED THE VENERATED ORACLE OF DELPHI, EXTINGUISHED THE OLYMPIC FLAME, AND ALL BUT WIPED SO-CALLED PAGANISM OFF THE MAP.
IT WOULD BE ANOTHER THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE THE SECRE HISTORY OF GREECE WAS REDISCOVERED IN THE WEST, SPARKING THE RENAISSANCE.
REIGNITING IDEAS OF LOGIC AND REASONING, REALISM IN ART, AND A BELIEF IN THE HUMAN POTENTIAL TO DETERMINE ONE'S OWN FATE.
IT WAS A WAY OF THINKING THAT INSPIRED A BAND OF ENLIGHTENMENT REVOLUTIONARIES, WHO IN 1776 LAUNCHED A NEW WORLD OF THEIR OWN, WITH DEMOCRACY AT ITS VERY CORE.
PATRICK HUNT: GREECE LIVES ON.
WE ARE STILL THE INTELLECTUAL CHILDREN OF GREEK THOUGHT, OF GREEK IDEAS.
THE IDEA THAT EVERYONE HAS A VOICE AND SHOULD BE HEARD.
THIS IS SOMETHING THAT WE'RE DIRECTLY IN DEBT TO GREECE.
ANGELIKI KOTTARIDI: TO BE A GREEK IS NOT A MATTER OF BLOOD, BUT A MATTER OF MIND.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
.
NARRATOR: AFTER 34 HOURS, 45 MINUTES, AND 27 SECONDS, GREEK-AMERICAN DEAN KARNAZES IS FINALLY REACHING THE END OF HIS OWN JOURNEY, BESTING PHEIDIPPIDES' STORIED TIME BY OVER AN HOUR.
DEAN KARNAZES: I WAS WELL BEYOND WHAT I THOUGH IT WOULD BE, IT WAS THE HARDEST STRUGGLE I'VE EVER FOUGHT.
IT'S UNFATHOMABLE, HOW PHEIDIPPIDES WAS ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS.
NARRATOR: UNFATHOMABLE, BUT IT HAPPENED.
WHICH IS PRETTY MUCH THE STORY OF GREECE.
THEY WERE SOMETIMES FLAWED; THEY WERE SOMETIMES ARROGANT.
AND THEY BROUGHT ABOU THEIR OWN DOWNFALL.
BUT IN THEIR VOYAGE FROM CAVEMEN TO KINGS, FROM OLYMPIANS TO ARCHITECTS OF THE WORLD'S FIRST DEMOCRACY, THEY UNLEASHED IDEAS IDEAS THAT COULD NEVER BE PUT BACK IN THE BOTTLE.
BETTANY HUGHES: FROM THERE ON IN, THERE CAN BE NO SORT OF SOCIETY THAT DOESN'T AT LEAS ENGAGE WITH THE IDEA OF PEOPLE HAVING A SAY IN HOW THEY SHOULD RUN THEIR LIVES.
NO, THEY WERE NOT PERFECT, BUT THERE IS JUST SOMETHING SPECIAL, THERE IS ALMOST A KIND OF PERFECT STORM WHEN I COMES TO THE GREEKS.
MICHAEL COSMOPOULOS: IT'S NO JUST THINGS LIKE DEMOCRACY OR SCIENCE OR MEDICINE OR LAW OR ARCHITECTURE.
YOU KNOW, THE LIS GOES ON AND ON AND ON, BUT IT GOES DEEPER.
I THINK THE REAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE GREEKS IS THE BELIEF IN HUMANITY.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
.
NARRATOR: IT'S A RAINY SEPTEMBER MORNING IN ATHENS, AND SOME 350 ATHLETES FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE GATHERING UNDER THE ACROPOLIS TO REENACT THE MOST HIGH-STAKES RUN IN HISTORY.
FOR THE NEXT 36 HOURS, THEY WILL ATTEMPT TO RUN FROM THE HEART OF ATHENS, ACROSS SOME OF GREECE'S MOST TREACHEROUS TERRAIN, TO SPARTA, SIX MARATHONS AWAY.
IT WOULD SEEM BEYOND THE LIMITS OF HUMAN ENDURANCE.
BUT 2,500 YEARS AGO, FACING ANNIHILATION BY THE PERSIAN EMPIRE, ATHENS SEN A SINGLE RUNNER ON THIS SAME DESPERATE RACE TO PLEAD FOR SPARTA'S HELP.
HIS NAME WAS PHEIDIPPIDES; HE SEEMED THEIR ONLY HOPE.
DEAN KARNAZES: PHEIDIPPIDES KNEW THE PERSIANS WOULD WIPE ATHENS FROM THE MAP.
HE KNEW DEMOCRACY WOULD BE COMPLETELY OBLITERATED.
NARRATOR: DEMOCRACY THEN WAS MERELY 17 YEARS OLD, AND IT WAS ABOUT TO SE OFF A CHAIN REACTION OF ART, DRAMA, PHILOSOPHY, AND SCIENCE THA WOULD HAVE BEEN UNTHINKABLE ANYWHERE ELSE.
JOSH OBER: IT IS A WORLD OF ALMOST CONSTANT INNOVATION.
THEY NEVER SIT AND JUS REST ON THEIR LAURELS.
BETTANY HUGHES: THEY WERE WORKING OUT THE BEST WAY TO BE HUMAN, THE BEST WAY TO LIVE IN THE WORLD AND THAT'S AN IDEA THAT IS AS STRONG NOW AS IT WAS WHEN IT WAS FIRS CONCEIVED 25 CENTURIES AGO.
NARRATOR: IN THE CRUCIBLE UNDER THE ACROPOLIS, THE MODERN MIND HAD BEEN UNLEASHED.
BUT IT ALMOST NEVER HAPPENED.
THE GREEKS.
RIGHT NOW ON THIS NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SPECIAL.
[NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC THEME MUSIC PLAYS.]
.
NARRATOR: THE 152-MILE SPARTATHLON, FROM ATHENS TO SPARTA, HONORS A PIVOTAL MOMENT IN GREECE'S QUEST FOR GREATNESS, WHEN THE EARLIEST SPARKS OF WESTERN CIVILIZATION WERE NEARLY STAMPED OUT.
IT WAS 490 BC.
AND GREECE WASN' ANYTHING LIKE THE NATION WE THINK OF TODAY.
IT WAS A NETWORK OF SOME 1,500 OFTEN WARRING CITY-STATES, EACH WITH VASTLY DIFFEREN SIZES, STRENGTHS, AND FORMS OF GOVERNMENT.
SUSAN ALCOCK: IF YOU WALKED UP TO A GUY IN 5TH-CENTURY ATHENS, AND YOU SAY, ARE YOU A GREEK? HE WOULDN'T HAVE A CLUE.
HE'D SAY NO, I'M AN ATHENIAN.
AND IF YOU WENT TO THEBES, I'M A THEBAN.
IF YOU WENT TO SPARTA, I'M A SPARTAN.
GREECE AS A WHOLE DID NOT EXIST.
NARRATOR: ATHENS, THE LARGEST CITY-STATE, WAS UNIQUE AMONG THEM.
IT HAD UNDERGONE A MAJOR POLITICAL REVOLUTION LESS THAN TWO DECADES EARLIER, WHERE ORDINARY PEOPLE REJECTED TYRANNY AND INSTITUTED A RADICAL NEW FORM OF GOVERNMENT.
DEMOCRACY.
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN HISTORY, POWER WAS TRULY IN THE HANDS OF THE PEOPLE.
THEY COULD SERVE IN GOVERNMENT AND VOTE ON EVERYTHING FROM TAX RATES TO DECLARATIONS OF WAR.
