Michael Pollak wrote:
>
> On Sun, 28 Mar 2004, Carrol Cox wrote:
>
> > This sounds simply bizarre to me. I've read a good deal of Athenian
> > history, and I know of several massacres, but I know nothing at all
> > about such a systematic practice as Michael describes here.
>
> The systematic expropriation is of non-Greek natives, Carrol. (Remember,
> the original comparison was the Ireland here.) Greeks don't think of that
> as expropriation; they think of it as taking over unoccupied land. But
> there is no such thing as unoccupied good land. When people say they've
> found vacant land, they mean they are expropriating nomads without caring
> or noticing. Or as the Greeks called them, barbarians.
I guess this can continue only if we stop referring to greeks (since Greece did not exist) and talk about Athenians, Spartans, Corinthians, etc., and refer to specific "colonies" at specific times. I simply can't make any link between what you are talking about and what I know of Athens, etc.
Comparing England and Ireland to Athens and a colony estabished by Athens is like comparing printer difficulties to how to peel pears. They simply do not belong in the same conversation.
Carrol