Stefanos Kasselakis, the Syriza leader. Credit: AMNA
SYRIZA leader Stefanos Kasselakis told the Delphi Economic Forum that his party will close the gap with ruling New Democracy and “shock Europe and the country” in the upcoming European Parliament elections.
The main opposition party leader said it was his responsibility “for the renewed SYRIZA to put forth a new governance team as well as program.” When asked about the state of the economy, Kasselakis highlighted that while Greece’s fiscal stability in terms of debt-to-GDP was “positive,” the country’s convergence with the European Union has been “despicable.”
He claimed Greek taxes are as high as in Sweden, and that Greeks have a purchasing power just above that of Bulgarians and see very little private investment in their country. On the war in Ukraine, Kasseslakis said he is in favor of Greece providing humanitarian aid but not military equipment to Kyiv.
Kasselakis since taking over leadership of Syriza
Kasselakis started his brief military service in an army barrack in Thebes in March. He received basic military training for twenty days.
Military service is mandatory for all Greek males. Kasselakis had been exempt from military service, as he had been residing in the US since age fourteen. When he returned to Greece, he had two options. He could either spend six months in the military or serve for three weeks and buy off the rest of his time.
While it has a sizeable number of professional troops, Greece’s military is still conscription-based with service in most cases set at twelve months.
Before entering the army barracks, he was welcomed by locals in the the central square of Thebes, where he was offered gifts and wished well. Some said it was their honor to have the leader of the opposition in the town.
“It is an honor to be here to serve my country as an expatriate who has returned to contribute to his country,” Kasselakis said.
In March, he posted a video on TikTok with an “army-style” haircut. The video begins with Kasselakis holding his dog, Farley, and saying, “I’m going to miss her.” The hairdresser asks how he would like his hair done and he replies: “SYRIZA,” which, in Greek, means very short and to the roots.
When asked about the parting of his hair, he says: “Toward the left, where my heart beats.”
Kasselakis, 36, a former businessman without political experience who is gay, was the surprise winner at the SYRIZA elections held last September.
He took the reigns of the party a few months after the catastrophic election results in June and July 2023 after which the former leader and former PM Alexis Tsipras was forced to resign.
His meteoric rise to leadership had upset many left-wing traditionalists who accused him of “right-wing populism” and authoritarian practices.
On November 23, 2023, nine Members of Parliament (MPs), one Member of the European Parliament (MEP), and fifty-seven central committee members declared their departure from the political party in protest of Kasselakis’ leadership.
Notable figures among them included Effi Achtsioglou along with other former ministers. A few days later, previously resigned MPs Euclid Tsakalotos and Peti Perka joined forces with the nine MPs to announce the establishment of a new political entity called the “New Left.”
Burning the aerogel that had adsorbed and reduced gold from an e-waste solution produced this 0.5 g gold nugget with a purity of around 91%, corresponding to 21 to 22 carats. Credit: Raffaele Mezzenga/ETH Zurich
An aerogel made from old milk can extract highly pure gold nuggets from discarded computer motherboards.
Discarded electronics, known as e-waste, often contain large amounts of gold and other heavy metals. Scientists have come up with methods to recover the valuable metals, but these processes often rely on synthetic chemicals that can damage the environment.
Raffaele Mezzenga at ETH Zurich in Switzerland and his colleagues have developed a way to recover gold from e-waste by using a milk-derived aerogel.
He and his colleagues started with whey protein, a byproduct of the cheesemaking industry, and made a low-density aerogel. Making the spongelike material is cheap, he says. “The value of the gold we recover is 50 times the value we invest to transform the protein into this sponge.”
The researchers placed whey protein into an acidic solution and heated it, which unraveled the proteins from tiny balls into strands. Then they freeze-dried the solution, forming a lightweight puck with high porosity.
“You can place them on the top of a flower. And the advantage of having aerogels is that they have high surface area,” says Mohammad Peydayesh, a chemical engineer who’s also part of the research team at ETH Zurich.
The researchers tested the gel’s ability to adsorb gold from a solution also containing other metals—including copper, lead, and nickel—at the same concentration.
Aerogel from old milk sucked up 93 percent of the gold
The aerogel sucked up 93 percent of the gold while removing less than 10 percent of any of the other metals. To test the protein sponge with real e-waste, the team dissolved computer motherboards in aqua regia, a mix of nitric acid and hydrochloric acid.
Gold ions from the mixture settled on the surface of the aerogel and were reduced, forming metallic gold. Each gram of aerogel snatched 190 mg of gold. Burning the aerogel freed the gold, turning it into a tiny hunk of metal.
“It was really exciting to find this nugget in the ashes,” Peydayesh recalls. The nugget was about 91% gold, which corresponds to about 21 to 22 carats.
The method already presents an improvement over activated carbon, a more typical adsorption method used to recover gold. Each gram of activated carbon only adsorbed about 60 mg of gold from an e-waste mixture, the team found. Because it takes a lot of energy to create activated carbon, recovering the same amount of gold using activated carbon had a higher environmental impact in a life cycle analysis.
The team is already eyeing other food waste proteins, such as keratin and those from the production of tofu, that could potentially help with other needs, such as the recycling of rare earth metals.
“We can simultaneously address the global waste of food and e-waste to produce something really precious,” Peydayesh says.
The Greek flag was proudly raised in Manhattan. Credit: Mayor of New York Eric Adams
On Friday, two days before the annual Greek parade in New York celebrating Greek Independence, the ceremony of raising the Greek flag at Bowling Green, Manhattan, took place as part of the official events.
