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Mines Of Laurium
The mines of Laurion (or Lavrion) are ancient mines located in southern Attica between Thorikos and Cape Sounion, approximately 50 kilometers south of the center of Athens, in Greece. The mines are best known for producing silver, but they were also a source of copper and lead. A number of remnants of these mines (shafts, galleries, surface workshops) are still present in the region. The mines were exploited in prehistoric times as a source of copper and galena, a lead ore. In the classical period, mining in the area resumed. The Athenians used large numbers of slaves to mine the area, with the silver produced contributing significantly to the city's wealth. Abandoned in the 1st century BC, the mines were reactivated in 1864 and mined for their lead by French and Greek companies until 1978. History Ancient times The mines are older than recorded history. Even at the time of Classical Greece, they were older than historians could determine: Modern archaeology has dem ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Attica
Attica (, ''Attikḗ'' (Ancient Greek) or , or ), or the Attic Peninsula, is a historical region that encompasses the entire Athens metropolitan area, which consists of the city of Athens, the capital city, capital of Greece and the core city of the metropolitan area, as well as its surrounding suburban cities and towns. It is a peninsula projecting into the Aegean Sea, bordering on Boeotia to the north and Megaris to the west. The southern tip of the peninsula, known as Laurion, Lavrio, was an important Mines of Laurion, mining region. The history of Attica is closely linked with that of Athens. In ancient times, Attica corresponded with the Athens city-state. It was the most prominent region in Ancient Greece, specifically during the Golden Age of Athens in the Classical Greece, classical period. Classical Athens, Ancient Attica (the classical Classical Athens, Athens city-state) was divided into deme, demoi, or municipalities, from the reform of Cleisthenes in 508/7 BC, gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lead (element)
Lead () is a chemical element; it has symbol Pb (from Latin ) and atomic number 82. It is a heavy metal that is denser than most common materials. Lead is soft and malleable, and also has a relatively low melting point. When freshly cut, lead is a shiny gray with a hint of blue. It tarnishes to a dull gray color when exposed to air. Lead has the highest atomic number of any stable element and three of its isotopes are endpoints of major nuclear decay chains of heavier elements. Lead is a relatively unreactive post-transition metal. Its weak metallic character is illustrated by its amphoteric nature; lead and lead oxides react with acids and bases, and it tends to form covalent bonds. Compounds of lead are usually found in the +2 oxidation state rather than the +4 state common with lighter members of the carbon group. Exceptions are mostly limited to organolead compounds. Like the lighter members of the group, lead tends to bond with itself; it can form chains and polyhed ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Siege Of Athens And Piraeus (87–86 BC)
The siege of Athens and Piraeus was a siege of the First Mithridatic War that took place from autumn of 87 BC to the spring of 86 BC. The battle was fought between the forces of the Roman Republic, commanded by Lucius Cornelius Sulla Felix on the one hand, and the forces of the Kingdom of Pontus and the Athenian City-State on the other. The Greek and Pontic forces were commanded by Aristion and Archelaus. Historical context The invasion of Mithridates VI Eupator, king of Pontus, into the Kingdom of Bithynia, an ally of Rome, coupled with the assassination of Roman citizens in the Asiatic Vespers, caused war between Rome and Pontus. Allegedly, up to 80,000 Roman citizens were massacred. The Roman province of Asia was then occupied by the forces of Mithridates VI under the command of Archelaus and before long, Mithridates VI had won over all the Greek city-states which had previously been under Roman rule. In the spring of 87 BC Roman forces under Sulla landed at Dy ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Servile War
