Lost Worlds of Ancient and Modern GreeceGilbert Bagnani:D. J. Ian BeggRead an ExcerptFind Out MoreBuy the BookSee ReviewsThe Adventures of a Young Italo-Canadian Archaeologist in Greece, 1921-19241.VengeanceIn September 1922 the lives and dreams of over a million Christians go up in smoke as Smyrna, the largest city in Turkey, is put to the torch. Tens of thousands of refugees from the interior of Anatolia are trapped in the inferno as they wait in vain to be rescued by the international ships lying at anchor out in the harbour. Remnants of the routed Greek army reassemble on the islands and set sail across the Aegean for Athens bound for revenge on their own leaders.Find Out MoreBuy the Book2.Back in TimeNine months before Smyrna perished, young Gilbert Bagnani is preparing to study archaeology in the eastern Mediterranean. Gilbert begins to meet the elite of ante-bellum Athenian society and politics.Find Out MoreBuy the Book3.Imposing RuinsGilbert is invited to a lavish reception in the Serpieri mansion where he meets King Constantine but he also meets with Venizelist political leaders. As an outsider and non-partisan observer, Gilbert records his encounters with the social leaders of both factions. Find Out MoreBuy the Book4.Marble SepulchresGilbert begins studying Greek archaeology at the Italian School while visiting members of the British and American Schools, which he calls “white sepulchres.” His colleagues include fellow student Doro Levi, Alan Wace and Carl Blegen, who would later become the best known Italian, British and American archaeologists working in Greece.Find Out MoreBuy the Book5.The Arms Merchant and the Secret AgentWith a Parisian banker Gilbert discusses the notorious Greek arms merchant Sir Basil Zaharoff, who controlled Vickers Armaments. Greece’s former allies, France and Italy, are caught sending military aid to the Turks, and Gilbert meets the Italian secret agent responsible.Find Out MoreBuy the Book6.Foreign CorrespondentGilbert secretly writes articles as an anonymous correspondent for the Morning Post newspaper in England, not only about archaeological discoveries but also about contemporary Greek politics. His sources are the families of the Royalist politicians as well as the out-of-office Venizelist politicians and generals. Find Out MoreBuy the Book7.The Oracle of Apollo and St. PaulGilbert guides rich friends on excursions to Eleusis, Delphi, Corinth and Mycenae. The ambiguous oracles of Apollo at Delphi are contrasted with the strict admonitions of St Paul at Roman Corinth. Gilbert gives public lectures on Greek archaeology.Find Out MoreBuy the Book8.The Renaissance at a Byzantine OutpostIn the Spring the Italian students travel around the Peloponnese on foot, horseback, carriages, boats, etc. Gilbert is fascinated by Mistra, which had been the capital of Byzantine Greece. Traveling through the formerly Turkish northwest region of Greece is even more arduous as there are still thieves, and the police investigating a local bank robbery hold the students for questioning. Find Out MoreBuy the Book9.ExposedLord Apsley, the son of the owner of the Morning Post, inadvertently exposes Gilbert’s secret identity when he comes to Athens to offer Gilbert a permanent position as their Foreign Correspondent in Greece.Find Out MoreBuy the Book10.The Knights of RhodesIn the Dodecanese, Gilbert is enthralled by the well-preserved buildings and streets of the old Crusader town of the Knights Hospitaller of St. John on Rhodes. He also visits the Knights’ castles on Kos and at Bodrum in Anatolia.Find Out MoreBuy the Book11.The King of KosWhen Gilbert sails to the island of Kos, it is the inter-War world of the Dodecanese under Italian control, and he excavates a Roman theatre. From the famous sanctuary of Asklepios, Gilbert can see the Anatolian coast. In the capital of Kos he encounters the Captain of the Bersaglieri, a Sardinian poet with a violent temper, whom he calls the King of Kos.Find Out MoreBuy the Book12.Sailing the Wine-Dark SeaThe Italian Governor of the Dodecanese takes Gilbert sailing on his torpedo boat around the Dodecanese. On July 12 Gilbert sails to Smyrna to visit an acquaintance. Gilbert is entertained by the British Consul, Sir Harry Lamb.Find Out MoreBuy the Book13.Monasteries in the AirBack in mainland Greece, near Pharsalos in Thessaly, the Italian students excavate a cave of the Nymphs and risk their lives climbing joined ladders up to the cliff-hugging monasteries at Meteora.Find Out MoreBuy the Book14.In the Labyrinth of