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many Tories seemed a crime. On the sad night on which Addison was laid in the chapel of Henry VII, the West minster boys remarked that Atterbury read the funeral service with a peculiar tenderness and solemnity. The favourite companions, however, of the great Tory prelate were, as might have been expected, men whose politics had at least a tinge of Toryism. He lived on friendly terms with Swift, Arbuthnot, and Gay. With Prior he had a close intimacy, which some misunderstanding about public affairs at last dissolved. Pope found in Atterbury not only a warm admirer, but a most faithful, fearless, and judicious adviser. The poet was a frequent guest at the episcopal palace among the elms of Bromley, and entertained not the slightest suspicion that his host, now declining in years, confined to an easy chair by gout, and apparently devoted to literature, was deeply concerned in criminal and perilous designs against the Government. The spirit of the Jacobites had been cowed by the events of 1715. It revived in 1721. The failure of the South Sea project, the panic in the money market, the downfall of great commercial houses, the distress from which no part of the kingdom was exempt, had produced general discontent. It seemed not improbable that at such a moment an insurrection might be successful. An insurrection was planned. The streets of London were to be barricaded; the Tower and the Bank were to be surprised; King George, his family, and his chief captains and councillors were to be arrested, and King James was to be proclaimed. The design became known to the duke of Orleans, regent of France, who was on terms of friendship with the house of Hanover. He put the English Government on its guard. Some of the chief malcontents were committed to prison; and among them was Atterbury. No bishop of the Church of England had been taken into custody since that memorable day when the applauses and prayers of all London had followed the seven bishops to the gate of the Tower. The Opposition entertained some hope that it might be possible to excite among the people an enthusiasm resembling that of their fathers, who rushed into the waters of the Thames to implore the blessing of Sancroft. Pictures of the heroic confessor in his cell were exhibited at the shop windows. Verses in his praise were sung about the streets. The restraints by which he was prevented from communicating with his accomplices were represented as cruelties worthy of the dungeons of the Inquisition. Strong appeals were made to the priesthood. Would they tamely permit so gross an insult to be offered to their cloth? Would they suffer the ablest, the most eloquent member of their profession, the man who had so often stood up for their rights against the civil power, to be treated like the vilest of mankind? There was considerable excitement; but it was allayed by a temperate and artful letter to the clergy, the work, in all probability, of Bishop Gibson, who stood high in the favour of Walpole, and shortly after became minister for ecclesiastical affairs. Atterbury remained in close confinement during some months. He had carried on his correspondence with the exiled family so cautiously that the circumstantial proofs of his guit, though sufficient to produce entire moral conviction, were not sufficient to justify legal conviction. He could be reached only by a bill of pains and penalties. Such a bill the Whig party, then decidedly predominant in both Houses, was quite prepared to support. Many hot-headed members of that party were eager to follow the precedent which had been set in the case of Sir John Fenwick, and to pass an act for cutting off the bishop's head. Cadogan, who commanded the army, a brave soldier, but a headstrong politician, is said to have exclaimed with great vehemence, " Fling him to the lions in the Tower." But the wiser and more humane Walpole was

always unwilling to shed blood, and his influence prevailed. When Parliament met, the evidence against the bishop was laid before committees of both Houses. Those committees reported that his guilt was proved. In the Commons a resolution pronouncing him a traitor was carried by nearly two to one. A bill was then introduced which provided that he should be deprived of his spiritual dignities, that he should be banished for life, and that no British subject should hold any intercourse with him except by the royal permission. This bill passed the Commons with little difficulty; for the bishop, though invited to defend himself, chose to reserve his defence for the assembly of which he was a member. In the Lords the contest was sharp. The young duke of Wharton, distinguished by his parts, his dissoluteness, and his versatility, spoke for Atterbury with great effect; and Atterbury's own voice was heard for the last time by that unfriendly audience which had so often listened to him with mingled aversion and delight. He produced few witnesses, nor did those witnesses say much that could be of service to him. Among them was Pope. He was called to prove that, while he was an inmate of the palace at Bromley, the bishop's time was completely occupied by literary and domestic matters, and that no leisure was left for plotting. But Pope, who was quite unaccustomed to speak in public, lost his head, and, as he afterwards owned, though he had only ten words to say, made two or three blunders.

