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91-412: Philippi ( / f ɪ ˈ l ɪ p aɪ , ˈ f ɪ l ə ˌ p aɪ / ; ‹See Tfd› Greek : Φίλιπποι , Phílippoi ) was a major Greek city northwest of the nearby island, Thasos . Its original name was Crenides ( ‹See Tfd› Greek : Κρηνῖδες , Krēnĩdes "Fountains") after its establishment by Thasian colonists in 360/359 BC. The city was renamed by Philip II of Macedon in 356 BC and abandoned in

182-517: A monumental inscription on the stylobate in Basilica B, now partially in ruins. The site of Philippi was so strategically sound that the Byzantines attempted to recapture it around 850. Several seals of civil servants and other Byzantine officials, dated to the first half of the 9th century, prove the presence of Byzantine armies in the city. Around 969, Emperor Nicephorus II Phocas rebuilt

273-481: A "heroic Epicureanism." For Cassius, virtue was active. In a letter to Cicero, he wrote: I hope that people will understand that for all, cruelty exists in proportion to hatred, and goodness and clemency in proportion to love, and evil men most seek out and crave the things which accrue to good men. It's hard to persuade people that ‘the good is desirable for its own sake'; but it's both true and creditable that pleasure and tranquility are obtained by virtue, justice, and

364-577: 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,

455-758: A brief occupation by the Franks after the Fourth Crusade and the capture of Constantinople in 1204, the city was captured by the Serbs . Still, it remained a notable fortification on the route of the ancient Via Egnatia ; in 1354, the pretender to the Byzantine throne, Matthew Cantacuzenus , was captured there by the Serbs. The city was abandoned at an unknown date. When the French traveller Pierre Belon visited

546-558: 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 , 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

637-560: 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

728-540: 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 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

819-655: A large part of Caesar's navy. He then proceeded to harass ships off the Italian coast. News of Pompey's defeat at the Battle of Pharsalus caused Cassius to head for the Hellespont , with hopes of allying with the king of Pontus , Pharnaces II . Cassius was overtaken by Caesar en route, and was forced to surrender unconditionally. Caesar made Cassius a legate , employing him in the Alexandrian War against

910-415: A letter by Cicero to Cassius dated January 45. Shackleton Bailey points to a date of two or three years earlier. The dating bears on, but is not essential to, the question of whether Cassius justified the murder of Caesar on Epicurean grounds. Griffin argues that his intellectual pursuits, like those of other Romans, may be entirely removed from any practical application in the realm of politics. Romans of

1001-619: A settlement at Crenides in Thrace in 360/359 BC near the head of the Aegean Sea at the foot of Mt. Orbelos , now called Mt. Lekani, about 13 km (8.1 mi) north-west of Kavala , on the northern border of the marsh that, in antiquity, covered the entire plain separating it from the Pangaion Hills to the south. In 356 BC, King Philip II of Macedon conquered the city and renamed it to Philippi. The Macedonian conquerors of

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1092-476: A tyrant. Cicero associates Cassius's new Epicureanism with a willingness to seek peace in the aftermath of the civil war between Caesar and Pompeius . Miriam Griffin dates his conversion to as early as 48 BC, after he had fought on the side of Pompeius at the Battle of Pharsalus but decided to come home instead of joining the last holdouts of the civil war in Africa . Momigliano placed it in 46 BC, based on

1183-501: A very old Roman family, gens Cassia , which had been prominent in Rome since the 6th century BC. Little is known of his early life, apart from a story that he showed his dislike of despots while still at school, by quarreling with the son of the dictator Sulla . He studied philosophy at Rhodes under Archelaus of Rhodes and became fluent in Greek . He was married to Junia Tertia , who was

1274-588: A visit in 1856, was published in 1860 by Georges Perrot . This was followed by the more extensive investigations of the French Mission Archéologique de Macédoine in 1861, led by the archaeologist Léon Heuzey and the architect Honoré Daumet . Excavations by the École française d'Athènes began in the summer of 1914, were renewed in 1920 after an interruption caused by the First World War , and continued until 1937. During this time

