133-796: The Corinth Canal ( Greek : Διώρυγα της Κορίνθου , romanized : Dioryga tis Korinthou ) is an artificial canal in Greece that connects the Gulf of Corinth in the Ionian Sea with the Saronic Gulf in the Aegean Sea . It cuts through the narrow Isthmus of Corinth and separates the Peloponnese from the Greek mainland, making the peninsula an island . The canal was dug through
266-577: A Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into the following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered
399-464: A cutting through the isthmus. The first to propose such an undertaking was the tyrant Periander in the 7th century BC. The project was abandoned and Periander instead constructed a simpler and less costly overland portage road, named the Diolkos or stone carriageway, along which ships could be towed from one side of the isthmus to the other. Periander's change of heart is attributed variously to
532-577: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,
665-472: A basket around to collect money as if Florus was poor. Florus reacted to the unrest by sending soldiers into Jerusalem the next day to raid the city and arrest a number of the city leaders, who were later whipped and crucified , despite many of them being Roman citizens . Shortly, outraged Judean nationalist factions took up arms and the Roman military garrison of Jerusalem was quickly overrun by rebels. Fearing
798-454: A despotic rule over the city. Simon bar Giora was invited into Jerusalem to stand against the Zealot faction of John and quickly took control of much of the city. Infighting between the factions of bar Giora and John followed through 69. The siege of Jerusalem turned into a stalemate. Unable to breach the city's defenses, Roman armies established a permanent camp just outside the city, digging
931-508: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on
1064-430: A height of about 45 metres (148 ft). In 1988, submersible bridges were installed at sea level at each end of the canal, by the eastern harbour of Isthmia and the western harbour of Poseidonia, providing two additional crossings for road traffic. Although the canal saves the 700-kilometre (430 mi) journey around the Peloponnese , it is too narrow for modern ocean freighters , as it can accommodate ships only of
1197-427: A large sum of money from Jerusalem's temple and put down any resistance by deploying a locally recruited auxiliary force. When he did seize 17 talents , he justified the measure as a matter of reclaiming unpaid back taxes. Both this measure and the subsequent upheavals it provoked were not unusual: similar incidents had occurred in the past. When rioting broke out, some Jerusalemites armed themselves in self-defense,
1330-629: A leading role. Josephus Matthias (Yosef ben Matityahu) was appointed the commander in Galilee and Golan , while Josephus Simon (Yosef ben Shimon) was appointed commander of Jericho , John the Issene (Yohanan Issean) commander of Jaffa, Lydda, Ammeus-Nikopolis and the Tamna area. Elazar Ananias (Eliezar ben Hananiya) the joint commander in Edom together with Jesus ben Sapphas (Joshua ben Zafia), with Niger
1463-590: A lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and
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#17327648652641596-700: A lesser extent, the Jewish world at large. With the influx of pilgrims and wealth from the Roman and Parthian Empires, which concentrated vast wealth in Jerusalem, the Second Temple had developed into a massive economy by the first century, but the destruction of the city and the temple brought this to an end. Additionally, according to Josephus and other scholars, the Romans confiscated and auctioned off all Jewish land or all land held by Jews who had participated in
1729-400: A limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in the nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by
1862-687: A major role also played by the peasantry led by bar Giora and a Zealot faction led by Eleazar ben Simon , as well as elements of the Sicarii. Victorious Judean troops then took an initiative and attempted to expand their control to the Hellenistic city of Ascalon , assembling an army commanded by Niger the Perean , Yohanan the Issean, and Shila the Babylonian and laying siege to the city. Despite
1995-415: A million net tons annually. By 1913, the total had risen to 1.5 million net tons, but the disruption caused by World War I resulted in a major decline in traffic. Another persistent problem was the heavily faulted nature of the sedimentary rock , in an active seismic zone , through which the canal is cut. The canal's high limestone walls have been persistently unstable from the start. Although it
2128-399: A mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and a fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes ,
2261-446: A one-way system. Larger ships have to be towed by tugs . The canal is currently used mainly by tourist ships; around 11,000 ships per year travel through the waterway. Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized : Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized : Hellēnikḗ ) is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within
2394-405: A single channel 8 metres (26 ft) deep, excavated at sea level (thus requiring no locks ), measuring 6,343 metres (20,810 ft) long by 24.6 metres (81 ft) wide at sea level and 21.3 metres (70 ft) wide at the bottom. The rock walls, which rise 90 metres (300 ft) above sea level, are at a near-vertical 80° angle. The canal is crossed by a railway line, a road and a motorway at
2527-409: A state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in the early 19th century that