The bill finally passed the Lords by eighty-three votes to forty-three. The bishops, with a single exception, were in the majority. Their conduct drew on them a sharp taunt from Lord Bathurst, a warm friend of Atterbury and a zealous Tory. "The wild Indians," he said, 66 give no quarter, because they believe that they shall inherit the skill and prowess of every adversary whom they destroy. Perhaps the animosity of the right reverend prelates to their brother may be explained in the same way."

Three

Atterbury took leave of those whom he loved with a dignity and tenderness worthy of a better man. fine lines of his favourite poet were often in his mouth"Some natural tears he dropped, but wiped them soon: The world was all before him, where to chuse His place of rest, and Providence his guide."

At parting he presented Pope with a Bible, and said, with a disingenuousness of which no man who had studied the Bible to much purpose would have been guilty, "If ever you learn that I have any dealings with the Pretender, I give you leave to say that my punishment is just." Pope at this time really believed the bishop to be an injured man. Arbuthnot seems to have been of the same opinion. Swift, a few months later, ridiculed with great bitterness, in the Voyage to Lapute, the evidence which had satisfied the two Houses of Parliament. Soon, however, the most partial friends of the banished prelate ceased to assert his innocence, and contented themselves with lamenting and excusing what they could not defend. After a short stay at Brussels he had taken up his abode at Paris, and had become the leading man among the Jacobite refugees who were assembled there. He was invited to Rome by the Pretender, who then held his mock court under the immediate protection of the Pope. But Atterbury felt that a bishop of the Church of England would be 'strangely out of place at the Vatican, and declined the invitation. During some months, however, he might flatter himself that he stood high in the good graces of James. The correspondence between the master and the servant was constant. Atterbury's merits were warmly acknowledged, his advice was respectfully received, and he was, as Bolingbroke had been before him, the prime minister of a king without a kingdom,

Atter

But the new favourite found, as Bolingbroke had found before him, that it was quite as hard to keep the shadow of power under a vagrant and mendicant prince as to keep the reality of power at Westminster. Though James had neither territories nor revenues, neither army nor navy, there was more faction and more intrigue among his courtiers than among those of his successful rival. bury soon perceived that his counsels were disregarded, if not distrusted. His proud spirit was deeply wounded. He quitted Paris, fixed his residence at Montpellier, gave up politics, and devoted himself entirely to letters. In the sixth year of his exile he had so severe an illness that his daughter, herself in very delicate health, determined to run all risks that she might see him once more. Having obtained a licence from the English Government, she went by sea to Bordeaux, but landed there in such a state that she could travel only by boat or in a litter. Her father, in spite of his infirmities, set out from Montpellier to meet her; and she, with the impatience which is often the sign of approaching death, hastened towards him. Those who were about her in vain implored her to travel slowly. She said that every hour was precious, that she only wished to see her papa and to die. She met him at Toulouse, embraced him, received from his hand the sacred bread and wine, and thanked God that they had passed one day in each other's society before they parted for ever. She died that night.

the great national cemetery is no subject of regret, ist nothing worse was ever written by Colley Cibber.

Those who wish for more complete information about Atterbury may easily collect it from his sermons and his controversial writings, from the report of the parliamentary proceedings against him, which will be found in the State Trials; from the five volumes of his correspondence, edited by Mr Nichols, and from the first volume of the Stuart papers, edited by Mr Glover. A very indulgent but a very interesting account of the bishop's political career will be found in Lord Stanhope's valuable History of England. (M.)

ATTICA, the most famous district of ancient Greece, is a triangular piece of ground projecting in a south-easterly direction into the gean Sea, the base line being formed by the continuous chain of Mounts Citharon and Parnes, the apex by the promontory of Sunium. It is washed on

