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ENCYCLOPEDIA BRITANNICA.

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ATHENS

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THENS ('Ava, ATHENE) was the name of as many as nine towns in various parts of the Grecian world, among which Athena Diades, in the N.W. of Euboea, a town belonging to the Athenian confederation, is worthy of mention. But it was the capital of Attica which invested the name of Athens with an undying charm for the poet, the artist, the philosopher, the historian, for all time. is situated in long. 23° 44′ E, lat. 37° 58' N., towards the south of the central plain (medíov) of Attica, about 4 miles from the harbour of Piraeus, and nearly 4 from the Bay of Phalerum. The survey of Pausanias (i. 2-30), when compared with existing remains, and supplemented by the numerous incidental notices of ancient authors, enables us to form a more perfect conception of the topography of ancient Athens than of any other Greek city. Recent excavations have added greatly to our knowledge of it, and the literature of the subject is very extensive (see p. 11, infra). Our object in this article will be to treat of the topography of Athens from an historical point of view, and to show how the rise, the greatness, the decline of the city may be read in the history of its buildings.

There seems little reason to doubt that the earliest settlement on Athenian soil was upon the cliff afterwards famous as the Acropolis. Such is the express statement of Thucydides (ii. 15), who observes that the Acropolis was commonly termed at Athens wóλis, much as the oldest part of London is styled "The City." The earliest inhabitants appear to have been Pelasgians; and though it was the boast of the Athenians that they alone of all Greek states were indigenous (avráxoves), yet their town would from the first have received accessions from various parts of the continent, the peaceful poverty of Attica affording a welcome refuge in those early and unsettled times (Thucyd., i 2). The most accessible portion of the Acropolis is the western side, where it is joined by a neck of hill to the Areopagus. On this side there existed down to later times the remains of fortifications built by the earliest inhabitants, with nine doorways, 'one within the other, called τὸ Πελασγικόν, οι τὸ Ἐννεάπυλον. This fort protected the only entrance to the citadel, which was surrounded by a wall, and artificially levelled for the reception of buildings. Within this fortified enclosure stood the shrine of Athena Polias (Homer, Iliad, ii. 449; Odyssey,

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vii. 81), afterwards known as the Erechthefun, and an altar of Zeus Polieus, where the strange sacrifices of the Dipolia were celebrated. A Prytaneium, containing the hearth-fire of the state, and serving as the residence of the king, would be another indispensable feature in the primitive town. But while the king and some of the most sacred families probably had dwellings within the fortress itself, Thucydides (ii. 15) points out that a great part of the early population dwelt outside its walls, under the south side of the cliff, probably without fortification, but retiring to the citadel in times of peril. In this quarter, towards the Ilissus, stood the oldest Athenian sanctuary of Dionysus, in a region called Aluva, from having been literally a marsh in early times. Not far off, and nearer the stream, stood the temple of Zeus Olympius, said to be founded by Deucalion (Pausan., i. 18), of which more will be said presently, the precinct of Gasa Olympia, and other sacred places. Here also was the fountain of Callirrhoe, afterwards ornamented by the Pisistratids, and called Enneacrunus, the water of which was sought for sacred purposes long after the city had outgrown these early limits (Thucyd., ii. 15). The region we have been describing formed the nucleus of the later city, and therefore, at the subdivision of all Attica into demes, this quarter was distinguished by the name Κυδαθήναιον.

To the west of the Acropolis there extends from N. to S. a range of hills, the three most prominent heights of which are commonly known respectively as the Hill of the Nymphs, the Pnyx, and the Museium, the Nymphs' Hill being separated from the Acropolis by the Areopagus, which intervenes between. Everywhere upon the slopes of the hills just mentioned traces have lately been discovered of ancient dwellings hewn out of the solid rock. But while all these rock-dwellings are extremely ancient, yet some appear less primitive than others; it is remarked that those which exist on the Areopagus and on the hillsides nearest to the Acropolis are of a smaller and ruder type, those more distant from the citadel being somewhat more convenient in plan and extent. Legend declares the Athenians to have originally dwelt in rock-hewn caves (Dyer's Athens, ch. i.), and it would seem that primitive Athens gradually extended itself from the Acropolis in this W. and S. W. direction. This quarter was afterwards

