TOPOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES The Attic plain, Td 7r€Biov, slopes gently towards the coast of the Saronic gulf on the south-west ; on the east it is overlooked by Mt. Hymettus (3,369ft.) ; on the north-east by Pentelicus
ft.) from which, in ancient and modern times, an immense quan tity of the finest marble has been quarried ; on the north-west by Parnes (4,636ft.), and on the west by Aegaleus (1,S32ft.), which descends abruptly to the bay of Salamis. In the centre a ridge, perhaps the ancient Anchesmus, but now known as Turcovuni, runs from north-east to south-west and culminates in the sharply pointed Lycabettus (I,' I 2 f t.) , now called Hagios Georgios from the monastery which crowns its summit. Lycabettus, the most prominent feature in the Athenian landscape, directly over hung the ancient city, but was not included in its walls. This range separates the valleys of the Cephissus and Ilissus. The former, rising in Pentelicus to the north-west, enters the sea at Phalerum, but in summer dwindles to an insignificant stream. The latter, coming from Hymettus, skirts the city on the south-west and is now usually dry owing to denudation caused by the destruc tion of the forests. This desiccation of Attica was first noticed by Plato. Separated from Lycabettus by a depression to the south west, through which flows a brook, now a covered drain (probably the Eridanus), stands the remarkable oblong rocky mass of the Acropolis (512ft.), rising precipitously on all sides except the western ; close to it on the west is the lower rock of the Areop agus, ''Apecos ira-yos (3 7 7 f t. ), the seat of the famous council; the name (see also AREOPAGUS) has been connected with Ares, but is more probably derived from the 'Apai or Eumenides. Farther west are three elevations; to the north-west the so-called "hill of the Nymphs" (341ft.), on which the modern observatory stands; to the west the Pnyx (3 51 f t. ), and to the south-west the loftier Museum hill (48 2 f t.) . A cavity to the west of the observatory is supposed to be the ancient Barathron or place of execution. The distance from the Acropolis to the nearest point of the sea coast at Phalerum is a little over three miles.
Influence of the Geographical Position.—The situation of Athens naturally favours the growth of a powerful community. For the first requisites of a primitive settlement—food supply and defence—it afforded every advantage. The Attic plain, notwith standing the lightness of the soil, furnished an adequate supply of cereals ; olive and fig groves and vineyards were cultivated from the earliest times, and pasturage for sheep and goats was abun dant. The surrounding mountains are broken towards the north east by an opening between Hymettus and Pentelicus towards Marathon, and are traversed by the passes of Deceleia, Phyle and Daphne on the north and north-west, but the distance between these and the city was sufficient to obviate the danger of surprise by an invading land force. On the other hand Athens, like Corinth, Megara and Argos, was sufficiently far from the sea to enjoy security against the sudden descent of a hostile fleet. Yet the three natural harbours, Peiraceus, Zea and Munychia, favoured maritime commerce and the sea power which formed the basis of Athenian hegemony. The climate is temperate, but liable to sudden changes; the mean temperature is 63°.I F, the maximum (in July) 99°•01, the minimum (in January) 30.55. The summer heat is moderated by the sea-breeze or by cool northerly winds from the mountains (especially in July and August). The clear, bracing air, according to ancient writers, fostered the intellectual and aesthetic character of the people and endowed them with mental and physical energy. For the architectural adornment of the city the finest building material was procurable in abundance; Pentelicus forms a mass of white, blue-veined marble; another variety, somewhat similar in appearance, but generally of a bluer hue, was obtained from Hymettus. For ordinary purposes grey limestone from Lycabettus and the adjoining hills, limestone from the promontory of Acte (the so-called "poros" stone), and con glomerate were largely employed. For the ceramic art admirable material was at hand in the district north-west of the Acropolis. The water supply then, as now, being insufficient for a large and growing city, was supplemented by an aqueduct constructed in the time of the Peisistratids and by others of the Roman period. A great number of wells were also sunk and rain-water was stored in cisterns.