It was some time before even the strong mind of Atterbury recovered from this cruel blow. As soon as he was himself again he became eager for action and conflict; for grief, which disposes gentle natures to retirement, to inaction, and to meditation, only makes restless spirits more restless. The Pretender, dull and bigoted as he was, had found out that he had not acted wisely in parting with one who, though a heretic, was, in abilities and accomplishments, the foremost man of the Jacobite party. The bishop was courted back, and was without much difficulty induced to return to Paris, and to become once more the phantom minister of a phantom monarchy. But his long and troubled life was drawing to a close. To the last, however, his intellect retained all its keenness and vigour. He learned, in the ninth year of his banishment, that he had been accused by Oldmixon, as dishonest and malignant a scribbler as any that has been saved from oblivion by the Dunciad, of having, in concert with other Christ Churchmen, garbled Clarendon's History of the Rebellion. The charge, as respected Atterbury, had not the slightest foundation; for he was not one of the editors of the History, and never saw it till it was printed.. He published a short vindication of himself, which is a model in its kind, luminous, temperate, and dignified. A copy of this little work he sent to the Pretender, with a letter singularly eloquent and graceful. It was impossible, the old man said, that he should write anything on such a subject without being reminded of the resemblance between his own fate and that of Clarendon. They were the only two English subjects that had ever been banished from their country and debarred from all communication with their friends by Act of Parliament. But here the resemblance ended. One of the exiles had been so happy to bear a chief part in the restoration of the royal house. All that the other could now do was to die asserting the rights of that house to the last. A few weeks after this letter was written Atterbury died. He had just completed his seventieth year.

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two sides by the sea, and this feature seems to have given rise to the name; for, notwithstanding the unusual letterchange, 'ATTIKý probably stands for 'AKTIK, since Strabo and other ancient writers inform us that the country originally bore both this name and that of 'Aktý. The latter designation was frequently used by the Greeks to describe an extensive tract reaching into the sea, especially when, as in the case of Attica and the Argolic Acte, it was joined to the continent by a broad base. The coast is broken up into numerous small bights and harbours, which, however, are with few exceptions exposed to the south wind; the irregularity of the outline accounts for its great length in comparison of the superficial area of the country. The surface of Attica, as of the rest of Greece, is very mountainous, and between the mountain chains lie several plains of no great size, open on one side to the sea. On the west its natural boundary is the Corinthian Gulf, so that it would include the district of Megaris; and, as a matter of fact, before the Dorian invasion, which resulted in the foundation of Megara, the whole of this country was politically one, being in the hands of the Ionian race. This is proved by the column which, as we learn from Strabo, once stood on the Isthmus of Corinth, bearing on one side the inscription, "This land is Peloponnesus, not Ionia "— τάδ ̓ ἐστὶ Πελοπόννησος, οὐκ Ιωνία

His body was brought to England, and laid, with great privacy, under the nave of Westminster Abbey. Only three mourners followed the coffin. No inscription marks the grave. That the epitaph with which Pope honoured the memory of his friend does not appear on the walls of

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The central position of Attica in Greece was one main | later on occurs Cranaus, a personification of the rocky cause of its historical importance. When K. O. Müller ground, whence both Pindar and Aristophanes apply the compares Greece to a body, whose members are different in epithet xpavaaí to Athens; and further we meet with form, while a mutual connection and dependence naturally Erichthonius, whose name is inte ided to express the fruitexist between them, he speaks of Attica as one of the ful plains. Thucydides attributes to the nature of the thin extremities which served as the active instruments of the soil (i. 2, tò dentóyewv), which presented no attraction to body of Greece, and by which it was kept in constant con- invaders, the permanence of the same inhabitants in the nection with other countries. Hence in part arose the country, whence arose the claim to indigenousness on maritime character of its inhabitants; and when they had which the Athenians so greatly prided themselves; while at once taken to the sea, the string of neighbouring islands, the same time the richer ground fostered that fondness for Ceos, Cythnos, and others, some of which lay within sight country life, which is proved by the enthusiastic terms in of their coasts, and from one to another of which it was which it is always spoken of by Aristophanes, and by the possible to sail without losing sight of land, served to discontent of the people of Attica at being forced to betake tempt them on to further enterprises. Similarly on land, themselves to the city at the commencement of the Pelothe post it occupied between Northern Greece and the ponnesian War. That we are not justified in judging of Peloponnese materially influenced its relation to other states, the ancient condition of the soil by the aridity which preboth in respect of its alliances, such as that with Thessaly, vails at the present day, is shown by the fact that out of towards which country it was drawn by mutual hostility to the 174 demes into which Attica was divided, at least oneBoeotia, which lay between them,-a friendship of great tenth were named from trees or plants. service to Athens, because it brought to her aid the Thessalian cavalry, an arm with which she herself was feebly provided; and also in respect of offensive combinations of other powers, as that between Thebes and Sparta, which throughout an important part of Greek history were closely associated in their politics, through mutual dread of their powerful neighbour.