IN A WORLD OF KINGS AND TYRANTS, THE ATHENIANS RECOGNIZED THAT BY EMPOWERING INDIVIDUALS, FROM THE WEALTHIEST LANDOWNER TO THE LOWLIEST FOOT SOLDIER, THEY COULD BE FAR GREATER THAN THE SUM OF THEIR PARTS.
BETTANY HUGHES: HOW INCREDIBLE WOULD IT HAVE BEEN TO SPEND SOME TIME IN ATHENS IN THE 5TH CENTURY BC? JUST ELECTRICALLY EXCITING.
DEMOCRACY IS REALLY FETISHIZED AND CHERISHED.
IT COMES TO BE WORSHIPED AS A GODDESS, AS A FANTASTIC STONE STEELY IN ATHENS OF DEMOCRACY AS A GODDESS CROWNING HO DEMOS, THE COMMON PEOPLE.
NARRATOR: IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF THE ANCIENT GREECE WE THINK WE KNOW, THAT 170-YEAR-LONG GOLDEN AGE WHOSE LEGACY IS INVOKED EVERYWHERE, FROM THE STREETS OF MODERN ATHENS TO THE STEPS OF THE U.
S.
SUPREME COURT.
BUT DEMOCRACY ALMOST DIED IN ITS TEENS.
EDITH HALL: SO ATHENS HAD BECOME A DEMOCRACY IN 507 BC.
BUT JUST 17 YEARS LATER, SHE FACED THE GREATES CHALLENGE SHE'D EVER FACED, THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
NARRATOR: THE PERSIANS HAD AMASSED THE WORLD'S FIRS GLOBAL EMPIRE, UNDER POWERFUL KING DARIUS, CONQUERING SOUTH TO EGYPT, EAST TO INDIA, AND WEST TO TURKEY.
NOW, THEY HAD THEIR SITES SET ON EUROPE, AND ONLY LITTLE ATHENS, AND ITS VASTLY OUTNUMBERED ARMY HERE ON THE SHORES OF MARATHON, STOOD IN THEIR WAY.
THAT'S WHERE PHEIDIPPIDES' STORIED RUN COMES IN.
DEAN KARNAZES: PHEIDIPPIDES WAS WHAT THEY CALLED AN ALL-DAY RUNNER.
THAT WAS A STRATEGIC ADVANTAGE THE GREEKS HAD TO COMMUNICATE.
IT WAS LIKE THE INTERNET, YOU KNOW, 2500 YEARS AGO, AND THEY DID IT ON FOOT.
NARRATOR: MODERN MARATHONS ARE BASED ON THE LEGEND THA PHEIDIPPIDES RAN ABOUT 26 MILES FROM MARATHON TO ATHENS, NAKED OF COURSE, TO ALER LEADERS OF THE BATTLE'S OUTCOME, AND PROMPTLY DROPPED DEAD FROM EXHAUSTION.
IT'S A TALE IMMORTALIZED IN POETRY AND PAINTINGS.
BUT IT TURNS OUT THAT OUR MARATHONS MAY ONLY REPRESEN THE LAST PIDDLING 26 OF A MUCH LONGER RUN.
JOHN HALE: GREEKS WOULD'VE LAUGHED THEIR HEADS OFF A THIS IDIOTIC STORY.
26 MILES? THAT'S NOTHING! NARRATOR: THE HISTORIAN HERODOTUS TELLS US THAT BEFORE THE BATTLE OF MARATHON EVEN BEGAN, PHEIDIPPIDES HAD TO RUN 150 MILES TO SPARTA, AND BACK TO PLEAD FOR SUPPOR FROM THE WARRIOR SPARTANS.
TODAY'S SPARTATHLETES ARE TRYING TO COMPLETE THAT FIRST LEG.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
.
SOME TAKE IT MORE SERIOUSLY THAN OTHERS.
ULTRA-MARATHONER DEAN KARNAZES IS TRYING TO MANAGE IT ON ONLY THE FOODS PHEIDIPPIDES WOULD HAVE EATEN.
DEAN KARNAZES: IT'S BASICALLY A GROUND SESAME PASTE.
FIGS.
CURED MEAT.
NUTS.
NARRATOR: HE FEELS THIS RUN IN HIS BLOOD.
DEAN KARNAZES: I AM 100% GREEK AND MY DAD ALWAYS INSISTS WE'RE FROM, YOU KNOW, THIS SAME REGION AS PHEIDIPPIDES.
CAN YOU IMAGINE, PHEIDIPPIDES OUT HERE, BY HIMSELF, RUNNING TO SAVE DEMOCRACY? NARRATOR: WITHOUT ROADS, OVER MOUNTAINS, AND THROUGH THE DARK OF NIGHT, PHEIDIPPIDES IS SAID TO HAVE REACHED SPARTA IN JUST 36 HOURS, ONLY TO FACE ONE OF HISTORY'S CRUELEST REJECTIONS.
IN THE MIDST OF A SACRED FESTIVAL, THE SPARTANS WOULDN' FIGHT UNTIL THE FULL MOON.
DEAN KARNAZES: THEY SAID, WE'LL COME HELP YOU BUT IT'S JUST GONNA BE THREE OR FOUR DAYS.
NARRATOR: AND SO PHEIDIPPIDES MADE THE 176-MILE RETURN TRIP BACK TO THE BATTLEFIELD AT MARATHON, TO ALERT THE GENERALS THAT THE SPARTANS WOULD BE "DELAYED.
" THE ATHENIANS WOULD FACE DOWN THE WORLD'S FIRST TRUE SUPERPOWER WITHOUT THEM, OUTNUMBERED BY MORE THAN 2 TO 1.
PATRICK HUNT: THIS IS A CRITICAL, CRITICAL MOMENT.
TO PUSH BACK AGAINS THE PERSIANS.
NO ONE'S DONE I SUCCESSFULLY BEFORE.
NARRATOR: BUT THERE'D NEVER BEEN AN ARMY LIKE THIS BEFORE.
THE 10,000 ATHENIANS WERE NOW FREE AND EQUAL MEN.
BOUND BY A COMMUNAL SENSE OF BROTHERHOOD, THEY WEREN'T ABOUT TO SURRENDER THEIR HARD-WON RIGHTS OVER TO AN AUTOCRATIC RULER.
WAYNE LEE: ONE OF THE REALLY UNIQUE THINGS ABOUT GREECE IS THE WAY IN WHICH THOSE BONDS OF COMMUNITY TRANSLATE INTO THE WAY THAT THEY FIGHT.
IT IS INTIMATELY COOPERATIVE.
NARRATOR: RIGHT DOWN TO THE WAY THEY HOLD THEIR 16-POUND SHIELDS.
WAYNE LEE: THE SHIELD QUITE FAMOUSLY EXTENDS A FOOT AND A HALF TO THE LEF OF AN INDIVIDUAL FIGHTER.
WHEN HE IS HOLDING THE SHIELD UP, HALF OF THE SHIELD IS COVERING THE PERSON TO HIS LEFT.
THE WHOLE ETHIC OF THE FIGHT IS BUILT AROUND THAT MUTUAL PROTECTION.
STAND THERE AND PROTECT YOUR NEIGHBOR.
NARRATOR: THE GREEKS STOOD SHIELD OVER SHIELD IN A FOUR-DAY STANDOFF AGAINST THE PERSIANS.
UNTIL FINALLY, IN WHA SEEMED A DESPERATE MOVE, THEY CHARGED THE MUCH LARGER ARMY.
