Mare nostrum

Mare nostrum

"Our sea", that's what the Romans began to call it after they had conquered all the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. I went to Pireus today, and walked around the entire promontory, or whatever one should call it (look up "Piraeus, Greece" in google maps: I started from the metro station and then headed south to the roundish part and walked around it), along the Akti Themistokleous that follows the shoreline. Themistokles, in case someone's interested, was a fellow who in the 480's B.C. persuaded the Athenians to build a fleet of 200 ships, which was then victorious against the Persians in the battle of Salamis in 480 B.C. If I remember correctly, Themistokles was also responsible for fortifying Pireus, the port. But, wilfull as the Athenian democracy occasionally was, Themistokles was ostracized* in the following decade and banished. I can't recall the reason exactly, but he died without being able to return to Athens - although subsequently he was rehabilitated and venerated as a hero. It was about 24 C, cloudy and very humid though it didn't rain more than a few drops, so I greatly enjoying walking along the seafront, looking out on the Aegean and thinking of things like what might the ancient Athenians thought of the sea. They respected it for sure: it was the thing to do for sea travellers to ask for the favour of the appropriate deities before their journey, so that they might make the passage in safety. A funny thing happened at one point too: this old feller stopped me and said something in Greek. When I indicated I couldn't understand, he asked in clear English: "How long are you here for?" I said: "Just one week more", whereupon he asked "where are you from?" When I answered "Finland", he said "Ok, let's go have coffee." At this point I politely declined, and he left, saying "ok, bye bye." He had that weather-beaten look of a fisherman, but given the fact that his English was fairly fluent - not too common in Greece - he most likely was the proprietor of one of the restaurants nearby and was thus trying to tempt a tourist to come to his restaurant.

Pireus can be reached from central Athens on the metro in about half an hour. The metro line follows the ancient Long Walls: these two parallel walls, with a road running between, used to connect Pireus to Athens about 2400 years ago. They were torn down and restored a couple of times at least, but in the 2nd century B.C. Athens no longer had the resources to restore them. In the ancient times the port was a hugely cosmopolitan place, with merchants from as far as Phoinikia, Syria and Egypt, with all kinds of exotic cults being practiced and so on. I guess it's still cosmopolitan in the sense of all the ships and ferries arriving carrying passengers from all over. All the merchants are Greek, though, and the religion is Orthodox (Greek Catholic) Christianity.

*This was a system where the Athenian citizens could vote for the banishment of a politician, and if there were enough votes, the banishment was put into action. The votes were given on ostraka, shards of pottery, from which the name.