The mountains of Attica, which form its most characteristic feature, are to be regarded as a continuation of that chain which, starting from Mount Tymphrestus at the southern extremity of Pindus, passes through Phocis and Boeotia under the well-known names of Parnassus and Helicon; from this proceeds the range which, as Citharon in its western and Parnes in its eastern portion, separates Attica from Boeotia, throwing off spurs southward towards the Saronic Gulf in Ægaleos and Hymettus, which bound the plain of Athens. Again, the eastern extremity of l'arnes is joined by another line of hills, which, separating from Mount Eta, skirts the Euboic Gulf, and, after entering Attica, throws up the lofty pyramid of Pentelicus, overlooking the plain of Marathon, and then sinks towards the sea at Sunium to rise once more in the outlying islands. Finally, at the extreme west of the whole district, Citharon is bent round at right angles in the direction of the isthmus, at the northern approach to which it abuts against the mighty mass of Mount Geraneia, which is interposed between the Corinthian and the Saronic Gulf. The elevation reached by some of these is considerable, both Citharon and Parnes being about 4600 feet, Hymettus 3360, and Pentelicus 2560, while Egaleos does not rise higher than 1536 feet. At the present day they are extremely bare, and, to one who is accustomed to Italian scenery, their severity is apt at first to be almost repellent; but after a time the eye is delighted with the delicacy of the outlines, the minute articulation of the minor ridges and valleys, and the symmetrical way in which nature has grouped the several mountains so as to form a balance between them. The appearance thus produced can be best described as classical.

The soil of Attica is light and thin, and requires very careful agriculture to develop its preduce. This feature belongs not only to the rocky mountain sides, but to some extent also to the maritime plains, and had considerable influence on the development of the inhabitants, both by enforcing industrious habits, and in leading them at an early period to take to the sea. Still, the level ground was sufficiently fertile to form a marked contrast to the rest of the district, and this fact is represented in the mythical genealogy of the early kings, which embodies several geographical features. Thus, while first we find the name of Actus or Actæon, who represents the ȧkrý or sca-coast,

But whatever drawbacks the people of Attica experienced in respect of the soil were more than compensated by the fineness of the climate. In this point they enjoyed a great advantage over their neighbours the Boeotians; and while at the present day travellers speak of the excessive heat in summer and cold in winter which they have experienced in Boeotia, Attica has always been famous for its mildness. In approaching this district from the north, a change of temperature is felt as soon as a person descends from Citharon or Parnes, and the sea breeze, which in modern times is called o éμßárns, or that which sets towards shore, moderates the heat in summer. Both the Attic comedians and Plato speak with enthusiasm of their native climate, and the fineness of the Athenian intellect was attributed to the clearness of the Attic atmosphere. It was in the neighbourhood of Athens itself that the air was thought to be purest. This is what Euripides refers to in the well-known passage where he describes the inhabitants as "ever walking gracefully through the most luminous æther" (Med., 829); and Milton, who is always an admirable exponent of Greek literature, in like manner

says

"Where, on the Egean shore, a city stands,

Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil,-
Athens, the eye of Greece."

Thus it is hardly hyperbole in Xenophon to say "one
would not err in thinking that this city is placed near the
centre of Greece-nay, of the civilised world,-because, the
farther removed persons are from it, the severer is the cold
or heat they meet with" (Vectigal., i. 6). To the clearness
of the atmosphere must be referred the distinctness with
which distant objects can be discerned, for from the
Acropolis the lines of white marble that streak the sides of
Pentelicus are visible, and also the brilliant colouring
which is so conspicuous in an Athenian sunset. Thus
Dean Stanley speaks of "the flood of fire with which the
marble columns, the mountains, and the sea are all bathed
and penetrated;" "the violet hue which Hymettus assumes
in the evening sky, in contrast to the glowing furnace of
the rock of Lycabettus, and the rosy pyramid of Pentelicus,"
And M. Bursian says-" Amongst the most beautiful
natural scenes that I have beheld I reckon the sight of
Hymettus from Athens at sunset, whilst the entire range,
as soon as the sun begins to sink, quivers with the loveliest
rosy red, which gradually passes through the most varied
gradations into the deepest violet. No one who has not
enjoyed this spectacle can understand the purpureos colles
florentis Hymetti of Ovid." This otherwise perfect climate
is slightly marred by the prevalence of the north wind.
This is expressed on the Horologium of Antonius Cyr-
rhestes, called the Temple or Tower of the Winds, at

Athens, where Boreas is represented as a bearded man of stern aspect, thickly clad, and wearing strong buskins; he blows into a conch shell, which he holds in his hand as a sign of his tempestuous character. This also explains the close connection between him and this country in mythology, especially in the legend of Orithyia, who is the daughter of the Cephisus, thus representing the mists that rise from the streams, and whom he carries off with him and makes his wife. One of their offspring is called Chione, or the Snow Maiden.