2660-437: A trench around the circumference of its walls and building a wall as high as the city walls themselves around Jerusalem. Anyone caught in the trench attempting to flee the city would be captured and crucified in lines on top of the dirt wall facing into Jerusalem, with as many as 500 crucifixions occurring in a day. The two Zealot leaders, John of Gischala and Simon Bar Giora, only ceased hostilities and joined forces to defend
2793-505: A weapon did, and that both sexes showed equal determination, preferring death to a life that involved expulsion from their country. Josephus puts the number of the besieged at nearly 1 million. Many pilgrims from the Jewish diaspora who, undeterred by the war, had trekked to Jerusalem to be present at the Temple during Passover became trapped in Jerusalem during the siege and perished. In
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#17327648652642926-399: A width up to 17.6 metres (58 ft) and draft up to 7.3 metres (24 ft). In October 2019, with over 900 passengers on board, a 22.5 metres (74 ft) wide and 195 metres (640 ft) long Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines cruise ship successfully traversed the canal to set a new record for longest ship to pass through the canal. Ships can pass through the canal only one convoy at a time on
3059-498: A younger group of priests called for the expulsion of all foreigners from the city, while many elders spoke out for caution and diplomacy. In the end, charismatic insurgents accompanied by armed bands entered Jerusalem, initiating a period of revolt against Rome but also internecine fighting amongst themselves. Attempts were made to garner support from the governor of Syria at the time, Cestius . This plea for help failed to garner any support, however. The consequent riot which erupted
3192-1056: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern First Jewish%E2%80%93Roman War Judean provisional government Supported by: Radical factions: 10,000–20,000 Zealots and Idumeans killed Major conflicts The First Jewish–Roman War (66–74 CE), sometimes called
3325-763: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,
3458-632: Is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near the Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in
3591-440: Is unlikely that many Jews survived in Jerusalem or the surrounding area. Many of the Jewish rebels were scattered or sold into slavery. He refutes Josephus' estimates of a death toll of 1.1 million as implausible. According to his calculations, the total population of Judea at that time was around 1 million, with approximately half being Jews. Moreover, he points out that sizeable Jewish communities continued to exist in
3724-541: The Diolkos , a land trackway for transporting ships, instead. Construction of a canal finally began under Roman Emperor Nero in 67 AD, using Jewish prisoners captured during the First Jewish–Roman War . However, the project ceased shortly after his death. In subsequent centuries, the idea intrigued figures like Herodes Atticus in the second century and, following their conquest of the Peloponnese in 1687,
3857-562: The British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of the membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in
3990-645: The Eastern Mediterranean , the initially semi-independent Herodian dynasty was officially merged into the Roman Empire in the year 6 CE. The transition of the client kingdom into a Roman province brought a great deal of tension, and a Jewish uprising by Judas of Galilee erupted as a response to the Census of Quirinius . After the death of Herod the Great and the deposition of Herod Archelaus ,
4123-657: The European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute the objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek
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4256-766: The Great Jewish Revolt ( Hebrew : המרד הגדול , romanized : ha-Mered Ha-Gadol ) or the Jewish War , was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire fought in the province of Judaea , resulting in the destruction of Jewish towns, the displacement of its people, and the appropriation of land for Roman military use, as well as the destruction of the Jewish Temple and polity. The revolt began in 66 CE, during
4389-527: The Herodian tetrarchy . Another aspect of Herod's legacy was economic hardship. Labor workers, which had been employed at Herod's large-scale construction sites, became impoverished. After Herod's death, the poor economy led to riots. Herod's void of leadership made the region vulnerable to riots and can be considered an anticipatory cause of the Great Revolt. Following increasing Roman domination of
4522-516: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as
4655-768: The Isthmus of Corinth in Greece. He records that the Romans captured captives who were 17 years old and older and sent them to forced labor in Egypt. The youngest captives were sold into slavery. According to Moshe David Herr's estimation, one-third of the Jewish population in Judaea perished during the revolt. This figure encompasses those who died in battles with the Romans, during intra-Jewish civil strife, and in massacres perpetrated by gentiles in mixed cities. Additionally, victims succumbed to famine and epidemics, particularly in Jerusalem during its long siege. About another tenth of
4788-542: The Sadducees , who were primarily composed of members from the Jerusalem aristocracy, might have ceased to exist after the revolt. Nevertheless, there are no direct sources explicitly confirming their disappearance, and hints in later rabbinic and patristic literature suggest the possibility of continued Jewish sectarianism, including Sadducee and Essene-related groups, in the following centuries. The revolt affected Judaea's economic and social environment, as well as, to