WHEN THE ATHENIAN CENTER SEEMED TO FALTER, THE PERSIANS PUSHED FORWARD, ONLY TO FIND THEMSELVES SURROUNDED BY THE GREEKS' STRONGER FLANKS.
IT WAS A ROUT.
THE PERSIANS LOST 6,400 SOLDIERS, ACCORDING TO HERODOTUS.
THE GREEKS, ONLY 192.
DEMOCRACY WAS SAFE, FOR THE MOMENT.
AND PHEIDIPPIDES' FABLED CRY OF VICTORY WITH HIS DYING BREATH, AFTER NOW RUNNING MORE THAN 350 MILES, EVEN THE ANCIENT ATHENIANS WOULDN'T BEGRUDGE AN EPIC DEMISE LIKE THAT.
THE BATTLE OF MARATHON LEFT THE YOUNG DEMOCRACY FEELING INVINCIBLE.
AND IT SOON FOUND ITSELF WEALTHY AS WELL, STRIKING A RICH VEIN OF SILVER IN A MINE NEAR CAPE SOUNION, LATER HOME TO THE TEMPLE OF POSEIDON.
IT WAS WORTH ABOU $60 MILLION IN TODAY'S MONEY, AND ATHENIANS WERE EAGER FOR THEIR SHARE OF THE SPOILS.
BUT ONE GENERAL, THEMISTOCLES, KNEW FULL WELL THAT THE PERSIANS WOULD BE BACK, AND HE WANTED THAT SILVER TO MOUNT A DEFENSE.
DEMOCRACY BEING WHAT IT IS, HE FIRST HAD TO CONVINCE THE CITIZENS OF ATHENS TO PART WITH IT, A POLITICAL REALITY NO TYRANT EVER HAD TO DEAL WITH.
JOHN HALE: IT'S NOT POPULAR TODAY IN THE WORLD OF SCHOLARSHIP TO ADMI THAT YOU'VE GOT HEROES, BUT I'VE GOT ONE, AND THA HERO IN THE ENTIRE ANCIENT WORLD IS THEMISTOCLES.
FOLKS WERE DECIDING WHA TO DO WITH THAT SILVER, AND HE PLAYED UPON THEIR SENSE OF PRIDE, THEIR SENSE OF SECURITY, THEIR SENSE, ABOVE ALL, OF POTENTIAL GREATNESS AS A CITY, WHICH ATHENS HAD NOT ACHIEVED.
BJORN LOVEN: THEMISTOCLES CONVINCED THEM TO USE THIS SILVER TO BUILD A HUGE NAVY.
NARRATOR: HERE A ATHENS' PORT OF PIRAEUS, ARCHAEOLOGIST BJORN LOVEN AND HIS TEAM ARE EXCAVATING THE IMMENSE HARBOR THA THEMISTOCLES BUILT FOR HIS DREAM NAVY.
WITH IT ARE CLUES ABOU HOW HE MIGHT HAVE SWAYED PUBLIC OPINION INTO BUILDING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE.
THE DIVERS CAN BARELY SEE A FOOT IN FRONT OF THEM.
BUT BY SIFTING THROUGH THE MURK OF ALMOST 2,500 YEARS, THEY'RE STARTING TO UNCOVER THE ACTUAL STRUCTURES THA HOUSED AND LAUNCHED THEMISTOCLES' FLEET.
BJORN LOVEN: SO IT WAS A MASSIVE STRUCTURE.
IMAGINE THE WHOLE SHORELINE LINED WITH SHIP SHEDS.
NARRATOR: THE SHIP SHEDS WOULD FORM ONE OF THE LARGEST STRUCTURES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD, HOUSING 200 OF THE GREATES FIGHTING GALLEYS OF THE DAY.
TRIREMES: BATTLESHIP, SPEEDBOAT, AND TORPEDO ALL IN ONE.
THEMISTOCLES THOUGH DIDN'T PITCH TRIREMES AS JUS WEAPONS OF WAR, BU AS ENGINES OF DEMOCRACY, GIVING LOWER CLASS CITIZENS A CHANCE TO RISE THROUGH ATHENS' POLITICAL RANKS.
JOHN HALE: YOU GET POWER AS CITIZENS BY FIGHTING FOR YOUR CITY.
NARRATOR: EACH TRIREME REQUIRED 200 CREW MEMBERS.
SO FOR 200 SHIPS.
BJORN LOVEN: YOU WOULD NEED CLOSE TO 40,000 MEN.
JOHN HALE: POORER-CLASS CITIZENS WERE DOING THE MATHEMATICS, AND SAYING, THERE'S A CREW OF 200 AT EVERY TRIREME.
THAT SOUNDS LIKE ME.
ULTIMATELY EVERY POST IN THE LAND OF ATHENS WAS OPEN TO THE POOREST CITIZEN BECAUSE OF THE NAVY.
NARRATOR: IN 480 BC, JUS TEN YEARS AFTER MARATHON, THEMISTOCLES' WORS FEARS CAME TRUE.
THE PERSIANS STRUCK FIRST HERE, AT THE NARROW PASS OF THERMOPYLAE, WHERE FOR DAYS MORE THAN 100,000 BESIEGED AN ALLIED GREEK FORCE OF ONLY 7,000.
BUT THIS TIME IT WOULD BE SPARTA'S FINEST HOUR.
UNDER THEIR KING, LEONIDAS, 300 SPARTANS FAMOUSLY FOUGH TO THE DEATH, HOLDING BACK THE PERSIANS LONG ENOUGH FOR THEIR GREEK ALLIES TO ESCAPE.
BUT THE PASS EVENTUALLY FELL, AND THE PERSIANS POURED INTO THE GREEK PENINSULA, BEN ON REVENGE AGAINST ATHENS.
THEMISTOCLES HAD TO DO SOMETHING DRASTIC.
IN AN URGENT ORDER, HE CALLED FOR THE COMPLETE EVACUATION OF WOMEN, CHILDREN AND THE ELDERLY FROM THE CITY, ALL MEN TO THE TRIREMES OF HIS NEW NAVY.
ATHENS ITSELF WOULD BE LEF TO THE MERCY OF THE PERSIANS, WHO'D BURN IT TO THE GROUND.
THEMISTOCLES WOULD NOW TAKE THE BATTLE TO SEA, TO THE NEARBY STRAITS OF SALAMIS.
BJORN LOVEN: THE ATHENIANS BROUGHT 200 WARSHIPS TO THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS, AND THE ALLIES BROUGHT AROUND 200.
SO AROUND 80,000 PEOPLE AT SEA ON THAT MORNING.
NARRATOR: AND THAT'S JUST THE GREEK ALLIES.
THE PERSIAN FLEE WAS TWICE AS BIG.
LURING THE PERSIANS INTO SALAMIS' NARROW STRAIGHTS, THEMISTOCLES SPRUNG A TRAP.
HIS TRIREMES RAN CIRCLES AROUND THE HULKING PERSIAN SHIPS, TORPEDOING THEM WITH THEIR RAMS, AND SENDING NEARLY HALF OF THEM TO THE BOTTOM.
IT WAS THE FIRST MAJOR NAVAL VICTORY IN RECORDED HISTORY.
BJORN LOVEN: THE BATTLE OF SALAMIS IS A TURNING POINT IN WESTERN CIVILIZATION.
THE YOUNG MEN THAT WERE SITTING AT THE OARS THEY HAD FOUGHT TOGETHER AGAINST INCREDIBLE ODDS AND THEY HAD WON.
NARRATOR: MEN OF FREE WILL HAD PULLED TOGETHER TO DEFEAT THE SUPERPOWER OF THE DAY.