When we turn to the vegetation of Attica, the olive first calls for our attention. This tree, we learn from Herodotus (v. 82), was thought at one time to have been found in that country only; and the enthusiastic praises of Sophocles (Ed. Col., 700) teach us that it was the land in which it flourished best. So great was the esteem in which it was held, that in the early legend of the struggle between the gods of sea and land, Poseidon and Athena, for the patronage of the country, the sea-god is represented as having to retire vanquished before the giver of the olive; and at a later period the evidences of this contention were found in an ancient olive tree in the Acropolis, together with three holes in the rock, said to have been made by the trident of Poseidon, and to be connected with a salt well hard by. The fig also found its favourite home in this country, for Demeter was said to have bestowed it as a gift on the Eleusinian Phytalus, i.e., "the gardener." Both Citharon and Parnes must have been wooded in former times; for on the former are laid the picturesque ailvan scenes in the Baccha of Euripides, and it was from the latter that the wood came which caused the neighbour ing deme of Acharna to be famous for its charcoal-the aropaxes Пaprýσio of the Acharnians of Aristophanes (348). It was the thymy slopes of Hymettus, too, from which came the famous Hymettian honey. Among the other products we must notice the marble-both that of Pentelicus, which afforded a material of unrivalled purity and whiteness for building the Athenian temples, and the blue marble of Hymettus-the trabes Hymettia of Horacewhich used to be transported to Rome for the construction of palaces. But the richest of all the sources of wealth in Attica was the silver mines of Laureium, the yield of which was so considerable as to render silver the principal medium of exchange in Greece, so that "a silver piece" (apyúptov) was the Greek equivalent term for money. Hence Eschylus speaks of the Athenians as possessing a "fountain of silver" (Pers., 235), and Aristophanes makes his chorus of birds promise the audience that, if they show him favour, owls from Laureium, i.e., silver pieces with the emblem of Athens, shall never fail them (Av., 1106). In Strabo's time, though the mines had almost ceased to yield, silver was obtained in considerable quantities from the scoriæ; and at the present day a large amount of lead is obtained in the same way, the value of what was exported in 1869 having been £177,000 sterling.

Having thus noticed the general features of the country, let us proceed to examine it somewhat more in detail. It has been already mentioned that the base line is formed by the chain of Citharon and Parnes, running from west to east; and that from this transverse chains run southward, dividing Attica into a succession of plains. The westernmost of these, which is separated from the innermost bay of the Corinthian Gulf, called the Mare Alcyonium, by an offshoot of Citharon, and is bounded on the east by a ridge which ends towards the Saronic Gulf in a striking two-horned peak called Kerata, is the plain of Megara. It is only for geographical purposes that we include this district under Attica, for both the Dorian race of the inhabitants, and its dangerous proximity to Athens, caused it to be at perpetual feud with that city; but its position

as an outpost for the Peloponnesians, together with the fact of its having once been Ionian soil, sufficiently explains the bitter hostility of the Athenians towards the Megarians. The great importance of Megara arose from its commanding all the passes into the Peloponnese. These were three in number: one along the shores of the Corinthian Gulf, which, owing to the nature of the ground, makes a long detour; the other two starting from Megara, and passing, the one by a lofty though gradual route over the ridge of Geraneia, the other along the Saronic Gulf, under the dangerous precipices of the Scironian rocks. The town of Megara, which was built on and between two low hills rising out of the plain rather more than a mile from the sea, had the command of both gulfs by means of its two ports-that of Pega on the Corinthian, and that of Nicaa on the Saronic. The necessities of the case occasionally brought the Megarians and their powerful neighbours together; for the former greatly depended on Athens for their supplies, as we see from their famished state, as described by Aristophanes in the Acharnians (729 seq.), when excluded from the ports and markets of that country.