The ceremony’s highlight was the presence of the Evzones of the Presidential Guard and the famous Mantzaros Philharmonic band of Corfu, who will also take part in the annual parade on New York 5th Avenue on Sunday, April 14th.
An amazing 🇬🇷Flag Raising Ceremony at Bowling Green, on April 12th, 2024, with special guests, to start the Celebrations for the #GreekIndependenceDayParade. The #Evzones Marched with the 🇬🇷🇺🇸 Community from St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church & National Shrine to Bowling Green. pic.twitter.com/Jqi9s0KG13
The parade on Sunday celebrates the 203rd anniversary of Greek Independence from the Ottoman Empire.
Thousands of Greek-Americans and others are expected to descend onto Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue to watch the traditional parade and participate in the festivities to mark the anniversary of the Greek revolution against the Ottoman Turks.
— Consulate General of Greece in New York (@GreeceinNewYork) April 12, 2024
The annual event, a celebration of Hellenic identity, culture, and achievements in the world, is organized and hosted by the Federation of Hellenic Societies of Greater New York, a non-profit organization committed to fostering an appreciation of Greek-American heritage and achievement.
Last year, George M. Logothetis, Executive Chairman of Libra Group, was the Grand Marshal of the parade, and he walked along Archibishop Elpidophoros, Greek Ambassador to the US Alexandra Papadopoulou, and other dignitaries.
“As a proud Greek-American, it is an honor to be named a Grand Marshal for New York’s Greek Independence Day Parade,” said Logothetis.
George Karlaftis will be the Grand Master of the New York Greek parade
George Karlaftis’ father, Matt, a javelin thrower, was a star in track and field at the University of Miami. His father, while attending graduate school, met his mother Amy at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Purdue has an unsung relationship with Greece and Greek-Americans.
George’s parents returned to Athens, where his father became a professor. The family had four children. Everything changed, however, when their father died of a heart attack while traveling for work at age forty-four. Within days, their mother, Amy, moved the children back to Indiana, where she had more support.
It was in Indiana that George, who played many sports in Greece, fell in love with American football.
Leo Stefanos inspects chocolate making standing above his wife in the early days of Dove Bar. Credit: Greek Reporter / handout by Alexis Stefanos Marneris
The legendary Dove Bar ice cream was created by Greek immigrant Leo Stefanos in Chicago, Illinois in 1956, bringing a little sweetness to the Windy City’s South Side—and eventually the entire country.
One day, Stefanos saw his son, Mike, chasing an ice cream van down a busy street and swore right then and there that he would create a delicious, new ice cream that could be enjoyed in the safety of his own store.
Stefanos spent months slicing blocks of ice cream and dipping them in chocolate. Eventually, he created the right result: the sensational Dove Bar was created.
The chocolate-covered bars were originally sold only in the Chicago area for 15 cents. In 1977, Leo Stefanos passed away and Mike took over his father’s business.
Mike Stefanos took over Dove Bar after his dad’s death. Credit: dovechocolate.com
Dove Bar expands coast to coast
By the late 1970s, over one million Dove Bars were sold in a single year by street vendors to eager children, and adults, from coast to coast across the US.
In 1984, things really got going when Mike took the Dove Bar to the Fancy Foods Show in Washington, D.C., and orders started flooding in. Within three months, Dove Bars were being shipped to 3,500 supermarkets around the country.
The right offer to mass-produce the ice cream finally came from Richard Zacharras, a 73-year-old local financier who, at the urging of his chocolate-loving wife, tasted his first Dove Bar at his country club.
The company was formed in March 1985, at a start-up cost of about $2 million. Nowadays, production is up to a staggering 92,000 hand-dipped bars a day in the 13,000-square-foot Burr Ridge plant. There are 117 people working three shifts every day in an effort to meet the demand of grocery stores, specialty stores, and street vendors throughout the country for the irresistible treat.
The company was bought out by Mars Incorporated in 1986. As noted on its website: “Mars sees the potential in Dove Bar and welcomes the Stefanos’ business into its family. A nationwide sensation is born…”
Since then it has expanded into different ice cream flavors and chocolate bars. However, it all started, as so many successful businesses do, with one Greek immigrant to America.
The ancient Greeks devised a banking system which went on to influence the Ptolemies and the Romans. Credit: Helen in Wales. CC BY 2.0/flickr
The ancient Greeks and Romans were responsible for some of the world’s earliest banking systems, with the Athenians developing a sophisticated banking system in the 5th century BC that would eventually influence economies throughout the Greco-Roman world.
Modern Western culture owes a huge debt to the ancient Greeks and Romans, being that writing, religion, government, and all types of art came to medieval Europe through these ancient civilizations. Banking is yet another concept that has its origins in the Hellenic world, albeit its influence on medieval Europe was not so direct.
The aforementioned Athenian banking system, developed in the 5th century BC, was adopted by Hellenistic kingdoms, and later the Romans would expand on this system with their own monetary practices.
The Treasury of the Delian League
In the intervening years of the Greco-Persian Wars (499-449 BC) and the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) Athens grew to become the foremost Greek city state, with the Athenians achieving their status through a combination of clever political moves, naval prowess, and effective economic policies.
Another key factor contributing to Athenian dominance in the Hellenic world was the control it had over the Delian League. The Delian League started out as an anti-Persian alliance of Greek city-states in 478 BC, during the mid-stages of the Greco-Persian Wars. Although Athens was the head state in the league, the ships and gold the alliance shared were originally held on the island of Delos.
Other major cities which had significant sanctuaries, such as Delphi and Olympia, also had notable treasury houses. These early treasury houses were a mixture of sacred, state, and financial institutions, storing many goods including votive offerings, cult statues, weapons, gold, and silver.
Athenian statesman, Pericles. Credit: PabloEscudero. CC BY 1.0/flickr
The cunning Athenian statesman Pericles saw huge economic potential in this system and thus decided to move the Delian League’s treasury to Athens in 454 BC.
When Pericles and the Athenians took control of the Delian League’s treasury, it led to the Greco-Roman economies following a new path. The Athenians decreed that their allies would adopt Athenian coins, weights, and measures, thus raising Athens’ economic rank in the ancient Greek world. The decision also meant that the Athena cult would essentially become the Bank of Athena.
The Ancient Greek Bank of Athena
The Parthenon atop the Acropolis in Athens was another marvel achieved under the reign of Pericles. Dedicated as a temple for the city’s patron goddess Athena, the Parthenon also started to operate as a bank during the Peloponnesian War. The ancient Greek historian Thucydides wrote about how the Delian League’s war effort was funded by this Bank of Athena:
“Their strength came from the financial income they paid and that, for the most part, success in war was a matter of judgment and abundant revenues. He told them they could take confidence, since six hundred talents in tribute usually came in every year from the allies apart from other revenue, and on the Acropolis there was still six thousand talents in coined silver remaining at that time (the largest amount had been nine thousand seven hundred, from which they had made expenditures for the gateway of the Acropolis and the other buildings as well as for Portiada) and, apart from that, uncoined silver in private and public dedications, and there was all the sacred equipment for processions and contests and booty from the Mede and everything else of that sort, not less than five hundred talents; going further, he added the considerable amount from the other sanctuaries.”
Thucydides at Exterior of the Austrian Parliament Building. Credit Yair Haklai. CC BY 4.0/Wikimedia Commons/Yair Haklai
Bullion from the Parthenon along with golden statues were used to produce minted coins, however, the banking processes at the Athena Temple were not limited to holding and minting currency. The temple made interest-laden loans for secular purposes, which it then used to fund the war effort and building projects. The lending and borrowing procedures of the Bank of Athena quickly took on the character resembling that of a modern bank.
A further decree from the authorities in Athens created a board of treasurers who oversaw the operations of the Athena treasury. The board of treasurers looked after everything, not just for the Athena Bank, but also for the other local sanctuaries. Records show that each deity had property and capital assigned to them that were listed separately.
This Athenian banking system was relatively effective in the early stages of the Peloponnesian War, however, this changed as the war went on. Once the Spartan-led Peloponnesian League gained the upper hand, the Athenian banking system started to experience serious monetary problems.
By the end of the fiscal year 423/422 BC, the Athenian debt to the sacred treasuries had hit 5,600 talents (the unit of weight to measure gold, silver, and other precious metals) with an accumulated interest of 1,400 talents. Spartan victory in the war was the final nail in the coffin for Athenian dominance, but Athenian banking concepts survived.
Banking in the Hellenistic World
After Alexander the Great’s death in 323 BC, his vast empire was divided by his generals into several kingdoms, bringing in the beginning of the Hellenistic era. This period was marked by the proliferation of ancient Greek art, language, and culture in general, which included coinage, monetary theory, and banking. Greek-inspired banking and economics were most evident in Ptolemaic Egypt.
Egypt was a suitable host for the new, ancient Greek banking and monetary ideas because it was home to pre-existing advanced economic concepts. Records from ancient Egypt indicate that from around 3,100 BC the Egyptians used weights and measures that functioned as a type of currency.
In the 12th dynasty (c. 1,985-1,773 BC), the ancient Egyptians standardized these weights into a sophisticated system, with the deben being a unit of measurement equal to around 93.3 grams, and a kite being equivalent to just under 10 grams. One deben equaled 10 kites.
The deben was used to measure copper, silver, or gold, while the kite was used only to measure the more precious metals of gold and silver. This system of early currency made it far more probable that the ancient Egyptians would assimilate the other advanced economic concepts introduced by the Ptolemies.
The second king of the Ptolemaic dynasty, Ptolemy II, commissioned several major projects. He funded the construction of the Lighthouse of Alexandria and likely the Library of Alexandria, but the latter was probably started during the reign of his father.
A canal that connected the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea was also built during Ptolemy II’s rule. All of these momentous projects came at a cost, requiring efficient monetary and banking policy to support them.
Ptolemy II set out to complete these significant public projects while adopting some Greek banking and monetary policies. Coin currency made transactions between individuals easier, but it also helped bring about the emergence of banking in Egypt.
Ancient Greek drachma. Credit: jimforest. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Ptolemy I introduced coinage to Egypt, which was based on the drachma used across the Greek world, but due to a lack of silver mines in Egypt, the Ptolemaic drachma weighed less than other drachmas and those used in Egypt were made of bronze.
The number of bronze coins in circulation increased greatly during Ptolemy II’s reign, partially due to the requirement to pay taxes with coins. The universal yet cumbersome nature of hard currency meant that a banking system was needed for the collection of taxes and the loaning of credit.
Ptolemy II supervised the creation of a banking system in Egypt which borrowed from the Athenian system, but added some details of his own too. Both state and private banks were licensed and franchised by the crown, with at least one bank in the capital of every nome (province).
Royal banks collected coin taxes and both royal and private banks gave lines of credit and loans to private individuals at the astonishing rate of 24 percent. This high, fixed interest rate prevented the development of a credit and debt economy.