4921-708: The United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout the Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to
5054-546: The Venetians . Despite their interest, neither of them undertook the construction. Construction finally recommenced in 1881 but was hampered by geological and financial problems that bankrupted the original builders. It was completed in 1893, but, due to the canal's narrowness, navigational problems, and periodic closures to repair landslides from its steep walls, it failed to attract the level of traffic expected by its operators. Several rulers of antiquity dreamed of digging
5187-468: The genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in the ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in
5320-417: The syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow the noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However,
5453-566: The 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as
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5586-544: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit
5719-549: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in
5852-449: The Greek population and Caligula by having statues of the emperor placed in Jewish synagogues . As a result, extensive religious riots broke out in the city. Caligula responded by removing Flaccus from his position and executing him. In 39, Agrippa accused Herod Antipas , the tetrarch of Galilee and Perea , of planning a rebellion against Roman rule with the help of Parthia . Herod Antipas confessed, and Caligula exiled him. Agrippa
5985-593: The Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek
6118-459: The Isthmus at sea level and has no locks . It is 6.4 kilometres (4 miles) in length and only 24.6 metres (80.7 feet) wide at sea level, making it impassable for many modern ships. It is currently of little economic importance and is mainly a tourist attraction. The Corinth canal concept originated with Periander of Corinth in the 7th century BC. Daunted by its enormity, he chose to implement
6251-469: The Jewish Temple clerks, Eleazar ben Hanania , ceased prayers and sacrifices for the Roman emperor at the Temple. Protests over taxation joined the list of grievances and random attacks on Roman citizens and perceived 'traitors' occurred in Jerusalem. When Florus removed the 17 talents from the treasury the city fell into unrest and some of the Jewish population began to openly mock Florus by passing
6384-430: The Jewish elite gave up without a fight, including Sepphoris and Tiberias, although others had to be taken by force. Of these, Josephus provides detailed accounts of the sieges of Tarichaea , Yodfat (Jotapata) and Gamla ; Gischala , the stronghold of Zealots, was also taken by force, as Zealot leaders abandoned it in the midst of the siege, heading with the bulk of their force for Jerusalem. By 68, Jewish resistance in
6517-543: The Jewish population in Judaea was captured by the Romans, and their fate was often tragic, with many enduring harsh treatment, execution, or forced labor. Strong young men were compelled to serve as gladiators in stadiums and circuses across the empire, while others were sent to brothels or sold as slaves . Vespasian settled 800 Roman veterans in Motza , which became a Roman settlement known as Colonia Amosa or Colonia Emmaus . He strengthened Roman control over
6650-603: The Jewish rebels slaughtered all the surrendered soldiers, except for Metilius who was forced to convert to Judaism. According to fourth-century church fathers Eusebius and Epiphanius of Salamis , Jerusalem's Christians fled to Pella before the beginning of the war. As a result of the unrest in Judaea, Gallus assembled the Syrian legion XII Fulminata , reinforced with units of III Gallica , IV Scythica , and VI Ferrata , plus auxiliaries and allies—a total of approximately 30,000–36,000 troops—in order to restore order in
6783-463: The Jews petitioned the governor of Syria to get the official removed, Roman Judea being essentially a "satellite of Syria". The years 7–26 CE were relatively calm, but after 37 the province again began to be a source of trouble, this time for Emperor Caligula . The cause of tensions in the east of the empire was complicated, involving the spread of Greek culture , Roman Law and the rights of Jews in
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#17327648652646916-407: The Jews who were in favour of rebellion, and those who were not. A huge loss of life occurred, including that of the former High Priest Ananias . The Roman garrison on Jerusalem's western border became besieged and was unable to assist those who opposed rebellion. Eventually, led by their commander Metilius, the garrison surrendered in exchange for unhindered passage from the city, but, led by Eliezar,
7049-473: The Judean and Samarian highlands. The Jews who were driven out of Galilee rebuilt Joppa (Jaffa) which had been destroyed by Gallus. Surrounded by the Romans, they rebuilt the city walls and used a light flotilla to demoralize commerce and interrupt the grain supply to Rome from Alexandria. In his The Jewish War , Josephus wrote: They also built themselves a great many piratical ships, and turned pirates upon
7182-584: The Legion's aquila lost. In 66, a Judean provisional government was formed in Jerusalem led by former High Priest Ananus ben Ananus , Joseph ben Gurion and Joshua ben Gamla . Yosef ben Matityahu ( Josephus ) was appointed as the rebel commander in Galilee and Eleazar ben Hanania as the commander in Edom . Later, in Jerusalem, an attempt by Menahem ben Yehuda , leader of the Sicarii , to take control of
7315-541: The Perean the war hero during the Gallus campaign under their command. Menasseh was appointed for Perea and John Ananias (Yohanan ben Hananiya) to Gophna and Acrabetta. An attempt by Menahem ben Yehuda , leader of the Sicarii, to take control of Jerusalem failed. He was executed, and the remaining Sicarii were ejected from the city to their stronghold Masada , previously taken from a Roman garrison. Headquartered in Masada,
7448-549: The Romans instituted procurators (technically prefects before 41 CE) to rule the Judeans. In the beginning, the Roman procurators respected the laws and customs of the Jewish people, allowing them to rest on the Sabbath, granting them exemption from pagan rituals, and even minting coins without images despite the fact that elsewhere the coins bore images. When confronted with a procurator who disrespected their laws and customs,
7581-540: The Sicarii terrorized nearby Judean villages such as Ein Gedi . Simon bar Giora was also expelled from Jerusalem, and his faction took refuge in Masada and stayed there until the winter of 67–68. Emperor Nero sent General Vespasian to crush the rebellion. Vespasian, along with legions X Fretensis and V Macedonica , landed at Ptolemais in April 67. There he was joined by his son Titus , who arrived from Alexandria as
7714-643: The Zealots and thus, with Idumeans entering Jerusalem and fighting by the side of the Zealots, the heads of the Judean provisional government, Ananus ben Ananus and Joseph ben Gurion, were killed with severe civilian casualties in the notorious Zealot Temple Siege , where Josephus reports 12,000 dead. Receiving the news of the carnage in Jerusalem, Simon bar Giora left Masada and began pillaging Idumea, setting his headquarters in Na'an ; he met little resistance and joined forces with Idumean leaders, including Jacob ben Susa. In
7847-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),
7980-479: The arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During the older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from
8113-408: The bonds were sold. The company's head, István Türr , went bankrupt, as did the company itself and a bank that had agreed to raise additional funds for the project. Construction resumed in 1890, when the project was transferred to a Greek company, and was completed on 25 July 1893 after eleven years' work. The canal experienced financial and operational difficulties after completion. The narrowness of
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#17327648652648246-494: The canal is difficult to navigate for large vessels, it is mostly used by smaller recreational boats. A notable exception occurred on 9 October 2019, when the cruise ship MS Braemar became the widest and longest ship to transit the canal. The canal closed at the beginning of 2021 after a landslide. It re-opened in June 2022 until October 2022. After further safety measures, the canal reopened on June 1, 2023. The canal consists of
8379-408: The canal makes navigation difficult. Its high walls funnel wind along its length, and the different times of the tides in the two gulfs cause strong tidal currents in the channel. For these reasons, many ship operators were unwilling to use the canal, and traffic was far below predictions. Annual traffic of just under 4 million net tons had been anticipated, but by 1906 traffic had reached only half
8512-514: The canal was put out of action by German " scorched earth " operations. German forces used explosives to trigger landslides to block the canal, destroyed the bridges and dumped locomotives, bridge wreckage and other infrastructure into the canal to hinder repairs. The United States Army Corps of Engineers began to clear the canal in November 1947 and reopened it for shallow-draft traffic by 7 July 1948, and for all traffic by that September. Because
8645-636: The capture of the Roman garrison by rebel forces as the pro-Roman King Herod Agrippa II and Roman officials fled. To quell the unrest, Cestius Gallus , the legate of Syria , brought in the Syrian army, consisting of the Legion XII Fulminata and auxiliary troops. Despite initial advances and the conquest of Jaffa , the Syrian Legion was ambushed and defeated by Jewish rebels at the Battle of Beth Horon with 6,000 Romans massacred and
8778-553: The city failed. He was executed, and the remaining Sicarii were ejected from the city. Simon bar Giora , a peasant leader, was also expelled by the new government. The Roman general Vespasian was given four legions and tasked by Nero with crushing the rebellion. Assisted by forces of Agrippa, Vespasian invaded Galilee in 67 and within several months had claimed the major Jewish strongholds of Galilee, Jodapatha and Tarichaea . Driven from Galilee, Zealot rebels and thousands of refugees arrived in Jerusalem, creating tensions between
8911-497: The city was destroyed by fire and the Jewish community was thrown into turmoil by the devastation of its political and religious leadership. King Herod the Great ruled Jerusalem from 37 BCE – 4 BCE as a vassal king for the Roman Empire, having been appointed "King of the Jews" by the Roman Senate . Herod was known as a tyrant, mostly because of his campaign to kill anyone who could claim the throne. Herod had all relatives of
9044-569: The city when the Romans began to construct ramparts for the siege. During the infighting inside the city walls, a stockpiled supply of dry food was intentionally burned by the Zealots to induce the defenders to fight against the siege, instead of negotiating peace; as a result many city dwellers and soldiers died of starvation during the siege. Tacitus , a contemporary historian, notes that those who were besieged in Jerusalem amounted to no fewer than 600,000, that men and women alike and every age engaged in armed resistance, that everyone who could pick up