The Second Servile War was an unsuccessful slave uprising against the Roman Republic on the island of Sicily. The war lasted from 104 BC until 100 BC. It was one of three Servile Wars, spaced approximately 30 years apart. Background The consul Gaius Marius was recruiting soldiers for the war against the Cimbri and Teutones in the North. He requested support from King Nicomedes III of Bithynia near the Roman province of Asia; but Nicomedes refused, on the grounds that every able-bodied man in Bithynia had been enslaved by Roman tax-gatherers for being unable to pay their dues. The Senate replied by issuing orders that no slaves were to be taken from among allies of Rome, and that all such slaves should be immediately freed.A. H. Beesely, ''The Gracchi, Marius, and Sulla Epochs of Ancient History'', (Kindle edition), ch. VI., p. 57 The propraetor Publius Licinius Nerva, in obedience to the edict, at once freed (that is, manumitted) around 800 slaves in his province of Sicily. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Posidonius
Posidonius (; , "of Poseidon") "of Apameia" (ὁ Ἀπαμεύς) or "of Rhodes" (ὁ Ῥόδιος) (), was a Greeks, Greek politician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, historian, mathematician, and teacher native to Apamea (Syria), Apamea, Syria. He was considered the most learned man of his time and, possibly, of the entire Stoicism, Stoic school. After a period learning Stoicism, Stoic philosophy from Panaetius in Athens, he spent many years in travel and scientific researches in Spain, Africa, Italy, Gaul, Liguria, Sicily and on the eastern shores of the Adriatic. He settled as a teacher at Rhodes where his fame attracted numerous scholars. Next to Panaetius he did most, by writings and personal lectures, to spread Stoicism to the Roman world, and he became well known to many leading men, including Pompey and Cicero. His works are now lost, but they proved a mine of information to later writers. The titles and subjects of more than twenty of them are known. In common w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Deipnosophistae
The ''Deipnosophistae'' (, ''Deipnosophistaí'', lit. , where ''sophists'' may be translated more loosely as ) is a work written in Ancient Greek by Athenaeus of Naucratis. It is a long work of Greek literature, literary, Ancient history, historical, and Antiquarian#Antiquarianism in ancient Rome, antiquarian references set in Rome at a series of banquets held by the protagonist for an assembly of Grammarian (Greco-Roman world), grammarians, lexicographers, jurists, musicians, and hangers-on. Title The Ancient Greek, Greek title ''Deipnosophistaí'' () is a Compound (linguistics), compound of ' ( ) and ''sophistḗs'' ( ). It and its English language, English derivative ''s'' thus describe people who are skilled at dining, particularly the refined conversation expected to accompany Greek symposium, symposia. However, the term is shaded by the harsh treatment accorded to sophist, professional teachers in Plato's Socratic dialogues, which made the English term ' into a pejora ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Piraeus
Piraeus ( ; ; , Ancient: , Katharevousa: ) is a port city within the Athens urban area ("Greater Athens"), in the Attica region of Greece. It is located southwest of Athens city centre along the east coast of the Saronic Gulf in the Athens Riviera. The municipality of Piraeus and four other suburban municipalities form the regional unit of Piraeus, sometimes called the Greater Piraeus area, with a total population of 448,051. At the 2021 census, Piraeus had a population of 168,151 people, making it the fourth largest municipality in Greece and the second largest (after the municipality of Athens) within the Athens urban area. Piraeus has a long recorded history, dating back to ancient Greece. The city was founded in the early 5th century BC, when plans to make it the new port of Athens were implemented: A prototype harbour was constructed, which resulted in concentrating in one location all the import and transit trade of Athens, along with the navy's base. During the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Peloponnesian War