For the purposes of scientific topography observation of the natural features is fol lowed by exact investigation of the architectural remains, a process demanding high technical competence, acute judgment and prac tical experience, as well as wide and accurate scholarship. The building material furnishes evidence no less important than the character of the masonry, the design and the modes of orna mentation. The testimony afforded by inscriptions is often of decisive importance. Next comes the evidence derived from ancient literature and specially from descriptions of the city or its different localities. The earliest known description of Athens was that of Diodorus, o ;r€pory rigs, who lived in the second half of the 4th century B.C. Among his successors were Polemon of Ilium (beginning of 2nd century B.c.) whose great KOU/.LLK7) 7rEperrynvis gave a minute account of the votive offerings on the Acropolis and the tombs on the Sacred Way; and Heliodorus (second half of the 2nd century), who wrote 15 volumes on the monuments of Athens. Of these and other works of the earliest topographers only some fragments remain. In the period between A.D. 143 and 159 Pausanias visited Athens at a time when the monuments of the great age were still in their perfection and the principal em bellishments of the Roman period had already been completed. The first 3o chapters of his invaluable Description of Greece (7rEpayncrcs T775 `EXX os) are devoted to Athens, its ports and environs. His account, drawn up from notes taken in the main from personal observation, possesses an especial importance for topographical research, owing to his method of describing each object in the order in which he saw it during the course of his walks. His accuracy, which has been called in question by some scholars, has been remarkably vindicated by recent excavations at Athens and elsewhere. The literature of succeeding centuries furnishes only isolated references ; the more important are found in the scholia on Aristophanes, the lexicons of Hesychius, Photius and others, and the Etymologicum Magnum. The notices of Athens during the earlier middle ages are scanty in the extreme. In 1395 Niccolo da Martoni, a pilgrim from the Holy Land, vis ited Athens and wrote a description of a portion of the city. Of the work of Cyriac of Ancona, written about 1450, only some fragments remain, which are well supplemented by the contem poraneous description of the capable observer known as the "Anonymus of Milan." Two treatises in Greek by unknown writers belong to the same period. The Dutchman Joannes Meur sius (1579-1639) wrote three disquisitions on Athenian topog raphy. The conquest by Venice in 1687 led to the publication of several works in that city, including the descriptions of De La Rue and Fanelli and the maps of Coronelli and others. The system atic study of Athenian topography was begun in the 17th century by French residents at Athens, the consuls Giraud and Chataignier and the Capuchin monks. The visit of the French physician Jacques Spon and the Englishman, Sir George Wheler or Wheeler (1650-1723), fortunately took place before the catastrophe of the Parthenon in 1687; Spon's Voyage d'Italie, de Dalmatie, de Greee et du Levant, which contained the first scientific descrip tion of the ruins of Athens, appeared in 1678; Wheler's Journey into Greece, in 1682. A period of British activity in research fol lowed in the 18th century. The monumental work of James Stuart and Nicholas Revett, who spent three years at Athens (1751-54), marked an epoch in Athenian topography and is still indispensable, owing to the demolition of ancient buildings which began about the middle of the 18th century. To this period also belong the labours of Richard Pococke and Richard Dalton, Rich ard Chandler, E. D. Clarke and Edward Dodwell. The great work of W. M. Leake (Topography of Athens and the Demi, 2nd ed., 1841) brought the descriptive literature to an end and inaugurated the period of modern scientific research.
Recent investigation has thrown a new and unexpected light on the art, the monuments and the topog raphy of the ancient city. Numerous and costly excavations have been carried out by the Greek Government and by native societies, and the six foreign archaeological schools, while accidental dis coveries have been frequently made during the building of the modern town. The native archaeologists of the present day hold a recognized position in the scientific world; the patriotic sentiment of former times, which prompted their zeal but occasionally warped their judgment, has been merged in devotion to science for its own sake, and the supervision of excavations, as well as the control of the art-collections, is now in highly competent hands. The supreme importance of a study of Greek antiquities on the spot, long understood by scholars in Europe and in America, has gradually come to be recognized in England, where a close atten tion to ancient texts, not always adequately supplemented by a course of local study and observation, formerly fostered a pe culiarly conservative attitude in regard to the problems of Greek archaeology. Since the foundation of the German Institute in 1874, Athenian topography has to a large extent become a spec ialty of German scholars, among whom Wilhelm Dorpfeld is dis tinguished by his architectural attainments and local knowledge. In recent years he has been succeeded by the American B. H. Hill, who has won fame by his researches on the Acropolis.
The Acropolis is so well defended by nature and so accessible to the means of life and to the springs at its foot that it was occupied by man from the earliest times. Re mains of the neolithic period similar to those from Thessaly and the Greek mainland have been found, and they are succeeded by plentiful traces of bronze age inhabitation. The first and second periods are represented, and in the third the rock was fortified like the citadels of Mycenae and Tiryns. A cyclopean wall runs round the natural edges of the rock and is best preserved at the south-west end behind the temple of Nike and at the north-east angle by the Erechtheum. Here there seems to have been an en trance leading perhaps to a "palace" of which traces are seen in two "Mycenaean" column bases in the foundations of the old Athena temple. Other walls assigned to the same date and many fragments of pottery, especially of the last phase of the bronze age, show that Athens, even in prehistoric times, was not insignifi cant. This is borne out by the Homeric reference to the "strong house of Erechtheus" (Od. vii. 81) and by the numerous traces of the same period throughout Attica. (See AEGEAN CIVILIZATION.) Remains of the early iron age are common on the Acropolis and also of the "Dipylon" or "Geometric" period which help to demon strate that that phase of art was not suddenly introduced by in vaders such as the Dorians, who never settled in Attica, but was merely one stage in the evolution of Greek culture, though prob ably affected by some external influence.
The early fortifications of the Acropolis, sometimes ascribed to the primitive non-Hellenic Pelasgi, must be distinguished from the Pelasgicum or Pelargicum, which was probably a wall, built around the base of the citadel and furnished with nine gates from which it derived the name of Enneapulon. Such a wall would protect the clusters of dwellings around the Acropolis as well as its springs, while the gates opening in various directions would give access to the surrounding country. This view, that of E. Curtius, alone harmonizes with the statement of Herodotus (vi. 137) that the wall was "around" (7repi) the Acrop olis, and that of Thucydides (ii. I7 ) that it was "beneath" Orb) the fortress. Thus the citadel would have had an outer and an inner line of defence. The space enclosed by the outer wall was left unoccupied after the Persian wars in deference to an oracle. A portion of the outer wall has been recognized in a piece of primi tive masonry discovered near the Odeum of Herodes Atticus. Dorpfeld believes it to have extended from the grotto of Pan to the sacred precinct of Asclepius. It enclosed the spring Clepsydra, beneath the north-western corner of the Acropolis which is ap proached by a rock-cut staircase, and was once more included in the fortress during the War of Independence by the Greek chief Odysseus.