1365-824: A visit to the city by the apostle Paul during his second missionary journey (likely in AD 49 or 50). On the basis of the Acts of the Apostles and the letter to the Philippians , early Christians concluded that Paul had founded their community. Accompanied by Silas , by Timothy and possibly by Luke (the author of the Acts of the Apostles), Paul is believed to have preached for the first time on European soil in Philippi, leading to

1456-472: A withdrawal from politics, at Rome his philosophy was made to accommodate the careers of many prominent men in public life, among them Caesar's father-in-law, Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus . Arnaldo Momigliano called Cassius' conversion a "conspicuous date in the history of Roman Epicureanism ," a choice made not to enjoy the pleasures of the Garden , but to provide a philosophical justification for assassinating

1547-804: 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 , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

1638-479: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before 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

1729-415: 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 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 ,

1820-477: Is more accurately described as an Antiochean Platonist , Cassius exercised a long and serious interest in philosophy. His early philosophical commitments are hazy, though D.R. Shackleton Bailey thought that a remark by Cicero indicates a youthful adherence to the Academy . Sometime between 48 and 45 BC, however, Cassius famously converted to the school of thought founded by Epicurus . Although Epicurus advocated

1911-604: Is not inherently superior to the removal of political anxieties. The inconsistencies between traditional Epicureanism and an active approach to securing freedom ultimately could not be resolved, and during the Empire , the philosophy of political opposition tended to be Stoic. This circumstance, Momigliano argues, helps explain why historians of the Imperial era found Cassius more difficult to understand than Brutus, and less admirable. In Dante 's Inferno (Canto XXXIV), Cassius

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2002-556: Is one of three people deemed sinful enough to be chewed in one of the three mouths of Satan , in the very centre of Hell , for all eternity, as a punishment for killing Julius Caesar . The other two are Brutus , his fellow conspirator, and Judas Iscariot , the Biblical betrayer of Jesus . It is unknown why the third ringleader of the conspiracy to kill Caesar, Decimus Brutus , was not also shown this deep in Hell. Cassius also plays

2093-519: 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 the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

2184-853: 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 Gaius Cassius Longinus Cassius

2275-763: 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,

2366-674: 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 was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from

2457-624: 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 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

2548-627: 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 was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of

2639-495: 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 a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

2730-516: 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

2821-657: 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 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

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2912-517: The Plague of Justinian in 547, the city was almost totally destroyed by an earthquake around 619, from which it never recovered. There was a small amount of activity there in the 7th century, but the city was now hardly more than a village. The Byzantine Empire possibly maintained a garrison there, but in 838 the Bulgarians under kavhan Isbul took the city and celebrated their victory with

3003-492: 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 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

3094-571: The 14th century after the Ottoman conquest. The present village of Filippoi is located near the ruins of the ancient city and is part of the region of East Macedonia and Thrace in Kavala , Greece. The archaeological site was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2016 because of its exceptional Roman architecture, its urban layout as a smaller reflection of Rome itself, and its importance in early Christianity. Thasian colonists established

3185-486: 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

3276-495: 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

3367-688: The Greek theatre, the forum, Basilicas A and B, the baths, and the walls were excavated. After the Second World War , Greek archaeologists returned to the site. From 1958 to 1978, the Archaeological Society of Athens , followed by the Greek Archaeological Service and the University of Thessalonica, uncovered the bishop's quarter and the octagonal church, large private residences, a new basilica near

3458-629: 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 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

3549-685: 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 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

3640-586: The Late Republic who can be identified as Epicureans are more often found among the supporters of Caesar, and often literally in his camp. Momigliano argued, however, that many of those who opposed Caesar's dictatorship bore no personal animus toward him, and Republicanism was more congenial to the Epicurean way of life than dictatorship . The Roman concept of libertas had been integrated into Greek philosophical studies , and though Epicurus' theory of

3731-663: The Museum, and two others in the necropolis east of the city. 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 the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of

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3822-613: The Parthians turned away from Antigonea. As they set about their return journey they were confronted by a detachment of Cassius' army, which faked a retreat and lured the Parthians into an ambush. The Parthians were suddenly surrounded by Cassius' main forces and defeated. Their general Osaces died from his wounds, and the rest of the Parthian army retreated back across the Euphrates . Cassius returned to Rome in 50 BC, when civil war