9177-524: The classes closely associated with Jerusalem and the Temple. The aristocratic oligarchy, consisting of the families of the High Priesthood and their affiliates , who wielded significant political, social, and economic influence and amassed great wealth, suffered a total collapse. The conventional understanding posits that the Essenes , whose settlement at Qumran was destroyed during the war, and
9310-528: The coast, where it was ambushed and defeated at the Battle of Beth Horon , a result which shocked the imperial leadership. The defeat of the Romans in Beth Horon is considered one of the worst military defeats of the Roman Empire by a rebel province throughout its history. Some 6,000 Roman troops were killed and many more wounded in the battle, with Legio XII Fulminata losing its aquila , as Gallus abandoned his troops in disarray, fleeing to Syria. Judean militias included Sadducee and Pharisee factions, with
9443-495: The country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine ,
9576-441: The dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before
9709-570: The defeat of Gallus in Beth Horon, the People's Assembly was called under the spiritual guidance of Simeon ben Gamliel and thus the Judean provisional government was formed in Jerusalem. Former High Priest Ananus ben Ananus (Hanan ben Hanan) was appointed one of the government heads and began reinforcing the city, with other prominent figure of Joseph ben Gurion, with Joshua ben Gamla taking
9842-528: The earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of the Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of
9975-442: The empire . Caligula did not trust the prefect of Egypt, Aulus Avilius Flaccus . Flaccus had been loyal to Tiberius, had conspired against Caligula's mother, and had connections with Egyptian separatists. In 38, Caligula sent Agrippa to Alexandria unannounced to check on Flaccus. According to Philo , the visit was met with jeers from the Greek population, who saw Agrippa as the king of the Jews. Flaccus tried to placate both
10108-733: The explosion, or that they were set off by a rifle shot from one of the British sappers. The bridge was replaced by a combined rail/road bridge built in 25 days by the IV Ferrovieri Battalion of the Royal Italian Army 's Ferrovieri Engineer Regiment . Following the Axis occupation of Greece the Allies made several attempts to block the canal but without success. In October 1944, as German forces retreated from Greece ,
10241-412: The extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than a foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English
10374-644: The following year, the government of Prime Minister Thrasyvoulos Zaimis passed a law authorizing the construction of a Corinth canal. French entrepreneurs were put in charge but, following the bankruptcy of the French company that had attempted to dig the Panama Canal , French banks refused to lend money, and the company went bankrupt as well. A fresh concession was granted to the Société Internationale du Canal Maritime de Corinthe in 1881, which
10507-400: The fortress. According to Josephus, when the Romans finally broke through the walls of this citadel in 73, they discovered that 960 of the 967 defenders had committed suicide. The Roman suppression of the revolt had a significant demographic impact on the Jews of Judaea, as many perished in battle and from siege conditions, and multiple cities, towns and villages were destroyed. The destruction
10640-454: The great expense of the project, a lack of labour or a fear that a canal would have robbed Corinth of its dominant role as an entrepôt for goods. Remnants of the Diolkos still exist next to the modern canal. The Diadoch Demetrius Poliorcetes (336–283 BC) planned to construct a canal as a means to improve his communication lines, but dropped the plan after his surveyors, miscalculating
10773-530: The head of Legio XV Apollinaris , as well as by the armies of various local allies including that of King Agrippa II . Fielding more than 60,000 soldiers, Vespasian began operations by subjugating Galilee. Judean rebels in Galilee were divided into two camps, with forces loyal to the central government in Jerusalem commanded by Josephus and representing the wealthy and priesthood classes, whereas local Zealot militias largely consisted of poor fishermen, farmers and refugees from Roman Syria. Many towns associated with
10906-449: The language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to the modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows
11039-467: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write
11172-445: The leadership of Judah ben Ari , whom he swiftly defeated. Because of illness, Bassus did not live to complete his mission. Lucius Flavius Silva replaced him and moved against the last Judean stronghold, Masada, in the autumn of 72. He used Legio X , auxiliary troops, and thousands of Jewish prisoners, for a total of 10,000 soldiers. After his orders for surrender were rejected, Silva established several base camps and circumvallated
11305-400: The levels of the adjacent seas, feared heavy floods. The philosopher Apollonius of Tyana prophesied that anyone who proposed to dig a Corinthian canal would be met with illness. Three Roman rulers considered the idea but all suffered violent deaths; the historians Plutarch and Suetonius both wrote that the Roman dictator Julius Caesar considered digging a canal through the isthmus but
11438-424: The main bridge over the canal. The bridge was defended by British and Anzac forces and had been wired for demolition. The Germans surprised the defenders with a glider-borne assault in the early morning of 26 April and captured the bridge, but the British set off the charges and destroyed the structure. Other authors maintain that German pioneers cut the detonation wires, and a lucky hit by British artillery triggered
