DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0464
ATHENIAN AND PIR^AN WALLS. 419
their completion to Cimon and to Pericles :* but they were all
destroyed by Lysander and the thirty tyrants, and were afterwards
rebuilt by Conon.2
After Sylla destroyed the Athenian walls, they seem never to have
been completely rebuilt until the reign of Valerian, near four
hundred years afterwards.3
The walls which encompass the Piraean peninsula are in better
preservation; they were fortified with square towers, and are regu-
larly constructed with large quadrangular blocks, of a soft calcari-
ous quality, from quarries in the peninsula. These walls were so
thick that they might be traversed by two carts loaded with stones.
In order to examine with accuracy the remains of the Athenian
ports, we took our beds from Athens, and passed some days in the
monastery of Saint Speridion; where the Greek monks welcomed
us with their usual hospitality. This monastery is probably erected
upon the site of some ancient edifice; but the only antiquity of con-
sequence that it contains, is the marble thronos, with the Latin
inscription, which has been published by Stuart. It relates to the
Frastres Arvales, the priests who presided at the Ambarvalian festi-
vals.4 The supporters of the chair terminate in lions' feet; which
form a common ornament in ancient monuments of various kinds.
Hesychius mentions an altar, which rested on lions' feet, for which
reasons he terms it XsovroGupog; and Athenaeus speaks of kXivui a-cptyyo-
7ro$sq, beds with sphinxes' feet.
The following inscriptions were found at this place : the first is on
a sepulchral stele, four feet in height and one in diameter; the
second was in the collection of the Count de Choiseul Gouffier :—5
1 Appian. de Bello Mithridat. p. 190.
2Xenophon. Hist. b. 2. c. 2. and b. 4. c. 8. Diodor. Siculus, b. 14. c. 85. Pausan.
b. I.e. 2. and others. 3 Zonaras Annal. b. 12. sec. 22. p. 629. Paris edit.
4 See the learned work of Monsignor Gaetano Marini, Fratelli Arvali, 2 vol. 4».
5 See catalogue of M. L. I. I. Dubois, Paris, 1818.
3 II 2
their completion to Cimon and to Pericles :* but they were all
destroyed by Lysander and the thirty tyrants, and were afterwards
rebuilt by Conon.2
After Sylla destroyed the Athenian walls, they seem never to have
been completely rebuilt until the reign of Valerian, near four
hundred years afterwards.3
The walls which encompass the Piraean peninsula are in better
preservation; they were fortified with square towers, and are regu-
larly constructed with large quadrangular blocks, of a soft calcari-
ous quality, from quarries in the peninsula. These walls were so
thick that they might be traversed by two carts loaded with stones.
In order to examine with accuracy the remains of the Athenian
ports, we took our beds from Athens, and passed some days in the
monastery of Saint Speridion; where the Greek monks welcomed
us with their usual hospitality. This monastery is probably erected
upon the site of some ancient edifice; but the only antiquity of con-
sequence that it contains, is the marble thronos, with the Latin
inscription, which has been published by Stuart. It relates to the
Frastres Arvales, the priests who presided at the Ambarvalian festi-
vals.4 The supporters of the chair terminate in lions' feet; which
form a common ornament in ancient monuments of various kinds.
Hesychius mentions an altar, which rested on lions' feet, for which
reasons he terms it XsovroGupog; and Athenaeus speaks of kXivui a-cptyyo-
7ro$sq, beds with sphinxes' feet.
The following inscriptions were found at this place : the first is on
a sepulchral stele, four feet in height and one in diameter; the
second was in the collection of the Count de Choiseul Gouffier :—5
1 Appian. de Bello Mithridat. p. 190.
2Xenophon. Hist. b. 2. c. 2. and b. 4. c. 8. Diodor. Siculus, b. 14. c. 85. Pausan.
b. I.e. 2. and others. 3 Zonaras Annal. b. 12. sec. 22. p. 629. Paris edit.
4 See the learned work of Monsignor Gaetano Marini, Fratelli Arvali, 2 vol. 4».
5 See catalogue of M. L. I. I. Dubois, Paris, 1818.
3 II 2