earliest court of justice, the other the most ancient place of public assembly: for the temple of Apollo, the Metroum, the Buleuterium, and the Tholus, were all public offices and places of registration, and hence were called the Archives (rà úρxɛia)'.

ανω

It seems to have been with reference to the situation of the Council-house in the valley, below the hill of Mars, that the council of Areiopagus was the avw Bouλn, in the same manner as the court was named the ἐπάνω δικαστήριον, as contrasted in situ ation with another court, the Heliæa, which was its rival in importance, and was situated on lower ground 2. And for a similar reason, perhaps, the people when assembled in the Pnyx, was said to be sitting aloft 3.

Of the successive objects, described by Pausanias, between the Stoa Eleutherius and the statues of

1 See several of the authorities cited, p. 113, n. 5. p. 114, n. 1. 5. p. 115, n. 3. 4. In the Rhetorical Lexicon, ap. Bekker. Anecd. Gr. I. p. 264, the Tholus is described as Tónоç Tɩ έv roïç ȧpxɛiois.

We may even include among the apxeia, the statues of the Eponymi; for here, before the time of Solon, the archon Eponymus held his court (Suid. in "Apxwv), probably in the open air; and, according to a regulation of that legislator, those intending to propose laws, suspended their bills at the Eponymi. Demosth. c. Timocr. p. 705, Reiske. Suid., Phot. Lex. in Επωνύμοι.

* Ἐπάνω δικαστήριον καὶ ὑποκάτω· ἐπάνω μὲν δικαστήριον τὸ ἐν ̓Αρείῳ πάγῳ, ἔστι γὰρ ἐν ὑψηλῷ λόφῳ· κάτω δὲ τὸ ἐν κοίλῳ τινὶ TÓ. Lex. ap. Bekker. Anecd. Gr. I. p. 253. The lower appears from Didymus (ap. Harpocrat., in ó kárwoεv vóμos) to have been the Heliæa.

3

* Πᾶς ὁ δῆμος ἄνω καθῆτο. Demosth. pro Cor. p. 285, Reiske.

Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the Metroum alone is not stated to have been near that which precedes it in his narrative, namely, the temple of Apollo. On the other hand, as both he and Demosthenes show that the Metroum was near the Council-house, between which and the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the successive objects are described by Pausanias as near to one another, it is probable that all these were in the hollow between the Propylæa and the southern side of the Areiopagus, and that there was a considerable distance between the temple of Apollo Patrous and the Metroum1. The exact situation of the Metroum may be in some degree inferred from Arrian, who states its situation relatively to the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, which he describes as situated at the ascent of the Acropolis opposite to the Metroum. Thus it appears that as the court of Areiopagus and the temple of Eumenides were opposite to the grotto of Pan and the north-western angle of the Propylæa 2, the Metroum was opposite to the temples of Victory and Venus, and consequently to the southward of the court of Areiopagus, and probably in an elevated situation, so that the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, facing the westward, looked over several intermediate monuments, situated in the hollow between the Acropolis and hill of Mars, and directly upon the Metroum.

About the centre of the hollow between the

The connexion of these two buildings in the narrative, instead of being local as in the other instances, consists in the similarity of the words Patrous and Metroum. See above, p. 113.

2 Attic. 28, 4. See above, p. 159, 165.

heights of Acropolis and Areiopagus, we may place the altar of the Twelve Gods; for although Pausanias does not mention this altar, we know that it was near the statue of Demosthenes', and the latter according to Pausanias was near the temple of Mars. Such a position in the centre of the most ancient Agora, seems well adapted as well to the use and purposes of that renowned altar, as to the fact that it was employed as the point from whence distances were measured 2. Near it was the Perischonisma, a flexible inclosure, noted as being the place where votes of Exostracism were taken 3; and adjacent to the statues of Harmodius and Aristogeiton was an orchestra or platform for dancing, such as were used before the invention of the theatre 1.

3

Odeium

Of the Odeium, which according to Pausanias Ancient stood near Enneacrunus, not a vestige now remains; but a few remarks concerning it may assist in elucidating the topography of Athens. It is evident that

Vit. X. Rhet. in Demosth. See above, p. 116, n. 4.

2 Herodotus (2, 7) mentions the distance from this altar to the temple of Jupiter at Olympia; and a tetrastich inscription, unfortunately imperfect, reported by Chandler (Ins. Ant. p. 53. Boeckh C. Ins. Gr. No. 525), had recorded the number of stades from this point to the Peiræeus: most probably forty-three.

3

4

See above, p. 162, n. 6.

