Word: greeks
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...Trajan, his predecessor, had stretched the Roman Empire to its furthest reaches through aggressive military campaigns, sparking rebellions from Britain to the shores of the Persian Gulf. Once installed as ruler, Hadrian reversed the expansionist trend and withdrew troops from what is now Iraq. Thorsten Opper, a curator of Greek and Roman antiquities at the British Museum, says Hadrian realized then what coalition forces realize now: that it's easier to control territory through a friendly, well-functioning government than through occupation...
Hadrian also worked to secure his popularity outside the city, traveling the empire to cultivate alliances, particularly with the Greeks. Through iconography, he cast himself as the protector of Greek culture, which still held sway throughout the eastern Mediterranean and beyond: an imposing statue of Hadrian in military regalia shows him trampling a barbarian - powerful imagery in the Greek portion of the empire, which had been traumatized by rebellion. His breastplate further emphasizes the Greco-Roman union, displaying the Greek goddess Athena standing upon a she-wolf that was a symbol of Rome...
Papandreou's Back Greek voters returned Socialist Andreas Papandreou to power as Prime Minister four years after scandal drove the 74-year-old politician from the same office. He immediately reversed plans made by his conservative predecessor, Constantine Mitsotakis, to privatize large swaths of the Greek economy. Papandreou appointed his wife Dimitra to a top advisory position...
...problem is that the creators of the stage show--producer Judy Craymer, writer Catherine Johnson and director Phyllida Lloyd--gave themselves the job of turning it into a big movie, but none had ever worked on one, and the inexperience shows. A small point: the glare of the Greek sunlight is punishing to the face of anyone over 30. A larger one: the dance numbers are edited so choppily that the rhythm and feeling of the songs suffer...
Eventually, as Donna and her gal pals don trashy frocks to do Abba's greatest hits and a Greek chorus of villagers materializes as a backup group for practically every number, Mamma Mia!'s flouting of narrative and visual logic starts to suggest a cunning subversion. The film is not failed kitsch but triumphant Dada. It exists in an alternative universe, an Abbaworld, where 40 years telescopes to 20, the Seine is the Aegean, and Streep's outsize cheerfulness is the expression of a soul in mortal panic...