No. I am not going to give a lecture on Greek history.
Please stop yawning. Just a few odds and ends which might or might not be known outside Greece.

Did you know that the Greek language is the oldest traced and documented Indo-European language?
It has 34 centuries of continuous usage.
Wow! I didn't know that! It took the Encyclopedia Britannica to appraise me of the fact.
And some say that Greek is a dead language....
Alive and well after 34 centuries.
Come to think of it, so are we.

Another fact about the language.
Did you know that you speak Greek?
Every time you talk about "Politics", "politicians", "patriotism", "Physics", "fantastic" happenings, "Atomic" "energy", "ethnic" and many other words, you are actually speaking Greek.
About 50% of the Western Languages' vocabulary, (including Latin) has Greek roots.
Welcome to the club

As you can see, I carry a torch for him.
Or rather, two torches.
Isn't he something though?
But let's be serious..

There is a lot of talk going on these days,
nationally and internationally, about Macedonia, and the Macedonians not being Greeks and all sorts of nonsense like that.

Macedonia was settled by Greek speaking people along with the rest of Greece more than 34 centuries ago( See above). The kingdom of Macedonia did not thrive until about the fourth century B.C, when it expanded westwards to create the Greater Macedonia. Along with the Kingdom of Sparta, they were the only Kingdoms left, when the rest of Greece espoused the democracies of the City-States.

It was Phillip II (Alexander's Papa) who decided once and for all to unite all of Greece into a Panhellenic Federation, under his rule. He almost did it. His means were not very gentle!!

It was left to Alexander to finish his father's work.He went even further, and conquered half of the known Eastern World, with the aim of spreading the Hellenic civilization, and getting rid of the troublesome Persians, who were eternally threatening Greece.
Unfortunately he died before he could see his dream come true.

Now, if others want to adopt the name Macedonia, and call themselves Macedonians, they are welcome to it, as far as I am concerned. After all, immitation is one form of flattery. But they must remember that the Slavs did settle in the surrounding area only in the 6th century AD.:-)

Yup! A woman Admiral; in the 19th century too. Her name was Laskarina Bouboulina, she was about 4ft.11" and she came from the island of Spetsai. She was a widow whose husband had left her a sizeable fleet of merchant ships.

When the 1821 Uprising exploded, she, along with all the rest of the ship owners, offered her ships for the Cause. She demanded and got the command of her fleet and fought many successful battles against the Turkish armada.

Unfortunately after the liberation, she was mysteriously murdered. Had she lived, we might have been the first Nation to have elected a Woman President. Now, that makes one wonder....
And that's all for today folks.

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