3913-404: 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),

4004-668: The allies of the Second Triumvirate . He followed the teachings of the philosopher Epicurus , although scholars debate whether or not these beliefs affected his political life. Cassius is a main character in William Shakespeare 's play Julius Caesar that depicts the assassination of Caesar and its aftermath. He is also shown in the lowest circle of Hell in Dante 's Inferno as punishment for betraying and killing Caesar. Gaius Cassius Longinus came from

4095-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in 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

4186-515: The area in the 1540s there remained nothing but ruins, used by the Turks as a quarry. The name of the city survived – at first in a Turkish village on the nearby plain, Philibedjik (Filibecik, "Little Filibe" in Turkish), which has since disappeared, and then in a Greek village in the mountains. Although the site was briefly noted by earlier travellers, first modern archaeological description, based on

4277-698: The area, and by 43 BC, he was ready to take on Publius Cornelius Dolabella with 12 legions . By this point, the Senate had split with Antonius, and cast its lot with Cassius, confirming him as governor of the province. Dolabella attacked but was betrayed by his allies, leading him to commit suicide . Cassius was now secure enough to march on Egypt , but on the formation of the Second Triumvirate , Brutus requested his assistance. Cassius quickly joined Brutus in Smyrna with most of his army, leaving his nephew behind to govern Syria as well. The conspirators decided to attack

4368-477: The capital of the eastern Macedonian state. Almost nothing is known about the city in this period, but archeological remains include walls, the Greek theatre , the foundations of a house under the Roman forum and a little temple dedicated to a hero cult . This monument covers the tomb of a certain Exekestos, is possibly situated on the agora and is dedicated to the κτίστης ( ktístēs ), the foundation hero of

4459-510: The celebration was short-lived, as Mark Antony seized power and turned the public against them. In letters written during 44 BC, Cicero frequently complains that Rome was still subjected to tyranny, because the "Liberators" had failed to kill Antony. According to some accounts, Cassius had wanted to kill Antony at the same time as Caesar, but Brutus dissuaded him. Cassius' reputation in the East made it easy to amass an army from other governors in

4550-549: The churches of Constantinople. In the same age, the Empire rebuilt the fortifications of the city to better defend against growing instability in the Balkans . In 473 Ostrogothic troops of Theodoric Strabo besieged the city; they failed to take it but burned down the surrounding villages. Already weakened by the Slavic invasions at the end of the 6th century – which ruined the agrarian economy of Macedonia – and probably also by

4641-427: The city. The city reappears in the sources during the Liberators' civil war (43–42 BC) that followed the assassination of Julius Caesar in 44 BC. Caesar's heirs Mark Antony and Octavian confronted the forces of the assassins Marcus Junius Brutus and Gaius Cassius Longinus at the Battle of Philippi on the plain to the west of the city during October in 42 BC. Antony and Octavian won this final battle against

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4732-403: The community in Philippi around AD 160 and by funerary inscriptions. The first church described in the city is a small building that was probably originally a small prayer-house. This Basilica of Paul , identified by a mosaic inscription on the pavement, is dated around 343 from a mention by the bishop Porphyrios, who attended the Council of Serdica that year. Despite Philippi having one of

4823-408: The conversion and baptism of the purple merchant, Lydia of Thyatira . According to the New Testament, Paul visited the city on two other occasions, in 56 and 57. The Epistle to the Philippians dates from around 61–62 and is generally assumed to show the immediate effects of Paul's instruction. The development of Christianity in Philippi is indicated by a letter from Polycarp of Smyrna addressed to

4914-470: The daughter of Servilia and thus a half-sister of his co-conspirator Brutus . They had one son, who was born in about 60 BC. In 54 BC, Cassius joined Marcus Licinius Crassus in his eastern campaign against the Parthian Empire . In 53 BC, Crassus suffered a decisive defeat at the Battle of Carrhae in Northern- Mesopotamia losing two-thirds of his army. Cassius led the remaining troops' retreat back into Syria, and organised an effective defence force for

5005-399: The dictator. Rather, Cassius would have had to reconcile his intention with his philosophical views. Cicero provides evidence that Epicureans recognized circumstances when direct action was justified in a political crisis. In the quotation above, Cassius explicitly rejects the idea that morality is good to be chosen for its own sake; morality, as a means of achieving pleasure and ataraxia ,

