"What distinguishes civilized man from a barbarian must be acquired by every individual anew." --Ludwig Von Mises


Some examples of Hellenic civilization,
which I made from movie stills.

Click on the thumbnails for enlargement.

Darius attempted to bribe King Leonidas not to fight at Thermopylae. His reply is recorded by Plutarch: "If you understood the nobility of life..." (Loeb classical library volume 245, Plutarch's "Sayings of Kings and Commanders"--a great little book!)



"Day by day upon the shore I stand,
the land of Hellas seeking with my soul."
(Goethe)
The photo from "Alexander" shows Ptolemy overlooking the harbor of Alexandria.


Winkleman was the head of the Vatican Library c. 1750


The opening words of Aristotle's Metaphysics:
"All men by nature desire to know". The photo is taken from the movie Alexander, showing the great library of Alexandria.


The words and photo here are from the movie 'Alexander'. Not really a quote of Alexander.


Alexander on the Shield of Achilles, from the movie. One of the historians said that when Alexander first arrived at Troy, he went to its shrine and took the actual shield of Achilles, and left his own shield there in its place. This he took with him all the way to India.


Euripides says,
"Persuasion hath no sanctuary but speech,
And in man's nature is her altar raised."
(Photo is from the pre-Gaugamela sacrifice scene in "Alexander".)



In reply to a demand that the 300 Spartans lay down their arms, Leonidas at Thermopylae tells Persian commander Hydarnes, "Molon Labe"--"come and get them!"


Plutarch records a remark of Thebe's greatest general, "Epameinondas used to say, the most beautiful death is death in war." --(photo from the motion picture Alexander.)

A YouTube video on the Battle of Marathon--with subtitles in modern Greek: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgyue9JVeug&mode=related&search=

Lightning over the Parthenon at night with the words, "Long Live Greece" in Greek.



A photo from "The 300 Spartans" of their shield wall, with the Greek words from the monument still at the pass of Thermopylae, "Visitor, go tell the Spartans that we remain here according to their instructions". And so they did and are buried there.


this is a YouTube video on the Battle of Thermopylae and it also has modern Greek subtitles: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6BDHGa4CEY

A photo of the actual memorial stone at Thermopylae:



On a photo of Antigonus from the movie Alexander, the words of Theocritus in Greek, "Great heroes then from demigods were born, whose noble deeds wise bards did celebrate."



A Greek translation of the words of Alexander in that recent movie, spoken over the city of Babylon:
"To free the people of the world
such would be beyond the glory of Achilles". My translation may have errors.


Against a sunrise at the Temple of Poseidon at Sounion, the words of the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, "The unseen order rules the visible order."


Alexander walks through the bodies after the battle of Gaugamela. Over his head are the first three lines of the Illiad in Greek,
"Sing, Goddess, sing of the rage of Achilles, son of Peleus—
that murderous anger which condemned Achaeans
to countless agonies and hurled many warrior souls
deep into Hades..." Johnston's new translation. For most of his life Alexander slept with a copy of the Illiad under his pillow.


Plutarch says when Darius offered Alexander half the kingdom if he would stop the war, "But he made answer to Darius that the earth could not tolerate two suns, nor Asia two kings."


"What good is it", said Alexander, "if I possess much, and accomplish nothing?" The second Greek line should begin with "ean", ('if').
(Plutarch--Moralia Loeb Classical Library Vol. 245, p.179)


Xenophon, author of the Anabasis and other works: