DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0057
50 FINAL HISTORY OF ATHENS.
Ubbo Emmius, who wrote about the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury, says, that it then contained the same number: Tavernier,'
who travelled in 1663, asserts that it had 22,000 inhabitants. This
enumeration however is probably exaggerated; for Guillatiere, who
travelled only six years after Tavernier, says, that it contained not
more than 16,000 inhabitants.
Before I take my final leave of Athens, I cannot avoid recalling to
mind the beautiful passage of Cicero, which so feelingly expresses the
sentiment of melancholy attachment and regret, which every contem-
plative mind must experience amid the ruins of this once illustrious
city; in walking over the ashes of demi-gods, and heroes, and in
treading the same ground which they have trod before. The force of
association contributes to revive their identity in the mind, and to
transfer it to the surrounding objects. They live in the imagination ;
their presence is breathed over the hills and the rocks ; it haunts the
dells and the groves, and animates every part of the panoramic view.
The whole locality is consecrated by the memory of statesmen and
warriors ; of historians and poets, of critics and philosophers, sages
and legislators, of whom not only Athens but the world may be
proud. " Movemur nescio quo pacto locis ipsis in quibus eorum
quos diligimus, aut admiramur, adsunt vestigia. Me quidem ipsae
illoe nostras Athenae non tarn operibus magnificis, exquisitisque
antiquorum artibus delectant quam recordatione summorum viro-
rum, ubi quisque habitari, ubi sedere, ubi disputare sit solitus : stu-
dioseque eorum etiam sepulchra contemplor.'"
The letter of Pliny - to Maximus, who was going to govern
Greece, is not less remarkable, and is replete with sublimity of sen-
timent, and strong veneration for the Greeks.
I may now take my leave of Athens; and say with Strabo,3 met
uav rr,g ArriXT}$ tuvtcx,. " So much for Attica!"
Voyage en Perse, liv. 3. 3 B. 8. EpisL 2*. ' B. 9, p. 400>
Ubbo Emmius, who wrote about the middle of the sixteenth cen-
tury, says, that it then contained the same number: Tavernier,'
who travelled in 1663, asserts that it had 22,000 inhabitants. This
enumeration however is probably exaggerated; for Guillatiere, who
travelled only six years after Tavernier, says, that it contained not
more than 16,000 inhabitants.
Before I take my final leave of Athens, I cannot avoid recalling to
mind the beautiful passage of Cicero, which so feelingly expresses the
sentiment of melancholy attachment and regret, which every contem-
plative mind must experience amid the ruins of this once illustrious
city; in walking over the ashes of demi-gods, and heroes, and in
treading the same ground which they have trod before. The force of
association contributes to revive their identity in the mind, and to
transfer it to the surrounding objects. They live in the imagination ;
their presence is breathed over the hills and the rocks ; it haunts the
dells and the groves, and animates every part of the panoramic view.
The whole locality is consecrated by the memory of statesmen and
warriors ; of historians and poets, of critics and philosophers, sages
and legislators, of whom not only Athens but the world may be
proud. " Movemur nescio quo pacto locis ipsis in quibus eorum
quos diligimus, aut admiramur, adsunt vestigia. Me quidem ipsae
illoe nostras Athenae non tarn operibus magnificis, exquisitisque
antiquorum artibus delectant quam recordatione summorum viro-
rum, ubi quisque habitari, ubi sedere, ubi disputare sit solitus : stu-
dioseque eorum etiam sepulchra contemplor.'"
The letter of Pliny - to Maximus, who was going to govern
Greece, is not less remarkable, and is replete with sublimity of sen-
timent, and strong veneration for the Greeks.
I may now take my leave of Athens; and say with Strabo,3 met
uav rr,g ArriXT}$ tuvtcx,. " So much for Attica!"
Voyage en Perse, liv. 3. 3 B. 8. EpisL 2*. ' B. 9, p. 400>