athenaic Stadium, on the 1. bank of the Ilissus, commenced by some private individuals in 1869, were, owing to their great cost, discontinued until the King of the Hellenes supplied funds for recommencing them, and for the purchase of the site. They were completed in 1870. The Stadium was laid out by the orator Lycurgus (B.C. 340), who obtained the ground, which was well calculated by nature for the purpose, and from which he excavated a quantity of earth equivalent to 80,000 cubic metres, or 2,720,000 cubic feet. The wealthy Athenian citizen, Herodes Atticus, whose name is preserved by the Odeum underneath the S.W. end of the Acropolis, was crowned in the games in the Stadium 500 years after its completion; and he promised on this occasion to the assembled spectators that when they next should witness the celebration of the Panathenaic games they should view them in a stadium of white marble-a promise fulfilled in four years. Pausanias can scarcely find words of praise to express his sense of the beauty of the dimensions and execution of the Stadium. "The Stadium," he says, "of white marble, is wonderful to behold; its magnitude is not very easily credited by those who only hear of it, but may be imagined from this: it is a hill rising from the Ilissus, of a semicircular form in the upper part, and extending thence in two parallel right lines to the bank of the river." The bridge of three arches which led to the Stadium over the Ilissus was seen by Stuart and Revett. In 1774 it was destroyed by the Turks, who made use of the stones from it in constructing the Turkish wall of Athens. Only the abutments now remain. At 205 ft. from the Ilissus were found fragments of a wall, supposed to have been that of a hall which closed this end of the Stadium, and through an opening in which it was entered. To the E., at a considerably lower level, are the remains of a mosaic pavement, now no longer visible, and here and on the opposite side, it is supposed, were rooms for athletes. The entire length of the course was 663 ft.; its width nearly 100 ft. As the present level of the base of the wall before referred to is much lower than that of the course, all trace of the site of the first goal is lost, and one can only calculate its position by a reference to that of the third, which was found in the centre of the semicircular inner end, the radii of which are 54 ft. 3 in. It may be supposed that the first goal was at a like distance from the entrance. In this case the first and third goals must have been either 554 ft. 6 in., or 608 ft. 9 in., apart. "The racer started from the lower extremity, and, having completed one course in a straight line (Spóμos, or σrádiov), turned round the point of curvature (KаμTтhр) at the higher extremity, and thus descended in a line parallel to that of his first ascent, till he arrived at the goal (Baxßìs), which was a point a little to the E. of that from which he had started; thus he accomplished a double course (díavλos)."— Wordsworth. The enclosed space, of the same breadth throughout, was bounded by a partition wall, which has only remained in fragments at the semicircular end. This wall was composed of two rows of marble slabs, set one above the other, without mortar, the edges of the slabs of the upper range being rounded at the top. At the point where the semicircle meets the straight line of the wall on the E. side was found an unfluted column, supposed to have been placed there to correspond with the goal (as in modern race-courses a pole is placed opposite the goal for the convenience of the judge). Drains were, throughout the edifice, constructed to carry off the water. Many portions of these are preserved. One leads from the shaft of the column to the third goal. It is composed of Piraic stone. drain is almost 1 ft. broad, and 10 in. deep. At the goal its direction changed, and ran, parallel to the longer axis of the course, to the Ilissus, probably receiving other drains, which were covered with slabs and earth, the utility of which would The The level | passage, 15 ft. wide and 23 ft. long, be evident in case of rain. A wall 5 ft. 3 in. in height, with Destruction of the Stadium.-Blocks of marble from the Stadium may have been employed in the construction of many buildings, but that some at least of the marble was burnt for mortar on the spot was proved by three kilns being found in the Stadium, one at the entrance of the course, and two on the rt. of the course. Near one of them a fragment of a female head and part of the breast was found. Accounts dating from the 15th centy. lead to the conclusion that the Stadium was then much the same as it was | loss detracts much from the grouping, described to be by Wordsworth, and especially in distant views, its vast as it remained until the date of the fragments serve to give a scale to the recent excavation. On the top of the rest. hill to W. of the Stadium the foundations of a temple of Tyche (Fortune) are visible, but no other remains are found, excepting small fragments of fluted Ionic columns. Exactly opposite to S.E. of Stadium was the so-called monument of Herodes Atticus. Nothing of it remains but traces of the foundations. These two monuments, the front wall of the Stadium, and the bridge, all indicating similar construction, and having been executed of similar materials, lead to the supposition that all