DEMOCRACY, IT SEEMED, WAS NO FLASH IN THE PAN, BUT A FORCE TO BE RECKONED WITH.
BETTANY HUGHES: THEY'D DEFEATED, AGAINST THE ODDS, THE VAST PERSIAN EMPIRE AND THAT SEEMS TO GIVE THEM AN EXTRAORDINARY SENSE OF THEMSELVES AS A PEOPLE AND AS A CULTURE.
NARRATOR: FREE FROM TYRANNICAL RULERS AND IMPERIAL THREATS, ATHENIANS WERE NOW FREE TO BUILD A NEW SOCIETY, AN IDEAL STATE THAT ACTIVELY SOUGHT PERFECTION IN ALL THINGS,/f FROM GOVERNMEN AND ARCHITECTURE, TO PHILOSOPHY AND ART.
MICHAEL COSMOPOULOS: THEY TRIED TO REACH AND UNDERSTAND THAT PERFECT WORLD.
EVERYTHING THAT WE DO MUST BE PERFECT.
NARRATOR: THE GREAT GOLDEN AGE OF ATHENS HAD DAWNED.
AND UNDER THE RULE OF A POWERFUL NEW STATESMAN NAMED PERICLES, IT WOULD TRUMPET ITS ARRIVAL FROM THE UNOCCUPIED HEIGHTS ABOVE THE CITY.
EDITH HALL: PERICLES DECIDES HE'S GOING TO MAKE A LASTING MEMORIAL TO ATHENS GREATNESS FOR ALL TIME.
SO HE COMMISSIONS THE BEST ARCHITECTS, THE BEST SCULPTORS, THE BEST ARTISTS, AND HE DESIGNS THE BUILDING PLAN OF THE ACROPOLIS.
NARRATOR: LIKE THEMISTOCLES, PERICLES APPEALED TO THE NEW DEMOCRACY'S SENSE OF CIVIC PRIDE TO FOOT THE BILL, TO THE TUNE OF HALF A BILLION DOLLARS IN TODAY'S MONEY.
100,000 TONS OF THE FINEST MARBLE, HUNDREDS OF BREATHTAKING SCULPTURES THAT SEEMED TO BREATHE LIFE INTO STONE, AND A FANTASTIC, 4-STORY STATUE OF ATHENA, DECORATED IN GOLD AND IVORY, AS EXPENSIVE AS THE BUILDING ITSELF.
AFTER 15 YEARS, IT WAS DONE, AND ATHENS HAD ANNOUNCED ITS SUPREMACY TO THE WORLD.
2500 YEARS LATER, THE PARTHENON HAS SHOWN ITS AGE.
NATURAL DISASTERS.
WARS.
CONVERSIONS INTO A CHURCH, A MOSQUE, A TREASURY, HAVE ALL TAKEN THEIR TOLL.
IN 1687 GUNPOWDER STORED INSIDE EXPLODED, NEARLY DESTROYING IT.
ELGIN CHISELED OFF HALF THE INNER SANCTUM'S MARBLE FRIEZE AND SHIPPED IT TO LONDON, WHERE IT CONTROVERSIALLY RESIDES TO THIS DAY.
DESPITE ALL IT'S BEEN THROUGH, THOUGH, THE PARTHENON STILL STANDS AS DEMOCRACY'S LIGHT ON A HILL, A PROUD SYMBOL OF GREEK AND HUMAN ACHIEVEMENT.
BUT IN ANCIENT ATHENS, THE REAL BUSINESS OF HUMANS DURING THE GOLDEN AGE DIDN'T TAKE PLACE UP ON THE ACROPOLIS, BUT FAR BELOW.
JOHN CAMP: THE THING UP ON THE HILL IS THE SANCTUARY TO ATHENA, AND SHE IS TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT.
BUT DOWN HERE IS THE CIVIC LIFE OF THE CITY.
THIS AREA BEHIND ME IS THE AGORA.
IT'S BASICALLY, IN ANTIQUITY, A GREAT BIG OPEN SQUARE, WHERE YOU CAN GET ALL THE PEOPLE TOGETHER FOR A VARIETY OF FUNCTIONS.
YOU COULD COME DOWN HERE ONE DAY, AND IT WOULD BE SE UP FOR AN ELECTION.
YOU COULD COME DOWN THE NEXT DAY, IT'D BE SET UP AS A MARKETPLACE.
NEXT DAY, THERE'D BE ATHLETIC CONTESTS.
SO IT'S THE CENTRAL SQUARE WHERE YOU CAN GET ALL THE CITIZENS TOGETHER.
NARRATOR: BY THE TIME ARCHAEOLOGISTS ARRIVED TO EXCAVATE THE AGORA IN 1931, THERE WAS A TRAIN RUNNING THROUGH THE SITE, AND THEY'VE BEEN DIGGING AROUND IT EVER SINCE.
JOHN CAMP HAS LED THE EXCAVATIONS HERE FOR TWO DECADES.
JOHN CAMP: WE ARE STANDING BASICALLY AT GROUND ZERO FOR DEMOCRACY.
THIS IS WHERE THE CONCEP WAS FIRST INVENTED, AND WHERE IT WAS PRACTICED FOR 150 YEARS.
NARRATOR: DEMOCRACY, WHETHER WE LIKE IT OR NOT, REQUIRES BUREAUCRACY AND THE FOUNDATIONS OF THE AGORA BUILDINGS SHOW THAT'S AS IT'S ALWAYS BEEN.
THERE WAS A SENATE, A MINT, COURTS OF LAW, BUILDINGS YOU MIGH FIND IN CAPITALS TODAY.
BUT THIS NEWBORN DEMOCRACY WOULD BARELY BE FAMILIAR TO US NOW.
FOR STARTERS, ATHENIANS DIDN' ELECT MOST OF THEIR LEADERS; ELECTIONS COULD BE BOUGHT AND RIGGED.
SO THEY SELECTED MOS OFFICIALS JURY-DUTY STYLE.
JOHN CAMP: THEY WOULD PULL 500 NAMES OUT OF A HAT, AND THOSE GUYS WOULD SERVE FOR 1 YEAR.
THEY WOULD MEET EVERY DAY, EXCEPT FESTIVAL DAYS, AND THEY WOULD CONSIDER LEGISLATION.
NARRATOR: PARTICIPATION WASN' SIMPLY VOLUNTARY EITHER, IT WAS A SACRED DUTY.
BETTANY HUGHES: IF YOU DIDN' GET INVOLVED IN PUBLIC LIFE OR IN POLITICS, YOU WERE DESCRIBED AS ONE OF THE IDIOTI, AS AN IDIOT, AND IT IS WHERE WE GET OUR WORD IDIOT FROM.
AND IF YOU LOOKED JUST TO SERVE YOURSELF RATHER THAN THE COMMON GOOD YOU WERE DESCRIBED AS A PARASATOI, A PARASITE.
NARRATOR: ONCE IN OFFICE, THE LEADERS COULDN'T VOTE ON NEW LAWS, THEY COULD ONLY PROPOSE THEM.
PASSING THEM CAME DOWN TO ORDINARY CITIZENS, WHO VOTED BY A SHOW OF HANDS.
JEREMY MCINERNEY: EVERY ATHENIAN VOTED ON WHETHER THEY WERE GOING TO RAISE TAXES, OR WHETHER THEY WERE GOING TO BUILD THE PARTHENON.
EVERY ATHENIAN MALE VOTED.
THEY DIDN'T DELEGATE IT TO A GROUP OF REPRESENTATIVES.
