Long the political and religious center of the Hebrew people and for a brief time the chief center of Christianity, the city of Jerusalem has been chosen to represent the Judeo-Christian heritage of Western Civilization. Jerusalem is older than Rome, possibly even older than Athens (as far as habitation by the Greeks is concerned), and it will be helpful to keep that fact in mind. Solomon lived perhaps before there was a city of Rome. The kingdom of Judah fell almost a century before the Persians attacked Greece. [excerpt