2026-10-07 下午1:20 美国东部时间 / 哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）新闻
作者：
奥利维亚·加齐斯
奥利维亚·加齐斯负责哥伦比亚广播公司新闻的情报与国际安全领域报道。她曾两次获得艾美奖提名，随国务卿出访全球各地，并在CBS新闻的电视、广播、网络及流媒体平台上贡献关于情报、外交政策及其他安全议题的报道。
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雅典讯—— 在美国与伊朗进行代价高昂的战争、欧洲深陷乌克兰冲突泥沼之际，美国国务卿马可·鲁比奥周三站在雅典卫城前，回溯两千多年前的历史，辩称西方当前的问题至少可以部分从古希腊找到答案。
这场演讲选在雅典普尼克斯山的日落时分进行——这里曾是雅典民众聚集举行民主集会的场所。鲁比奥将古希腊不仅视为西方民主与哲学的源头，更将其描述为推动西方崛起的民族特质的来源。
“正是在雅典，我们首次完整实现了日后定义西方的所有核心特质，”鲁比奥说道，他列举了“强烈的个人主义和永不松懈的雄心”，以及“对探索、冒险、挑战与荣耀的渴望”。
他辩称，现代西方社会已经任由这些特质逐渐消退。
“坦率地说，我们这个时代诸多意识形态所追求的理想，已经变成了一个绝对安全的世界，一个没有风险与失败的世界，在这个世界里，既没有胜利的荣耀，也没有失败的耻辱，”鲁比奥说，“我们将我们当中最卓越的事物，都 hostage 给了平庸、普通与碌碌无为。”（注：原文为held…hostage，此处按语境调整为“都当作了人质，任由平庸、普通与碌碌无为摆布”）
据美国国务院一名高级官员透露，这场演讲有约250名受邀嘉宾到场，其中包括希腊高级政府官员、外交使团成员以及商业、教育和文化领域的代表。
此次演讲拓展了鲁比奥在2月慕尼黑安全会议上提出的议题，当时他警告欧洲面临“文明消亡”，并辩称美国与欧洲需要重拾共同的西方身份认同。尽管如此，他在慕尼黑的温和语气与一年前副总统JD·万斯在同一舞台上尖锐批评欧洲领导人的做法形成了鲜明对比，后者的言论曾让欧洲官员松了一口气。
在雅典卫城前，鲁比奥追溯了西方从古希腊到罗马、欧洲基督教，最终到美国的发展历程，途中提及亚历山大大帝、凯撒、查理曼大帝和哥伦布。他将美国的西部拓荒、工业发展和太空计划描绘为同一种驱动力的后续体现。
鲁比奥表示，西方如今正处于十字路口，“因为未来十年以及我们做出的决定，将书写下一个世纪的篇章”。
“我们选择的道路将决定，西方是继续保持世界领先地位，还是甘心走向萎缩、奴役与衰落。我们要么现在就采取行动，要么彻底失去选择的机会，”他说。
“在特朗普总统的领导下，美国已经做出了选择，”鲁比奥继续说道，“我们选择毫无歉意地追求国家实力，夺回对关键供应链的控制权，实现经济再工业化，重建国防力量，为争夺未来技术与产业的主导地位而战。”
鲁比奥所呈现的历史 arguably 带有选择性。（注：arguably此处译为“可以说”）在这个与民主和政治平等紧密相关的场所，他极少提及民主或政治平等，反而将重点放在竞争、国家忠诚和勇于承担风险的品质上。他辩称，现代社会过于追求“绝对安全”，更在意“最坏情况带来的安稳，而非最优秀者的潜力”。
“建造帕特农神庙的工匠们，他们向上攀登。他们坚信，人生最高尚、最崇高的抱负，就是超越他人，力争在一切领域做到最好，”他说。
这场精心筹备的演讲，正值鲁比奥此次出访主要聚焦于美国实力的更直接议题：美军可以在何处行动、北约盟友如何协助对抗俄罗斯与伊朗，以及美国能源如何取代欧洲对俄罗斯能源的依赖。
此次三国之行始于冰岛，周四将在葡萄牙结束，希腊是第二站。在冰岛，随着美国对北极安全的关注度日益提升，鲁比奥暗示美国可能会增加军事存在，他表示：“我们绝不会在未与当地官员就可用方案进行合作的情况下采取任何行动。我认为，双方有意愿开展更多合作。”
在雅典，鲁比奥会见了希腊外长乔治·杰拉佩特里蒂斯，举行了第六次美希战略对话，议题涵盖国防、能源与地区安全。在周三的新闻发布会上，鲁比奥称希腊是“强大且堪称典范的北约盟友”，而杰拉佩特里蒂斯则表示，如果能建立可行的和平进程，希腊可以在霍尔木兹海峡提供海事援助。
鲁比奥还被CBS新闻问及，是否相信美国大使金伯利·吉尔福伊尔的任期符合国务院道德准则——目前国会正在审查有关吉尔福伊尔利用外交职位为其在希腊的私人商业利益谋利的指控。
“这不是我们讨论这个问题的场合，”鲁比奥说，“简言之，我们的大使馆工作出色。我们的大使是一位强有力的大使。”吉尔福伊尔本人否认存在不当行为。
鲁比奥的此次访问与雅典卫城演讲，正值特朗普政府面临复杂局势之际。
美国与伊朗的战争已经打了七个月，仍未达成结束战争的协议。副总统JD·万斯本周表示，伊朗需要“切实”削减其铀浓缩能力，这引发了人们的质疑：美国政府是否正在放弃此前坚持的伊朗零浓缩铀的要求。
当被CBS新闻问及周三是否会澄清美国的立场时，鲁比奥拒绝透露华盛顿可能接受的浓缩铀水平（如果有的话）。