IF YOU HAD A TIME MACHINE AND IF AN ATHENIAN DROPPED INTO THE US, AN ATHENIAN WOULD SAY, WELL, YOU ARE NOT A DEMOCRACY.
YOU KNOW, YOU YOURSELF DIDN'T VOTE ON THE LATEST TAX INCREASE OR OBAMACARE OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT.
THAT WAS DECIDED FOR YOU.
JOHN HALE: WE COULD BE A DEMOCRACY, BUT WE ARE NOT.
WE LIKE TO CALL OURSELVES THAT; WE ARE NOT A DEMOCRACY.
IT IS NOT POWER TO THE PEOPLE, IT IS POWER TO A CHOSEN SET OF LEADERS, WHO THE PEOPLE HAVE YES CHOSEN, BUT THEN HAVE TO PUT UP WITH ONCE THEY ARE IN THE CORRUPTING POSITION OF BEING IN POWER.
NARRATOR: ATHENIANS KNEW POWER CORRUPTED, AND CAME UP WITH THEIR OWN WAY TO DEAL WITH IT.
ALL ALONG THE ROADS OF THE AGORA, ARCHAEOLOGISTS HAVE FOUND DISCARDED SHARDS OF POTTERY, CALLED OSTRACA.
ONCE A YEAR, CITIZENS COULD CARVE THE NAMES OF DUBIOUS POLITICIANS ONTO THE CLAY FRAGMENTS AND CAST THEM INTO A JAR.
IF ENOUGH VOTES WERE TALLIED, THE OFFICIAL WAS OSTRACIZED, BANNED FROM THE CITY FOR 10 YEARS.
JOHN CAMP: PRETTY MUCH EVERY PROMINENT ATHENIAN IN THE FIRST HALF OF THE 5TH-CENTURY BC TOOK ONE OF THESE 10-YEAR VACATIONS, COURTESY OF THE ATHENIAN PEOPLE.
NARRATOR: EVEN THEMISTOCLES, THE HERO OF SALAMIS, WASN'T IMMUNE.
OSTRACA WITH HIS NAME ON THEM SHOW HE WAS BANISHED ABOUT 10 YEARS AFTER THE WAR.
JOHN CAMP: IF SOMEBODY GETS TOO HIGH, BY DEFINITION IN A DEMOCRACY, YOU HAVE TO CU 'EM DOWN TO SIZE.
IT WOULD BE NICE IF WE HAD THE OPTION TODAY OF VOTING A WASHINGTON POLITICIAN OUTSIDE THE BELTWAY ONCE A YEAR.
NARRATOR: IT ALL SOUNDS NICE, IN THEORY.
BUT IN PRACTICE, ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY WAS ALSO PROFOUNDLY LIMITED; FEWER THAN 20 PERCEN OF THE POPULATION COULD VOTE.
JOHN CAMP: WOMEN DIDN'T COUNT; LOTS OF PEOPLE CAME FROM OTHER GREEK CITIES, AND LIVED HERE, BUT THEY WEREN'T CITIZENS; AND THERE WERE PLENTY OF SLAVES.
SO YES, IN THAT SENSE IT IS NOT A VERY DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY.
SUSAN ALCOCK: SO THIS IDEA THAT THEY ARE ALL WALKING AROUND AND, YOU KNOW, WHITE TUNICS, AND GOING TO THE THEATER, AND GOING TO WORSHIP, THAT IS ALL HAPPENING, BUT I IS NOT THE FULL STORY BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION.
NARRATOR: ONE THING ATHENIANS WERE VERY GOOD AT WAS NETWORKING, AND THE AGORA WAS THE PLACE TO BE.
HERE, RIFFRAFF RUBBED SHOULDERS WITH THE GREATES MINDS TO GRACE THE EARTH.
JOHN CAMP: YOU CAN IMAGINE, AND IT'S TRUE THAT THEY WERE HERE, PERICLES, SOPHOCLES, THUCYDIDES, ALL THESE GREAT ATHENIANS, SPENDING TIME IN THE SQUARE AND IN THE PUBLIC BUILDINGS AROUND THE SQUARE.
NARRATOR: AND AT THE CENTER OF THEM ALL, A HYPNOTIC FIGURE WHOSE RADICAL, NEW WAY OF THINKING COULD ONLY HAVE TAKEN ROOT IN THIS FREE SOCIETY.
THE FATHER OF WESTERN PHILOSOPHY, SOCRATES.
YANNIS SIMONIDES: SOCRATES EXPLORED EVERYTHING, WHATEVER, WHATEVER WAS THE ISSUE OF THE DAY.
AND HE WOULD ENGAGE.
PEOPLE WOULD BE INTERESTED IN HIM, LOOKING AT HIM, THIS STRANGE, SMELLY, VERY UGLY [AMBULANCE HONKS HORN.]
AND A PUG NOSE, AND BULGING EYES, AND THICK LIPS.
BUT TOTALLY MAGNETIC.
NARRATOR: ACTOR AND PRODUCER, YANNIS SIMONIDES, HAS PLAYED THE INQUISITIVE SOCRATES IN PERFORMANCES AROUND THE GLOBE.
YANNIS SIMONIDES: HE SAYS "THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING.
" IF YOU DO NOT EXPLORE IT, IF YOU DO NOT EXAMINE IT, YOU MIGHT AS WELL GO DIE.
NARRATOR: SOCRATES' NOTORIOUS LINE OF QUESTIONING, THOUGH, WAS ALSO RELENTLESS.
AND IN THE AGORA, HE BECAME A PROFESSIONAL THORN IN THE SIDE OF ALMOST EVERYONE.
JOHN CAMP: JUST A PAIN IN THE ASS.
HE'S JUST BOTHERING EVERYBODY, BUT HE'S NOT SHUTTING UP, AND QUESTIONING PEOPLE AND HARASSING THEM.
AS HE CALLS HIMSELF, A GADFLY.
NARRATOR: LIKE A GADFLY STINGING A SLEEPY HORSE AWAKE, SOCRATES CONFRONTED POLITICIANS AND POETS, CRAFTSMEN, AND KIDS, QUESTIONING THEM AD NAUSEUM ABOUT THEIR VIEWS ON EVERYTHING FROM DEMOCRACY AND TYRANNY TO LOVE, WAR AND DEATH.
IT WOULD BE CALLED THE SOCRATIC METHOD, A QUESTION-AND-ANSWER DIALOGUE IN WHICH HE CHALLENGED ALL ASSUMPTIONS, ALWAYS IN SEARCH OF A DEEPER TRUTH.
ESPECIALLY IF THAT TRUTH WAS EXCEEDINGLY ANNOYING TO THOSE IN POWER.
BUT PHILOSOPHY WAS NO THE ONLY PATH TO TRUTH.
WITHIN JUST A FEW GENERATIONS OF THE PERSIAN DEFEAT, AS CULTURE FLOWERED ALL OVER THE CITY, THE GREEK LOVE OF STORYTELLING, HARKENING ALL THE WAY BACK TO THE EPICS OF HOMER, EXPLODED INTO A WILDLY POPULAR NEW ART FORM.
WITH THE INTRODUCTION OF ACTORS, A CHORUS, A NARRATOR, AND PERHAPS MOS IMPORTANTLY, A THEATER, THE GREEKS INVENTED COMEDY, TRAGEDY AND ALL OF WESTERN DRAMA, CONFRONTING THEMES WE GRAPPLE WITH TO THIS DAY.
MARLENE KAMINSKY: POWER, REVENGE, LOVE, HATE.
THE BIG ONES.