To the east of the plain of Megara lies that of Eleusis, bounded on the one side by the chain of Kerata, and on the other by that of Egaleos, through a depression in which was the line of the sacred way, where the torchlight processions from Athens used to descend to the coast, the "brightly-gleaming shores" (Aaμwádes åktai) of Sophocles (Ed. Col., 1049). Here a deep bay runs into the land, opposite to which, and separated from it by a strait, which forms a succession of graceful curves, was the rocky island of Salamis, at all times an important possession to the Athenians on account of its proximity to their city. The scene of the battle of Salamis was the narrowest part of this channel, where the island approaches the extremity of Egaleos; and it was on the last declivities of that mountain that

"A king sate on the rocky brow

Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis." The eastern portion of this plain was called the Thriasian plain, and the city of Eleusis was situated in the recesses of the bay. The coast-line of this part, between the sanctuary of Poseidon at the isthmus, which was originally Ionian, and Athens, is the principal scene of the achievements of Theseus, a hero who holds the same relation to the Ionians of Greece proper as Hercules does to the Greeks at large, viz., that of being the great author of improvements in the country. In this instance his feats seem to describe the establishment of a safe means of communication. On the isthmus itself he destroys the monster Sinis, the "ravager," otherwise called Pityocamptes, or the "pine-bender," which names imply that he is the embodiment of a violent wind, though the legend grew up that he fastened his victims to the bent branches of two pines, by the rebound of which they were torn in sunder. His next exploit is near Crommyon, where he destroys a wild sow, called Phæa, or "the dusky," which probably means that he checked a torrent, since violent watercourses are often represented by that animal in Greek mythology. Then follows the struggle with the brigand Sciron, who signifies the dangerous wind, which blows with such violence in this district that at Athens the north-west wind received the name of Sciron from the neighbouring Scironian rocks; the pass, which skirts the sea at the base of the cliffs, is now known by the ill-omened title of Kake Scala, and is still regarded as a perilous transit. Finally, between Eleusis and Athens, Theseus overcomes Procrustes, or "the racker," who apparently represents the dangers of the pass between Eleusis and Athens, now called Daphne; for the ridge of Mount Ægaleos hard by was in ancient

times called Corydallus, and this, we are told by Diodorus | Mesogæa, an elevated undulating plain in the midst of the (iv. 59), was the scene of the contest.