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known as the intramural deme of Melite, a name derived, perhaps, from the balm which then grew there (the evons pelirea of Theocr., iv. 25). The historian E. Curtius (Attische Studien, pt. i.) has, indeed, gone so far as to regard these rock-dwellings as earlier than the occupa tion of the Acropolis itself. But the contrary opinion of Thucydides is worth something, and the natural strength of the Acropolis would make it the most obvious spot for primitive occupation. Accordingly, we shall not be giving too free a licence to our imagination if we conceive of primitive Athens as a. twofold settlement, partly on the Acropolis and the low ground at its southern foot, and partly upon the eastern slopes of the hills on the west. It may even have been the consolidation of these two villages into one township that gave rise to the legend ascribing to Theseus the ovvotioμos or consolidation of Attica. It would be natural for legend to assign to one definite time, and connect with one great mythical name, that process of unification which probably was as gradual as it was spontaneous. As the population of the early town continued to increase, two more districts seem to have been incorporated-Collytus, extending from the east of Melite, between the Acropolis and Areopagus, and Cerameicus, or the "Potters' quarter" ("Tuileries"), which extended from the same two hills towards the north and north-west. The regions we have now described appear to have made up the Athens of Solonian times. The earliest historical event which illustrates Athenian topography is the rising of Cylon (Herod., v. 71; Thucyd., i. 126; Pausan., i. 28). The narratives of that event imply that the Acropolis was already fortified by the Enneapylum, that the Areopagus was already the seat of the court which bore its name (see AREOPAGUS), and that near the entrance of the citadel /stood an altar of the Semnæ, or Furies, at which Cylon and his partisans were slain. This altar has been immortalised by Eschylus in the splendid conclusion of the Eumenides. Another sacred spot in early Athens must have been the Leocorium, where Hipparchus was assassinated (Thucyd., i. 20; vi. 57). This was a shrine erected in honour of the daughters of Leo, who were sacrificed by their father to Athena, in order to avert a pestilence. The nature of the legend testifies to the antiquity of the site. The words of Thucydides respecting Cylon imply that the early city was already surrounded by a ring-wall, and this probably remained intact until the invasion of the Persians, although the buildings within the walls underwent great alteration and improvements under the government of Pisistratus and his sons.

The reign of the Pisistratids was recognised by the ancients as marking an important era in Athenian topography. We have already mentioned the fountain of Enneacrunus as being built by them. It was Pisistratus who laid the foundations of the great temple of Zeus Olympius upon the ancient site above mentioned. His magnificent design had an eventful history: left unfinished by its author, the Athenians, perhaps from dislike to the "tyrant," made no effort to complete it. At length, after receiving additions from various foreign princes, it was completed by Hadrian (c. 130 A.D.), and formed the grandest edifice in the region of the city which, in acknowledgment of the imperial munificence, was called Hadrianopolis. The Olympium was one of the largest temples in the world; but of its 124 Corinthian columns only 15 are now standing. The Pythium, or sanctuary of the Pythian

1 Many of the names of the Attic demes, and indeed of Greek local names everywhere, were derived from plants and flowers; see Tozer's Lectures on the Geography of Greece, p. 338: "The most plausible derivation that has been suggested for the name 'Aeñva is from à0-, the root of reos, a flower; and Lobeck proposed to translate it by • Florentia.'"-(Ibid., p. 161).