GREG NAGY: IT WAS CIVICS 101 TO LISTEN TO TRAGEDY AND TO TRY TO BECOME MORE MORAL BY PROCESSING THE MOST IMPORTAN QUESTIONS OF LIFE.
THE EXPERIENCE OF DYING IN WAR, FALLING IN LOVE, BEING AWARE OF FORCES AROUND YOU THAT ARE BEYOND THE HUMAN REALM.
HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THEM, AND IF WE CAN'T EXPLAIN THEM, WHAT DO WE CALL THEM THEN? EDITH HALL: SO TRAGEDY GIVES YOU SERIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS.
COMEDY IS THERE TO ACTUALLY PUT YOUR POLITICIANS ON TRIAL, BY LAUGHTER.
NARRATOR: AS IT DOES TODAY, COMEDY OFFERED PEOPLE A PLATFORM TO POKE FUN A THEIR FELLOW CITIZENS AND TO CRITICIZE THOSE IN POWER.
EVEN THAT CELEBRATED VISIONARY BEHIND THE PARTHENON.
EDITH HALL: PERICLES HIMSELF HAD CARICATURES OF HIM IN THE COMIC THEATER.
HE ALWAYS WORE HIS HELMET IN PUBLIC, WE DON'T REALLY KNOW WHY.
SO HE OFTEN HAD AN ONION ON HIS HEAD BUT HE GOT ELECTED YEAR AFTER YEAR.
HE SURVIVED TRIAL BY DEMOCRATIC COMEDY.
NARRATOR: IN DRAMA, AS IN ALL THINGS, THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION CREATED COMPETITION, AND SOMETHING ELSE GREEKS LOVED: PRIZE-GIVING.
ON A STATUE BASE IN THE AGORA, JOHN CAMP HAS FOUND THE ANCIENT ROOTS OF THE OSCARS.
JOHN CAMP: SO HERE YOU CAN SEE WE HAVE THE TWO CATEGORIES, COMEDY AND TRAGEDY.
AND THE NAME OF THE WINNING PRODUCER, AND THE WINNING PLAYWRIGHT IN EACH OF THOSE TWO CATEGORIES.
SO THESE ARE LIKE THE ACADEMY AWARDS, OR THE TONYS.
SO THIS IS WHERE WESTERN DRAMA, AND FROM THAT, ALL OF SHOW BUSINESS BEGINS.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
.
NARRATOR: BY 431 BC, ATHENS HAD BECOME THE CENTER OF A CULTURAL EMPIRE.
EURIPIDES AND SOPHOCLES WERE COMPETING FOR BEST PLAYWRIGHT.
AND THE PARTHENON HAD JUST OPENED TO THE PUBLIC.
THIS TEMPLE TO ATHENA, ALSO PRONOUNCED THE ARRIVAL OF NEW HEROES, THE ATHENIANS THEMSELVES.
IT'S MARBLE FRIEZE, A THIRD OF WHICH SURVIVES IN THE NEARBY ACROPOLIS MUSEUM, DEPICTS THE ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF ATHENA'S BIRTHDAY.
BUT THE REAL FOCUS OF THE SCULPTURES ISN'T GODS, BUT PEOPLE, AND THE PERFECTION OF THE HUMAN FORM.
NIKOS STAMPOLIDIS: GREEKS THOUGHT THAT HUMAN BEINGS ARE IN THE CENTER OF THE WORLD.
THEY WERE THINKING THAT THE PROTAGONISTS WERE THEMSELVES.
NARRATOR: MAN WAS THE MEASURE OF ALL THINGS, TO QUOTE THE GREEK PHILOSOPHER PROTAGORAS.
HUMANS, NOT GODS, WERE BEHIND ATHENS' EXTRAORDINARY RISE.
OF COURSE, WITH EVERY GREAT RISE, COMES AN EQUALLY FANTASTICAL FALL.
AND IN THE DIN OF SELF-CONGRATULATION, ATHENIANS HAD GROWN TONE DEAF TO THE CAUTIONARY MYTHS THA HAD GUIDED THEIR ANCESTORS FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS.
BETTANY HUGHES: ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS AND FAVORITE MYTHS OF THE GREEKS WAS THE STORY OF DAEDALUS AND ICARUS.
SO THE INVENTOR DAEDALUS AND ICARUS HIS SON.
NARRATOR: DAEDALUS BUILT WINGS MADE OF WOOD AND WAX FOR HIS SON ICARUS, ALLOWING HIM TO TAKE TO THE SKIES.
BUT HE ALSO ISSUED A WARNING: FLY TOO LOW, AND THE MOIST SEA AIR WOULD DAMPEN THE WINGS.
FLY TOO HIGH, AND THE SUN WOULD MELT THEM.
WE ALL KNOW WHAT HAPPENS NEXT.
BETTANY HUGHES: ICARUS FLIES UP TO THE SUN, AND THE WAX IN THE WINGS MELT AND ICARUS PLUNGES DOWN TO EARTH.
NARRATOR: ICARUS, TEMPTED TO SEE THE WORLD AS THE GODS DID, BECAME THE ULTIMATE SYMBOL OF HUBRIS, GREEK FOR EXCESSIVE PRIDE, AND PAID THE ULTIMATE PRICE FOR IT.
BETTANY HUGHES: AND THE GREEKS TOLD ONE ANOTHER THIS STORY BECAUSE THEY WERE SAYING GO FOR IT, MAKE YOUR MARK IN THE WORLD, BUT ALSO REMEMBER THAT AS A SPECIES WE HAVE LIMITS.
NARRATOR: IF ATHENS HAD FORGOTTEN THE LESSONS OF HUBRIS, THE REST OF THE GREEKS HAD NOT.
THE RICHEST CITY IN THE GREEK WORLD HAD BUILT THE ULTIMATE TEMPLE TO ITSELF ON THE BACKS OF OTHERS, BY EXTORTING EXORBITANT TAXES, PROTECTION MONEY REALLY, FROM HUNDREDS OF NEIGHBORING CITIES.
AND ALL THIS TIME ATHENS WAS FLOURISHING, THAT OTHER GREAT ANCIEN CITY-STATE, SPARTA, HAD BEEN WATCHING WITH GROWING RESENTMENT.
SPARTANS VENERATED ATHLETIC AND MILITARY MIGHT OVER CULTURAL PERFECTION.
BY AGE 7, BOYS WERE TAKEN FROM THEIR MOTHERS AND RAISED AS SOLDIERS.
THEY RAN WITHOUT SHOES TO HARDEN THEIR FEET; THEY WERE BEATEN AND DEPRIVED OF FOOD TO HARDEN THEIR BODIES AND HEARTS.
THEY WOULD HAVE APPROVED OF THE SPARTATHLON.
MAN: GOOD LUCK.
NARRATOR: 100 MILES INTO THE 150-MILE RACE, DEAN KARNAZES IS STRUGGLING ON WITH HIS SELF-IMPOSED 5TH-CENTURY BC DIET.
AND OTHERS AREN' FARING MUCH BETTER.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
.
MAN: YOU'RE ALWAYS SMILING.
WOMAN: YOU LIKE IT? RUNNER: NO.
[ALL LAUGHING.]
.
WOMAN: WE ADMIRE YOU.
YOU'RE A HERO, REALLY.
NARRATOR: THE ONES WHO FORGE ON WILL NOW FACE THEIR MOS PUNISHING CHALLENGE YET: MT.
PARTHENIO, A 4,000-FOOT CLIMB, THROUGH THE DEAD OF NIGHT.
