fectly than where the attention is distracted by a less orderly accumulation even of beautiful objects. Its more prominent characteristics are: first, the wide extent of open plain in the centre; secondly, the three separate ranges of mountain,-Hymettus, Pentelicus, and Parnes,-to the eye of nearly the same height, and bounding the plain at unequal distances on three sides, to the south-east, north-east, and north-west; thirdly, the sea on the remaining side, with its islands, and the distant mainland of Peloponnesus: fourthly, the cluster of rocky protuberances in the centre of the plain, the most striking of which either form part of the site of the city, or are grouped around it; and fifthly, the line of dark dense olive groves, winding like a large green river through the heart of the vale. Any formality, which might be expected to result from so symmetrical an arrangement of these leading elements of the composition, is further interrupted by the low graceful ridge of Turcovouni, extending behind the city up the centre of the plain; and by a few more marked undulations of its surface about the Peiraeeus and the neighbouring coast. The present barren and deserted state of this fair, but not fertile region, is perhaps rather favourable than otherwise to its full picturesque effect, as tending less to interfere with the outlines of the landscape, in which its beauty so greatly consists, than a dense population and high state of culture." (Mure, Tour in Greece, vol. ii. p. 37.)

II. HISTORY.

It is proposed to give here only a brief account of the history of the rise, progress, and fall of the City, as a necessary introduction to a more detailed examination of its topography. The political history of Athens forms a prominent part of Grecian history, and could not be narrated in this place at sufficient length to be of any value to the student. The city of Athens, like many other Grecian cities, was originally confined to its Acropolis, and was afterwards extended over the plain and the adjacent hills. The original city on the Acropolis was said to have been built by Cecrops, and was hence called CECROPIA (Kekрonia) even in later times. (Strab. ix. p. 397; Eurip. Suppl. 658, El. 1289.) Among his successors, the name of Erechtheus I., also called Erichthonius, was likewise preserved by the buildings of Athens. This king is said to have dedicated to Athena a temple on the Acropolis, and to have set up in it the image of the goddess, made of olive wood, —known in later times as the statue of Athena Polias, the most sacred object in all Athens. Erechtheus is further said to have been buried in this temple of Athena, which was henceforth called the ERECHTHEIUM. In his reign the inhabitants of the city, who were originally Pelasgians and called Cranai, and who were afterwards named Cecropidae from Cecrops, now received the name of Athenians, in consequence of the prominence which was given by him to the worship of Athena. (Herod. viii. 44.) Theseus, the national hero of Attica, is still more celebrated in connection with the early history of the city. He is said to have united into one political body the twelve independent states into which Cecrops had divided Attica, and to have made Athens the capital of the new state. This important revolution was followed by an increase of the population of the city, for whose accommodation Theseus enlarged Athens, by building on the ground to the south of the Cecropia or Acropolis. (Comp. Thuc. ii. 15.) The

beautiful temple-the THESEIUM-erected at a later time in honour of this hero, remains in existence down to the present day. Homer mentions the city of Athens, and speaks of the temple of Athena in connection with Erechtheus. (Hom. I. ii. 546, seq.) It was during the mythical age that the Pelasgians are said to have fortified the Acropolis. Their name continued to be given to the northern wall of the Acropolis, and to a space of ground below this wall in the plain. (Paus. i. 28. § 3; Thuc. ii. 17.)

In the historical age the first attempt to embellish Athens appears to have been made by Peisistratus and his sons (B. C. 560-514). Like several of the other Grecian despots, they erected many temples and other public buildings. Thus we are told that they founded the temple of Apollo Pythius (Thuc. vi. 54), and commenced the gigantic temple of the Olympian Zeus, which remained unfinished for centuries. (Aristot. Pol. v. 11.) In B. C. 500, the Dionysiac theatre was commenced on the south-eastern slope of the Acropolis, in consequence of the falling of the wooden construction in which the early dramas had been performed; but the new theatre was not completely finished till B. C. 340, although it must have been used for the representation of plays long before that time. (Paus. i. 29. § 16; Plut. Vit. X. Orat. pp. 841, 852.)

