ARISTOTLE AND HIS ANCIENT SURROUNDINGS.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) was a Greek philosopher born in the City of Stag'Ira, Chalk'Icide, a small town on the Northern Coast of Greece.
His father, Nico'Machus, was court physician to the Macedonian king Amyntas II. Although he died when Aristotle was just a young boy, Aristotle remained closely afiliated with and influenced by the Macedonian Court for the rest of his life. Pro'Xenus of At'Ar'Neus, who was married to Aristotle's older sister, Ar'Imne'Ste, became his guardian until he came of age.
Little is known about his mother, Phae'Stis; she is also believed to have died when leaving the young boy without parents. When he turned 17, Pro'Xenus sent him to Athens to pursue a higher education. At the time, Athens was considered the 'academic center of the universe.' In Athens, Aritotle enrolled in Plato's Academy, Greek's premier learning institution. Aristotle maintained a relationship with Plato, himself a student of Socrates, and his academy for 2 decades. Plato died in 347BC. Because Aristotle had disagreed with some Plato's philosophical treatises, Aristotle did not inherit the position of director of the academy.
Aristotle's friend Hermias, king of At'Ar'Neus and Ass'Os in Mysia, invited Aristotle to court. During his 3-year stay in Mysia, Aristotle met and married his first wife, Pythias, Hermias' niece. Together, the couple had a daughter, Pythias, named after her mother.
Stag'Ira, the birth place of Aristotle, was an ancient city, located in Central Macedonia, near the Eastern Coast of the Peninsula of Chalk'Idice. The name given to the peninsula is taken from a group of people native to this region, the Chalcideans, since the ancient times.
The peninsula, the easternmost 'finger' of the larger Chalk'Icide, hosts the Mount Athos with its densely forested slopes reaching up to 2,033 m/6,670fr. Though land-linked, the mountain is accessible only by ferry. Mount Cholomon covers almost all of the Central and East of Chalk'Icide. It resembles a hand with 3 fingers or peninsulas: Pallene (Kassandra), Sithonia, and Agion Oros (Acte) which contains Mount Athos.
Athos in Greek mythology is the name of one of the giants, a race of great strength and aggression, though not necessarily of great size, that challenged the Greek gods during the most important spiritual struggle between them. Athos threw a massive 'rock' against Poseidon which fell in the Aegean Sea and became Mount Athos.
The surroundings seas, especially at the end of the peninsula, are very dangerous. In ancient Greek history 2 fleet disasters in the area are recorded:- In 492BC Darius, the king of Persia, lost 300 ships and 20,000 men, by a strong North Wind while attempting to round the Coast near Mount Athos.  -In 411BC the Spartans lost a fleet of 50 ships.
Stag'Ira was founded in 655BC by Ionian settlers from Andros. The peninsula was on the invasion route of Xerxes I of Persia, who spent 3 years excavating a channel across the isthmus to allow the passage of his invasion fleet in 483BC. He occupied it in 480 BC. The city later joined the Delian League, an association of Greek city-states founded in 477BC, led by Athens, but left in 424BC. As a result, the Athenian demagogue Cleon laid siege to the city in 422BC. However, Cleon was a poor strategist and his conduct on the siege was very ineficient. He was satirised by Aristophanes in the play 'The Knights.' Cleo died in the same year, in the Battle of Amphipolis. Later Stag'Ira sided with Sparta against the Athenians in the Peloponnesian War.
In 384BC, Philip II of Macedon occupied and destroyed the city. In return for Aristotle's tutoring of his son Alexander, Philip later rebuilt the city and resettled the old city's inhabitants, who had been slaved. Many new structures were built at this time, including and aqueduct, 2 shrines to Demeter, and many houses.
In 338BC, Aristotle went home to Macedonia to start tutoring King Philip II's son, the then 13-year-old Alexander the Great. Philip and Alexander both held Aristotle in high esteem and ensured that the Macedonian court generously compensated him for his work.
In 335BC, after Alexander had succeeded his father as king and conquered Athens, Aristotle went back to the city. In Athens, Plato's academy, now run by Xeno'Crates, was still the leading influence on Greek thought. With Alexander's permission, Aristotle started his own school in Athens, called the Lyceum. On and off, Aristotle spent most of the remainder of his life working as a teacher, researcher, and writer at the Lyceum in Athens until the death of his former student Alexander the Great.