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Apollo near the Olympium, was also ascribed to Pisistratus, whose grandson and namesake dedicated an altar within it (Thucyd., vi. 54). To Pisistratus was ascribed the founding of the Lyceium, or temple of Apollo Lyceius, which stood on the right bank of the Ilissus, a short distance from the city. The names both of Pericles and Lycurgus the orator are also associated with this building; yet it is not known who added the gymnasium close by, which afterwards became famous as the favourite haunt of Aristotle, and the birthplace of the Peripatetic philosophy. The yet more famous seat of the rival philosophy seems also to have owed something to the Pisistratids, for Hipparchus was said to have enclosed the Academy with a wall. This was a gymnasium surrounded by pleasant gardens lying to the N. of the city, about a mile from the Dipylum gate. It owes all its fame, of course, to its connection with Plato, who lived, taught, and was buried there. This site, so full of glorious memories, cannot now be identified with certainty. Its trees, like those of the Lyceium, were despoiled by Sulla to make implements of The name of Pisistratus is connected with another important site. Professor E. Curtius (Attische Studien, pt. 2), supposes that the most ancient Athenian market lay on the S. of the Acropolis, and that the Pisistratids superseded it by a new market at the northern foot of the Areopagus. Be this as it may, we are sure that, as early as their times, this site formed the centre of Athenian commercial and civic life. The narrow valley between the Pnyx Hill and the Areopagus, where older topographers placed the Agora, is not a spacious enough site for the purpose. The obvious locality for an Agora would be the rectangular space enclosed by the Areopagus on the S., by the Acropolis on the E., and on the W. by the eminence occupied by the Theseium. To the N. and N.E. no barrier existed; accordingly, the entrance was from the Dipylum gate on the N.W., and on the N.E. the market received extension in Roman times. The Agora thus stood in the region known as Cerameicus. But as the Cerameicus extended for some miles in a N.W. direction, it became divided by the city wall into the outer and the inner Cerameicus. The outer Cerameicus was an agreeable suburb, lying on the road to the Academy and Colonus, the home of Sophocles; and it was here that citizens who died in their country's wars received a public burial. Through gate Dipylum one passed into the inner Cerameicus, the most important quarter of which was naturally the Agora itself; and so it was common to speak of the Agora as "The Cerameicus." How much this market-place may have owed to the designs of the Pisistratids we cannot now determine. The statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton formed a conspicuous ornament of the south portion, and Thucydides (vi. 54) informs us that the grandson and namesake of Pisistratus adorned the Agora by building the altar of the twelve gods. If the Agora belongs to the age of Pisistratus, some of the civic buildings within it would also be coeval with him. Such were the Stoa Basileius, or Portico, where the archon basileius presided; the Bouleuterium, where the senate of 500 held its sittings; the Tholus close by it, where the Prytanes of the senate sacrificed--a circular building with a dome of stone, from whence it gained its name; and the Prytaneium, said to be founded by Theseus (Thucyd., ii. 15), which contained the hearth-fire of the state, and where the Prytanes and public benefactors had the privilege of dining at the public expense. The statues of the ten heroes (eponymi), who gave their names to the Athenian tribes, decorated the Agora probably from the first; against these statues were affixed public notices and proclamations. Other buildings in the Agora of later and ascertained dates will be enumerated in their proper place.

Enough has now been said of the condition of Athens before the Persian War. It was surrounded by a ring-wall of narrow circuit, some doubtful traces of which are supposed to remain. At its centre stood the Acropolis, already crowded with temples and sanctuaries, some upon the summit, some built at its foot, and others-like the famous grotto of Pan, on the N.W. slope-mere caves in its rocky sides.

