4. Athens (Acts 17:15-34) was the most cultivated city of the old world; a statue was set upon every corner and an altar in every street. "Here the human mind had blazed forth with a splendor it has never exhibited elsewhere. In the golden age of its history Athens possessed more men of the very highest genius than have ever lived in any other city. To this day their names invest her with glory. Yet even in Paul's day the living Athens was a thing of the past. Four hundred years had elapsed since its golden age, and in the course of these centuries it had experienced a sad decline. Philosophy had degenerated into sophistry, art into dilettanteism, oratory into rhetoric, poetry into verse making. It was a city living on its past." Paul entered into the open places where the people gathered and talked with them. So much interest was aroused by what he had to say that he was asked to speak to them upon Mars Hill. Thither they all went. Paul as his custom was sought a common starting point in the altar to the unknown God. So long as he spoke of God and man in general terms he was listened to, but when he came to touch their hearts and consciences and to apply what he said, speaking of the judgment through Christ and His resurrection from the dead, he was left alone. Paul did not fail, the trouble with the Athenians was that they possessed only intellectual curiosity; they had no appetite for the truth. But still some converts were made. "Certain men clave unto him and believed; among whom were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them" (Acts 17:34).