In the same year that Aristotle opened the Lyceum, his wife Pythias died. Soon after, Aristotle embarked in a romance with a woman named Herp'Yllis, who hailed from his hometown of Stag'Ira. She bore Aristotle children, including one son named Nico'Machus, after Aristotle's father.
In 323BC, after the sudden death of Alexander, the pro-Macedonian government was overthrown, and in light of anti-Macedonian sentiment. Aristotle was charged with impiety for his association with his former student and the Macedonian court. To avoid being prosecuted and executed, he left Athens and fled to Chalcis in the Island of Eu'Boea, where he remained until his death a year later.

THE CAROB TREE AND ITS HUMBLE PURPOSE.

The medium sized evergreen Carob tree has been in cultivation for at least 5000 years. The trees themselves are ancient having survived the last ice age and flourished throughout harsh climates and poor soils. It is now widely cultivated and well suited to dry infertile environments.
Because of its reliability as a food and fuel resource even during times of drought, the tree has been and still is a life giver continuing its long journey along the ages.
Evidence of the use of Carob products by humans date back to ancient Egypt and Greece. The ancient Egyptians used Carob to make the resinous adhesive used in mummification, and both pods and seeds have been found in Egyptian tombs. The ancient Greeks planted the seeds of this plant in Greece and Italy and was used as a source of food. Later, the Arabs planted the crop in Northern Africa, Spain and Portugal. During the Spanish Civil War and World Wars I and II, thousands of people credit their survival to the nutritious Carob pod. It is also believed that the fruit of the Carob was used to feed Mohammed's armies.
The name "Carob" comes from the Arabic "Kharoub" meaning "pod." The Greek word for "Carob" is "Keras" meaning "horn," in reference to its arc shaped pods. It is also known as "St. John's bread" and, according to the Scripture, sustained John the Baptist in the Wilderness. (Mark 1:16). Another Biblical reference to "Carob" is as the "locust bean" which tempted the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:16).
The Hebrew word for "Carob" is "Charub" and the dried fruity pods are eaten on the Jewish Holiday, Tu Bishvat.
The term "carat" is derived from the ancient practice of using the seeds from the Carob pods as a measurement of weight equal to one diamond or gemstone, because of their consistence in size and weight. It is said that the carob bean weighs a little over 200 milligrams, which is about the same weight as most small cut diamonds. Thus a diamond weighing the same as one carob bean was said to be one carat, two carob beans equals two carats, and so on. This system of measurement was used from 500 BC up until the 20th century.
The large, much branched evergreen Carob tree has a slow growing. It begins producing about 5 pounds of pods 6 to 8 years after planting and continues bearing fruit for 80 to 100 years. By the time the tree is 12 years old it produces approximately 100 pounds of bean pods per year, while older trees produce up to 250 pounds. In September and October the trees blossom and then take a further 11 months to develop thick, flat, green pods 15 to 30 centimeters in length. The flowers and clusters of bean pods are born directly from old growth twigs, branches and the trunk of the female trees. When mature the pods turn a glossy dark brown and become very hard. The curved, leathery pods contains about 10 hard seeds.
The Carob is a member of the legume family which includes such familiar plants as peas, beans, etc. But unlike most legumes, the flowers of the Carob are very small, inconspicuous and unisexual.
The pods are edible and rich in sucrose (40% plus other sugars) and protein (up to 8%), and contain vitamin A, B, and several important minerals.
The Carob has a slightly different taste than chocolate, and it has only 1/3 of the calories, compared to the ones contained in a pound of chocolate.  Yet unlike chocolate, carob is caffeine and theobromine free.The pods are ground into flour and used as a cocoa substitute. It is virtually fat-free and rich in pectin. Also the pods are non-allergenic because they do not contain oxalic acid, which interferes with the absorption of calcium.
Carob pods were the most widely used source of sugar for centuries before sugarcane and sugar beets became popular.
Carob pods now are being used as natural cocoa substitutes. The seeds yield a "gum" also known as "locust bean gum," which is used as a thickening agent, emulsifier, and stabilizer in beverages, candy, desserts, ice cream, salad dressings, cheeses, jelly, baked goods and other products.