Roman Banking and Economic Policies
It was not only the Ptolemies who took banking inspiration from the ancient Greek world, the Romans too initiated their banking system and monetary policies from Greek ideas.
The first Roman silver coins were likely minted to commemorate the completion of the Via Appia from Rome to Capua in 312 BC. Rather than using the widespread drachma as a currency standard, the Romans created the silver denarius as their standard coin.
On top of the denarius, the Romans also minted the sesterce, a bronze coin. Four sesterces were equivalent to one denarius, and in the lower denominations, four copper As was equal to one sesterce. As the coin which carried the medium value among the three denominations, the sesterce was the most commonly used coin for transactions between individuals.
Tiberius AR Denarius 16-34 AD, Obverse. Credit: Icarus Kuwait. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Roman coins were worth their weight in silver, bronze, or copper, but the state also held large amounts of gold. The coins were also minted by the state, which is where Roman banking and monetary theory came from.
Romans generally thought of banking as a low-status profession, which is likely because making money from interest on loans was seen as an unworthy profession. Not all Roman banks and bankers profited from interest, however it seems several did, and many utilized relatively modern monetary policies such as fractional reserve banking.
This means the banks that practiced this policy would lend a portion of their reserves at interest. Roman records convey that loans were referred to as a nomen or nomina (name), as they referred to the names of the debtors.
Roman banks operated similarly to the Ptolemaic model, with the state bank having a monopoly on minting but also permitting private banks. Banks and bankers were further divided into two main categories by function. The faeneratores were moneylenders who functioned like modern brokers and intermediaries, while argentarii could be likened to traditional bankers.
Ethereum is a decentralized blockchain. Credit: QuoteInspector.com, CC BY-ND 4.0
The upcoming Bitcoin halving is one of the most highly anticipated events in the cryptocurrency world, and the upcoming 2024 halving is shaping up to be particularly significant for another major cryptocurrency too, namely Ethereum.
With the relatively recent approvals of spot Bitcoin ETFs in the United States, many mainstream investors have shown particular interest in Bitcoin, something that helped the recent price hikes of the popular cryptocurrency.
It’s worth mentioning that a Spot Bitcoin ETF is an exchange-traded fund that directly holds bitcoins as its asset. This allows investors to gain exposure to the real-time price movements of Bitcoin without having to purchase and store the cryptocurrency themselves, something that is not always convenient.
However, while Bitcoin will undoubtedly be the focus of the upcoming halving—probably in a few days’ time—this could eventually pose major implications for Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization.
What is Bitcoin halving?
Bitcoin halving is not a natural phenomenon people expect to happen at some point. It is well-embedded in the nature of Bitcoin and is a pre-programmed event that occurs roughly every four years. During the Bitcoin halving, the reward for mining new Bitcoin blocks is very simply cut in half.
This is a key part of the code of Bitcoin and is designed in such a way so as to control the supply of new coins entering circulation. The ultimate goal of this method is the capping of the total supply at 21 million BTC.
Halvings have already taken place in the past. So far, they have occurred in November 2012 (50 BTC to 25 BTC), July 2016 (25 BTC to 12.5 BTC), and May 2020 (12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC). The next halving is expected at some point this month. As one can understand, this eventuality will further reduce the block reward to 3.125 BTC from its current 6.25.
Ethereum’s price action during previous Bitcoin halving events
While the other major cryptocurrency, Ethereum, was only launched in 2015, its price and the overall behavior and action it showed around the previous two Bitcoin halvings provide us with useful information and valuable insight into how it might be impacted by that of the upcoming 2024 one.
If we take a closer look at the Bitcoin halving that happened eight years ago, we would see that in the lead-up to the 2016 halving, the price of Ethereum actually dropped. However, it saw a modest 1.8 percent gain in the three months following the event, balancing out the immediate losses it showed.
Nonetheless, during the 2020 Bitcoin halving, which was the last one, the price of Ethereum displayed a different reaction. It initially surged by 31.8 percent in the month leading up to the Bitcoin halving and was up an impressive 88.6 percent three months after the event. This shows a significantly different reaction to the previous event. Within four months, covering the period before and after Bitcoin’s last halving, Ethereum saw its price more than double. This suggests that Bitcoin halvings can potentially also boost overall cryptocurrency market sentiment and prices, with Ethereum having a chance of benefiting from the increased attention and investment.
Factors that could amplify Ethereum’s moves in 2024
A series of several other factors could also amplify the price of Ethereum movements around the 2024 Bitcoin halving.
First, the potential but still uncertain approval of spot Ethereum ETFs in the United States, following a similar move that happened for Bitcoin, could attract much more mainstream investment into the cryptocurrency. This is something that is not happening at a great scale right now. Such a potential eventuality will most certainly show similar traits to the impact of Bitcoin ETFs being approved in January by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Recently, Ethereum has become increasingly deflationary with the implementation of EIP-1559 and the transition to proof-of-stake consensus. These reduced the overall supply of Ether. It is noted that the EIP-1559 is an improvement proposal that introduced significant changes to Ethereum’s fee market mechanism.
Considering all this and knowing that Ethereum has significantly lower market capitalization than Bitcoin, its price could potentially see larger percentage gains if demand significantly increases in the immediate period following Bitcoin halving.
Furthermore, the anticipated excitement around Ethereum’s ongoing development progress and other future upgrades, such as sharding and the danksharding proposal, aimed at scaling the Ethereum blockchain to support more transactions and reduce network congestion, could further fuel investor interest around or after April 2024 and the anticipated Bitcoin halving.