5096-444: The ensuing year. The appointment of his junior and brother-in-law, Marcus Brutus , as praetor urbanus deeply offended him. Although Cassius was "the moving spirit" in the plot against Caesar, winning over the chief assassins to the cause of tyrannicide , Brutus became their leader. On the Ides of March , 44 BC, Cassius urged on his fellow liberators and struck Caesar in the chest. Though they succeeded in assassinating Caesar ,

5187-409: The fortifications on the acropolis and in part of the city. These gradually helped to weaken Bulgar power and to strengthen the Byzantine presence in the area. In 1077 Bishop Basil Kartzimopoulos rebuilt part of the defenses inside the city. The city began to prosper once more, as witnessed by the Arab geographer Al Idrisi , who mentions it as a centre of business and wine production around 1150. After

5278-438: The good. Epicurus himself, from whom all your Catii and Amafinii take their leave as poor interpreters of his words, says ‘there is no living pleasantly without living a good and just life.' Sedley agrees that the conversion of Cassius should be dated to 48, when Cassius stopped resisting Caesar, and finds it unlikely that Epicureanism was a sufficient or primary motivation for his later decision to take violent action against

5369-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of 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

5460-414: 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

5551-458: 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 the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

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5642-441: 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 a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

5733-457: The most beautiful buildings in Thessalonica , or with those of Constantinople . The relationship of the plan and of the architectural decoration of Basilica B with Hagia Sophia and with Saint Irene in Constantinople accorded a privileged place to this church in the history of early Christian art . The complex cathedral which took the place of the Basilica of Paul at the end of the 5th century, constructed around an octagonal church, also rivaled

5824-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, 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

5915-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from 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

6006-435: The oldest congregations in Europe, attestation of a bishopric dates only from the 4th century. The prosperity of the city in the 5th and 6th centuries was attributed to Paul and to his ministry. As in other cities, many new ecclesiastical buildings were constructed at this time. Seven different churches were built in Philippi between the mid-4th century and the end of the 6th, some of which competed in size and decoration with

6097-426: The partisans of the Republic. They released some of their veteran soldiers, probably from Legion XXVIII, to colonize the city, which was refounded as Colonia Victrix Philippensium . From 30 BC Octavian established his control of the Roman state, becoming Roman emperor from 27 BC. He reorganized the colony and established more settlers there, veterans (possibly from the Praetorian Guard ) and other Italians. The city

6188-401: The passage between the swamp and Mt. Orbelos, and sent colonists to occupy it. Philip also had the marsh partially drained, as the writer Theophrastus ( c. 371 – c. 287 BC) attests. Philippi preserved its autonomy within the kingdom of Macedon and had its own political institutions (the Assembly of the demos ). The discovery of new gold mines near the city, at Asyla, contributed to

6279-650: The political governance admitted various forms of government based on consent, including but not limited to democracy , a tyrannical state was regarded by Roman Epicureans as incompatible with the highest good of pleasure, defined as freedom from pain. Tyranny also threatened the Epicurean value of parrhesia (παρρησία), "truthful speaking," and the movement toward deifying Caesar offended Epicurean belief in abstract gods who lead an ideal existence removed from mortal affairs. Momigliano saw Cassius as moving from an initial Epicurean orthodoxy, which emphasised disinterest in matters not of vice and virtue, and detachment , to

6370-434: 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 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

6461-452: The province. Based on Plutarch's account, the defeat at Carrhae could have been avoided had Crassus acted as Cassius had advised. According to Dio, the Roman soldiers, as well as Crassus himself, were willing to give the overall command to Cassius after the initial disaster in the battle, which Cassius "very properly" refused. The Parthians also considered Cassius as equal to Crassus in authority, and superior to him in skill. In 51 BC, Cassius

6552-477: The relatively small size of the urban area: the forum, laid out in two terraces on both sides of the main road, was constructed in several phases between the reigns of the Emperors Claudius (41–54 AD) and Antoninus Pius (138–161), and the theatre was enlarged and expanded to hold Roman games. An abundance of Latin inscriptions also testifies to the prosperity of the city. The New Testament records