The Second Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), often called simply the Peloponnesian War (), was an Ancient Greece, ancient Greek war fought between Classical Athens, Athens and Sparta and their respective allies for the hegemony of the Ancient Greece, Greek world. The war remained undecided until the later intervention of the Achaemenid Empire, Persian Empire in support of Sparta. Led by Lysander, the Spartan fleet (built with Persian subsidies) finally defeated Athens which began a period of Spartan hegemony over Greece. Historians have traditionally divided the war into three phases. The first phase (431–421 BC) was named the Ten Years War, or the Archidamian War, after the Spartan king Archidamus II, who invaded Attica several times with the full hoplite army of the Peloponnesian League, the alliance network dominated by Sparta (then known as Lacedaemon). The Long Walls of Athens rendered this strategy ineffective, while the superior navy of the Delian League (Athens' all ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis ( ) was a naval battle fought in 480 BC, between an alliance of Greek city-states under Themistocles, and the Achaemenid Empire under King Xerxes. It resulted in a victory for the outnumbered Greeks. The battle was fought in the straits between the mainland and Salamis, an island in the Saronic Gulf near Athens, and marked the high point of the second Persian invasion of Greece. It was arguably the largest naval battle of the ancient world, and marked a turning point in the invasion. To block the Persian advance, a small force of Greeks blocked the pass of Thermopylae, while an Athenian-dominated allied navy engaged the Persian fleet in the nearby straits of Artemisium. In the resulting Battle of Thermopylae, the rearguard of the Greek force was annihilated, while in the Battle of Artemisium the Greeks suffered heavy losses and retreated after the loss at Thermopylae. This allowed the Persians to conquer Phocis, Boeotia, Attica and Euboea. The allies ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trireme
A trireme ( ; ; cf. ) was an ancient navies and vessels, ancient vessel and a type of galley that was used by the ancient maritime civilizations of the Mediterranean Sea, especially the Phoenicians, ancient Greece, ancient Greeks and ancient Rome, Romans. The trireme derives its name from its three rows of oars, manned with one man per oar. The early trireme was a development of the penteconter (ship), penteconter, an ancient warship with a single row of 25 oars on each side (i.e., a single-banked boat), and of the bireme (, ), a warship with two banks of oars, of Phoenician origin. The word ''dieres'' does not appear until the Roman period. According to Morrison and Williams, "It must be assumed the term pentekontor covered the two-level type". As a ship, it was fast and agile and was the dominant warship in the Mediterranean from the 7th to the 4th centuries BC, after which it was largely superseded by the larger quadriremes and quinqueremes. Triremes played a vital role in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Themistocles
Themistocles (; ; ) was an Athenian politician and general. He was one of a new breed of non-aristocratic politicians who rose to prominence in the early years of the Athenian democracy. As a politician, Themistocles was a populist, having the support of lower-class Athenians, and generally being at odds with the Athenian nobility. Elected archon in 493 BC, he convinced the polis to increase the naval power of Athens, a recurring theme in his political career. During the first Persian invasion of Greece, he fought at the Battle of Marathon (490 BC), and may have been one of the ten Athenian '' strategoi'' (generals) in that battle. In the years after Marathon, and in the run-up to the second Persian invasion of 480–479 BC, Themistocles became the most prominent politician in Athens. He continued to advocate for a strong Athenian navy, and in 483 BC he persuaded the Athenians to build a fleet of 200 triremes; these proved crucial in the forthcoming con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Talent (measurement)
The talent (Ancient Greek: , ''talanton'', Latin: , Biblical Hebrew: ''kikkar'' כִּכָּר, Ugaritic: ''kkr'' (𐎋𐎋𐎗), Phoenician: ''kkr'' (𐤒𐤒𐤓), Syriac: ''kakra'' (ܟܲܟܪܵܐ),, Akkadian: ''kakkaru'' or ''gaggaru'' in the Amarna letters, Amarna tablets, later Aramaic: ()) was a unit of weight used in the ancient world, often used for weighing gold and silver. In the Hebrew Bible, it is recorded that the gold used in the work of the sanctuary (Tabernacle, tabernacle), where the Ark of the Covenant was, weighed 29 talents and 730 shekels , and silver 100 talents and 1775 shekels. (1 talent=3000 shekels. ) The enormous wealth of King Solomon is described as receiving 666 gold talents a year. The talent is also mentioned in connection with other metals, ivory, and frankincense. In Homer's poems, it is always used of gold and is thought to have been quite a small weight of about , approximately the same as the later gold stater coin or Persian daric. In lat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