“我不明白伊朗核计划有什么好困惑的。伊朗不能拥有核武器。就是这么简单，结束了，”他说，“我不会去讨论哪些可以接受，哪些不可以接受。”
这场战争也推动石油和汽油价格大幅上涨，在中期选举临近之际，给美国国内带来了经济和政治代价。
在雅典卫城前的演讲中，鲁比奥直接提及了伊朗。在援引斯巴达战士在温泉关的战斗以及阿喀琉斯在特洛伊对荣耀的追求之后，他将西方的牺牲理念与他所说的伊朗“激进毛派政权”的“死亡崇拜”进行了对比。
“我们的英雄或许愿意为自己的事业献身，但他们并不崇拜死亡，”他说。
此次演讲之际，鲁比奥本人的政治未来也越来越受到关注。特朗普总统曾公开将鲁比奥和副总统万斯列为其阵营未来可能的领军人物。
鲁比奥周三并未直接提及自己的政治抱负，但他提到了本届政府近期取得的成就，包括他上个月协助促成的格陵兰岛协议。
“这是我们亲眼见证的愿景，”鲁比奥说，他辩称该协议将“重塑北极，加强整个北约的安全”。
“我们想要共同胜利，”他说，“我们必须共同胜利。”
Rubio calls for “unapologetic pursuit of national power,” invoking ancient Greece in Acropolis speech
2026-10-07 1:20 PM EDT / CBS News
By
Olivia Gazis
Olivia Gazis covers intelligence and international security matters for CBS News. Twice Emmy-nominated, she has traveled worldwide with the secretary of state and contributes reporting on intelligence, foreign policy and other security topics across CBS News broadcast, radio, online and streaming platforms.
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Athens— As the United States wages a costly war with Iran and Europe struggles with the grinding conflict in Ukraine, Secretary of State Marco Rubio stood before the Acropolis on Wednesday and reached back more than two millennia to argue that the answer to the West’s current problems can be found, at least in part, in ancient Greece.
In a speech timed to the sunset from the Pnyx, where Athenians gathered for their democratic assembly, Rubio cast ancient Greece as the source not only of Western democracy and philosophy, but of what he described as the character that fueled the West’s rise.
“Here, in Athens, we found the first full realization of all the essential traits that would come to define the West,” Rubio said, citing “fierce individuality and relentless ambition,” and “a yearning for discovery, for adventure, risk and glory.”
He argued that those modern Western societies had allowed those qualities to erode.
“The ideal of many ideologies in our time has, frankly, become a world of perfect safety, a world devoid of risk or failure, where neither the glory of victory, nor the shame of defeat,” Rubio said. “We hold the most exceptional things among us hostage to the average, the ordinary, the mediocre.”