Risks and unknowns to consider
It is always crucial to note that there are associated risks and clearly unknown factors to consider before making an informed and definitive investment decision. The magnitude of Bitcoin and Ethereum’s price gains may be reduced and even diminish significantly with each halving cycle of Bitcoin as the events become more anticipated by the market.
Additionally, the always possible unpredictable shifts in market sentiment by random or unforeseen factors, including regulatory changes and macroeconomic conditions, could significantly impact the anticipated response of the cryptocurrency market to the 2024 halving.
There are also other potential risks directly or indirectly associated with the upcoming reduced mining rewards for Bitcoin. There are the factors of miner capitulation and potential security risks. This would be the case if a significant portion of them are forced to shut down operations due to the upcoming halving.
Finally, while the price of Ethereum may surge leading up to and immediately following the halving of Bitcoin, history suggests a sharp correction could be the result. This would be similar to the patterns observed in the past.
The 2024 Bitcoin halving: A defining moment for Ethereum
The 2024 Bitcoin halving is undoubtedly going to be a milestone and a significant event not only for Bitcoin and its investors but for the entire cryptocurrency market. This makes it clear that Ethereum is also very likely to be one of the major beneficiaries or at least be among the definitively affected players.
Based on what we have seen in previous years and previous Bitcoin halvings, the price of Ethereum could potentially even outperform Bitcoin—on a percentage basis—if factors such as market sentiment around the world and investment flows into the cryptocurrency sector increase at a rapid pace and significantly in the coming period.
However, investors should always be cautious and fully aware of fundamental risks that the volatility associated with these events brings. They should also consider the real potential for sharp corrections following any initial price surges around the time of the halving. Regardless of all these, the upcoming 2024 Bitcoin halving will undoubtedly be a crucial moment for both Bitcoin and Ethereum, and the entire crypto community will be watching closely.
Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis with Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk. Credit: connect@epp.eu. CC BY 2.0/flickr
Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis recently met with Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk in Warsaw to discuss the future of security in Europe and cooperation on migration, with an emphasis on defending borders.
Cooperation between Greece and Poland
“For many reasons, our cooperation with Prime Minister Mitsotakis is always excellent. We can rely on each other,” the Polish prime minister said.
Donald Tusk said that both countries can have a positive influence on the development of European strategies on security and migration, adding that they would share experiences on effective border protection.
“Europe’s member states must protect their territories and control their borders by ensuring that migration policy is not chaotic or uncontrolled,” he stressed.
The Polish prime minister also spoke on the two countries’ common position when it comes to support for Ukraine, saying they were a good pair to work together ahead of the European elections, after which, he added, it will be easy to create new alliances and structures.
Tusk went on to thank Mitsotakis for his generous words regarding the contribution of some of Poland’s firefighters to help deal with fires in Greece last year, and said there would be cooperation for this year’s fire season as well.
The Greek prime minister said that the pair discussed the war in Ukraine extensively. “We are in the third year of this unprovoked and illegal attack by Russia against Ukraine. The impact is being felt in Poland. And yesterday to President Zelensky I had the opportunity to reiterate that we will continue our strong support to Ukraine financially and militarily for as long as it is needed,” Mitsotakis said.
He also made mention of the common challenges experienced by Greece and Poland when it comes to migration, saying “We have to defend our borders, which are also EU borders, and we have made progress in the European Council. It must be up to us who enters Europe and it should not be up to the smugglers.”
Speaking on the topic of defence, he shared that Greece and Poland spend well over two percent of their GDP. “We have to be at the forefront of defence issues in Europe. This may include some joint borrowing or other forms. It should be discussed after the next European elections,” Mitsotakis said.
He also stated that he and Donald Tusk are two leaders from the European People’s Party and can play an important role in Europe’s initiatives in the next election cycle, whether on issues related to defence and security, competitiveness and job creation, or the agricultural sector. He added that the green transition is necessary but it must be managed in a way that does not lead farmers to feel threatened.
Ruins of the archaeological site of Ancient Thera. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-3.0
The island of Santorini, also known as Thera, is famous for being inhabited by the Minoans in the Bronze Age. It then erupted in a catastrophic volcanic event which completely wiped out the civilisation there. Yet, today, there are thousands of people living on the island. How did this happen? This article will examine how Santorini was resettled after the Minoan eruption.
How Santorini was depopulated
Santorini is a fascinating island in the Aegean Sea north of Crete. Throughout the Middle Bronze Age, Santorini was a thriving center of trade. It had several Minoan settlements on it, including the major city of Akrotiri, comparable in size to the Minoan cities on Crete.
The Minoans were the most prominent naval civilization of that era, so Santorini was evidently one of the most important islands of its day. Many scholars believe it was the origin of the legend of Atlantis.
However, this glorious existence came to a complete end in the sixteenth century BC. Some time towards the end of that century, during the reign of Ahmose I of Egypt, the island erupted. Santorini is a volcanic island, and the eruption that occurred in that century was one of the most catastrophic events in human history.
This completely destroyed the settlements on the island, blasting them into the sea or covering them with dozens of meters of ash.
How Santorini was resettled by Cadmus
After its population was completely wiped out, how did Santorini come to be inhabited once more? We can work out the answer by comparing the information provided by Herodotus with the information gleaned from archaeology.
Herodotus does not explicitly describe Santorini as being resettled. However, this is only because he displays no knowledge of the former Minoan dominance of the island. Nonetheless, he describes something related to Santorini in the context of Cadmus.