11571-413: The mainly Sadducee Jerusalemites and the Zealot rebel factions that soon erupted into bitter infighting. In 69, Vespasian marched on Rome and crowned himself as emperor, leaving Titus to besiege Jerusalem in 70 CE . Following a brutal seven-month siege, during which Zealot infighting resulted in the burning of the entire food supplies of the city, the Romans finally succeeded in breaching the defenses in
11704-452: The many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around the 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is
11837-402: The modern canal follows the same course as Nero's, no remains have survived. The Greek philosopher and Roman senator Herodes Atticus is known to have considered digging a canal in the 2nd century AD, but did not get a project under way. The Venetians also considered it in 1687 after their conquest of the Peloponnese but likewise did not initiate any work on the ground. The idea of a canal
11970-606: The more important second wall. During the final stages of the Roman attack, Zealots still held the Temple while the Sicarii held the upper city. The Second Temple , one of the last fortified bastions of the rebellion, was destroyed on Tisha B'Av (29 or 30 July 70). All three walls of Jerusalem were eventually destroyed as well as the Temple and the citadels; the city was burned, with most survivors taken into slavery; some of those overturned stones and their place of impact can still be seen. John of Giscala surrendered at Agrippa II's fortress of Jotapata while Simon Bar Giora surrendered at
12103-465: The morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks the infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of
12236-783: The neighbouring province. The Syrian legion captured Narbata and also took Sepphoris , which surrendered without a fight. The Judean rebels who withdrew from Sepphoris took refuge at Atzmon hill but were defeated following a short siege. Gallus later reached Acre in western Galilee and then marched on Caesarea and Jaffa , where he massacred some 8,400 people. Continuing his military campaign, Gallus took Lydda and Afek (Antipatris) and engaged Jerusalemite rebels in Geva , where he lost nearly 500 troops to Judean rebels led by Simon bar Giora , reinforced by allied volunteers from Adiabene . The Syrian legion then invested Jerusalem but for uncertain reasons and despite initial gains withdrew back towards
12369-470: The north had been crushed, and Vespasian made Caesarea Maritima his headquarters and methodically proceeded to cleanse the coastline of the country, avoiding direct confrontation with the rebels at Jerusalem. Based on questionable numbers from Josephus, it has been estimated that the Roman vanquishing of Galilee resulted in 100,000 Jews killed or sold into slavery. Vespasian remained camped at Caesarea Maritima until spring 68, preparing for another campaign in
12502-646: The order were carried out, delayed implementing it for nearly a year. Agrippa finally convinced Caligula to reverse the order. In 46 an insurrection by the Jews broke out in Judea province. The Jacob and Simon uprising was instigated by the two eponymous brothers and lasted between 46-48. The revolt, which concentrated in the Galilee, began as sporadic insurgency and in 48 was put down by Roman authorities, and both brothers were executed. The relatively conciliatory Roman policy in Judea changed when Gessius Florus became procurator in 64. Nero had ordered Florus to extract
12635-418: The pillage of Ascalon's countryside, the campaign was a disaster for the Judeans, who failed to take the city and lost some 8,000 militia men to the small defending Roman garrison. Many Jewish residents of Ascalon were butchered by their Greco-Syrian and Roman neighbours as well in the aftermath. The failure to take Ascalon changed the tactics of Judean forces from open engagement to fortified warfare. Following
12768-474: The previous Hasmonean dynasty executed. This included his wife Mariamne I , the daughter of a Hasmonean king, and all of her family members. Herod also created a new line of nobility that would have loyalties to only him, known as the Herodians . He appointed high priests from families that were not connected to the past dynasty. After Herod's death, several relatives made claims to the region, beginning with
12901-564: The province by giving Caesarea colony status and Neapolis city status, and by garrisoning Legio X Fretensis in Jerusalem permanently. Despite the heavy losses and the destruction of the Temple, Jewish life continued to thrive in Judea. However, continuing dissatisfaction with Roman rule eventually led to the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132–136, which appears to have resulted in the destruction and depopulation of Judea proper. According to historical sources and archaeological evidence, Jerusalem
13034-411: The quality of the rock (which were reused in 1881 for the same purpose). According to Suetonius, the canal was dug to a distance of four stades – approximately 700 metres (2,300 ft) – or about a tenth of the total distance across the isthmus. A memorial of the attempt in the form of a relief of Hercules was left by Nero's workers and can still be seen in the canal cutting today. Other than this, as
13167-527: The radical Zealots taking control of large parts of the fortified city. A brutal civil war then erupted, with the Zealots and the Sicarii executing anyone advocating surrender. Following a false message that the Judean provisional government had come to terms with the Roman Army, delivered by the Zealots to the Idumeans, a major force of some 20,000 armed Idumeans arrived to Jerusalem. It was allowed in by
