U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio delivered a major speech in Athens calling for a renewal of Western civilization and a return to the values he said first emerged in ancient Greece.

Speaking from the historic Pnyx with the Acropolis as his backdrop, Rubio connected the political and philosophical legacy of Athens with the development of Europe and the United States.
"Athens gave us democracy."

But Rubio argued that Greece gave the West something deeper than political institutions.
He pointed to individuality, ambition, exploration, invention, courage, duty, honor and the belief that the unknown can be understood.
"Here in Athens we found the first full realization of all the essential traits that would come to define the West."

Rubio traced that inheritance through Greek philosophy, Christianity, European exploration, the American founding and the scientific achievements that ultimately took humanity to the Moon.
He also used the speech to make a sharply political argument about the modern West.
"Nationalism became a dirty word."