The revolution which expelled the Pisistratids (510 B.C.), | a large scale, hewing out what is still known as the bema. and gave Athens a free government, left its mark upon the giving the semicircular wall a wider sweep, and raising topography of the sity. The old Pelasgic fortress (rò the tiers of seats at least to a level with the new bema, 'Evveάmudov), in which "the tyrants" had for a time held if not above it. For there is no reason to suppose that out, was now broken down, and the site occupied by its the surface of the lower terrace has undergone no change ruins was devoted by the Delphic oracle to eternal in the lapse of centuries, or that the " Cyclopean" wall desolation. Only in the Peloponnesian war, when the surrounding it never exceeded its present height. country population was crowded within the city walls, do A building of greater architectural importance and of we read of this spot being occupied by dwellings (Thucyd., equal interest belongs to this same period. Dramatic ii. 17). Another work which may probably be assigned performances at Athens originally took place in wooden to the age of Clisthenes is the first arrangement of the theatres extemporised for the occasion; but the fall of Pnyx, or place of public assembly. The hill that is one of these led, in the year 500 B.C., to the erection of commonly known as the Pnyx Hill contains one of the the marble theatre on a site already consecrated to most remarkable ruins in Athens; the silence, however, Dionysus as the Lenæum, upon the S.E. slope of the of Pausanius respecting what was probably in his day Acropolis. (Suidas, 8. v. Пparivas.) We may be sure already a mere ruin has occasioned some doubt concerning that the first stone theatre was comparatively simple in its proper identification. The spot in question consists of construction, consisting of a κoîλov or auditorium, with two terraces sloping down the hill towards the Areopagus, tiers of rock-hewn seats, and an opxnoτpá, or space for the from S. W. to N.E. The upper terrace, indeed, does not chorus, while the stage itself and its furniture were of slope, but is levelled out of the solid rock near the summit wood. The excavation of the Dionysiac theatre in 1862 of the hill, being about 65 yards in length (E. to W.), has made every one familiar with the row of marble and about 43 in breadth at its broadest part (N. to S.) thrones for the various priests and officers of state, the It is bounded at the back (S.) by a rock-wall, and at the elaborate masonry of the stage, the orchestra floor, and W. end there stands a cubical block, allowed to rise out other features. But these and other interesting decoraof the solid rock when this upper terrace was levelled. tions of the theatre belong to a later age. It was under There is good reason for considering this as the altar for the administration of Lycurgus the orator (337 B.c.) that the sacrifices (rà repíoria) with which every assembly of the the building was first really completed; and many of the ecclesia was opened (Bursian, Philologus, 1854, p. 369, foll.; sculptures which have been lately brought to light belong Dyer, Athens, p. 462). The lower and considerably larger to a restoration of the theatre in the 2d, or perhaps even terrace is separated from the upper terrace by another wall in the 3d, century A.D.1 cut out of the solid rock. This wall, which is nearly 126 yards long, is not quite straight, but encroaches slightly upon the upper terrace, and forms at the centre a very obtuse angle. At this point there rises, projecting from the wall, a large cubical mass, cut out of the solid rock, resembling somewhat, though on a larger scale, the altar described above. It is itself 11 feet square and 5 feet high, and stands on a platform consisting of three very massive steps. This remarkable monument has been recognised by tradition as the σκáλa Tоû Anμooféveos, and almost every traveller since Chandler's time has regarded it as no other than the famous bema of the ancient Athenian assembly. The rock-wall from which it projects forms the chord of a vast semicircular space, the enclosure of its arc being a wall of "Cyclopean" masonry. The radius of the semicircle measures between 76 and 77 yards from this outer wall to the bema. Here, then, was the auditorium of the Pnyx. But several difficulties beset the identification. Towards the bottom of the lower beme Prof. E. Curtius (Attische Studien, pt. i) has discovered another similar though smaller bema. Again, Plutarch asserts that the bema which had originally faced towards the sea was by the Thirty Tyrants turned round the other way, in their hatred of the maritime democracy. Moreover, if the block of marble above mentioned be rightly identified as the bema, then it would have the auditorium sloping downwards from it, an arrangement ill suited for addressing a tumultuous popular assembly. Dr Curtius accordingly pronounces the entire identification to be a mistake, and would regard this spot as a primitive precinct and rock-altar of the Most High Zeus. It would not be difficult, if space allowed, to disprove Dr Curtius's theory. Far more reasonable is the view of Dr Dyer (Athens, App. iii) He thinks that the lower and smaller bema discovered by Dr Curtius was the bema of Clisthenes, which did (however much Plutarch's statement is discredited by his own absurd explanation) face in the direction of the sea. The orator would thus speak from the arc of the semicircle, having the audience above him. The Thirty may well have defaced the Pnyx, and it would have been patural for Thrasybulus after the anarchy to restore it on