13300-484: The region even after the war, including in Judea, despite the severe damages incurred. According to Schwartz, the reported figure of 97,000 captives taken during the war is much more reliable. This would suggest that a sizeable segment of the population was either driven out of the country or, at the very least, displaced. The social ramifications of the war were profound, leading to the complete disappearance or loss of status of entire social strata. The most impacted were
13433-643: The regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of
13566-570: The regions, Judea proper experienced the most severe destruction, yet some cities, like Lod , Yavne , and their surroundings, remained relatively undamaged. The most severe devastation was concentrated in the Judaean Mountains , culminating in the complete destruction of Jerusalem, resulting in an estimated loss of more than 90% of its population. Josephus reports that the Romans took numerous slaves with them. He says that Vespasian sent 6,000 Jewish prisoners of war from Galilee to work on
13699-504: The seas near to Syria, and Phoenicia, and Egypt, and made those seas unnavigable to all men. Zealot leaders of the collapsed northern revolt, headed by John of Giscala , managed to escape from Galilee to Jerusalem with the bulk of their forces. Packed with militants of many factions, including remains of forces loyal to the Judean provisional government and significant Zealot militia headed by Eleazar ben Simon , and largely cut off by Roman forces, Jerusalem quickly descended into anarchy with
13832-422: The siege of Jerusalem, reports "We have heard that the total number of the besieged of every age and both sexes was six hundred thousand. [...] Both men and women showed the same determination; and if they were to be forced to change their home , they feared life more than death", which indicates that the besieged believed that those who survived the siege would be displaced. Seth Schwartz writes that it
13965-631: The site where the Temple once stood. The Temple treasures, including the Menorah and the Table of the Bread of God's Presence , which had previously only ever been seen by the High Priest of the Temple, were paraded through the streets of Rome during Titus' triumphal procession , along with some 700 Judean prisoners who were paraded in chains, among them John of Giscala and Simon Bar Giora. John of Giscala
14098-415: The spring of 68, Vespasian began a systematic campaign to subdue various rebel-held strongholds in Judea proper, recapturing Afeq, Lydda, Javneh, and Jaffa that spring. He continued into Idumea and Perea and to the Judean and Samarian highlands, where Bar Giora's faction was causing major concern to the Romans. The Roman Army took Gophna, Akrabta, Bet-El, Ephraim, and Hebron by July 69. While the war in Judea
14231-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of
14364-406: The summer of 70, following a seven-month siege, Titus used the collapse of several of the city walls to breach Jerusalem, ransacking and burning nearly the entire city. The Romans began by attacking the weakest spot: the third wall. It was built shortly before the siege so it did not have as much time invested in its protection. They succeeded towards the end of May and shortly afterwards broke through
14497-524: The summer of 70. Following the fall of Jerusalem, Titus departed for Rome, leaving the Legion X Fretensis to defeat the remaining Jewish strongholds, including Herodium and Machaerus . The Roman campaign ended with their success at the siege of Masada in 72–74. The Roman suppression of the revolt had a significant impact on the local population, with many rebels perishing in battle, displaced, or being sold into slavery. The temple of Jerusalem and much of
14630-648: The twelfth year of the reign of Nero , originating in the oppressive rule of Roman governors , the widening gaps between the wealthy aristocracy and the downtrodden masses, and Roman and Jewish religious tensions . The crisis escalated because of anti-taxation protests and clashes between Jews and pagans in mixed cities. The Roman governor Gessius Florus seized money from the Second Temple 's treasury and arrested numerous senior Jewish figures. This prompted widespread rebellion in Jerusalem that culminated in
14763-421: The usurper Vitellius , who had already deposed Otho. Titus advanced his Roman legions on Jerusalem, conquering towns and creating a wave of Judean refugees. The rebels avoided direct confrontation and were mostly interested in their own control and survival. The Zealot factions were weakened by civil war within the city but could still field significant troops. John, a Zealot leader, assassinated Eleazar and began
14896-432: The worst, the pro-Roman King Herod Agrippa II and his sister Berenice fled Jerusalem to Galilee. Judaean militias later moved upon Roman citizens of Judaea and pro-Roman officials, cleansing the country of any Roman symbols. Among other events, the Sicarii rebel faction surprised the Roman garrison of Masada and took over the fortress. Initially, the outbreak of violence had been an internal factional conflict between
15029-574: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or
15162-557: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe
15295-511: Was assassinated before he could begin the project. Caligula , the third Roman Emperor , commissioned a study in 40 AD from Egyptian experts who claimed incorrectly that the Corinthian Gulf was higher than the Saronic Gulf . As a result, they concluded, if a canal were dug the island of Aegina would be inundated. Caligula's interest in the idea got no further as he too was assassinated before making any progress. The emperor Nero
15428-556: Was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and