Cadmus was a Phoenician prince who traveled to Greece and introduced the alphabet to that land. The fact that the Greek alphabet ultimately derives from the Phoenician alphabet is confirmed by archaeology and scholarship. This occurred at some point in the ninth century BCE, meaning this must be when Cadmus lived.
Archaeological evidence
According to Herodotus, Cadmus and his men stopped off at Santorini on their way from Phoenicia to Greece. Some of his men decided to stay on the island instead of continuing on the journey. Thus, the Phoenicians were the ones who initially resettled the island following the Minoan eruption.
At least, this is what Herodotus tells us. Does the archaeology support this idea? As it happens, the very earliest traces of the Greek script are found on Santorini. These inscriptions are dated to the ninth century BC and are written in what is essentially pure Phoenician characters, although the words are Greek.
Most likely, these were written by Greeks who were traveling with Cadmus. Cadmus, already having Greek associates, would explain why he traveled to Greece in the first place.
Supporting this date for when Santorini was resettled is the fact that this is also the date of the earliest archaeological remains from after the Minoan eruption. In particular, the archaeological site called Ancient Thera is the earliest post-Minoan settlement that has so far been found. It dates to the ninth century BCE.
How Santorini was resettled by the Spartans
As we have seen, it appears that associates of Phoenician Prince Cadmus resettled Santorini in the ninth century BCE. However, Herodotus tells us something even more significant happened eight generations after those inhabitants had arrived.
Counting eight generations would bring us forward by about two centuries, assuming a reasonable average of twenty-five years per generation. This would therefore bring us to the seventh century BCE.
According to Herodotus, it was at this time that the Spartans arrived on the island. They were led by Theras, from whom Santorini got its name, “Thera.” Theras was a Spartan prince, whose grandfather Tisamenus was a child at the time of the Trojan War. Thus, although there were already some inhabitants on the island, Santorini was mainly resettled by the Spartans and became a bona fide Spartan colony.
Interestingly, archaeology has shown that the earliest evidence of Spartan presence on the island dates to the seventh century BC. This is exactly when we would expect to see it based on Herodotus’ information on how many generations Theras came after the time of Cadmus.
An engraving of the ruins of the Seleucid palace in Antioch by Louis Francois Cassas. From the book Voyage pittoresque de la Syrie, de la Phoenicie, de la Palaestine et de la Basse Aegypte: ouvrage divisé en trois volumes contenant environ trois cent trente planches 1799/1800″/Public Domain
Antioch on the Orontes, an ancient Greek city on the eastern side of the Orontes River, was one of the most glorious of all the Greek cities in the world.
Home to hundreds of thousands of people in its golden age, it was known as “The Second Rome” and subsequently “the Cradle of Christianity” before it experienced so many cataclysmic earthquakes and military conquests that it was reduced to a backwater.
Now called “Antakya” by the Turks, with modern-era buildings completely obscuring those from Hellenistic and Roman times, little is left of the glory that once was Antioch.
Founded near the end of the fourth century BC by Seleucus I Nicator, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, the city’s location benefitted it militarily as well as economically for centuries. Situated along the Silk Road and the Royal Road, it was a hub of the spice trade and grew in importance to eventually rival Alexandria as the chief city of the Near East.
Founding of the city by Seleucus I
The city was the capital of the Seleucid Empire until 63 BC when the Romans took control, making it the seat of the governor of the province of Syria. From the early fourth century, the city was the seat of the Count of the Orient, head of the regional administration of sixteen provinces.
Antioch was one of the most important cities in the eastern Mediterranean half of the Roman Empire. Dubbed “the cradle of Christianity” as a result of the pivotal role that it played in the emergence of the new religion, Antioch was where the New Testament asserts that the name “Christian” was first used.
The city may have had up to 500,000 people at its height, but it declined to relative insignificance during the Middle Ages because of warfare, repeated earthquakes, and a change in trade routes, which no longer passed through Antioch from the Far East following the devastation of the Mongol invasions and conquests.
An ancient settlement called Meroe pre-dated Antioch. Historians believe that a shrine dedicated to the Semitic goddess Anat, called by Herodotus the “Persian Artemis,” was once located here.
Now in the Louvre, this mosaic shows a Greek rider seizing the cap of an Amazon warrior. Roman mosaic of marble and limestone from the 2nd half of the 4th century AD; from Daphne. Credit: (User:Jastrow) CC BY 2.5
Third-largest city in the Roman Empire
After Alexander’s death in 323 BC, his generals, the Diadochi, divided up the territory he had conquered. Seleucus I Nicator won the territory of Syria, and he proceeded to found four “sister cities” in northwestern Syria, one of which was Antioch, a city named in honor of his father Antiochus.
Its fortified citadel was on Mount Silpius; the city was built mainly on the low ground to the north, all along the river. Two great colonnaded streets once intersected at the center.
In the Orontes, to the north of the city, lay a large island, and it was here that Seleucus II Callinicus began a third walled “city,” which was finished by Antiochus III the Great.
The new city was populated by a mix of local settlers that Athenians brought from the nearby city of Antigonia, along with Macedonians and Jews. The total free population of Antioch at its founding has been estimated at between 17,000 and 25,000, not including slaves and native settlers.
Antioch’s population reached its peak during the late Hellenistic period and Early Roman period; it would eventually become the third largest city in the Empire after Rome and Alexandria.