mountains, reaching nearly to Sunium. At the extremity Next in order to the plain of Eleusis came that of of Hymettus, where it projects into the Saronic Gulf, was Athens, which is the most extensive of all, reaching from the promontory of Zoster, or "the Girdle," which was so the foot of Parnes to the sea, and bounded on the west by called because it girdles and protects the neighbouring Egaleos, and on the east by Hymettus. Its most con harbour; but, in consequence of the name, a legend was spicuous feature is the broad line of dark green along its attached to it, to the effect that Latona had loosed her girdle western side, formed by the olive-groves of Colonus and there. From this promontory to Sunium there runs a lower the gardens of the Acaremus, which owe their fertility to line of mountains, and between these and the sea a fertile the waters of the Cephisus, by which they are irrigated. strip of land intervenes, which was called the Paralia. This river is fed by copious sources on the side of Mount Beyond Sunium, on the eastern coast, were two safe ports, Parnes, and thus, unlike the other rivers of Attica, has a that of Thoricus, which is defended by the island of Helene, constant supply of water; but it does not reach the sea, forming a natural breakwater in front of it, and that of nor did it apparently in classical times, having been Prasiæ, now called Porto Raphti, or "the Tailor," from a diverted, then as now, into the neighbouring plantations; statue at the entrance to which the natives have given that for this is what Sophocles means when he speaks of "the name. But it still remains to mention the most famous sleepless fountains of Cephisus, which stray forth from spot of ground in Attica, the little plain of Marathon, which their channels" (Ed. Col., 685 seq.) The position of lay in the north-east corner, encircled on three sides by Colonus itself is marked by two bare knolls of light- Parnes and Pentelicus, while the fourth faces the sea and coloured earth, which caused the poet in the same chorus the opposite coast of Euboea, It was on the mountain to apply the epithet "white" (apyŷra) to that place. On slopes that the Greeks were stationed, while the Persians the opposite side of the plain runs the other river, the Ilissus, with their ships occupied the coast; and on the two sides which rises from a beautiful fountain in Mount Hymettus, the marshes may still be traced by which the movements and skirts the eastern extremity of the city of Athens; but of the invader's host were impeded The mound, which this, notwithstanding its celebrity, is a mere brook, which at once attracts the eye in the centre of the level plain, is stands in pools a great part of the year, and in summer is probably the burial-place of the Athenians who fell in the completely dry. The situation of Athens relatively to the battle. The bay in front is sheltered by Euboea, and is surrounding objects is singularly harmonious; for, while it still more protected from the north by a projecting tongue forms a central point, so as to be the eye of the plain, and of land, called Cynosura. The mountains in the neigh while the al ar-rock of the Acropolis and the hills by which bourhood were the seat of one of the political parties in it is surrounded are conspicuous from every point of view, Attica, the Diacrii or Hyperacrii, who, being poor mounthere is no such exactness in its position us to give for- taineers, and having nothing to lose, were the principal mality, since it is nearer to the sea than to Parnes, and advocates of change; while, on the other hand, the Pedieis, nearer o Hymettus than to Egaleos. The most striking or inhabitants of the plains, being wealthy landholders, summit in the neighbourhood of the city is that of Lyca- formed the strong conservative element, and the Parali, or bettus, now Mount St George, on the north-eastern side; occupants of the sea-coast, representing the mercantile inand the variety is still further increased by the continua- terest, held an intermediate position between the two. tion of the ridge which it forms for some distance north- Finally, there was one district of Attica, that lay without wards through the plain. Three roads lead to Athens its natural boundaries, the territory of Oropus, which profrom the Baotian frontier over the intervening mountain perly belonged to Boeotia, as it was situated to the north barrier-the casternmost over Parnes, from Delium and of Parnes; but on this the Athenians always endeavoured Oropus by Deceleia, which was the usual route of the in- to retain a firm hold, because it facilitated their communivading Lacedæmonians during the Peloponnesian War; the cations with Euboea. The command of that island was of westernmost over Citharon, by the pass of Dryoscephala, the utmost importance to them; for, if Ægina could rightly or the " Oakheads," leading from Thebes by Platea to be called "the eyesore of the Piraeus," Euboea was quite as Eleusis, and so to Athens, which we hear of in connection truly a thorn in the side of Attica; for we learn from Demoswith the battle of Platea, and with the escape of the thenes (De Cor., p. 307) that at one period the pirates that Platæans at the time of the siege of that city in the Pelo- made it their headquarters so infested the neighbouring ponnesian War; the third, midway between the two, by sea as to prevent all navigation. the pass of Phyle, near the summit of which, on a rugged height overlooking the Athenian plain, is the fort occupied by Thrasybulus in the days of the Thirty Tyrants. On the sea-coast to the south-west of Athens rises the hill of Munychia, a mass of rocky ground, forming the acropolis of the town of Piraeus, which was once separated from the mainland; for Strabo (i. 3, § 18) speaks of it as having been formerly an island. On one side of this, towards Hymettus, lay the open roadstead of Phalerum, on the other the harbour of Piraeus, a completely land-locked inlet, safe, deep, and spacious, the approach to which was still further narrowed by moles. The eastern side of the hill was further indented by two small but commodious havens, which were respectively called Zea and Munychia.

The north-eastern boundary of the plain of Athens is formed by the graceful pyramid of Pentelicus, which received its naine from the deme of Pentele at its foot, but was far more commonly known as Brilessus in ancient times. This mountain did not form a continuous chain with Hymettus, for between them intervenes a level space of ground two miles in width, which formed the entrance to the

Of the condition of Attica in medieval and modern times little need be said, for it has followed for the most part the fortunes of Athens. The population, however, has undergone a great change, independently of the large admixture of Slavonic blood that has affected the Greeks of the mainland generally, by the immigration of Albanian colonists, who now occupy a great part of the country. The most important of the classical ruins that remain outside Athens are those of the temple of Athena at Sunium, which form a conspicuous object as they surmount the headland, and gave rise to the name which it bore, until lately, of Cape Colonna; it is in the Doric style, of white marble, and 13 columns of the temple and a pilaster are now standing. At Eleusis the foundations of the propyla of the great temple of Demeter and other buildings have been laid bare by excavation; at Thoricus there are remains of an ancient theatre; and at Rhamnus, northward from Marathon, at a little distance from the sca, are the basements and some of the columns of two temples in the same enclosure, which were dedicated to Nemesis and Themis.

(H. F. T.)

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