His remarks were delivered before roughly 250 invited guests, including senior Greek government officials, members of the diplomatic corps and representatives of the business, educational and cultural sectors, according to a senior State Department official.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks at the Pnyx hill, where ancient Athenians held democratic assemblies, with the ancient Parthenon temple atop the Acropolis in the background, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026. AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, Pool
The speech expanded on themes Rubio laid out at the Munich Security Conference in February, when he warned that Europe faced “civilizational erasure” and argued that the U.S. and Europe needed to recover a shared Western identity. Still, his conciliatory tone in Munich came as a relief to European officials after Vice President JD Vance had used the same stage a year earlier to sharply rebuke the continent’s leaders.
In front of the Acropolis, Rubio traced the development of the West from ancient Greece through Rome, European Christianity and eventually the United States, citing Alexander the Great, Caesar, Charlemagne and Columbus along the way. He portrayed America’s frontier expansion, industrial development and space program as later expressions of the same drive.
Rubio said the West now stands at a crossroads, “because the next decade and the decisions we make will write the story of the next century.”
“The course we take will determine whether the West maintains its place at the head of the world or resigns itself to a future of atrophy and servitude and decline. We will either choose to act now or lose the choice to act at all,” he said.
“Under President Trump, the United States has made its choice,” Rubio continued. “We choose the unapologetic pursuit of national power, to take back control of our critical supply chains, to reindustrialize our economy, to rebuild our defense, to fight for dominance of the technologies and industries of the future.”
The history Rubio presented was arguably selective. He spoke relatively little about democracy or political equality at a site closely associated with both, focusing instead on competition, national loyalty and the willingness to take risks. He argued that modern societies too often seek “perfect safety” and concern themselves more with “the comfort of the worst than the potential of the best.”
“The men who made the Parthenon, they built upwards. They held that the highest and most noble aspiration in life was to surpass all others, to strive to be the best in all things,” he said.
The highly produced speech came during a trip largely devoted to more immediate questions of American power: where U.S. forces can operate, how NATO allies can help counter Russia and Iran, and how American energy can displace Russian supplies in Europe.
Greece was the second stop on a three-country tour that began in Iceland and ends in Portugal on Thursday. In Iceland, amid growing U.S. attention to Arctic security, Rubio left open the possibility of an increased American military presence, saying, “We’d never do anything without cooperating with officials here about what’s available. I think there is a willingness to do more together.”
In Athens, Rubio met Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis for the sixth U.S.-Greece Strategic Dialogue, focused on defense, energy and regional security. At a news conference Wednesday, Rubio called Greece a “strong and model NATO ally,” while Gerapetritis said Greece could provide maritime assistance in the Strait of Hormuz if a viable peace process is established.
Rubio was also asked by CBS News whether he was confident U.S. Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle’s tenure had complied with State Department ethics rules, amid congressional scrutiny over allegations that Guilfoyle used her diplomatic position to benefit private business interests in Greece.
“This is not the format where we’re going to address this,” Rubio said. “Suffice it to say our embassy has been doing a great job. Our ambassador has been a strong ambassador.” Guilfoyle has denied wrongdoing.
Rubio’s visit and Acropolis address come at a complex moment for the Trump administration.
The U.S. is seven months into its war with Iran and has yet to secure an agreement to end it. Vice President JD Vance said this week that Iran would need to make a “meaningful” reduction in its uranium enrichment capacity, raising questions about whether the administration was backing away from its earlier insistence on zero enrichment.
Asked Wednesday by CBS News to clarify the U.S. position, Rubio declined to say what level of enrichment, if any, Washington might accept.
“I don’t understand what the confusion is about the nuclear program. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. Simple, period and end of story,” he said. “I’m not going to go into, you know, into the details about what would be acceptable or not.”
The war has also helped push oil and gasoline prices sharply higher, adding an economic and political cost at home as the midterm elections approach.
In his remarks before the Acropolis, Rubio directly raised Iran. After invoking the Spartans at Thermopylae and Achilles’ pursuit of glory at Troy, he contrasted Western ideas of sacrifice with what he called a “cult of death” among Iran’s “radical mullahs.”
“Our heroes may be willing to die for their cause, but they do not worship death,” he said.
The speech also comes as Rubio’s own political future attracts increasing attention. President Trump has publicly raised both Rubio and Vice President Vance as possible future standard-bearers for his movement.
Rubio did not overtly mention his own ambitions Wednesday, but pointed to recent administration achievements, including the Greenland deal he helped broker last month.
“It is a vision we saw in action,” Rubio said, arguing the agreement would “reshape the Arctic and bolster the security of all of NATO.”
“We want to win together,” he said. “We must win together.”
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