A new era in the history of the city commences with its capture by Xerxes, who reduced it almost to a heap of ashes, B. C. 480. This event was followed by the rapid development of the maritime power of Athens, and the establishment of her empire over the islands of the Aegean. Her own increasing wealth, and the tribute paid her by the subject states, afforded her ample means for the embellishment of the city; and during the half century which elapsed between the battle of Salamis and the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, the Athenians erected those masterpieces of architecture which have been the wonder and admiration of all succeeding ages. Most of the public buildings of Athens were erected under the administration of Themistocles, Cimon, and Pericles. The first of these celebrated men could do little towards the ornament of Athens; but Cimon and Pericles made it the most splendid city of Greece. The first object of Themistocles was to provide for the security of Athens by surrounding it with fortified walls. The new walls, of which we shall speak below, were 60 stadia in circumference, and embraced a much greater space than the previous walls; but the whole of this space was probably never entirely filled with buildings. The walls were erected in great haste, in consequence of the attempts of the Spartans to interrupt their progress; but though built with great irregularity, they were firm and solid. (Thuc. i. 93.) After providing for the security of the city, the next object of Themistocles was to extend her maritime power. Seeing that the open roadstead of Phalerum, which had been previously used by the Athenians, was insecure for ships, he now resolved to fortify the more spacious harbours in the peninsula of Peiraeeus. He surrounded it with a wall, probably not less than 14 or 15 feet thick; but the town was first regularly laid out by Hippodamus, of Miletus, in the time of Pericles.

Under the administration of Cimon the Theseium was built, and the Stoa Poecilé adorned with paintings by Micon, Polygnotus, and Pantaenus. Cimon

planted and adorned the Academy and the Agora; and he also built the southern wall of the Acropolis, which continued to be called by his name.

It was to Pericles, however, that Athens was chiefly indebted for her architectural splendour. On the Acropolis, he built those wonderful works of art, the Parthenon, the Erechtheium, and the Propylaea; in the city he erected a new Odeium; and outside the walls he improved and enlarged the Lyceium. The completion of the Erechtheium appears to have been prevented by the outbreak of the Peloponnesian war; but the Parthenon, the Propylaea, and the Odeium, were finished in the short space of 15 years. He also connected Athens with Peiraceus by the two long walls, and with Phalerum by a third wall, known by the na.ne of the Phaleric wall.

The Peloponnesian war put a stop to any further public buildings at Athens. On the capture of the city in B.C. 404, the long walls and the fortifications of the Peiraeeus were destroyed by the Lacedaemonians; but they were again restored by Conon in B. C. 393, after gaining his great naval victory over the Lacedaemonians off Cnidus. (Xen. Hell. iv. 8. § 10; Diod. xiv. 85.) The Athenians now began to turn their thoughts again to the improvement of their city; and towards the close of the reign of Philip, the orator Lycurgus, who was entrusted with the management of the finances, raised the revenue to 1200 talents, and thus obtained means for defraying the expenses of public buildings. It was at this time that the Dionysiac theatre and the Stadium were completed, and that further improvements were made in the Lyceium. Lycurgus also provided for the security of the city by forming a magazine of arms in the Acropolis, and by building dock-yards in the Peiraeeus. (Plut. Vit. X. Orat. p. 841, seq.)

After the battle of Chaeroneia (B. c. 338) Athens became a dependency of Macedonia,-though she continued to retain her nominal independence down to the time of the Roman dominion in Greece. It was only on two occasions that she suffered materially from the wars, of which Greece was so long the theatre. Having sided with the Romans in their war with the last Philip of Macedonia, this monarch invaded the territory of Athens; and though the walls of the city defied his attacks, he destroyed all the beautiful temples in the Attic plain, and all the suburbs of the city, B. C. 200. (Liv. xxxi. 26.) Athens experienced a still greater calamity upon its capture by Sulla in B. c. 86. It had espoused the cause of Mithridates, and was taken by assault by Sulla after a siege of several months. The Roman general destroyed the long walls, and the fortifications of the city and of Peiraceus; and from this time the commerce of Athens was annihilated, and the maritime city gradually dwindled into an insignificant place.

Under the Romans Athens continued to enjoy great prosperity. She was still the centre of Grecian philosophy, literature and art, and was frequented by the Romans as a school of learning and refinement. Wherever the Grecian language was spoken, and the Grecian literature studied, Athens was held in respect and honour; and, as Leake has remarked, we cannot have a more striking proof of this fact than that the most remarkable buildings erected at Athens, after the decline of her power, were executed at the expense of foreign potentates. The first example of this generosity occurred in B. c. 275,

when Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, built a gymnasium near the temple of Theseus (Paus. i. 17. § 2). About B. c. 240 Attalus, king of Pergamus, ornamented the south-east wall of the Acropolis with four compositions in statuary. (Paus i. 25. § 2.) In honour of these two benefactors, the Athenians gave the names of Ptolemais and Attalis to the two tribes, which had been formed by Demetrius Poliorcetes on the liberation of Athens from Cassander, and which had been named Demetrias and Antigonis in honour of Demetrius and his father Antigonus. (Paus. i. 5. § 5, 8. § 1.)