Minoan CreteIn August the students sail to a swelteringly hot Crete to visit Knossos, the vast Minoan palace excavated by Sir Arthur Evans. On the south side of the island the Italians had been excavating the Minoan palace at Phaistos and the Roman city of Gortyn.Find Out MoreBuy the Book15.InfernoThe same day that Gilbert sails away from Athens back to Italy in September, 1922, the Greek High Commissioner abandons Smyrna, both men leaving behind worlds about to end violently. After scattering the Greek armies, Turkish troops occupy Smyrna. Tens of thousands die or disappear and over a million Greek Orthodox civilians are forced to flee what had been their homeland for three thousand years.Find Out MoreBuy the Book16.ExecutionsWhat is left of the Greek army stages a coup in Athens, exiling King Constantine and arresting royalist politicians. After a military show trial, the imprisoned politicians are hastily executed, and an incarcerated Prince Andrew (father of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh) barely escapes with his life and his young family, thanks to a British secret agent. Find Out MoreBuy the Book17.Murder in LuxorIn striking contrast to Gilbert’s first arrival in ante-bellum Athens, the Athens that he sails back to in January 1923 for his second year is now cold and grim, with tens of thousands of refugees everywhere, living in closed schools, churches and theatres. Travers Allan, an acquaintance of Gilbert’s and grandson of one of the richest men in Canada, is murdered in Luxor, Egypt, where he had been visiting the sensational excavations of the intact tomb of Tutankhamen, becoming the first victim of the pharaoh’s curse! Find Out MoreBuy the Book18.The Walls of the CyclopesGilbert travels around the Peloponnese with a Canadian friend, Verschoyle Blake, who writes his own diary and letters about traveling with Gilbert. A new Greek friend and now embittered admirer of King Constantine, Anna Kozadinou, is suspected of a political crime and, after warning Gilbert that she is in serious trouble, he destroys his letters from her.Find Out MoreBuy the Book19.Back to ByzantiumThe students sail to the semi-independent male-only peninsula of Mt. Athos to stay at the monasteries there, where life has not changed from Byzantine times. Back in Athens, accompanied by Anna Kozadinou, Gilbert boldly visits Admiral Goudas in prison and General Stratigos under house arrest. Find Out MoreBuy the Book20.The Island of PoseidonIn June, after a very stormy crossing, the Italian students land on the island of Karpathos. They excavate basilicas from a Golden Age when Karpathos flourished by supplying ships and sailors for the Byzantine Empire in the early Christian era. Gilbert suggests that the harbour at Leukos was the lost city of Nisyros, where he discovers remains of a temple, extensive quarries, and an elaborate underground cistern. The Italians climb up to the isolated mountain-top village of Elymbos, where they find a matriarchal society still speaking a form of Greek derived from the ancient Dorian dialect.Find Out MoreBuy the Book21.Paradise LostGilbert returns to the ruins of Smyrna and describes the desolation of what was left of the once flourishing city. He spends two weeks with political friends on Mykonos and visits the sanctuary of Apollo on Delos.Find Out MoreBuy the Book22.Mission to the Underworld: Spying for MussoliniAfter a border delegation of Italians is massacred near the Greek Albanian frontier, Gilbert is asked to spy around the Peloponnese by the Italian Ambassador and so he hikes with two Greek friends around Arkadia to find the source of the Styx, the legendary river at the entrance to the underworld. Find Out MoreBuy the Book23.Lost Greek EmpiresIn 1924 Gilbert finally sails to Constantinople, former capital of both the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires, and stays at the Italian Embassy in Galata across the Golden Horn. He is on an information-gathering quest for Italians who are still hoping to gain from any opportunity in a war between Turkey and Russia.Find Out MoreBuy the Book24.Land of the Golden FleeceDespite warnings of the dangers, Gilbert crosses the Russian frontier to the sea-port of Batoum in Soviet Georgia, the mythical land where Jason led the Argonauts to the Golden Fleece, now an outlet for liquid gold through an oil pipeline from Baku on the Caspian Sea. After writing another article, he sails back to Constantinople, Athens, and home, his mission in the East accomplished.Find Out MoreBuy the Book
