Besides these wonders of art, the city contained places of interest of which the memory will perpetually remain—the academy where Plato, whose estate lay near it, gave his lesson's in a grove of plane-trees•adorned with statues; tradition alleged it to have belonged originally to Academus. Hipparchus surrounded it with a wall, and Cimon adorned it with walks, fountains, and olive-groves. The lyceum, the most important of the Athenian gymnasia, where Aristotle lectured; and, near to this, the cynosarges, where Antisthenes the Cynic expounded his "harsh and crabbed" doctrine; the hill of the areopagus, where the most venerable court of judicature was held; and the prytaneum. or senate-house. About a quarter of a mile to the w. of the acropolis rises a low hill, which marks the locality of the pnyx, a place of public assembly, forming a large semicircular area, bounded at the base by a limestone wall, from which projects a pedestal, carved out of the rock, and ascended by steps. This most interesting place has been preserved almost in its integrity, and, as we look around, we are carried back to the times when some 6000 Athenian citizens were here assembled, when the orator, standing upon the pedestal, could survey the acropolis, with all its temples, the venerable areopagus, and beyond the city the extended plains and villages of Attica, with corn-fields, olive-grounds, and vineyards.
A., in its most flourishing period, numbered 21,000 free citizens; from which we may calculate that it contained about 200,000 inhabitants. More than 2000 years have passed over the beautiful city, and still its remains excite the admiration of the world. The Turks surrounded it with wide irregular walls, partly built out of the ruins of the old walls, and containing many fragnments of noble columns. Of the propyhra, the right Wing, or temple of victory, was destroyed in 1656 by the explosion of a powder maga zine. Six columns, with lofty arches, remain to mark the site of the opposite wing. The interior of the parthenon was used for some time as a Turkish mosque. Eight columns remain on the e. of the front, several colonnades at the sides; and of the back pediment, where the combat of 3linerva and Neptune was sculptured, nothing remains save the head of a sea-horse, and two decapitated female figures. Of the pediment in front, several figures belonging to the group representina. the birth of Minerva are pre served in the British museum, and justly regarded as masterpieces of ancient sculpture. Of all the statues which the parthenon contained, only one, that of Hadrian, has been preserved. Ruined as it has been, the general aspect of the parthenon is still sublime. Of the erechtheium (or temple of Neptunus Erechtheius) considerable vestiges remain, especially the beautiful female figures styled caryatides.
The situations and vast extent of the two theaters may still be traced, though grain is now grown in the arenas. All these remains belong to the acropolis. In the city below, there are no such splendid memorials. The horologium, or octagonal temple of the winds (built by Andronicus Kyrrhestes), has been well preserved; but a few frag ments fouud in broken walls are all that remain to tell of the splendid gymnasium built by Ptoleniteus. Beyond the city, the attention of the spectator is arrested by the sublime
ruins of the temple of Jupiter Olympus. Pedestals and inscriptions have been found here and there, sometimes buried in the earth. The sculptures on the friezes of the interior of the temple of Theseus, representing the exploits of Theseus, have been well preserved, while the external sculptures are almost utterly destroyed. A Turkish burial-place now occupies the hill where the areopagus held its sittings. The site of the lyceum is indicated only by scattered stones, and a modern house and garden occupy the place of the academy. Scarcely anything remains to show the old mag nificence of the harbors Peirmeus, Phaleros, and Munychia.
It is probable that, in the time of Pausanias, many structures remained belonging to the period before the Persian war, as Xerxes, during his short time of mastery over A., would scarcely have been able to destroy more than the fortifications and principal public buildings. Themistocles, in his restoration of the city, had chiefly a regard to utility; Cimon paid attention to its decoration; but Pericles far exceeded them in the magnificence of his designs, which were too vast to he carried into effect in later times. The civilization, spreading from A. as its center, raised Macedon and other states into dangerous rivalry. The defeat at Chteroneia was as fatal to the fine arts as to the liberty of the Athenians. After the works at the Peirteus had been destroyed by Sulfa, the naval power, and with it the whole political importance of A., rapidly declined. It is true that the city was treated leniently by its conquerors; the temples and statues were preserved from violation, and A., with all the trophies of eight centuries of greatness, remained under the Antonines; but the free national spirit of the Athenians had departed forever, and slowly, but surely, the fine arts shared the fate of Grecian liberty. Their treasures, which had been spared by the Roman emperors, were gradually stolen away by various thievish collectors, especially for the decoration of Byzantium, or were destroyed by irrefiective Christian zeal and barbarian invasion. About 420 A.D., the ancient religion amid temple4ervice of .A. bad entirely disappeared; afterwards, the schools of philosophy were closed by Justinian, and Greek mythology was gradually forgotten. St. George took the place of Theseus, and the partheuon was converted into a church. The surviving industry of A. was injured by Roger of Sicily, who removed its silk manufactures. In 1456, A. fell into the hands ot Omar, and, to consummate its degradation, under the low, sensual Turks, the city of Athene was regarded as an appanage of the harem, and governed by a black eunuch. The Venetians, having captured the city in 1687, intended to carry away as a trophy the quadriga of victory from the w. front of the parthenon, but shattered it in their attempt to remove it. In 1688, A. was again delivered into the hands of the Turks, and the work of demolition now proceeded rapidly. The grand remains of antiquity were used as quarries to supply materials for all ordinary buildings, and, in the course of another century, the city was reduced to its lowest point of degradation.