of them were of the same date. For the exploration of this remnant of old Athens the world is indebted to the public spirit of King George, whose liberality enabled Herr Ernst Ziller to carry out the work, his description of which is abbreviated above. The There is something mysterious in the history of this temple: begun by the Athenians in the first burst of their greatness, and carried on by the Greek princes of Asia, it was left still uncompleted by Augustus; and although, 650 years after its commencement, it was at last perfected and dedicated by Hadrian, this was not until the worship of Jupiter had ceased to be real, and had in a great measure fallen into contempt. destruction of the temple probably commenced at an early period, as it does not seem to have suffered like the Parthenon from any sudden catastrophe, but to have supplied from time to time building materials to the inhabitants of Athens during the dark ages. The other temples were preserved by being converted into churches. This was too vast for such a use. However, when the temple was already partly ruinous, the small church of St. John, orais KoλóvνAIS, was built among the ruins, of which church the recently demolished rubble construction above the architrave 12. The Olympicum.-Athough the of the two westernmost columns of Corinthian order cannot in itself be the principal group formed a part. compared in grandeur with the Doric, The measurements of the columns there is perhaps, nevertheless, among were given for the first time in the the remains of antiquity, no ruinPrinciples of Athenian Architecmore impressive than that before us, alluded to in the well-known lines On the side of the Ilissus opposite to that where was the Stadium were the Gardens and the Aphrodisium, or sanctuary of Venus. We have now completed our survey in the eastern direction, and return to "Here let me sit upon this massy stone, The marble column's yet unshaken base;" It stands quite alone, and although ture,' to which the reader is referred for further details. The temple was decastyle, dipteral, and hypothral. Its length on the upper step was 354 of the columns at the base was 6 ft. 4 ft., and its breadth 171. The diameter in., and the height from the pavement to the top of the capitals 551 ft. The capitals are exceedingly well carved. The abacus, or upper part of the capital, is 8 ft. square. The stones composing the architrave are of enormous size: one of them weighs about 23 tons. The foundations of this temple were laid by Pisistratus, and it is remarkable that they are planned on the curvilinear principle mentioned in our description of the Parthenon. The Pisistratida made great progress K with the work, but after their expulsion it was neglected for about 400 years, and was resumed about B.c. 174, by Antiochus Epiphanes. Although he did not live to finish it, it seems to have been completed according to the design of his architect, whom Vitruvius calls Cossutius. Sylla is said to have taken to Rome some of the columns prepared for the temple. These, it is probable, were not the columns of the peristyles, but smaller, and monolith columns of rare marbles intended for the interior. Under Augustus the work was resumed with great zeal by the Greek princes of Asia, and it is most likely that the columns which remain were either of that period or of that of Antiochus; the style of work is too good for Hadrian's time. The temple was surrounded by a large peribolus, of which the southern retaining wall remains, and the other limit can be well made out. It was crowded with statues in honour of Hadrian. A fine view of the temple of Jupiter Olympius, andling about to find a lodging, I passed of the peribolus, may be obtained from the hill over against it, above the Grotto of the Nymphs. the latter. This monument, though small, is of the greatest interest: it is the earliest authentic instance of Corinthian architecture. It was built, according to an inscription on the architrave, to commemorate that "Lysicrates, son of Lysitheides, led the chorus when the boys of the tribe of Acamantis were victorious. . . . when Evænetus was archon, i. e. the same year that Alexander the Great invaded Persia" (B.c. 335-4). The building is circular and about 8 feet in diameter outside the columns. It is raised on a square basement: the whole height is 34 feet. There was no access to the interior. The basreliefs upon the frieze represent the destruction of the Tyrrhenian pirates by Dionysus (Bacchus). The building has been barbarously used, but was very carefully drawn and measured by Stuart while in a more perfect state than at present. Until lately it was imbedded in a monastic edifice. Woods thus describes it :-" In ramb by the monument of Lysicrates, the exquisite beauty of whose proportions and details are sadly spoilt by its The entrance to the peribolus seems present situation, where the wall of the to have been through the gate of courtyard of the monastery joins that Hadrian, at the N.W. corner, and pre-of the monastery itself, so that one bit sented to the spectator the same kind of it is seen in the street, one within of angular view that he obtained of the court, and another in the inside of the Parthenon as he entered the Acro-the house: you may imagine how this polis. A similar approach has been must spoil a monument 7 feet in dianoticed in other