Athens

== == James 4:4 says that if you are friend of the world, you are an enemy of God. Here it is: 4You adulterous people, don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

To answer the question, when said in the first person, " If they hated me they will hate you" was said by Jesus Christ.

The Persians never fully destroyed Athens because, in truth, they never entered or even captured the city of Athens. If your asking why Persia never destroyed Greece- they did try. The battles of thermopylae, marathon, and plataea were just a few examples. They were crushed when the Greeks banded and united together for the first time in their history under the Spartan Banner.

A realistic view:

The Persians did capture Athens in autumn 480 BCE. They returned after wintering in northern Greece and reoccupied it in spring 479 BCE.

This was a return visit - Athens had defeated and repelled a Persian punitive expedition ten years earlier at Marathon in 490 BCE, so there was a debt still to be paid off: the Athenians had been involved in supporting a Greek revolt in Asia Minor in 498 BCE, and in the process burnt the Persian provincial capital of Sardis, including the temples and statues of their gods.

During the Persian advance 18 years after their Sardis raid and 10 years after the Marathon success, the Athenians evacuated Athens and joined the other Greek cities to fight off the invasion, as they could not defend the city. The Persians took the city, looted it and destroyed the gods in payback for the destroyed Sardis gods. They did not destroy the city as it was their aim to incorporate the Greek mainland cities into their empire, not to destroy them, so they did not engage in unnecessary destruction. They also used the houses as accommodation for their army in both 480 BCE and on their return in 479 BCE.

Interestingly, the broken Athenian statues were rediscovered by archaeologists in 1923 CE in a ravine beside the Acropolis. When the Athenians returned after the Persians withdrew, they didn't know what to do with the broken gods, so they stashed them in the ravine to wait for instructions from the gods. In time, they were forgotton and covered with debris and lay there for over two thousand years. Their discovery also shattered the idea that Greek statues were pristine marble. They were covered in gaudy paint - the Greeks lived in a riot of colour - their statues and buildings were painted reds and blues. Our buildings today with Greek-style stone facades and columns which people imagine are the same as the Greeks used are very dull compared to the originators' tastes. And the Romans copied the colours too.

The 5th century Athenian hoplite fought in a battle formation known as a phalanx. Below is a basic description of that system.

PHALANX

Ancient Greek formation of infantry. The soldiers were arrayed in rows (8 or 16), with arms at the ready, making a solid block that could sweep bristling through the more dispersed ranks of the enemy. Originally employed by the Spartans, it was developed by Epaminondas of Thebes (d. 362 BC). Use of the phalanx reached its apex when Philip II and Alexander the Great used the great Macedonian phalanx (16 deep and armed with the sarissa, a spear c.13 ft/4 m long) to conquer all Greece and the Middle East. Later, the Macedonian phalanx deteriorated and had few Macedonians in it; it was defeated in several battles with the Romans who conquered (168 BC) the Macedonians at Pydna. Thereafter the phalanx was obsolete. Because it lacked tactical flexibility, the phalanx was a better defensive than offensive formation.

In traditional Judaism, the husband is seen as the head of the household. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that thousands of years before other societies had done so, the Torah established rights for women, and the Torah-sages urged us to honor and respect our wives (Talmud, Bava Metzia 59a).

• Israelite women could own property, could initiate court cases, could have their own servants, and could own fields and businesses.
• The Torah specifies marital rights for women (Exodus 21:10).
• Any husband who anguishes his wife can expect Divine punishment (Talmud, Bava Metzia 59).
• Several Israelite women achieved prophecy (Talmud, Megillah 14a).
• One of the Judges, Deborah, was a woman. Together with another woman named Jael, she brought about a great victory against Canaanite oppressors (Judges ch.4).
• A circumspect husband will seek out the advice of his wife (Genesis 31:3-16), because she can be trusted to supervise the goings-on in the home (Proverbs 31:27), just like a Chief Executive Officer.
• The righteous among the Israelites would treasure their wives (Proverbs 31:11); as Rabbi Akiva (2nd century CE) said, "All that I accomplished (in Torah) is hers (is thanks to her)" (Talmud, Ketubot 63a).

See also:

Criticisms against Judaism