Two early Greek visitors to Britain

I have posted in previous years about the subjects of this post but a recent article on the Greek Reporter website is I think worth sharing about these two Greek men, Demetrios of Tarsus in the first century AD and, before him, in the early third century BC, Pytheas of Massalia, who were the first Greeks to visit Britain - and in the case of Pytheas, to record and codify its name.

 

In the case of Demetrios a chance archaeological find in 1840 - appropriately enough for a traveller on the site of York’s first railway station - links him to the wider structure of Roman governance and to the wider world. Growing up when he must have done in Tarsus, I am always tempted to wonder if he ever met a Jewish contemporary called Saul?

The article can be viewed at Demetrios: The Ancient Greek Who Traveled to England - GreekReporter.com