15561-427: Was closed for a total of four years for maintenance to stabilise the walls. In 1923 alone, 41,000 cubic metres of material fell into the canal, which took two years to clear out. Serious damage was caused to the canal during World War II . On 26 April 1941, during the Battle of Greece between defending Allied troops and the invading forces of Nazi Germany , German parachutists and glider troops attempted to capture
15694-418: Was commissioned to construct the canal and operate it for the next 99 years. Construction was formally inaugurated on 23 April 1882 in the presence of King George I of Greece . The company's initial capital was 30,000,000 francs (US$ 6.0 million in the money of the day), but after eight years of work, it ran out of money, and a bid to issue 60,000 bonds of 500 francs each flopped when less than half of
15827-462: Was completely destroyed during the war. Josephus claims that 1,100,000 people were killed during the siege of Jerusalem, 97,000 were captured and enslaved, and many others fled to areas around the Mediterranean . A significant portion of the deaths was from illnesses and hunger brought about by the Romans. "A pestilential destruction upon them, and soon afterward such a famine, as destroyed them more suddenly." Roman historian Tacitus , when describing
15960-476: Was formally opened in July 1893 it was not opened to navigation until the following November, due to landslides. It was soon found that the wake from ships passing through the canal undermined the walls, causing further landslides. This required further expense in building retaining walls along the water's edge for more than half of the length of the canal, using 165,000 cubic metres of masonry. Between 1893 and 1940, it
16093-593: Was in progress, great events were occurring in Rome. In the middle of 68, Nero's increasingly erratic behavior finally lost him all support for his position. The Roman Senate , the Praetorian Guard , and several prominent army commanders conspired for his removal. When the Senate declared Nero an enemy of the people , he fled Rome and committed suicide with the help of a secretary. The newly installed emperor Galba
16226-514: Was murdered after just a few months by his rival Otho , triggering a civil war that came to be known as the Year of the Four Emperors . In 69, though previously uninvolved, the popular Vespasian was also hailed emperor by the legions under his command. He decided, upon gaining further widespread support, to leave Titus to finish the war in Judea while he returned to Rome to claim the throne from
16359-526: Was not uniform across the country; certain areas suffered more extensive devastation than others. The Jewish population in several mixed cities was eliminated. In Galilee, according to Josephus, two of the four largest cities, Tarichaea (probably Magdala ) and Gabara , were destroyed, while Sepphoris and Tiberias reconciled with the Romans and experienced minimal harm. The scope of destruction also varied in Transjordan and in central Judaea. Among all
16492-485: Was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with the epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in
16625-525: Was revived after Greece gained formal independence from the Ottoman Empire in 1830. The Greek statesman Ioannis Kapodistrias asked a French engineer to assess the feasibility of the project but had to abandon it when its cost was assessed at 40 million gold francs —far too expensive for the newly independent country. Fresh impetus was given by the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869, and,
16758-560: Was rewarded with his territories. Riots again erupted in Alexandria in 40 between Jews and Greeks. Jews were accused of not honoring the emperor. Disputes occurred also in the city of Jamnia. Jews were angered by the erection of a clay altar and destroyed it. In response, Caligula ordered the erection of a statue of himself in the Jewish Temple of Jerusalem . The governor of Syria, Publius Petronius , fearing civil war if
16891-479: Was sentenced to life imprisonment while Simon Bar Giora was executed. The triumph was commemorated with the Arch of Titus , which depicts the Temple's treasures being paraded. With the fall of Jerusalem, some insurrection still continued in isolated locations in Judea, lasting as long as 73. During the spring of 71, Titus set sail for Rome. Sextus Lucilius Bassus was appointed as military governor, whose assigned task
17024-415: Was the first in a series of revolts and led to the formation of several revolutionary factions. The revolt was further intensified when Florus attempted to stop the riots, which actually incited more revolutionary zeal. According to Josephus , the violence which began at Caesarea in 66 was provoked by Greeks of a certain merchant house sacrificing birds in front of a local synagogue. In reaction, one of
17157-431: Was the first to attempt to construct the canal, personally breaking the ground with a pickaxe and removing the first basket-load of soil in 67 AD, but the project was abandoned when he died shortly afterwards. The Roman workforce, consisting of 6,000 Judean prisoners of war , started digging 40-to-50-metre-wide (130 to 160 ft) trenches from both sides, while a third group at the ridge drilled deep shafts for probing
17290-562: Was to undertake the "mopping-up" operations in Judea. He used X Fretensis to besiege and capture the few remaining fortresses that still resisted. Bassus took Herodium and then crossed the Jordan to capture the fortress of Machaerus on the shore of the Dead Sea and then continued into the forest of Jardus on the northern shore of the Dead Sea to pursue some 3,000 Judean rebels under
17423-580: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect
17556-637: Was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of the Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to
17689-673: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage
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