About six kilometers (four miles) west and beyond the suburb of Heraclea lay the paradise of Daphne, a park of woods and waters, in the midst of which rose a great temple to the Pythian Apollo. This was also the origin of the famous mosaic depicting a Greek warrior grasping the helmet of an Amazonian warrior woman.
Among its great Greek buildings was the theatre, of which substructures still remain on the flank of Mt. Silpius, and the royal palace, which was most likely situated on the island. At its zenith, Antioch enjoyed a reputation for being “a populous city, full of most erudite men and rich in the most liberal studies,” according to Cicero, who wrote about it in his work Pro Archia.
However, in a portent of its later fate, the first great earthquake in recorded history in the West took place in Antioch. The event was related by the native chronicler John Malalas. Occurring in 148 BC, it did immense damage, and it was only the first of many such quakes in the area which contributed to its decline.
Roman period was second heyday of Antioch
The Roman emperor Julius Caesar visited the great city in 47 BC and confirmed its free status within the Empire.
One of the most famous additions to Antioch, which most likely occurred during the reign of Augustus—when the city still had more than half a million inhabitants—was the hippodrome called the Circus of Antioch. Used for chariot racing, it was modeled on the Circus Maximus in Rome. With a length of more than 490 meters (1,610 feet), the Circus could seat up to an incredible 80,000 spectators.
In 115 AD, during Trajan’s time there during his war against Parthia, the whole area was convulsed by another enormous earthquake, resulting in an alteration of the entire landscape of the city. The population was then reduced to less than 400,000, and many sections of the city were abandoned altogether.
Center of Christianity
Antioch was a chief center of early Christianity for many centuries.
Evangelized, among others, by the Apostle Peter himself, according to the tradition upon which the Patriarch of Antioch still rests its claim for primacy, and certainly later by Barnabas and Paul during Paul’s first missionary journey, it was where the message of Christ was first heard by many.
Many scholars believe that Luke was a Greek physician who lived in the Greek city of Antioch. One of the Four Evangelists, Luke was one of the four traditionally ascribed authors of the canonical gospels.
The early Church Fathers ascribed to him authorship of both the Gospel of Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, which would mean Luke contributed over a quarter of the text of the New Testament, more than any other author.
Barnabas, one of the prominent Christian disciples in Jerusalem, also resided in the city; Ignatius of Antioch, who died c. 140 AD, also known as Ignatius Theophorus, or “the God-bearer” was an early Christian writer and Patriarch of Antioch. He was martyred while on his way to Rome.
St. John Chrysostom, who lived from the year 347 to September 14, 407, was also from Antioch. He was so skilled in rhetoric that he was known as “golden-mouthed.” He later served as Archbishop of Constantinople.
A number of Greek, Syrian, Armenian, and Latin monasteries surrounded the city in its Christian heyday.
The Christian population was estimated by St. John Chrysostom at about 100,000 people at the time of Emperor Theodosius I. Between 252 and 300 AD, ten great assemblies of the church were held at Antioch, and it became the seat of one of the five original patriarchates, along with Constantinople, Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Rome, part of the “Pentarchy” of cities which governed the development of Christianity.
Simeon Stylites, who lived from c. 390 to September 2, 459, was a local man who lived a life of extreme asceticism atop a pillar for forty years some 65 kilometers (forty miles) east of Antioch. His body was brought to the city and buried in a building erected under the emperor Leo. His example of complete surrender to God was followed by many throughout Christianity thereafter.
Raids, massacres and sackings
In 256 AD, the city was raided by the Persians under Shapur I, and many of the people were tragically massacred in its great theater. It was recaptured by the Roman emperor Valerian the following year, however.
By the time the emperor Julian visited in 362 AD on a detour to Persia, Antioch had a mixed population of pagans and Christians.
Julian’s successor, Valens, who endowed Antioch with a new forum, including a statue of Valentinian on a central column, reopened the great church of Constantine, which stood until the Persian sack of the city in 538.
Antioch and its port, Seleucia Pieria, were severely damaged by another cataclysmic earthquake, which occurred in 526, in which an estimated 300,000 people may have died. Antioch’s glory days were now in the past.
During the Byzantine–Sassanid War of 602 to 628, the Emperor Heraclius confronted the invading Persian army of Khosrow II outside the city in 613. The Byzantines were defeated in the Battle of Antioch after which the city fell to the Sassanians.
In 637, during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Heraclius, Antioch was conquered by the Rashidun Caliphate during the Battle of the Iron Bridge. Antioch found itself so often on the frontlines of conflicts between two hostile empires during the next 350 years that the city went into a precipitous decline from which it never recovered.
The famous Skeleton Mosaic found in Antioch recently is believed to have decorated a dining room in the ancient city. Advising people to eat, drink, and be merry while they could, it now resides in the Antakya Archaeological Museum. Credit: Dosseman/Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
The Crusades and Frankish rule followed by Mamluk incursions
From 1233 onward, as a result of incessant warfare between the Crusader knights who ruled the city and various regional powers, Antioch’s standing as a city declined to the point that it barely appeared in records for thirty years thereafter. In 1254, the Armenian kings ruled Antioch while the prince of Antioch resided in Tripoli. The Armenians drew up a treaty with the Mongols, who were now ravaging Muslim lands from the East. Under their protection, they extended their territory into Aleppo to the south.
In January of 1265, Baibars, the fourth Mamluk sultan of Egypt, launched an offensive against the Frankish crusaders who then ruled the city, and in 1268, he besieged Antioch, capturing it on May 18th. While he had promised to spare the lives of the inhabitants, he broke his promise and razed the city, killing or enslaving nearly the entire population upon their surrender.