6643-437: 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

6734-546: The town aimed to take control of the neighbouring gold mines and to establish a garrison at a strategic passage: the site controlled the route between Amphipolis and Neapolis , part of the great royal route which runs east-west across Macedonia which the Roman Republic reconstructed in the 2nd century BC as part of the Via Egnatia . Philip II endowed the city with important fortifications, which partially blocked

6825-596: The triumvirate's allies in Asia . Cassius set upon and sacked Rhodes , while Brutus did the same to Lycia . They regrouped the following year in Sardis , where their armies proclaimed them imperator . They crossed the Hellespont , marched through Thrace , and encamped near Philippi in Macedon . Gaius Julius Caesar Octavian (later known as Augustus ) and Mark Antony soon arrived, and Cassius planned to starve them out through

6916-406: The use of their superior position in the country. However, they were forced into a pair of battles by Antony, collectively known as the Battle of Philippi . Brutus was successful against Octavian, and took his camp. Cassius, however, was defeated and overrun by Mark Antony and, unaware of Brutus' victory, ordered his freeman Pindarus to help him kill himself. Pindarus fled afterwards and Cassius' head

7007-447: 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 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

7098-529: 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 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

7189-456: The very same Pharnaces whom Cassius had hoped to join after Pompey's defeat at Pharsalus. However, Cassius refused to join in the fight against Cato and Scipio in Africa , choosing instead to retire to Rome. Cassius spent the next two years in office, and apparently tightened his friendship with Cicero . In 44 BC, he became praetor peregrinus with the promise of the Syrian province for

7280-616: The wealth of the kingdom and Philip established a mint there. The city became fully integrated into the kingdom during the last years of the reign (221 to 179 BC) of Philip V of Macedon or the reign of Perseus of Macedon . When the Romans destroyed the Antigonid dynasty of Macedon in the Third Macedonian War (168 BC), they divided the kingdom into four separate states ( merides ). Amphipolis (rather than Philippi) became

7371-574: 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

7462-442: Was able to ambush and defeat an invading Parthian army under the command of prince Pacorus and general Osaces. He first refused to do battle with the Parthians, keeping his army behind the walls of Antioch (Syria's most important city) where he was besieged. When the Parthians gave up the siege and started to ravage the countryside, he followed them with his army harrying them as they went. The decisive encounter came on October 7 as

7553-597: Was about to break out between Julius Caesar and Pompey . Cassius was elected tribune of the plebs for 49 BC, and threw in his lot with the Optimates , although his brother Lucius Cassius supported Caesar. Cassius left Italy shortly after Caesar crossed the Rubicon . He met Pompey in Greece , and was appointed to command part of his fleet. In 48 BC, Cassius sailed his ships to Sicily , where he attacked and burned

7644-568: 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 the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

7735-557: 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

7826-440: Was elected as tribune of the plebs in 49 BC. He opposed Caesar, and eventually he commanded a fleet against him during Caesar's Civil War : after Caesar defeated Pompey in the Battle of Pharsalus , Caesar overtook Cassius and forced him to surrender. After Caesar's death, Cassius fled to the East, where he amassed an army of twelve legions. He was supported and made governor by the Senate. Later he and Brutus marched west against

7917-620: Was found severed from his body. He was mourned by Brutus as "the Last of the Romans" and buried in Thassos . "Among that select band of philosophers who have managed to change the world," writes David Sedley , "it would be hard to find a pair with a higher public profile than Brutus and Cassius – brothers-in-law, fellow-assassins, and Shakespearian heroes," adding that "it may not even be widely known that they were philosophers." Like Brutus, whose Stoic proclivities are widely assumed but who

8008-480: Was modified only partially by the construction of a forum, a little to the east of the site of Greek agora . It was a "miniature Rome", under the municipal law of Rome, and governed by two military officers, the duumviri , who were appointed directly from Rome, similar to Roman colonies. The colony recognized its dependence on the mines that brought it its privileged position on the Via Egnatia . Many monuments evidence its wealth – particularly imposing considering

8099-467: Was renamed Colonia Iulia Philippensis , and then Colonia Augusta Iulia Philippensis after January, 27 BC, when Octavian received the title Augustus from the Roman Senate . Following this second renaming, and perhaps after the first, the territory of Philippi was centuriated (divided into squares of land) and distributed to the colonists. The city kept its Macedonian walls, and its general plan

8190-580: 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

8281-673: 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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