Areopagus Hill

This guide to Areopagus Hill in Athens starts with the bare rock's role as the city's ancient court of last resort, where judges heard murder and treason cases from as early as the seventh century BC, and where Cicero said all of Athens was effectively ruled after Sulla's conquest. It then follows the apostle Paul, who climbed these same steps around AD 50 and found an altar inscribed only to an unknown god among the city's many idols. Mind your footing on the way up — the marble is polished slippery by three thousand years of climbers.