On the north-eastern slope of the Pnyx is an immense double terrace (395ft. by 212ft.), the upper part cut in the rock, the lower supported by a semicircular retaining wall of massive masonry. This has been thought to be prehistoric, but excavation has shown that it cannot be older than the 4th century, though there are traces of a yet older wall. The whole area seems to have formed a sanctuary, possibly of Zeus, but there is no rea son to reject the opinion that this was the meeting-place of the Athenian assembly. The semicircular retaining wall was probably much higher and supported a large theatre-like structure which sloped down towards the rock-cut terrace. Here a cube of rock (lift. square, 5ft. high) projects from the centre of the chord of the semicircle and is approached on each side by a flight of steps. This, which Curtius supposes to have been the primitive altar of Zeus
may be safely identified with the orators' bema, 6 Mos (Aristoph. Pax. 68o). Other cubes of rock, apparently altars, exist in the neighbourhood. The Pnyx was clearly the seat of an ancient cult ; the meetings of the Eccle sia were of a religious character and were preceded by a sacrifice to Zeus 'A-yopaios.
The Pnyx, the hill of the Nymphs and the Museum hill are covered with vestiges of supposed early settlements which extend towards the south-east in the direction of Phalerum. They consist of chambers, some of which were human habitations, cisterns, channels, seats, steps, terraces and tombs, all cut in the rock. This was held by Curtius to have been the site of the primaeval rock city, Kpavaa rats (Aristoph. Ach. 75), afterwards abandoned in favour of the Acropolis. This view is not generally accepted. Some of the rock tombs were afterwards converted, under pres sure of necessity, into habitations, as in the case of the so-called "prison of Socrates," which consists of three chambers horizon tally excavated and a small round apartment.
The Areopagus is now a bare rock possess ing few architectural traces. The seat of the old oligarchical council and court for homicide was probably on its eastern height. Here were the altar of Athena Areia and two stones, the XLOos "T(3pEcos, on which the accuser, and the XLOoc 'Avacbelas, on which the accused; took their stand. Beneath, at the north-eastern corner, is the cleft which formed the sanctuary of the 2;Eµvai, or Erinyes. It is not certain whether this was the scene of St. Paul's address to the Athenians.
The earliest settlement on the Acropolis was doubtless soon increased by dwellings at its base, which would nat urally lie close to the western approach. After the building of the Pelargicum they seem to have extended beyond its walls towards the south and south-west—towards the sea and the Ilissus. The district occupied faced the sun and was sheltered by the Acropolis from northerly winds. The Thesean synoecism led to the f ounda tion of new shrines partly on the Acropolis, partly in the inhabited district at its base both within and without the Pelargicum. Some are mentioned by Thucydides in a passage of capital importance for the topography of the city (ii. 15). By degrees the inhabited area took in the ground to the north-west, the nearer portion of the later Ceramicus, or "potters' field," and eventually extended north and east of the citadel, which, by the 5th century B.C., had become the centre of a circular or wheel-shaped city, rroaws
&Kpa Kapflva (oracle apud Herod. vii. 14o). To this enlarged city was applied, about the second half of the 6th cen tury, the special designation To aaTV, which afterwards distin guished Athens from its port, Peiraeeus; the Acropolis was already 7) rats (Thucyd. ii. 15) . The city is supposed to have had a wall before the time of Solon, the existence of which may be de duced from Thucydides' account of the assassination of Hippar chus (vi. S7), but no certain traces have been discovered.
The centre of commercial and civic life was the agora or market. Here were the various public buildings which, when power was transferred to the archons, formed the offices of the administration. The site of the primitive agora (apxaia a-yopa) was perhaps in the hollow between the Acropolis and the Pnyx. Under the Peisistratids the agora was enlarged over the inner Ceramicus on the north-west, apparently reaching the northern declivities of the Areopagus and the Acropolis. After the Persian Wars the northern portion was used for commercial, the southern for political and ceremonial purposes. In the southern were the Orchestra, where the Dionysiac dances took place, and the fa mous statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton by Antenor which were carried away by Xerxes; also the Maroon, or temple of the Mother of the Gods, the Bouleuterion, or council-chamber of the Five Hundred, the
the hearth of the combined com munities, where the guests of the State dined, the temple of the Dioscuri, and the Tholos or Skias, a circular stone-domed build ing in which the Prytaneis were maintained at the public expense ; in the northern were the Leocorium, where Hipparchus was slain, the o ro (3aatAucri, the famous vroa IroucLXf, where Zeno taught, and other structures. Of all these buildings hardly a trace remains and their positions are largely conjectural.