IT'S THEIR LAST BIG HURDLE BEFORE SPARTA, A MERE TWO MARATHONS AWAY, WHERE, BY 432 BC, HARDENED SPARTANS HAD HAD ENOUGH OF ARROGANT ATHENS, AND DECLARED WAR.
THE BLOODY PELOPONNESIAN WAR WOULD EMBROIL THE GREEK CITY-STATES FOR NEARLY THREE DECADES.
AND EVEN THE GODS SEEMED TO HAVE GROWN WEARY OF ATHENS' PRIDE.
A PLAGUE SWEP THROUGH THE CITY, KILLING ABOUT A QUARTER OF THE ATHENIAN POPULATION, INCLUDING PERICLES.
AND, AS THE WAR DRAGGED ON, ATHENS TURNED AGAINS EVERYTHING IT STOOD FOR.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE.]
.
IN 399 BC, NONE OTHER THAN SOCRATES WAS PUT ON TRIAL.
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE.]
.
IN THE ONE-MAN SHOW, "SOCRATES NOW," YANNIS SIMONIDES REENACTS PLATO'S ACCOUNT OF SOCRATES' SELF-DEFENSE BEFORE HIS ATHENIAN JURY.
YANNIS (AS SOCRATES): MY FELLOW CITIZENS.
I DON'T KNOW IF MY ACCUSERS HAVE AFFECTED YOU OR NOT.
DESPITE THE FACT THAT THERE'S NO TRUTH IN WHAT THEY SAID.
NARRATOR: SOCRATES' RELENTLESS EXAMINING AND QUESTIONING HAD GROWN INCREASINGLY UNWELCOME TO ATHENS' LEADERS DURING THE LONG WAR, WHEN ORDER AND STABILITY BECAME MORE VALUED THAN NEW IDEAS.
YANNIS (AS SOCRATES): AND THEY HAVE FILLED YOUR EARS WITH WILD STORIES ABOUT ME.
SLANDERING ME.
NARRATOR: THEY DRUMMED UP CHARGES TO SILENCE HIM.
YANNIS (AS SOCRATES): "SOCRATES IS GUILTY OF WRONGDOING BECAUSE HE CORRUPTS THE YOUNG.
HE DOESN'T BELIEVE IN THE GODS OF THE CITY, BUT RATHER IN NEW DEMONS.
HIS SENTENCE SHOULD BE DEATH.
" NARRATOR: FOR THE FIRST TIME IN DEMOCRACY'S SHORT HISTORY, A CITIZEN HAD STRETCHED THE BOUNDS OF FREE SPEECH AND FREE INQUIRY TO THE BREAKING POINT AND ILLUMINATED ITS LIMITATIONS.
THE TRIAL OF SOCRATES IS ONE THAT CONTINUES TO THIS DAY.
YANNIS SIMONIDES: IF HE WAS HERE TODAY WITH US, HE WOULD BE PERSECUTED.
HE WOULD BE VILIFIED, AND GOD KNOWS WHAT WE DO TO ALL THE ONES THAT DARE, YOU KNOW, RESIST.
WE CAN LOOK AT THOSE THAT ARE PUSHING FOR WOMEN'S EQUALITY.
OR FOR GAY EQUALITY, OR FOR EQUITABLE INCOME.
THEY DISTURB THE SYSTEM.
THEY MAKE WAVES, AND WHETHER YOU LIKE THEM OR NOT, THEY MAKE US THINK.
NARRATOR: SOCRATES WAS GIVEN THE CHANCE TO AVOID HIS DEATH SENTENCE, IF HE'D ABANDON HIS INCESSANT QUESTIONING.
HE FAMOUSLY DOWNED A CUP OF POISON HEMLOCK INSTEAD.
THOUGH HIS MESSAGE WOULD SPAN THE AGES, HIS DEATH WOULD MARK THE BEGINNING OF THE END FOR ATHENS' GOLDEN AGE.
[THUNDER.]
BETTANY HUGHES: WITH HIS SEVEN MOST FAMOUS WORDS, "THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING," IN A WAY HE GIVES US THE MODERN WORLD.
HE TELLS US THAT INQUIRY AND EXPLORATION AND EXPANDING YOUR MIND SHOULD BE SOMETHING THAT ISN'T SEDITIOUS, BUT THAT IS CENTRAL TO THE HUMAN EXPERIENCE.
NARRATOR: BY THE TIME OF SOCRATES' DEATH, ATHENS HAD LOST THE BRUTAL PELOPONNESIAN WAR WITH SPARTA.
THE ATHENIAN EMPIRE WAS SLOWLY CRUMBLING, AND IN 338 BC, A MERE 170 YEARS AFTER ITS INVENTION, ITS DEMOCRACY FINALLY FELL.
IOANNES GRAEKOS: THE GREEK WORLD WAS UPSIDE DOWN.
I MEAN, THE ATHENIAN DEMOCRACY WAS FALLING APART.
I MEAN, THE CITY-STATES WERE FIGHTING EACH OTHER.
BUT GREECE DOESN'T COME TO AN END WHEN ATHENS FALLS.
WE HAVE SOMETHING THAT IS NEW.
NARRATOR: THAT "SOMETHING" CAME IN THE FORM OF AN UNLIKELY FORCE FROM NORTHERN GREECE.
MACEDON, LED NOT BY CITIZENS, BUT A KING, PHILIP THE SECOND.
TAKING ADVANTAGE OF THE WEAKENED GREEK CITY-STATES, PHILIP CONQUERED THEM ALL, EXCEPT FOR SPARTA, AND FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, UNITED THEM INTO ONE KINGDOM.
ARCHAEOLOGIST ANGELIKI KOTTARIDI HELPED EXCAVATE PHILIP'S TOMB IN 1977.
ANGELIKI KOTTARIDI: PHILIP IS A VERY, IS A GENIUS.
HE DEVELOPED A NEW SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT, BY MIXING THE ROYALTY, THE KINGDOM, AND INDEPENDENT CITY-STATES.
NARRATOR: INVITING THE GREATEST ARTISTS, ARCHITECTS AND THINKERS FROM ATHENS AND BEYOND TO HIS PALACE HERE IN VERGINA, PHILIP WANTED TO BE THE FIRS "PHILOSOPHER KING," AN ENLIGHTENED MONARCH AS DESCRIBED BY PLATO, SOCRATES' FAMOUS DISCIPLE.
WITH GREECE CONQUERED, PHILIP LONGED TO INVADE PERSIA, AND THE REST OF THE KNOWN WORLD.
BUT IN 336 BC, AT A WEDDING IN THIS VERY THEATER, PHILIP WAS MURDERED BY HIS OWN BODYGUARD.
THE TASK OF WORLD DOMINATION WOULD INSTEAD FALL TO HIS 20-YEAR-OLD SON, ALEXANDER.
TRAINED BY SPARTAN WARRIORS, AND STEEPED IN PHILOSOPHY BY PLATO'S STAR PUPIL, ARISTOTLE, ALEXANDER WAS IMPATIENT FOR GREATNESS.
WITHIN 2 YEARS OF HIS FATHER'S ASSASSINATION, HE LED A FORCE ALMOS 50,000 STRONG INTO ASIA, AND BROUGHT DOWN GREECE'S OLD ADVERSARY, THE PERSIAN EMPIRE.
FROM THERE HE MARCHED ON TO EGYPT, DECLARING HIMSELF PHARAOH, AND ESTABLISHING GREEK RULE THAT WOULD LAST ALL THE WAY TO CLEOPATRA.
ALEXANDER THEN SPEN THE NEXT DECADE EXPANDING HIS EMPIRE ALL THE WAY TO INDIA.