Greek temples. See meter." Pausanias tells us, "There Leake, p. 516. is a street leading from the Prytaneum because there are certain temples of called Tripodes: the place is so named the gods, upon which stand great tripods of brass, which, for the most part, contain works worthy of mention:" a satyr of Praxiteles is menChoragi used to dedicate the tripods they had won, either in the neigh 13. The Arch of Hadrian is a building of no great interest, although not altogether devoid of merit or elegance. The archway is 20 feet wide: the entire height about 56 feet. The inscriptions upon either side of the frieze, above the centre of the arch, describe it as dividing "Athens, the city of Theseus," from the " city of Hadrian." On the side towards the Acropolis, Ad' eio' 'Auvai Onows Tply TóAIS. Towards the Olympieum, Αΐδ ̓ εἰσ ̓ ̔Αδριανοῦ κοὐχὶ Θησέως πόλις. 14. The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates is between the arch of Hadrian and the Acropolis, a little nearer to tioned in one of them. The victorious built along the street which led from bourhood of the theatre, or in shrines the Lenæum, or Sanctuary of Bacchus, round the eastern slopes of the Acropolis to the Prytaneum, a building of which no traces are known, but which must have stood nearly N.E. of the N.E. angle of the Acropolis, and from 300 to 400 feet distant, on ground | Curtius, Botticher, and Strach deserve comparatively elevated. The build- especial notice) which visited Athens ing dated from the time of Solon, and for the purpose of exploring its archiserved for the deposit of the written tectural and artistic remains, comlaws of the state. Here, according to menced the excavations which have Pausanias, were images of Peace and laid bare the ruins now visible. Vesta, and statues of Miltiades and Themistocles, of which the names had been changed into those of a Thracian and a Roman. The Prytaneum was one of the ten courts of Justice of Athens. Here instruments which had been the cause of death were judged, and condemned to be ejected from the soil of Attica. A little westward of the monument of Lysicrates was the Lenæum, or inclosure sacred to Bacchus, which contained the Dionysiac Theatre and the Odeum of Pericles, and extended to some distance into the low ground. The Odeum was one of the earliest of the works of Pericles, used, as the name imports, for recitation of song, d: it was to the E. of the theatre and adjacent to it, and was remarkable for the numerous columns which supported its gallery and roof. The roof was formed of masts and spars taken from the Persian galleys, and is described as a high-peaked structure resembling the tent of Xerxes. It was destroyed by Aristion when defending the Acropolis against Sylla, lest the timbers should be used for works against the citadel. No vestiges remain of the Odeum nor of the Stoa of Eumenes, mentioned by Vitruvius, which was probably on the western side of the Lenæum. But the remains of 15. The Dionysiac Theatre form one of the most interesting points in the topography of Athens. Down to a very recent period the site, though well ascertained by the researches of Leake and others, was so completely covered up by an accumulation of soil that no idea of the plan of the theatre could be formed, and all that was known was derived from a representation of it on an Athenian coin of the Roman period, of which an engraving is annexed, and which now exists in the British Museum. In 1862, the Society of German Antiquaries (of which MM. The E. corner of the S. slope of the Acropolis under the Cimonian wall, affording, as it does, a natural position, admirably adapted both for spectator and actor, may very probably have been the earliest scene of the rude representations of the Thespian drama in honour of Dionysus, to whom the whole neighbourhood was in some sense sacred. But it was in the year 500 B.C., at the exhibition of the first tragedy of Eschylus, that the fall of the wooden scaffolding, which had hitherto served for a stage, led to the commencement of a stone theatre. The edifice, however, was not completed till the period of the orator Lycurgus, B.C. 340, when the great masters of the Athenian drama had all passed away, and its glories had waned into the period of Menander, and the new comedy-a strange illustration of the aphorism that "art is the bloom of decay." Still, it is more than probable that the general distribution of the theatre on which the dramas of Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripedes, and Aristophanes were exhibited was substantially the same as that of the completed structure of Lycurgus; and it is said to have formed the model of the numerous other theatres which sprung up throughout the Hellenic world, in the interval between Eschylus and Menander. The coin, of which an engraving is'annexed, probably represents the theatre of Lycurgus. Of what befel it during the next four centuries we know nothing. Like the rest of the city, it no doubt suffered from the violence of Sulla; but it appears to have been restored, as well as altered and adorned, by the munificence of Hadrian (A.D. 117-138), and the remains we now see belong, in all probability, mainly to the late period of the second founder of Athens. This is concluded, not only from the character of the inscriptions and the remains of several altars bearing the name |