The Enneacrunus fountain has hitherto been generally identified with the spring Callirrhoe in the bed of the Ilissus, south-east of the Olympieum; it is apparently placed by Thucydides (ii. 15) close to that building, as well as the temple of Dionysus iv Xlµvacs and other shrines, the temples of Zeus Olympius and of Ge and the Pythium, which he mentions as situ ated mainly to the south of the Acropolis. On the other hand, Pausanias (i. 14. i) mentions the Enneacrunus in his description of buildings undoubtedly in the region of the agora, and unless he is guilty of an unaccountable digression the Enneacrunus which he saw must have lain west of the Acropolis. Excavations here re vealed a main road of surprisingly narrow dimensions winding up from the agora to the Acropolis. South-west of the point where the road turns towards the Propylaea was found a large rock-cut reservoir which Dorpfeld identifies with the Enneacrunus. This is supplied by a conduit of 6th-century tiles connected with an early stone aqueduct which runs beneath the Dionysiac theatre and the royal garden in the direction of the upper Ilissus. These waterworks were, according to Dorpfeld, constructed by the Peis istratids to increase the supply from the ancient spring Callirrhoe, which was furnished with nine jets and so known as Ennea crunus. This identification has been hotly contested and must still be regarded as undecided. Close by is a triangular enclosure of polygonal masonry, in which were found relics relating to the worship of Dionysus, a very ancient wine-press (Xnvos) and a small temple. Built over this early precinct, which Dorpfeld identifies with the Dionysium iv Xlµvacs, or Lenaeum, is a basilica-shaped building of the Roman period, apparently sacred to Bacchus; in this was found an inscription containing the rules of the society of the Iobacchi. There is an obvious difficulty in assuming that Muvac, in the sense of "marshes," existed in this area. So Dorp f eld's identification of the Dionysium, iv X i.vacs cannot be re garded as proved; his view that another Pythium and another Olympieum existed here is still less probable ; but this does not necessarily invalidate his identification of the Enneacrunus. The whole district was found to have been thickly built over ; the mean dwelling-houses and crooked lanes confirm an ancient topog rapher's picture of the contrast between the modest private residences and the great public structures of the ancient city.
The age of the Peisistratids (56o-511 B.c.,) marked an era in the history of Athenian topography. In addition to the temple of Olympian Zeus and the Enneacrunus, they laid out the Academy and perhaps the Lyceum. The famous seat of the Platonic philosophy was a gym nasium enlarged as a public park by Cimon ; it lay about a mile to the north-west of the Dipylon gate. The Lyceum, where Aris totle taught, was originally a sanctuary of Apollo Lyceius. It also contained a gymnasium and garden and lay to the east of the city beyond the Diocharean gate.
Little was known of the buildings on the Acropolis in the pre Persian period till the Greek excavations under Kavvadias from 1885 onwards. Then much of the debris of the sculpture and archi tecture ruined by the Persians was unearthed—a splendid series of archaic statues of maidens with the original colours still fresh, fragments of Attic vases from the ateliers of famous potters, bronzes and terra-cottas. Some fragmentary pedimental groups sculptured in soft limestone and highly painted are important as giving clues for the existence of early shrines. Attempts have been made to identify these as the Pandroseum, old Erechtheum and a small temple which would have stood on the site of the Parthenon, and have had one end apsidal like the old temple at Thermum, but none of the suggestions made are generally accepted. The most important discovery perhaps was that of the old Athena temple which stands on the supposed "House of Erechtheus," per haps a palace shrine and the seat of the primitive cult of Athena.
This, the ancient Hecatompedon, is identified with an early temple, i oof t. long, the foundations of which immediately adjoin the south side of the Erechtheum. The foundations belong to the 7th century, except those of the colonnade, probably added by Peisistratus. According to Dorpfeld, this was the "old temple" of Athena Polias, mentioned in literature and inscriptions, in which was housed the most holy image (Eoavov) of the goddess which fell from heaven; it was burnt, but not completely destroyed, during the Persian War, and some of its entablature was built into the north wall of the Acropolis; it was subsequently restored, he thinks, with or without its colonnade—in the former case a portion of the peristyle must have been removed to make room for the caryatids porch of the Erechtheum; the building was burnt in 406 B.C. (Xen. Hell. i. 6. I ), and the fire is that mentioned by Demos thenes (In Timocr. xxiv.
; its "opisthodomos" served as the Athenian treasury in the 5th and 4th centuries; the temple is the apXaios v&; r T-s HoXt6Bos of Strabo (ix. i6), and it was still standing in the time of Pausanias, who applies to it the same name (i. 27. 3) . That the foundations are those of an old temple burnt by the Persians has been generally accepted, but other portions of Dorpfeld's theory—especially his assumption that the temple was restored after the Persian War—have been contested. Perhaps the temple was repaired to provide a temporary home for the venerated image; no traces of a restoration exist, but the walls probably remained standing after the Persian conflagration. The removal of the ancient temple was undoubtedly intended when the Erechtheum was built, but superstition may have prevented its demolition and the removal of the oavov. The temple consisted of an eastern cella with pronaos; behind this was the opistho domos, divided into three chambers—possibly treasuries—with a portico at the western end. The peristyle, from the measurements of the stylobate and of the column drums built into the wall of the Acropolis, would have consisted of six Doric columns at the ends and 12 at the sides. A representation of the reception of Heracles to Olympus, sculptured in soft limestone and painted, occupied the pediment of the early temple. When Peisistratus added the colonnade it was replaced by a gigantomachy in marble. Fragments of both these groups exist and also some marble reliefs supposed to belong to its later frieze.