ALONG THE WAY, HE WON HEARTS AND MINDS, PAYING RESPECTS TO LOCAL GODS, MARRYING SEVERAL LOCAL WOMEN, AND FORCING HIS MEN TO DO THE SAME, AND ALWAYS SPREADING THE GREEK IDEALS.
ANGELIKI KOTTARIDI: ALEXANDER TRIED REALLY TO CONNECT PEOPLE.
SO THAT THROUGH MARRIAGE, MIXED TOGETHER, THEY FORGET THE IDEAS OF GREEK AND BARBARIANS.
IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF A BEAUTIFUL NEW ERA.
DIFFERENT PEOPLE, DIFFEREN NATIONS, DIFFERENT RELIGIONS, AND THEY CREATE THIS COMMON CIVILIZATION, THE HELLENISTIC CIVILIZATION.
NARRATOR: UNFORTUNATELY FOR ALEXANDER, IT WAS A CIVILIZATION HE'D NEVER GET TO WITNESS.
IN 323 BC, CARRIED OFF BY TYPHOID FEVER OR PERHAPS POISON, HE WAS DEAD AT JUST 32.
BUT HIS SHORT REIGN WOULD SEED GREEK LANGUAGE, THOUGHT AND CULTURE FROM THE WARM ISLANDS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN TO THE SANDS OF EGYPT TO THE FOOTHILLS OF THE HIMALAYA.
IOANNES GRAEKOS: THE CULTURE THAT IS ROOTED HERE AND WAS SPREAD ALL OVER THE WORLD BY ALEXANDER THE GREA IS LASTING, LASTS TILL NOW, I MEAN, UNTIL TODAY.
YES, OF COURSE.
NARRATOR: OF COURSE, THA THEIR REVOLUTION WOULD BE PASSED ALL THE WAY DOWN TO US WAS IN NO WAY ASSURED.
RUNNER: THANK YOU, MAN: BRAVO, WOW, AMAZING.
NARRATOR: IT'S 6 AM IN MODERN SPARTA, AND CROSSING THE FINISH LINE OF THE IMPOSSIBLY LONG SPARTATHLON IS A CHILD OF ANOTHER GREAT CIVILIZATION.
RUNNING THE 152 MILES IN LESS THAN 23 HOURS, IVAN CUDIN OF ITALY IS FIRST TO KISS THE SPARTAN KING LEONIDAS' FEET.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
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AND FITTINGLY, IT WAS ITALY'S ANCIENT FOREBEARS, ROME, WHO BEGINNING IN AROUND THE 3RD CENTURY BC, WOULD PICK UP THE GREEK TORCH.
JOHN CAMP: THE ROMANS ADMIRED EVERYTHING THE GREEKS DID.
THEY DIDN'T LIKE THEM AS, WHAT DO WE WANNA SAY, THEY THOUGHT THEY WERE KIND OF EFFEMINATE, THAT THEY WERE DISORGANIZED, BUT THEY RECOGNIZED THAT THEY WERE CREATIVE.
AND SO THEY STOLE GREEK SCULPTURE.
THEY BROUGHT IN TUTORS FROM GREECE FOR THEIR CHILDREN.
ALL SIGNIFICANT ROMANS CAME HERE, CAESAR WAS HERE, POMPEY WAS HERE, CICERO WAS HERE, PRETTY MUCH EVERYBODY.
NARRATOR: ROME CARRIED THE GREEK TRADITION FORWARD FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS UNTIL, IN THE 4TH CENTURY AD, THE ROMAN EMPEROR CONSTANTINE CONVERTED TO AN INSURGENT NEW RELIGION, CHRISTIANITY.
ALL THINGS GREEK WERE SOON GIVEN A NEW LABEL: PAGAN.
SCIENCE BECAME HERETICAL.
PHILOSOPHY, DANGEROUS.
AND ANY CELEBRATION OF THE GRECO-ROMAN GODS BLASPHEMOUS.
AFTER NEARLY TWO MILLENNIA OF CONTINUAL OPERATION, THE CHURCH SHUTTERED THE VENERATED ORACLE OF DELPHI, EXTINGUISHED THE OLYMPIC FLAME, AND ALL BUT WIPED SO-CALLED PAGANISM OFF THE MAP.
IT WOULD BE ANOTHER THOUSAND YEARS BEFORE THE SECRE HISTORY OF GREECE WAS REDISCOVERED IN THE WEST, SPARKING THE RENAISSANCE.
REIGNITING IDEAS OF LOGIC AND REASONING, REALISM IN ART, AND A BELIEF IN THE HUMAN POTENTIAL TO DETERMINE ONE'S OWN FATE.
IT WAS A WAY OF THINKING THAT INSPIRED A BAND OF ENLIGHTENMENT REVOLUTIONARIES, WHO IN 1776 LAUNCHED A NEW WORLD OF THEIR OWN, WITH DEMOCRACY AT ITS VERY CORE.
PATRICK HUNT: GREECE LIVES ON.
WE ARE STILL THE INTELLECTUAL CHILDREN OF GREEK THOUGHT, OF GREEK IDEAS.
THE IDEA THAT EVERYONE HAS A VOICE AND SHOULD BE HEARD.
THIS IS SOMETHING THAT WE'RE DIRECTLY IN DEBT TO GREECE.
ANGELIKI KOTTARIDI: TO BE A GREEK IS NOT A MATTER OF BLOOD, BUT A MATTER OF MIND.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
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NARRATOR: AFTER 34 HOURS, 45 MINUTES, AND 27 SECONDS, GREEK-AMERICAN DEAN KARNAZES IS FINALLY REACHING THE END OF HIS OWN JOURNEY, BESTING PHEIDIPPIDES' STORIED TIME BY OVER AN HOUR.
DEAN KARNAZES: I WAS WELL BEYOND WHAT I THOUGH IT WOULD BE, IT WAS THE HARDEST STRUGGLE I'VE EVER FOUGHT.
IT'S UNFATHOMABLE, HOW PHEIDIPPIDES WAS ABLE TO ACCOMPLISH THIS.
NARRATOR: UNFATHOMABLE, BUT IT HAPPENED.
WHICH IS PRETTY MUCH THE STORY OF GREECE.
THEY WERE SOMETIMES FLAWED; THEY WERE SOMETIMES ARROGANT.
AND THEY BROUGHT ABOU THEIR OWN DOWNFALL.
BUT IN THEIR VOYAGE FROM CAVEMEN TO KINGS, FROM OLYMPIANS TO ARCHITECTS OF THE WORLD'S FIRST DEMOCRACY, THEY UNLEASHED IDEAS IDEAS THAT COULD NEVER BE PUT BACK IN THE BOTTLE.
BETTANY HUGHES: FROM THERE ON IN, THERE CAN BE NO SORT OF SOCIETY THAT DOESN'T AT LEAS ENGAGE WITH THE IDEA OF PEOPLE HAVING A SAY IN HOW THEY SHOULD RUN THEIR LIVES.
NO, THEY WERE NOT PERFECT, BUT THERE IS JUST SOMETHING SPECIAL, THERE IS ALMOST A KIND OF PERFECT STORM WHEN I COMES TO THE GREEKS.
MICHAEL COSMOPOULOS: IT'S NO JUST THINGS LIKE DEMOCRACY OR SCIENCE OR MEDICINE OR LAW OR ARCHITECTURE.
YOU KNOW, THE LIS GOES ON AND ON AND ON, BUT IT GOES DEEPER.
I THINK THE REAL CONTRIBUTION OF THE GREEKS IS THE BELIEF IN HUMANITY.
[AUDIENCE APPLAUSE.]
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