About B. c. 174 Antiochus Epiphanes commenced the completion of the temple of Zeus Olympius, which had been left unfinished by the Peisistratidae, but the work was interrupted by the death of this monarch. Soon after the capture of Athens by Sulla, Ariobarzanes II., king of Macedonia, repaired the Odeium of Pericles, which had been partially destroyed in the siege. Julius Caesar and Augustus contributed to the erection of the portico of Athens Archegetis, which still exists.

But Hadrian (A. D. 117–138) was the greatest benefactor of Athens. He not only completed the temple of Zeus Olympius, which had remained unfinished for 700 years, but adorned the city with numerous other public buildings, -two temples, a gymnasium, a library and a stoa,- and gave the name of Hadrianopolis to a new quarter of the city, which he supplied with water by an aqueduct. (Comp. Paus. i. 18.) Shortly afterwards a private individual emulated the imperial munificence. Herodes Atticus, a native of Marathon, who lived in the reigns of Antoninus and M. Aurelius, built a magnificent theatre on the south-western side of the Acropolis, which bore the name of his wife Regilla, and also covered with Pentelic marble the seats in the Stadium of Lycurgus.

Athens was never more splendid than in the time of the Antonines. The great works of the age of Pericles still possessed their original freshness and perfection (Plut. Pericl. 13); the colossal Olympieium-the largest temple in all Greece,—had at length been completed; and the city had yet lost few of its unrivalled works of art. It was at this epoch that Athens was visited by Pausanias, to whose account we are chiefly indebted for our know, ledge of its topography. From the time of the Antonines Athens received no further embellishments, but her public buildings appear to have existed in undiminished glory till the third or even the fourth century of the Christian era. Their gradual decay may be attributed partly to the declining prosperity of the city, which could not afford to keep them in repair, and partly to the fall of paganism and the progress of the new faith.

The walls of Athens, which had been in ruins since the time of their destruction by Sulla, were repaired by Valerian in A. D. 258 (Zosim. i. 29); and the fortifications of the city protected it from the attacks of the Goths and the other barbarians. In the reign of Gallienus, A. D. 267, the Goths forced their way into the city, but were driven out by Dexippus, an Athenian. In A. D. 396 Alaric appeared before Athens, but not having the means of taking it by force, he accepted its hospitality, and entered it as a friend.

Notwithstanding the many edicts issued against paganism by Theodosius, Arcadius, Honorius, and Theodosius the younger in the fourth and fifth centuries, the pagan religion continued to flourish at

the outer one (rò tweev) was guarded. The whole circumference of Peiraeeus, with Munychia, was 60 stadia, but the guarded part was only half that extent." It is clear from this passage that the Asty was connected with the port-towns by three walls, namely the Phaleric, 35 stadia long, and the two Long Walls, each 40 stadia long. The two Long Walls ran in a south-westerly direction to Peiraeeus, parallel to, and at the distance of 550 feet from one another. The Phaleric Wall appears to have run nearly due south to Phalerum, and not parallel to the other two; the direction of the Phaleric Wall depending upon the site of Phalerum, of which we shall speak under the port-towns. (See plan, p. 256.)

The two Long Walls were also called the Legs (Tà ΣKéλn, Strab. ix. p. 395; Polyaen. i. 40; Brachia by Livy, xxxi. 26), and were distinguished as the Northern Wall (Tò Bópelov Teixos, Plat. de Rep. iv. p. 439) and the Southern Wall (Tò Nóτiov, Harpocrat. s. v Alquéσov; Aeschin. de Fals. Leg. § 51). The former is called by Thucydides, in the passage quoted above, the Outer (rτd tweev), in opposition to the Inner or the Intermediate wall (7d diaμéσov Teixos, Harpocrat l. c.; Plat. Gorg. p. 455), which lay between the Phaleric and the northern Long Wall.

