honour of having obliged Xerxes to return in disgrace to Persia, followed by such a degree of influence in Greece, that even the rivals of Athens were under the necessity of giving up to her the future conduct of the war, now become exclusively naval. By these means the Athenians acquired an increasing command over the resources of the greater part of the islands, as well as of the colonies on the coasts of Asia, Macedonia, and Thrace; and thus, at the very moment when the destruction of their city rendered it necessary for them to renew all their principal buildings, fortune gave them sufficient means both to maintain their ascendency in Greece, and to apply a part of the wealth at their command in the indulgence of their taste and magnificence. The same sources of wealth continuing, and even increasing during the half-century which intervened between the victory of Salamis and the Peloponnesian war, the injury inflicted upon the buildings of Athens by the Persians was not only fully repaired, but those new and splendid edifices were erected which continued to be one of the chief glories of Athens, until Europe becoming too unenlightened to be sensible of the beauty of such objects, they remained for more than twelve centuries unknown or unnoticed; Greece itself during all the latter part of this time having been the prey of a race of Oriental invaders far more barbarous than those of ancient times. ment afforded to the display of its powers by a mythology closely allied to the senses, and which gave the honours of divinity to the productions of the artist: even with these advantages, to arrive at the productions of the age of Pericles required several centuries of trials and improvements, during which extreme diligence was applied by a series of gifted men to one pursuit, which, when successful, obtained as much worldly fame and advantage as that of arms, or of the conduct of public affairs. Without such an equalization of the rewards of genius and labour, science, literature, and the arts, are more degraded than encouraged or protected." He During the Middle Ages Athens sank into a provincial town, and is rarely mentioned by the Byzantine writers. After the capture of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, Boniface, Marquis of Montferrat, obtained the greater part of Northern Greece, which he governed under the title of King of Thessalonica. bestowed Athens as a Duchy upon one of his followers, a Burgundian, named Otho de la Roche; and the city remained in the hands of the Franks, with various alternations of fortune, until its incorporation with the Turkish empire in 1456. The Parthenon was now converted from a church into a mosque. In 1687, the buildings on the Acropolis suffered severe injury in the siege by the “There are few problems more diffi-Venetians under Morosini. Hitherto cult of solution than to find a sufficient the Parthenon had stood almost unreason for the perfection which the Greeks attained in the elegant arts, and for its wide diffusion among them during several centuries. Something may be attributed to the more acute perceptions, to the more beautiful forms and colours of animate and in-in it by the Turks. animate nature, and to the brighter skies of a southern climate. Some- The condition of Athens at the close thing more may be ascribed to cir- of the 18th century is thus described cumstances from which we are happy by Gibbon (chap. lxii.):to be exempt; such as the eager collision of rivalry between small independent states, the excitement given to the imagination, and the encourage injured for 2000 years; Spon and Wheler visited Athens in 1675, and have left an account of it as it then appeared; but in 1687 it was reduced to a ruin by the explosion of a quantity of powder which had been placed "Athens, though no more than the shadow of her former self, still contains about 8000 or 10,000 inhabitants; of these, three-fourths are Greeks in religion and language; and the Turks, | Demosthenes, to find a reader, or a who compose the remainder, have relaxed, in their intercourse with the citizens, somewhat of the pride and gravity of their national character. The olive-tree, the gift of Minerva, flourishes in Attica; nor has the honey of Mount Hymettus lost any part of its exquisite flavour: but the languid trade is monopolised by strangers; and the agriculture of a barren land is abandoned to the vagrant Wallachians. The Athenians are still distinguished by the subtlety and acuteness of their understandings: but these qualities, unless ennobled by freedom and enlightened by study, will degenerate into a low and selfish cunning; and it is a proverbial saying of the country, From the Jews of Thessalonica, the Turks of Negropont, and the Greeks of Athens, good Lord deliver us! This artful people has eluded the tyranny of the Turkish bashaws by an expedient which alleviates their servitude and aggravates their shame. About the middle of the last century, the Athenians chose for their protector the Kislar Aga, or chief black eunuch of the Seraglio. This Ethiopian slave, who possesses the Sultan's ear, condescends to accept the tribute of 30,000 crowns: his lieutenant, the Waywode, whom he annually confirms, may reserve for his own about 5 or 6000 more; and such is the policy of the citizens that they seldom fail to remove and punish an oppressive governor. Their private differences are decided by the Archbishop, one of the richest prelates of the Greek Church, since he possesses a revenue of 1000. sterling, and by a tribunal of the eight geronti, or elders, chosen in the eight quarters of the city. The noble families cannot trace their pedigree above 300 years, but their principal members are distinguished by a grave demeanour, a fur cap, and the lofty appellation of archon. By some, who delight in the contrast, the modern language of Athens is represented as the most corrupt and barbarous of the seventy dialects of the vulgar Greek this picture is too darkly coloured, but it would not be casy, in the country of Plato and copy, of their works. The Athenians walk with supine indifference among the glorious ruins of antiquity; and such is the debasement of their character, that they are