Historical Rivalries

Greeks have a millenia old (almost...) animosity with Turks, but things go much better now. Our animosity with the Bulgarian is even older, although that one is retreating as well. There is in some minds a three-millenia old vendetta with the Jews, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for proof on that one.

In the antiquity the main enemies of Greeks were the Persian - until we managed to bring them under the Greek yoke... I mean, bring the Greek culture to them . We had many contacts despite the animosity and lots of Greeks served Persian kings or wannabe kings, but in the end we conquered them nevertheless.

The Romans were never considered "enemies" by the Greeks. Even by the time they conquered us, we thought of them as kin, trying to settle our petty internal rivalries (yes, we Greeks have a long history of internal struggle... even up to our days). Later we even went so far to adopt their name (Romeoi, Romioi - pronounced Roh-mjee) and we still don't hesitate to refer to the common culture as "Graeco-Roman". Today we say "Graeco-Italiano, one face, one race".

As to which the ages-long friends of Greeks are... hmm... The Armenian were always on good terms with us, and also the eastern Slavs (the Orthodox ones). The Romans (and the modern Italians, the incident in WW2 was just that - an incident... something we can't say for the Venetians in the middle ages though - but seems we have a long tradition of becoming vassals of our friends ) also.

 In ancient times Greeks had lots of contacts and long-lasting friendship with the Skythes and most of all the Egyptians. The latter must've been the best friend the Greeks had and it's quite fascinating the fact that the same people constantly under rebellion when ruled by the Persian, were the best and more obedient subjects under the Greek Lagides dynasty. They did see Alexandros as a liberator and they cheered him as god. And that wasn't the first attempt of the Greeks to liberate Egypt from the Persians - the Athenians send at least two large expedition force to aid Egyptians in two rebellions.

There are more, rivals and friends, I am forgetting right now.

I mean, just see the amount of tourists per year, that come flooding from all around the globe to Greece to take a glimpse at the Akropoli and other ruins.

Of course, there's also those wonderful sandy islands of the Aegean!

Modern Greece isn't about Plato, Archimedes or Pericles. It is a different reality. But their heritage still lives on, echoing through the centuries...

THE ENGLISH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The ignorant also have an irrational contempt for the Irish- by the by i blame the english- completly ignorant that ireland is their ancestoral home