The almost complete destruction of the buildings on the Acropolis and in the city, among them many shrines which religious sentiment might have preserved, facili tated the magnificent architectural designs of Themistocles, Cimon and Pericles, while the rapid growth of the Athenian empire pro vided the necessary means for their execution. After the de parture of the Persians the first necessity was the reconstruction of the defences. The walls, now built under the direction of The mistocles, embraced a larger area than the previous circuit, with which they coincided at the Dipylon gate on the north-west where the Sacred Way to Eleusis was joined by the carriage route to Peiraeeus and roads to the Academy and Colonus. The other im portant gates were the Peiraic and Melitan on the west the Itonian on the south leading to Phalerum, the Diomeian and Diocharean on the east, and the Acharnian on the north. The wall, strengthened with numerous towers, enclosed the quarters of Collytus on the north, Melite on the west, Limnae on the south west and south, and Diomeia on the east. The remains have not been systematically excavated except by the Dipylon ; sepulchral monuments built into the masonry illustrate the statement of Thucydides with regard to the employment of such material in the hasty construction. The circuit has been ascertained in its general lines; it is given by Thucydides (ii. 13. 7) as 43 stades (about 51-m.) exclusive of the portion between the points of junc tion with the long walls to Peiraeeus, but the whole circumference cannot have exceeded 37 stades.
The design of connecting Athens with Peiraeeus by long parallel walls is ascribed by Plutarch to Themis tocles. The "Long Walls" (ra µaipa
Ta
consisted of (I) the "North Wall" (TO (3opaaov reZXos), (2) the "Middle" or "South Wall" (re ola µEaov TELXos, Plato, Gorg. 555 E; TO POT LOP TEZXos) ; and (3) the "Phaleric Wall" (TO 4aXflpLKOv TEiXos). The north and Phaleric walls were perhaps founded by Cimon, and completed about 457 B.C. in the administration of Peri cles; the middle wall was built about 445 B.C. The north wall, leaving the city near the modern observatory, ran from north-east to south-west near the present road to Peiraeeus, until it reached the Peiraeeus walls a little to the east of their northernmost bend. The middle wall, beginning south of the Pnyx near the Melitan gate, gradually approached the northern wall and, following a par allel course at an interval of 5 5of t., diverged to the east near the modern New Phalerum and joined the Peiraeeus walls on Muny chia where they turn inland from the sea. The course of the Pha leric wall has been much disputed. The widely received view of Curtius that it ran to Cape Kolias (now Old Phalerum) on the east of the Phaleric bay is not now accepted. The wall proved in defensible and was abandoned towards the close of the Pelopon nesian War; with the other two walls it was destroyed after the surrender of the city, and was not rebuilt by Conon in 393 B.C. The parallel walls fell into decay during the Hellenistic period and, according to Strabo (ix. 396), were demolished by Sulla.
The advantages Peiraeeus with its three harbours offered for defence and commerce were first recognized by Themistocles, in whose archonship (493 B.C.) its fortifications were begun. Before his time the Athenians used as a port the road stead at the north-eastern corner of Phalerum bay partly sheltered by Cape Kolias. On the completion of the city walls, Themistocles resumed the construction of the Peiraeeus defences, which pro tected the larger harbour of Cantharus on the west and the smaller ports of Zea and Munychia, terminating in moles at their en trances and enclosing the promontory on the land and sea sides except a portion of the peninsula of Acte. The walls were about 'oft. in thickness and upwards of 6oft. in height, and were strengthened by towers. The town was laid out in straight, broad streets, intersecting at right angles, by the architect Hippodamus of Miletus under Pericles. In the centre was the agora of Hippo damus ; on the western margin of the Cantharus harbour the em porium, or Deigma, the centre of commercial activity, flanked by porticoes; at its northern end, near the entrance to the inner har bour, was another agora, on the site of the modern market-place, and near it the µaKpa aroa, the corn depot of the State. This inner and `shallower harbour, perhaps the KoxPos X utw, was excluded from the town precinct by the walls of Conon, which traversing its opening on an embankment (r6 8ia jEgov Xceµa) ran round the western promontory of Eetioneia, previously enclosed by the wider circuit of Themistocles. In the harbours of Zea and Muny chia traces may be seen of the remarkable series of galley-slips in which the Athenian fleet was built and repaired. Those around Zea were roofed by a row of gables supported by stone columns, each gable sheltering two triremes. Among the other noteworthy build ings were the arsenal (aKFvoOiiKv) of Philon and the temples of Zeus Soter, the patron god of sailors, of the Cnidian Artemis, built by Cimon, and of Artemis Munychia situated near the fort on Munychia ; traces of a temple of Asclepius, of two theatres and of a hippodrome remain. The fine marble lion which stood at the mouth of the Cantharus harbour gave Peiraeeus its mediaeval and modern names of Porto Leone and Porto Draco; it was carried to Venice by Morosini.
