Brothers:

Join us (YouTube participants link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V6hohKlHoNc) on Sunday, August 30 at 2 PM EST (11 AM PST, 9 PM Athens) for EMBCA’s “2,500th Year Anniversary of The Battle of Thermopylae and Salamis Commemoration” Panel Discussion Zoom Webinar, in association with the Order of AHEPA Hellenic Cultural Commission and AHEPA District 6. This event is part of the events we discussed at our District Convention as well as subsequent District 6 meetings. The panel discussion has in it the foremost authorities relating to the battles brought together in a unique way to discuss among the most pivotal battles in world history.

I will make the Opening Remarks, discuss with the Mayor of Sparta Petros Doukas the upcoming events in Sparta relating to the 200th Anniversary of the Hellenic Revolution, and introduce the Commemoration panel discussion. The panel moderator will be Prof. Joel Allen the Executive Officer of the PHD Program in History of the Graduate Center/Queens College and Prof. of Classics. The highly distinguished panelists for this unique historical discussion on the battles 2,500 Year Anniversary (August for Thermopylae/September for Salamis in 480 BCE) will include the Mayor of Sparta Petros Doukas (and former Deputy Minister of Finance/Foreign Affairs), Prof. Chris Carey Emeritus Professor of Greek at University College London (UCL), Jennifer T. Roberts, Professor of Classics at the Graduate Center - CUNY, and Prof. Barry S. Strauss the Bryce and Edith M. Bowmar Professor at Cornell University. This event is among those planned for the upcoming 200th Anniversary of the Hellenic Revolution of 1821 and culminate next year in July 2021 with the Order of AHEPA Supreme Family Convention in Athens.

***An Important AHEPA Historical Note - The Battle of Thermopylae monument near the ancient battle site and the famous bronze statue there of Leonidas, King of the ancient Lacedaemonians (Spartans in the West) was commissioned by the Order of AHEPA in honor of Leonidas and all 300 Lacedaemonians who were killed in the battle. The statue was dedicated by King Paul of Hellas in 1955 with AHEPA. A sign, under the statue, reads simply: “ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ” (“Come and take them”) and words spoken by Leonidas in response to Xerxes l request to surrender their arms. The ancient inscription nearby - Ὦ ξεῖν', ἀγγέλλειν Λακεδαιμονίοις ὅτι τῇδε κείμεθα, τοῖς κείνων ῥήμασι πειθόμενοι/Oh stranger, tell the Lacedaemonians that we lie here, obedient to their words. The Leonidas bronze statue in Sparta also with the inscription ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ, was erected at Sparta in 1968.

Fraternally yours,

Brother Lou Katsos

AHEPA District 6 Governor