The Persian invasion, which forced the Athenians to take refuge in their "wooden walls," and to leave their city at the mercy of the barbarian, marked an important epoch in the annals of Athenian building. Upon the retreat of Mardonius, the Athenians returned to Attica to find their city virtually in ruins. Its fortifications and public buildings had been destroyed or burnt, and the private dwellings had been wantonly defaced or ruined by neglect. Amid the enthusiasm of hope which followed upon the great deliverance of Greece, a natural impulse led the Athenians to rear their city more glorious from its ruins. Themistocles fanned their patriotism with the foresight of a statesman, and Athens rose again with marvellous rapidity. This haste, however, though creditable to their patriotism, and, indeed, necessary in order to forestall the jealous opposition of Sparta, was not without its evils. The houses were rebuilt on their old sites, and the lines of the old streets, narrow and irregular as they had been, were too readily followed. A similar haste marked the rebuilding of the city walls, a work in which men and women, old and young, took zealous part, not scrupling to dismantle any building or monument, private or public, which could supply materials for the building. But in rebuilding the walls Themistocles gave them a wider circuit, especially towards the N. and N.E. (Thucyd., i. 90, 93). At the same time he determined to construct new harbours, and to fortify the Piraeus, regarding the navy of Athens as her principal source of strength. It is doubtful whether the "Long Walls" formed a distinct portion of his designs; but he may certainly be regarded as the founder of the greatness

1 The best account yet given of the Dionysiac theatre is to be found in Dr Dyer's recent work on Athens.

of Athens, the works and embellishments carried cut by Pericles being only a fulfilment of the far-sighted aims of Themistocles. Thucydides (ii. 13) makes the circuit of the city wall to be 43 stades (about 51 miles), exclusive of the unguarded space between walls; this is found to correspond accurately enough with the existing remains. In tracing the circuit of the ancient walls, we may take our start from the N.W. side of the city, at the one gate whose site is absolutely certain, the Thriasian gate (called also the Sacred gate, as opening upon the sacred way to Eleusis, and also Tò Aímulov, as consisting of two gates, perhaps one within the other), which is marked by the modern church of the Holy Trinity, a littlc N. of the bottom of Hermes Streeta spot attractive to the modern tourist through the beautiful "street of tombs" here laid bare by recent excavations. From the Thriasian gate the wall of Themistocles ran due E. for some distance; thence, skirting the modern theatre, it ran N.E., parallel to the modern Piraeus Street as far as the Bank, when it returned in a S.E. direction across the site of the present Mint, as far as the Chamber of Deputies. Thence towards the S.E. it included nearly all the modern Royal Gardens, and then ran S. W., following the zig-zag of the hills above the north bank of the Ilissus, until westwards by a straight course parallel with the Acropolis it reached the Museium Hill. Thence it may be traced in a direction N.W. and N., following more or less the contour of the hills, until we return to our starting-point at the Dipylum gate. Eight other gates (exclusive of wickets, mulides, which must have existed) are mentioned by ancient authors-the Piraan, Hippades, Melitides, Itonian, Diomeian, Diocharis, Panopis, and Acharnian. Their exact sites cannot be certainly fixed, but some of them may be determined within narrow limits, such as the Piraan gate, which led out of the Agora, and opened upon the long walls. Having completed the defences of the city proper, among which must be included the building of the north wall of the Acropolis (Dyer, p. 121), Themistocles proceeded to fortify the Piraeus.

Athens, like most of the old Greek towns, was built, for greater security, at a distance from the coast, and only when more settled times brought her greater prosperity was a harbour formed at the nearest bay of Phalerum, near the modern church of St George. It is said that Themistocles would gladly have transported the Athenian population bodily from the upper city to the coast, there to form a great maritime state. Though this was impossible, yet he could strengthen Athens on the seaward side. The isthmus of Piraeus, though somewhat more distant than Phalerum, presented obvious advantages as a seaport. It formed on its north side the spacious and secure basin of Piraeus (now Port Drako), the north and south shores of which towards the entrance fall back into two smaller bays-harbours within the harbour-known respectively as the κwpòs λun and xávapos. The neck of the isthmus on the south is formed by Port Zea (now Phanari), the entrance of which was secured by Phreattys, the headland of Munychia. Round to the east of the district of Munychia, again, and facing Phalerum, was the harbour known anciently as Munychia, and now as Port Stratiotiki Themistocles thus, in giving up Port Phalerum, gave Athens three harbours instead of one. The fortifications of Piraeus were conceived on a grand scale, and carried out with no sign of hurry. The whole circuit of Piraeus and of the town of Munychia was enclosed alike on the sea and land sides by walls of immense thickness and strength, which were carried up to a height of more than 60 feet-this being only half the height intended by Themistocles! (see Grote, Hist. Greece, c. xliv.) The laying out of the new seaport belonged rather to the regime of Pericles (Grote, c. xlvii.) It was then that

