The most notable building of ancient times in this portion of the city is the so-called Theseum, a well-preserved hexastyle peripteral temple in the Doric style (104 feet by 44 feet), situated on a slight eminence north of the Areopagus, and west of the market-place. The name is certainly wrong, as the sanctuary of Theseus was in an other part of Athens, and was a large inclosure; but the true name of the building is still uncer tain. though modern archaeological opinion tends in favor of the temple of Hepluestus, which must, have stood in this quarter of the city. The Theseum was built about the same time as the Parthenon, and probably somewhat earlier, though on this point authority is divided. Of the pediment sculptures no trace remains, but at the east end of the portico are sculptured metopes, and across each end of the cella is a frieze in relief. The metopes represent the labors of Heraeles and Theseus; the subject of the west frieze is the battle between the Centaurs and LapithT, and that of the east a battle in the presence of six seated gods. During the Middle Ages the building was changed into a church, but with little change of the exterior, Outside the Themistoclean Wall to the southeast of the Acropolis was the great temple of Olympian Zeus, begun by Pisistratus, but long left unfin ished. About B.C. 174 Antiochus Epiphanes of Syria completed, or rather rebuilt, the temple, on a scale of magnificence which led Livy to say that, though unfinished, it was the only one on earth corresponding to the greatness of the god. The great platform measures 676 feet by 426 feet, and on this the architect Cossutius erected a temple 354 feet by 135 feet, measured on the upper step of the stylobate. It had three rows of eight Corinthian columns at each end, and two rows of twenty columns each at the sides, count ing the corner columns twice. The magnificent scale of the work again delayed its completion, and it was not till the second visit of the Em peror Hadrian (A.D. 129) that it was finally dedicated. At present only 16 eolumns re main, one of which lies where it was prostrated by an earthquake. These columns are 56 feet 7 inches high and 5 feet 7 inches in diameter at the base, with 24 flutings. Excavations have brought to light the foundations of the earlier temple of Pisistratus.
Not far from the Olympieum, across the llis sus, was the Stadium, laid out in a hollow be tween low parallel hills. The ground inclosed by the seats is 670 feet long by lOS) feet wide. The Stadium seems to have been constructed by the orator Lycurgus, about B.C. 330, but was later
rebuilt in white marble by Herodes Atticus, about A.D. 340. Most of this structure was burned for lime during the Middle Ages; but at the celebration of the Olympic Games in 1898 it was refitted, in part with marble, by the liberality of M. Averotl, a Greek of Alexandria.
For the topography and monuments of ancient Athens. consult: Stuart and Revett, Antiquities of Athens (Lpndon, 1762-1810 ; Leake, Topog raphy of Athens (London, 1841) ; Wachsmuth, Die Stadt Athen inz Alterthum (Leipzig, 1874 90) ; Harrison and Verrall, Mythology and Jionuments of Ancient Athens (London, 1390) ; Curtius, Stadtgesehichte von Athen (Berlin, 1891), which contains a very valuable classified collection of ancient passages relating to this sub ject by Milehhiifer; Frazer, Pausanias, Vols. I., 11. (London. 1898). Pausanias (q.v.) gives an account of the monuments of Athens in his day, and the works of Frazer and Miss Harrison in clude a translation of his text and full com mentary. Valuable also is the work of Lolling in Milller's Handbuch der kiassischen. Altertu-ms wissenschaft, Vol. II1. (Nordlingen, 1SS9) ; and Milchhilfer in Baumeister's Denkmaler des Klass Altertums, Vol. 1. (Munich, 1885). For the Acropolis, consult: Botticher, Die Akropolis von Aiken (Berlin, 1888), and Miller, in American. Journal of Archwology, Vol. VIII. (Baltimore, 1893) ; also, Curtius and Kiepert,Atios ran Athen (Berlin• 1878). Athenian history is treated in the general histories of Greece. Aristotle wrote on the Constitution of Athens, and his work, first published in 1891, has been translated by Kenyon (London, 1891). Other important works are: Botsford, Development of the Athenian Constitu tion (Boston, 1893) ; and Wilamowitz-Miillen dorf, Aristoteles and Athen (Berlin. 1893). For Athens during the Roman period and later, con sult: Finlay, History of Greece (Oxford. 1877) ; Hertzberg, A then (Halle, 1885). Other works of special value are: Laborde, Athenes aux A:1'611e, XVI•ne, et sUcles (Paris, 1855) for its collection of documents; Gregoro vius, th.schiehte der Stadt Athen im Mittelalter (Stuttgart, I389). Consult also: Dyer, Ancient Athens (London, 1873) ; C. Wordsworth, Athens and .1 ttira (London, 1869) ; Symonds, Sketches in Italy and Greece (London, 1882) ; Freeman, Historical Essays, Series 111. (London, 1892) ; Horton, .Modern .11/lens ( New York, 1901) : Bike las, "L'Athenes d'aujourd'hui," in Recite dYtudes grecques, No. X f. (Paris, 1898) ; Ferguson "Bibliography of Works Referring to Athens," in The Athenian Secretaries (New York, 1898).