⚡U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday, 15 Mehr, in a speech on the Pnyx Hill in Athens, the birthplace of ancient democracy, that the United States should continue the civilizational legacy of Greece and Rome and called for a “rebirth of the spirit of the West” based on its historical roots and founding values. The U.S. Department of State has described Rubio’s remarks as an important address about democracy and its future.

Standing in front of the Acropolis, Rubio said that the civilizations that built Athens’ monuments have inspired the Western world for thousands of years, adding: “The history of America, my country, is covered with traces of the ancient era.” He pointed to columns, domes and buildings in Washington, and even the Greek name “Philadelphia,” the birthplace of the U.S. Constitution, as signs of this link.

Referring to the Parthenon, which he said has witnessed the rise and fall of empires for 25 centuries, Rubio said that the children of the civilizations of Athens and Rome took their legacy across the world. He added that two and a half centuries after the founding of the American republic, as its Secretary of State, he is standing in Athens to testify to the “debt that neither the passage of time nor geographic distance can ever erase.”