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Hippodamus, the eccentric architect, planned the Agora which bore his name; and the various public buildings which adorned Piraeus doubtless arose with growth of Athenian commerce. The harbour-basin was lined with porticces, which served as warehouses and bazaars. Two theatres existed in the town, and numerous temples. The local deity was Artemis Munychia; but the large number of foreigners (uéroikoi) who became naturalised at this port led to the introduction.of many foreign forms of worship. Artemis herself came to be identified with the Thracian Bendis, and her festival (rà Bevdidea) is referred to in the immortal opening of Plato's Republic.

If not a part of the original designs of Themistocles, it was at least a natural development of thera, to carry " Long Walls" from the newly-fortified Piraeus to the upper city, and thus combine them both into one grand system of fortification. The experiment of connecting a town by long walls with its port had been already tried between Megara and Nisæa (Grote, Hist. Greece, c. xlv.), and it was now repeated on a grander scale under Cimon. From the portion of the city wall between the Museium and the Nymphs' Hill a sort of bastion was thrown out to S.W. so as to form an irregular triangle, from the apex of which a "long wall," about 4 miles long, was carried down to the N. portion of the Piraean fortifications; this was termed rò Bópelov Teixos. Another "long wall" of somewhat shorter length ran down to the wall of Phalerum, which had hitherto served as the port of Athens; this was ro Paλnpikov Teîxos. A third wall, between the two, parallel to the first, and but a few yards from it (rò vórɩov TEIXOS, rò dià péσov Teixos), was afterwards added by Pericles, and the maritime fortifications of Athens became complete. But the city owed still more to the munificence of Cimon. Out of the spoils of his Persian campaign he fortified the S. side of the Acropolis with a remarkably solid wall, which terminated in a sort of bastion at the W. end. Here he reared a little temple of Athena Nike (otherwise called the Wingless Victory), although the existing sculptures of the frieze are pronounced on account of their style to belong to a somewhat later date (Pausan., i. 28, 3; Corn. Nep., Cimon, ii; Plutarch, Cimon, xiii.) It was Cimon who first set the example of providing the citizens with agreeable places for promenade (Plutarch, ibid.), by planting the Agora with plane trees, and laying out the Academy with trees and walks. It is probable that some of the porticoes in the Agora were built by Cimon; at all events, the most beautiful ore amongst them was reared by Pisianax, his brother-in-law, and the paintings with which Polygnotus, his sister's lover, adorned it (representing scenes from the military history of Athens, legendary and historical) made it ever famous as the Eroà Tоikiλn. One more building, the most perfect existing relic of ancient Athens, was also built by Cimon. The Theseium (as we still may venture to call it, in spite of the doubts lately cast upon its identification) is a hexastyle Doric temple standing on an eminence due N. of the Areopagus, and is the first object which meets the eye of the tourist who approaches the city from the Piraeus. Having served in Byzantine times for a Christian church, it is now a museum of antiquities, and contains some of the choicest treasures discovered by recent excavations.

We have now brought this sketch of Athenian topography down to the most distinguished period of Athenian history and Athenian architecture-the era of Pericles. As the champion of Hellenic freedom against the Persians, as the head of the Ionic confederation, Athens had suddenly grown to be the foremost city in Greece. But when one by one the confederate states sank into the position of subject1 See Dyer, Athens, p. 230, foll., who thinks it is really the temple of the Amazons.

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