incapable of admiring the genius of their predecessors." It is interesting to contrast the moral and material aspect of Athens since the Revolution with that so graphically described above. The town of the 18th centy. has been almost completely swept away. The Acropolis was again used as a fortress during the War of Independence (1821-1827), and suffered severely from both Greeks and Turks. It was the scene of two devastating sieges and of repeated conflicts. Mr. Waddington thus describes Athens in 1824 :-"The modern town was never remarkable for beauty or regularity of construction: it has now suffered the demolition of about one-third of its buildings. Many Turkish houses were burned by the Greeks, in the first siege of the Citadel; many Greek houses were destroyed during the occupation of the place by Omar Brioni (an Albanian general); and many of both have fallen into the streets from mere neglect. The churches and mosques have not met with greater mercy in this religious war; and even the ashes of the dead have not been allowed to repose in security." Again, when Dr. Wordsworth visited Greece in 1832, he recorded that there was scarcely any building at Athens in so perfect a state as the Temple of Theseus." In 1834, Athens was declared the capital of the Kingdom of Greece; all the Turkish houses which formerly encumbered the Acropolis have been removed, and measures have been taken to preserve the existing remains of antiquity. The present town has sprung up since 1834. III. Divisions, Extent, Population, &c.-Ancient Athens consisted of three distinct parts, united within one line of fortifications. I. The ACROPOLIS. II. The ASTY (Tò AσTU), or Upper Town, in opposition to the Lower Town of Piræus, and therefore, in its widest sense, including the Acropolis. III. | the census of Demetrius Phalereus, The PORT TOWNS, i. e. the Piræus, including Munychia and Phalerum. Extent. The entire circuit of the walls of Athens was 175 stadia (22 miles), of which 43 stadia belonged to the city, 75 to the Long Walls, and 57 to the port-towns. The Long Walls connected the city with the sea, and were built under the administrations of Themistocles and Pericles. They consisted of the wall to Phalerum on the E., and of that to Piræus on the W., each about 4 miles in length: between these two, at a short distance from the latter and parallel to it, another wall was erected, thus making two walls leading to the Piræus (sometiems called the Legs, okéλn), with a narrow passage between them. There were, therefore, three Long Walls in all, but that name seems to have been confined to the two leading to the Piræus, while that leading to Phalerum was distinguished by the appellation of the Phalerian wall. The Long Walls were in ruins in the time of Pausanias. Their foundations may still be traced in many places near the road between Athens and the Piræus. taken B.C. 317. According to this census, there were 21,000 Athenian citizens, 10,000 resident aliens (MÉTOIKOL), and 400,000 slaves. It may be assumed from various authorities that by the term citizens all the males above the age of 20 are meant. The aggregate of the whole population of Attica must therefore have exceeded half a million in ancient times. It is impossible to determine the exact population of Athens itself. Xenophon states that the city contained upwards of 10,000 houses. If we assume about 12 persons to a house, we obtain 120,000 for the population of the city; and we may perhaps assign 40,000 more for the collective population of the ports. Although we know that the Athenians were fond of a country life, and that the deme of Acharnæ alone furnished 3000 hoplites, still we cannot be very far wrong in calculating that Athens contained at least a third of the aggregate population of Attica, Athens was undoubtedly inferior to Rome in the pavement of its streets, in its sewers, its supply of water, &c. But the magnificence of the public buildings compensated for such inPopulation, &c.-The chief authority feriority and for the poverty and meanfor the population of ancient Attica isness of the domestic architecture. IV. Topography of the Acropolis.first, with respect to its natural feaThe Acropolis may be considered, tures; secondly, in its earlier state before the invasion of the Persians; | that height, and still more during the thirdly, in its meridian splendour; last 200 years, in the Turkish wars, and, lastly, in its present condition. irreparable injury was inflicted thereIts general form is that of a rocky from on the Parthenon and other platform, of coarse red marble or highly monuments. Venetian, Greek, and crystalline limestone. It is very irre- Turkish batteries have been at various gular in shape-its length being about times there planted. However, the 1100 feet, its extreme breadth near the greater extent of the Acropolis makes middle about 450. It is precipitous, it in the general view domineer over except towards the W., where a nar- this eminence, and all the other conrow neck of high ground connects it tiguous heights are so subordinate as with the Areopagus. The sides of by their contrast rather to enhance its the table-rock rise abruptly, in some dignity than otherwise. Thus, from places nearly 150 feet, from the steeply all sides, except from such a distance sloping hill-side upon which it rests, to the N.E. that Lycabettus, or from and with which the neck just men- such a nearer point to the S.W. that tioned to the W. is continuous. The the Museum interferes, commanding summit is about 300 feet above the views are to be obtained of the Acrotown, 270 above the pavement of the polis. The finest of all these are from Theseum, and 250 above that of the the N.; from the N.E., near the temple of Jupiter Olympius. Although King's Palace, and from the slopes the Acropolis is not precipitous to- of Lycabettus; from the S.E., beyond wards the W., the slope is steep, and the Ilissus, not far from the temple of that point, whilst it gives facilities for Jupiter Olympius; from the slopes access, could be strengthened by art. and summit of the Pnyx, S.S.W. and The Propylæa, which spanned the en- W.; and, above all, from the N.W., at tire space between the precipices from