The Ceramicus gives the best opportunities for studying both the cemeteries and walls of Athens. The latter divide the region into the inner and outer Cer amicus and three stages are clearly seen, the wall of Themistocles, the restoration by Conon in 393 B.C., and a reconstruction by Lycurgus some 6o years laters. The Dipylon gate belongs to the last stage and consists of an inner and outer double gate separated by a rectangular court and flanked by towers on either side. Just within it is a fountain house. South lies another gate by the side of the Eridanus and here issued the sacred way leading to Eleusis. Outside the city this is bordered by tombs, the marble reliefs of which stand in family groups above the level of the road and date mainly from the 4th century B.C. Two boundary stones inscribed opos KepaµaKoii have been found and tombs of all periods, class ical, "Mycenaean" and "Geometric" which first yielded "Dipy lon" ware. Monuments to some persons interred at the public ex pense suggest that this was the scene of Pericles' famous funeral speech. Excavations, not yet completed, have revealed the Pom peium, a shrine of the Tritopatreis, and sluices for diverting the waters of the Eridanus to irrigate gardens outside the city. The Acropolis of the Classical Period.—The Acropolis ceased to be a fortress after the expulsion of Hippias ; and was defended against the Persians by a wooden barricade. The forti fications were again demolished by the Persians, after whose de parture the existing north wall was erected in the time of Themis tocles ; many fragments from the buildings destroyed by the Per sians were built into it, possibly owing to haste, as in the case of the city walls. The fine walls on the south and east were built by Cimon after the victory of the Eurymedon, 468 B.C. ; they extend considerably beyond the prehistoric circuit, the intervening space being filled up with the debris of the ruined buildings so as to in crease the level space. On the north Cimon completed the wall of Themistocles at both ends and added to its height ; the ground behind was levelled up on this side also, the platform of the Acropolis thus receiving its present shape and dimensions. The staircase leading down to the sanctuary of Aglaurus was enclosed in masonry. At the south-western corner, on the right of the old entrance, an early bastion was encased in a rectangular projection which formed a base for the temple of Nike.
The greater monuments of the classical epoch on the Acropolis are described in separate articles. (See PARTHENON ; ERECH THEUM ; PROPYLAEA.) Next in interest to these is the beautiful little temple of Athena Nike, wrongly designated Nike Apteros (Wingless Victory), standing on the bastion mentioned ; it was be gun after 450 B.C. and was probably finished after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. The temple, which is entirely of Pentelic marble, is amphiprostyle tetrastyle, with fluted Ionic columns, resting on a stylobate of three steps; its length is 2 7 f t., its breadth i 82f t., and its total height, from the apex of the pediment to the bottom of the steps, 23 feet. The frieze represents on the east a number of deities, on the north and south Greeks fighting with Persians, and on the west Greeks fighting with Greeks. Before the east front was the altar beneath which an earlier altar has been found. The irregularly shaped precinct was enclosed by a parapet about aft. tin. in height, decorated on the outside with beautiful reliefs representing winged Victories engaged in the worship of Athena. The treatment of the drapery suggests that the parapet was added in the latter years of the Peloponnesian War. The temple was still standing in 1676; some eight years later it was demolished by the Turks, and its stones built into a bastion; on the removal of the bastion in 1835 the temple was re constructed by Ross. At either corner of the Propylaea entrance were equestrian statues dedicated by the Athenian knights; the bases with inscriptions have been recovered. From the Propylaea a passage led eastwards along the north side of the Parthenon; facing the entrance was the colossal bronze statue of Athena Promachos by Pheidias, probably set up by Cimon in commemora tion of the Persian defeat. The statue, 3of t. high, represented the goddess as fully armed ; the gleam of her helmet and spear could be seen by the mariners approaching from Sunium (Pausanias i.
28). On both sides were numerous statues, one of Athena Hygeia (whose altar lies at the south-east angle of the Propylaea), set up by Pericles to commemorate the recovery of a slave injured during the building of the Parthenon, a colossal bronze image of the wooden horse of Troy and Myron's group of 1Vlarsyas and Athena. Another statue by Myron, the Perseus, stood near the precinct of Artemis Brauronia, lying between the south-eastern corner of the Propylaea and the wall of Cimon. Adjoining it to the east was a large rectangular building, which was apparently fronted by a colonnade; this has been identified with the XaXKoOi,io, a storehouse of bronze implements and arms. Be yond the Parthenon, a little to the north-east, was the great altar of Athena, and near it the statue and altar of Zeus Polieus. Im mediately west of the Erech theum is the Pandroseum or temenos of Pandrosos, the daughter of Cecrops, seen here by Pausanias (i. 27). This precinct, in which the sacred olive tree of Athena grew, has been fixed by an inscription. Between it and the Propylaea were a number of statues, among them the heifer of Myron, and perhaps his Erechtheus; the Lemnian Athena of Pheidias, and his effigy of his friend Pericles.
The reconstruction of the city after its demolition by the Persians was not carried out on the lines of a definite plan like that of the Peiraeeus. The houses were hastily repaired, and the narrow, crooked streets remained; the influence of Themistocles, who aimed at transferring the capi tal to Peiraeeus, was probably directed against any costly scheme of restoration, except on the Acropolis. The period of Cimon's administration, however, especially the interval between his vic tory on the Eurymedon and his ostracism 468-461 B.C., was marked by great architectural activity in the lower city as well as on the citadel. To his time may be referred many of the build ings around the agora (probably rebuilt on the former sites) and elsewhere, and the passage, or Spoµos, from the agora, to the Dipy lon flanked by long porticoes. The Theseum proper, which lay to the east of the agora near the Acropolis, was built by Cimon : here he deposited the bones of the national hero which he brought from Scyros about 470 B.C.