Antioch’s former Frankish ruler, Prince Bohemond VI, was then left with no territories except the County of Tripoli. With the fall of the city, the remainder of northern Syria eventually capitulated, ending the Frankish knights’ presence in Syria.
By the year 1432, there were only about 300 inhabited houses within the walls of Antioch, mostly occupied by Turks, according to historian Steven Runciman.
Archaeological traces of once-great city of Antioch
Few traces of the once-great Roman city are visible today aside from the massive fortification walls that snake up the side of the mountains to the east of the modern city, as well as several aqueducts, and the Church of St Peter (St Peter’s Cave Church, Cave-Church of St. Peter).
This latter church was said to have been a meeting place of the early Christian community of Antioch; it is still extant and is open for visitors unlike almost all the other monuments in Antioch. Most of the Roman-era buildings now are either buried beneath sediment from the Orontes River or have been obscured by recent construction.
Between 1932 and 1939, systemic archaeological excavations of Antioch were undertaken under the direction of the Louvre Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, the Worcester Art Museum, Princeton University, Wellesley College, and later, the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University and its affiliate Dumbarton Oaks.
The excavation team failed to find the major buildings they hoped to unearth, including Constantine’s Great Octagonal Church and the imperial palace. However, a great accomplishment of the expedition was the discovery of high-quality Roman mosaics from villas and baths in Antioch, Daphne, and Seleucia Pieria, including that pictured above, which is now in the Louvre.
The principal excavations of mosaics at Antioch led by Princeton University in March 1932 recovered nearly 300 such pieces. Many of these were originally used as floor mosaics in private homes during the 2nd through 6th centuries AD while others were displayed in baths and other public buildings.
One such stunning mosaic includes a border that depicts a walk from Antioch to Daphne, portraying many ancient buildings along the way which were once extant. A collection of mosaics on both secular and sacred subjects which were once in churches, private homes, and other public spaces in Antioch are now in the collections of the Princeton University Art Museum and other museums.
A statue in the Vatican and a number of figurines and statuettes portray its great patron goddess and civic symbol, the Tyche (Fortune) of Antioch—a majestic seated figure, crowned with the ramparts of Antioch’s walls and holding wheat stalks in her right hand with the river Orontes as a youth swimming under her feet.
The northern sector of Antakya, the Turkish name of the city, has been growing rapidly over recent years. This construction has begun to expose large portions of the ancient city, which are frequently bulldozed and rarely protected by local officials.
In April of 2016, archaeologists discovered a Greek mosaic (above) showing a skeleton lying down with a wine pitcher and loaf of bread alongside a text that reads: “Be cheerful, enjoy your life.”
This unforgettable artwork is reportedly from the 3rd century BC.
Described as the “reckless skeleton” or the “skeleton mosaic,” it is thought to have decorated the dining room of an upper-class home in Antioch, advising all those who look upon it to eat, drink and be merry—for no one knows what the future holds.
It all began when one courageous chick suddenly leaped and landed in the water with a splash. Credit: National Geographic/YouTube
Scores of baby penguins bravely dove off a massive 50-foot cliff for their first-ever swim in the icy Antarctic waters below, incredible new footage shows.
Award-winning National Geographic cinematographer Bertie Gregory spent a frigid two months tracking the 10,000-strong flock of Emperor penguins on the Antarctic Peninsula when he captured the chicks’ never-before-seen behavior on camera, he told “Good Morning America.“
“It’s called fledging, when they take their first swim,” he said. “Normally they jump off of sea ice, which is 1 or 2 feet high. We were noticing that these trains of chicks were going past to a different place.
“So I launched the drone, flew it over there to see what was going on, and realized they were stacking up on the edge of a huge 50-foot ice cliff,” he continued.
A lengthy line of hundreds of newborn penguins can be seen waddling toward the intimidating cliff in the video.
The first takes the plunge dozens of young penguins follow
One courageous chick suddenly leaps and lands in the water with a splash, beating its defenseless wings as it descends. The others warily inch toward the edge. A few seconds later, the penguin is seen swimming safely on the video.
Taking courage another few chicks make the jump. Then a few more before dozens of the birds were paddling in the sea for the first time.
“They were falling and there were big chunks of ice floating in the water beneath them, so it’s like falling onto a chunk of concrete,” Gregory said. “But, to my amazement, they were not just surviving, but popping up and going, ‘I can swim!’ This is their first swim ever, the first swim of their lives.”
Gregory’s remarkable footage, which is the first time to ever show penguin chicks cliff jumping, will be featured in Nat Geo’s 2025 installment of its Emmy award-winning “Secrets of” franchise, “Secrets of the Penguins,” which premieres Earth Day 2025.
The emperor penguin is the tallest and heaviest of all penguins
The emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the tallest and heaviest of all living penguin species and is endemic to Antarctica. The male and female are similar in plumage and size, reaching 100 cm (39 in) in length and weighing from 22 to 45 kg (49 to 99 lb). Feathers of the head and back are black and sharply delineated from the white belly, pale-yellow breast and bright-yellow ear patches.
The only penguin species that breeds during the Antarctic winter, emperor penguins trek 50–120 km (31–75 mi) over the ice to breeding colonies which can contain up to several thousand individuals. The female lays a single egg, which is incubated for just over two months by the male while the female returns to the sea to feed; parents subsequently take turns foraging at sea and caring for their chick in the colony.
The lifespan is typically 20 years in the wild, although observations suggest that some individuals may live to 50 years of age.
