well, undoubtabley, when it comes to westenr though there ar eno contender sagainst these two cities, but between them which was more imporatnt for the cultivation of the western way of thought?

Persoanlly I would have to say Athens - the first democracy (flawed though it was) gave rise to the freedoms that western socities have to think freely. In addition Greek science (rediscovered after the dark ages) was a foundation for much of the reneissance.

the thing is though, fo rthe ENTIRE hellenistic, and Roman eras it was Alexandria which was the center of thought- Athens had basically becoem the most prestigious collage town in the world though, but as far as research and things went, after the foundation of the great library, it shifted to Alexandria...

Athens for Plato/Socrates :)

the Greek philosophers/mathemathicians etc. were actually spread over the whole "Greek World". Most of them lived in Athens but others came from Miletos, Ephesos...

After Alexander, everything centered in Alexandria. With the exception of Archimedes (or did he live in the pre-alexandria age?)

We should still thank the Muslims for preserving most of their conscripts. The Catholic Church pretty much wiped out our knowledge and send us into the middle-ages.

I believe Athens gave a "kick start" to western ideology, but over all I believe Alexandria helped "preserve" that idea. IMO

Athens.

Athens for Democracy, and why not, civilsation

Originally posted by Ossric

After Alexander, everything centered in Alexandria. With the exception of Archimedes (or did he live in the pre-alexandria age?)


Archimedes lived during the time of the great library, and even read the works, and improved upon the mechinations (yes, mechinations!) of the man who invented the first mechinacal clocks, and is the inventor of hydrolics on a whole... very amazing, and impressive some of the things the Alexandrians were working on...

Originally posted by Aphex_Twin
Athens for Democracy, and why not, civilsation

a bit of a misconception I think- Greece itself as a long history, spanning even during the times during, and perhaps before the proto Greek civilizations of Mycenae, and Minoa of a... 'de centralized" monarchy- that meaning, that a king was never all powerful, he ruled with consent of the nobles in his actions- even homers portral of the war councils of the Trojan war show a form of democracy from the great noble councils...

not to mention, the idea of democracy seems to have spread from the greek colonies, which perhaps were influneced by the already established by the Roman republic ;)

Originally posted by Xen
not to mention, the idea of democracy seems to have spread from the greek colonies, which perhaps were influneced by the already established by the Roman republic ;)

You know, you and my last Latin teacher would be SOOO into each other if not for the age diference ;)