Ορχήστρα : πρῶτον ἐκλήθη ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ· εἶτα καὶ τοῦ θεάτρου τὸ κάτω ἡμίκυκλον, οὗ καὶ οἱ χοροὶ ᾖδον καὶ ὠρχοῦντο. Phot. Lex. in v. Ορχήστρα τὸ τοῦ θεάτρου μέσον χωρίον καὶ τόπος ἐπιφανὴς εἰς πανήγυριν, ἔνθα ̔Αρμοδίου καὶ ̓Αριστογείτονος εἰκόνες. Timæi Lex. Platon. in v. The three kinds of dance were called uppíɣn the military, oikivrig the sacred, and kopdakioμòs the comic. Etym. Μ. in όρχησταί.

this Odeium is not to be confounded with the Odeium constructed by Pericles, with a pointed roof, resembling the pavilion of Xerxes, that edifice having been adjacent to the Dionysiac theatre'. It seems equally clear that the Odeium, near Enneacrunus was the elder of the two, and that when the improved building of Pericles had superseded it as a place for recitation and music', it was made subservient to those various uses of a different kind, with which its name is connected in many of the ancient authors. In particular, it appears to have been employed as one of the places for depositing and measuring grain and meal belonging to the state, and for the hearing of causes before the Sitophylaces and Metronomi 3.

The elder Odeium was prior in date to the Dionysiac theatre, which was founded about the year 500 B.C., when the inventive genius of Eschylus and Agatharcus was rapidly bringing the drama to per

2 Plutarch speaking of the new Odeium built by Pericles, and the musical contest which he established there in the Panathenæa, adds, ἐθεῶντο δὲ καὶ τότε καὶ τὸν ἄλλον χρόνον ἐν Ὠιδείῳ τοὺς μουσικοὺς ἀγῶνας. Peric. 13.

* Οἱ μὲν ἡμῶν οὖπερ ̓́Αρχων· οἱ δὲ παρὰ τοὺς Ενδεκα (i.e. in Parabysto).

Aristoph. Vesp. 1103.

Οἱ δ' ἐν Ὠιδείῳ δικάζουσ'. Demosth. c. Phorm. p. 918, Reiske. c. Neær. p. 1362. c. Leptin. p. 467. Lys. Karà Twv ZITOπwλwv p. 717. Aristot. ap. Harpoc. in Μετρονόμοι, Σιτοφύλακες. Suid. in Ὠιδεῖον. Harpoc., Phot. Lex., in Mɛrp. 27. Bekker. Anecd. Gr. I. p. 278, 300. There appear to have been ten of each of these officers in the city, and five in Peiræeus. See Boeckh's Public Economy

of Athens, I. p. 67, 113.

fection', and when a fatal accident, caused perhaps by the excessive numbers who flocked to see the splendid novelties of the scene, destroyed the wooden structure which had before served for a place of spectacle, and suggested to the Athenians the necessity of some construction more solid and more worthy of the improved drama. The upper part of the Dionysiac inclosure was chosen for this purpose, probably on the same site, which had been occupied by the 'Ixpia or wooden construction. The Odeium

1

primum Agatharchus Athenis, Eschylo docente tragœdiam, scenam fecit, et de ea commentarium reliquit. Ex eo moniti Democritus et Anaxagoras de eadem re scripserunt, quemadmodum oporteat ad aciem oculorum radiorumque extensionem, certo loco centro constituto, ad lineas ratione naturali respondere, uti de incerta re certæ imagines ædificiorum in scenarum picturis redderent speciem, et quæ in directis planisque frontibus sint figurata, alia abscedentia, alia prominentia esse videantur. Vitruv. 7. in præf.

ων

2 This accident happened, according to Suidas (in IIparívas), in the 70th Olympiad, during the representation of a piece by Pratinas: ἐπιδεικνυμένου δὲ τούτου, συνέβη τὰ ἱκρία, ἐφ ̓ ὧν ἑστήκεσαν οἱ θεαταί, πεσεῖν, καὶ ἐκ τούτου τὸ θέατρον ᾠκοδομήθη Αθηναίοις.

Ικρία . . . ἀφ ̓ ὧν ἐθεῶντο, πρὸ τοῦ ἐν Διονύσου θέατρον γενέσθαι. Hesych. in v. See the same in Photius, who adds erroneously ἐν τῇ ἀγορᾷ.

Pratinas, according to Suidas, was of Phlius, contended in tragedy with Eschylus and Choerilus, and was the first to write satires. Many persons are said to have been killed on this occasion.

This construction was perhaps a contrivance for giving, by means of wooden benches, a semicircular continuity to the natural form of that part of the hill which afterwards, by means of excavations in the rocks, formed the middle part of the theatre.