The Hephaesteum, the so-called Theseum, is situated on a low hill, the Colonus Agoraeus, west of the agora. The best pre served Greek temple in the world, it possesses no record of its origin; the style of its sculptures and architecture suggests that it was built about the same time as the Parthenon, and finished by 421 B.C. It has been known as the Theseum since the middle ages, apparently because some of its sculptures represent the exploits of Theseus, but its identification with the temple of Hephaestus and Athena seen by Pausanias (i. 14. 6) is practically certain, not withstanding the difficulty presented by the sculptures, which bear no relation to Hephaestus. The temple is a Doric peripteral hexa style in antis, with 13 columns at the sides; its length is io4ft., its breadth 452ft., its height, to the top of the pediment, 33 feet. The sculptures of the pediments have been lost, but their design has been ingeniously reconstructed by Sauer. The frieze contains sculptures only in the metopes of the east front and in those of the sides immediately adjoining it ; the frontal metopes represent the labours of Heracles, the lateral the exploits of Theseus. As in the Parthenon, there is a sculptured frieze above the exterior of the cella walls ; this, however, extends over the east and west fronts only and the east ends of the sides; the eastern represents a battle-scene with seated deities on either hand, the western a centauromachia. The temple is of Pentelic marble, except the foundations and lowest step of the stylobate, which are of Peiraic stone, and the frieze of the cella, which is in Parian marble. The preservation of the temple is due to its conversion into a church in the middle ages.
The Dionysiac theatre, situated beneath the south side of the Acropolis, was partly hollowed out from its declivity. The representation of plays was transferred here from the original Orchestra in the agora by the beginning of the 5th century B.C. ; it afterwards superseded the Pnyx as the meeting-place of the Ecclesia. Here the first structures were provisional and of wood, and traces have been found of the early orchestra and auditorium which had its seats in straight lines. This was replaced by a stone theatre during the administration of Lycurgus (337-323 B.c.), but the present ar rangement of stage and orchestra date from Roman times. The stage-building consisted of a rectangular hall with square projec tions (rapaaKin'La) on either side ; in front of this was built in late Greek or early Roman times a stage with a row of columns which intruded upon the orchestra space; a later and larger stage, dating from the time of Nero, advanced still farther into the orchestra, and this was finally faced (probably in the 3rd century A.D.) by the "bema" of Phaedrus, a platform-wall decorated with earlier reliefs, cut down to suit their new position. The remains of two temples of Dionysus have been found adjoining the stoa of the theatre, and an altar of the same god adorned with masks and festoons ; the smaller temple probably dates from the 6th century B.C., the larger from the end of the 5th or the beginning of the 4th century.
Immediately west of the theatre is the sacred precinct of As clepius, where were discovered the foundations of the temple, to gether with several inscriptions and a great number of votive re liefs offered by grateful invalids. A Doric colonnade with a double row of columns extended along the base of the Acropolis for a distance of 54Yd. ; behind it in a chamber hewn in the rock is the sacred well mentioned by Pausanias. The colonnade was a place of resort for the patients; a large building close beneath the rock was probably the abode of the priests. East of the theatre and closely related to it was the Odeum of Pericles, the only building which can be assigned to him, though he may have designed the first plan of the theatre too. This was a large rectangular hypo style hall with probably six rows of six marble columns, which would have replaced the original wooden columns at its restora tion by Ariobarzanes of Cappadocia after its destruction by Sulla in 86 B.C. Plutarch says that the Odeum imitated the tent of Xerxes, but it is possible that he may be referring only to the roof of the building.
The beautiful choragic monument of Lysicrates, dedicated in the archonship of Euaenetus (335-334 B.c.), is the only survivor of a number of such structures which stood in the "Street of the Tripods" to the east of the Dionysiac theatre, bearing the tripods given to the suc cessful choragi at the Dionysiac festival. It owes its preservation to its former inclusion in a Capuchin convent. The monument con sists of a small circular temple of Pentelic marble, 2 r ',ft. in height and 9f t. in diameter, with six engaged Corinthian columns and a sculptured frieze, standing on a rectangular base of Peiraic stone. The delicately carved convex roof, composed of a single block, was surmounted by the tripod. The frieze represents the trans formation of the Tyrrhenian pirates by Dionysus into 'dolphins. Another choragic monument was that of Thrasyllus, which faced a cave in the Acropolis rock above the Dionysiac theatre. A por tion of another, that of Nicias, was used to make the late Roman gate of the Acropolis. In one of these monuments was the famous Satyr of Praxiteles.
After the age of Alexander, Athens was adorned with many new buildings, a tribute paid to her intel lectual renown by foreign potentates or dilettanti, who desired to add their names to the list of its illustrious citizens and patrons. Among the first of these benefactions was the great gymnasium of Ptolemy, built in the neighbourhood of the agora about 25o B.c. Attalus I. set up a number of bronze statues on the Acropolis; Eumenes II. built the long portico west of the Dionysiac theatre; Attalus II. erected the magnificent Stoa near the agora, which has been identified by an inscription. The Stoa consisted of a series of 21 chambers, probably shops, faced by a double colonnade, the outer columns being of the Doric order, the inner unfluted, with lotus-leaf capitals, it possessed an upper storey fronted with Ionic columns.
The greatest monument, however, of the Hellenistic period, the colossal temple of Olympian Zeus, "unum in terris inchoatum pro magnitudine dei" (Livy xli. 2o), stood by the Ilissus, south-east of the Acropolis: Its foundations were laid on the site of a small ancient shrine by Hippias, but the building in its ultimate form was for the greater part constructed under the auspices of An tiochus IV. Epiphanes, king of Syria, by the Roman architect Cossutius between 174 and 164 B.C., the date of the death of An tiochus. The work was apparently resumed under Augustus and, finally, in A.D. 129, completed and dedicated by Hadrian, who set up a chryselephantine statue of Zeus in the cella. The building was octostyle ; its length was 318f t., its breadth 13 2 f t. With the ex ception of the foundations and two lower steps of the stylobate, it was entirely of Pentelic marble, and possessed 1o4 Corinthian col umns, 56ft. Tin. in height, of which 48 stood in triple rows under the pediments and 56 in double rows at the sides; of these, 16 re mained standing in 1852, when one was blown down by a storm. The Olympieum of Hippias was to be of the Ionic order.
An earlier building of this period is the Horologium of Andronicus of Cyrrhus (the "Tower of the Winds"), still standing near the eastern end of the Roman agora. This may belong to the 2nd or 1st century B.C. ; it is mentioned by Varro (De re rust. iii. 5. 17), and therefore cannot be of later date than 35 B.C. It is an octagonal marble structure, 42ft. in height and 26ft. in diameter; the eight sides, which face the points of the compass, are furnished with a frieze containing inartistic figures in relief representing the winds ; below it, on the sides fac ing the sun, are the lines of a sundial. It was surmounted by a weathercock in the form of a bronze Triton and contained a water-clock to record the time when the sun was not shining.
The new, or Roman, agora to the north of the Acropolis, per haps mainly an oil market, was constructed after the year 27 B.C. It consisted of a large open rectangular space surrounded by an Ionic colonnade into which opened a number of shops or store houses. The eastern gate was adorned with four Ionic columns on the outside and two on the inside, the western entrance being the well-known Doric portion of Athena Archegetis with an inscrip tion recording its erection from donations of Julius Caesar and Augustus. The Agrippeum, a covered theatre, derived its name from Vipsanius Agrippa, whose statue was set up, about 27 B.C., beneath the north wing of the Acropolis propylaea, on the high rec tangular base still remaining. At the eastern end of the Acropolis a charming circular temple of white marble with a peristyle of nine Ionic columns was dedicated to Rome and Augustus. The conspicuous monument which crowns the Museum hill was erected as the mausoleum of Antiochus Philopappus of Commagene, grandson of Antiochus Epiphanes, in A.D. 114-116. It was nearly square, but the only portion remaining is the slightly curved front, with three niches between Corinthian pilasters; in the central niche is the statue of Philopappus.
The Emperor Hadrian was a lavish benefactor. He enlarged the circuit of the city walls to the east, enclosing the area now covered by the royal and Zappeion gardens and Constitution square. This was the City of Hadrian (Hadrianopolis) or New Athens (Novae Athenae) ; a handsome suburb with numerous villas, baths and gardens; its walls were fortified with rectangular towers. The Arch of Hadrian near the Olympieum marked the boundary between the new and the old cities. This is sur mounted by a triple attic with Corinthian columns; the frieze above the keystone bears, on the north-western side, the inscrip tion a%8' E'icT' 'AOi vac, Ono-Los irpiv ir6Xcs and on the south eastern, ai8' Eii' `ABpcavoi3 Kai oUXi Or rives rats. The library of Hadrian, mentioned by Pausanias, was probably in the vast rectangular enclosure, immediately north of the new agora. A portion of its western front, adorned with monolith unfluted Corinthian columns, is still standing—the familiar "Stoa of Hadrian"; another well preserved portion, with six pilasters, runs parallel to the west side of Aeolus street. The interior consisted of a spacious court surrounded by a colonnade of zoo columns, into which five chambers opened at the eastern end. A portico of four fluted Corinthian columns on the western side formed the entrance to the quadrangle. A Pantheon, a gymnasium and temples of Hera and Zeus Panhellenius were likewise built by Hadrian ; the aqueduct, which he began, was completed by Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161) ; it is still in use.
The Stadium, in which the Panathenaic Games were held, was first laid out by the orator Lycurgus about 33o B.C. It was an oblong structure filling a depression, partly natural, partly arti ficial, near the left bank of the Ilissus beneath the eastern declivity of the Ardettus hill. The immense building, however, which was restored in 1896 and the following years, was that constructed in Pentelic marble about A.D. 143 by Tiberius Claudius Herodes Atticus, a wealthy Roman resident. The seats, rising in tiers, as in a theatre, accommodated about 44,00o spectators; the arena was 6 7of t. in length and 1 o9f t. in breadth. The Odeum, built beneath the south-west slope of the Acropolis after A.D. 161 by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife Regilla, is comparatively well preserved. The plan is that of the conventional Roman theatre ; the semi-circular auditorium, which seated some 5,000 persons, is, like that of the Dionysiac theatre, partly hollowed from the rock. The orchestra is paved with marble squares. The facade, in Peiraic stone, displays three storeys of arched windows. The whole building was covered with a cedar roof.
