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Devalued by greed and debased by intolerance
JOHN GREEN sees uncomfortable parallels between the demise of ancient Greece and the accelerating decline faced today by Britain and the US
PAST REVISITED? (L to R) Solidarity with Julian Assange demonstration; Socrates – Roman copy of a Greek original of c350 BC, often attributed to Lysippos, one of the three greatest sculptors of the Classical Greek era [Socrates pic: Marie-Lan Nguyen/CC]

WHAT is termed the Classical Greek period lasted around 200 years (5th and 4th centuries BC), the period that saw the greatest florescence of Greek culture, dominated largely by the city state of Athens.

Much of the early defining politics and thinking of that period — architecture, sculpture, philosophy, science, and drama — had a powerful influence on the later Roman empire and became the foundation of Western civilisation. We still refer to Greece for inspiration and for examples of civilised living.

A unified Greek state as we know it today was non-existent at that time, and what is termed “Greek” was largely Athenian, as the city state of Athens was the dominant force in that region.

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