Something is rotten in the State of Greece. This time the stench comes from the Foundation of the Hellenic World, which used to promote research on Greek civilisation outside the strict borders of the modern Greek state. This private Foundation (though heavily subsidised by the government) reached its peak a decade ago, when I received my postdoctoral fellowship from them. They funded my research on the Economy of Roman Asia Minor under the guidance of Prof. Stephen Mitchell at the University of Exeter. Today the tables have turned. I have just found out from a reliable source that they have already fired two archaeologists/ historians, a philologist and a sociologist, while they reduced a numismatist’s post to one day per week. And bad news keep coming. The administration decided to cut 18 % of the staff’s salaries. Salaries that have not been paid for the past two months anyway. Of course, more redundancies will soon follow. How many researchers will be jobless by the end of 2012 is only a matter of conjecture. It all depends on the finances of the foundation, the financial state of Greece (which we all know is not rosy), the TROIKA. By now we are well aware that historians and archaeologists are not highly valued in Europe, where economics has become the new religion. And I am wondering, has any of the powerful European politicians considered how the world would look like without historical knowledge?