the commencement of the olive-grove N. to S., was made sufficiently strong near the Academy. But rides or in its outworks to defend the Acropolis, rambles in any direction through this considered as a citadel. grove afford enchanting views of the Acropolis, especially in an afternoon, when the temples sparkle in the sunlight, and the deep purple of the background-the "purpureos colles florentis Hymetti"-throws them out in relief. If a traveller could so disengage himself from the cares of his luggage on his arrival as to take a horse and guide at the Piræus, and, following the course of the Kephissus northwards, to enter Athens by the sacred road which leads from Eleusis by Daphne, his first impression of the Citadel of Minerva would be more agreeable than he would obtain by following the usual course along the dusty road to Athens from the Piræus. When we pass the Propylæa, and go eastwards, we find that the surface of the rock rises at first at a slope which forms a steep road, and, becoming more gentle as it proceeds, finally reaches its highest point near the eastern end of the Parthenon. The rise between the Propylæa and this point is about 40 feet. It then falls about 15 feet to the eastern extremity of the enclosure. In height the Acropolis is greatly exceeded by Lycabettus, more than a mile distant to the N.E., but it commands extensive views on every other side, excepting that the summit of the Museum, the hill surmounted by the Monument of Philopappus to the S.S.W., rises high enough to interfere with, and to detract from, the Acropolis from some points of view, and has often proved an inconvenient and dangerous neighbour. Both in the times of the successors of Alexander, when the town was overawed by a Macedonian garrison which occupied The Tyrrheni Pelasgi, that mysterious race, who flourished before the dawn of history, probably in the first instance occupied Athens and its Acropolis. It is not within the compass of a guide-book to go into the question of the origin and migrations of this people. Suffice it to say that it is certain that one race, or several so nearly allied as to be almost identical | most keep was strengthened by enclo in their mythology, occupied, at a period anterior to the Trojan war, the Peloponnesus, the greater part of continental Greece, and a large portion of Italy and Sicily. The introduction into Athens of the worship of Minerva by Cecrops, and the story of Neptune's yielding to her the tutela of the city, seem to point out the arrival of the Ionian race; the latter soon afterwards took the lead, and ultimately made Athens what she was. Herodotus tells us that the people had originally been called Pelasgi, afterwards Cecropidæ, and lastly, under Erechtheus, Athenians. The Pelasgi, therefore, it would seem, had in the first instance established themselves in the Acropolis. According to an Athenian tradition a body of the Tyrrheni Pelasgi sought refuge in Attica from their enemies, and were employed by the Athenians to fortify the Cecropian hill. A place immediately underneath the rock, near the western end of the N. side, was assigned for their abode, and called Pelasgicum. They were afterwards expelled from there because they conspired against the Athenians. After this, no one was allowed to build or cultivate in that part, possibly from an apprehension of attack, for there the rock, though steep, is full of fissures, and there would be some danger lest the basis of the walls should be undermined if an enemy should be able to conceal himself among houses built close up to it; or it might be injured by excavations made for domestic purposes. Later it has been found necesssary to support the wall in that part with an enormous buttress, and several large masses seem to have fallen down from time to time. To figure to ourselves, therefore, the Acropolis as it existed before the Persian invasion, we must suppose the rock crested with the original polygonal walls of the Pelasgi, to which the Cecropida had added little or nothing: the western access defended by an elaborate system of works called Enneapylon (evveάπuλov) or the Nine Gates; a name showing that, after the manner of the Pelasgi, the inner[Greece.] The sures, with avenues constructed on the principle of obliging the assailant to expose his unshielded side to the enemy. The strength of these works was great. At the time of the invasion of Xerxes some of the Athenians did not follow Themistocles to the ships, but thought that the wooden walls required by the oracle, was rather the strengthening the weaker parts of the Acropolis with wooden palisades. They were enabled to defend the Enneapylon; and the Acropolis was taken by some mountaineers in the Persian army climbing up on the N. side, near the Erechtheum, where the steepness of the rock being supposed a sufficient protection, was left unwatched by the garrison; or, perhaps, as Dr. Wordsworth suggests, by the treachery of the Pisistratidæ they may have become possessed of the stair and passage which leads from the Aglaurium up into the Acropolis. Persians seem to have destroyed the Pelasgic defences, and the Athenians were afterwards obliged to reconstruct them; although the rebuilding of the walls was a matter of the greatest urgency, in consequence of the ambition of the Spartans, the old walls could not be repaired, but were obliged to be built afresh. This perhaps was not necessary on the S. side, where the wall was afterwards rebuilt on a grander scale by Cimon; but for a great portion-as the existing remains show-and probably over the whole extent of the N. side, they were entirely reconstructed with the remains of the temples which the Persians had thrown down. This forms a very interesting illustration to the account by Thucydides of the diplomatic success of Themistocles in gaining time during his embassy to Sparta, while all hands at home were employed in rebuilding the city walls. A very small piece of the polygonal wall of the évveάnvλov remains to the S. of the Propylæa, extending to the outer wall in a direction N. and S. There are also some marble foundations near it, which are not parallel with the Propylæa, but they can hardly be so old as the Persian H |