ACROPOLIS, the high part of any an cient Greek city; usually an eminence over looking the city and frequently its citadel. Notable among such citadels were the Acropo leis of Argos, of Messene, of Thebes and of Corinth; but pre-eminently the Acropolis of Athens, to which the name is now chiefly ap plied. This was the original city (as indeed most of the acropolises date from the times of barbaric insecurity), later the upper city as distinguished from the lower, and was built upon a separate spur or butte of Hymettus. The hill rises out of the plain, a mass of rock about 260 feet high, with precipitous sides save for a narrow access at the western end where there was a zigzag road for chariots. The sum mit of this rock forms an uneven plain 500 by 1,150 feet at the maximum breadth and length. Within this area were reared, chiefly in the days of Pericles, remarkable specimens of ar chitectural art. The buildings were grouped around two principal temples, the Parthenon and the Erechtheum. Between these temples
stood the statue of Athene Promachos ("fighter in front"), by Phidias, the helmet and spear of which were the first objects visible from the sea. About these centre-pieces, covering the rocky height and extending down the steep sides, were lesser temples, statues, theatres, fanes and odea (music halls). Among the famous buildings on the sides of the Acropolis were the Dionysiac theatre, the Odeum of Pericles and the Odeum, built by Herodes At ticus in honor of his wife Regina. The rav ages of accident and war and Athenian marble merchants, and in case of the Parthenon (q.v.) its deliberate dismantling by Lord Elgin early in the 19th century, have largely destroyed and despoiled these classic works. Archaeologists have secured many important remains of the Acropolis, which are preserved in the col lections of various European capitals and in the new archaeological museum at Athens.