The northern Long Wall and the Phaleric Wall were the two built first. They are said by Plutarch to have been commenced by Cimon (Plut. Cim. 13); but, according to the more trustworthy account of Thucydides they were commenced in B. c. 457, during the exile of Cimon, and were finished in the following year. (Thuc. i. 107, 108) There can be no doubt that their erection was undertaken at the advice of Pericles, who was thus only carrying out more fully the plans of Themistocles to make Athens a maritime power and to secure an uninterrupted communication between the city and its harbours in time of war. Between B. C. 456 and 431,-the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, -the Intermediate wall was built upon the advice of Pericles, whom Socrates heard recommending this measure in the assembly. (Plat. Gorg. p. 455; comp. Plut. Per. 13; Harpocrat. s. v.) The object of building this intermediate wall was to render the communication between the Asty and Peiraeeus more secure. The distance between the northern Long Wall and the Phaleric was considerable; and consequently each of them required the same number of men to man them as the two Long Walls together, which were separated from one another by so small an interval. Moreover, the harbour of Phalerum was no longer used by the Athenian ships of war; and it was probably considered inexpedient to protect by the same fortifications the insignificant Phalerum and the all-important Peiraceus.

After the erection of the Intermediate Wall, the Phaleric wall was probably allowed to fall into decay. When the Lacedaemonians took Athens, we find mention of their destroying only two Long Walls (Xen. Hell. ii. 2), since the communication of the Asty with the Peiraeeus depended entirely upon the Long Walls. There can be no doubt that when Conon rebuilt the Long Walls after the battle of Cnidus (B. C. 393), he restored only the Long Walls leading to Peiraceus (Xen. Hell. iv. 8. § 10; Paus. i. 2. § 2); and it is very probable that in their restoration he used the materials of the Phaleric Wall. From the end of the Peloponnesian war, we find mention of only two Long Walls. (Comp. Lys. c. Agorat.

pp. 451, 453; Aeschin. de Fals. Leg. § 51; Liv. xxxi. 26.)

Between the two Long Walls, there was a carriage road (àμağırós) leading from the Asty to Peiraeens (Xen. Hell. ii. 4. § 10); and on either side of the road there appear to have been numerous houses in the time of the Peloponnesian war, probably forming a broad street between four and five miles in length. This may be inferred from the account of Xenophon, who relates (Hell. ii. 2. § 3) that when the news of the defeat of the Athenian fleet at Aegospotami reached Peiraeeus," a sound of lamentation spread from the Peiraeeus through the Long Walls to the Asty, as each person announced the news to his neighbour." Moreover, it appears from a passage of Andocides (de Myst. p. 22, Reiske) that there was a Theseium within the Long Walls, which must be distinguished from the celebrated temple of Theseus in the Asty. In describing the stations assigned to the infantry, when the Boeotians advanced to the frontiers, Andocides says (l. c.), that the troops in the Asty were stationed in the Agora; those in the Long Walls, in the Theseium; and those in Peiraceus, in the Hippodameian Agora. It is worth noticing that Andocides calls the Long Walls the Long Fortress (rd μakpdv teîxos), as one of the three great garrisons of Athens.

The Long Walls were repaired more than once after the time of Conon. A long and interesting inscription, originally published by Müller (De Mu nimentis Athenarum, Gött. 1836), and reprinted by Leake, contains a register of a contract entered into by the treasurer of the state for the repair of the walls of the Asty and Peiraeeus, and of the Long Walls. It is probable that this contract was made about B. c. 335, in order to continue the repairs which had been commenced by Demosthenes after the battle of Chaeroneia (B. c. 338). But between this time and the invasion of Attica by Philip in B. C. 200, the walls had fallen into decay, since we read of Philip making an irruption into the space between the ruined walls ("inter angustias semiruti muri, qui brachiis duobus Piraeum Athenis jungit," Liv. xxxi. 26). Sulla in his siege of Athens (B. c. 87-86) used the materials of the Long Walls in the erection of his mounds against the fortifications of Peiraeeus. (Appian, Mithr. 30.) The Long Walls were never repaired, for Peiraceus sank down into an insignificant place. (Strab. ix. p. 395.) The ruins (peitia) of the Long Walls are noticed by Pausanias (i. 2. § 2). Their foundations may still be traced in many parts. "Of the northern the foundations, which are about 12 feet in thickness, resting on the natural rock, and formed of large quadrangular blocks of stone, commence from the foot of the Peiraic heights, at half a mile from the head of Port Peiraeeus, and are traeed in the direction of the modern road for more than a mile and a half towards the city, exactly in the direction of the entrance of the Acropolis. The southern Long Wail, having passed through a deep vegetable soil, occupied chiefly by vineyards, is less easily traceable except at its junction with the walls of Peiraecus (not Phalerum, as Leake says), and for half a mile from thence towards the city. Commencing at the round tower, which is situated above the northwestern angle of the Munychian (not the Phaleric) bay, it followed the foot of the hill, along the edge of the marsh, for about 500 yards; then assumed, for about half that distance, a direction to the northeastward, almost at a right angle with the preceding: