DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4099#0231
206 RUINS OF KLEONAI.
by earthquakes, and furrowed by winter torrents. In a short space
of time we crossed five rivulets running towards the Corinthian
gulf. To our right was the village of Rakani, and further on to our
left that of Omar Tschaousch, with a few cypresses about it.
A short way further two small streams from the right cross the
road, and join a larger stream which is on the left, flowing towards
Corinth. Near the junction of the latter are some ancient vestiges.
In two hours and thirty-three minutes from Corinth, we arrived at
the ruins of Kleonai, at present named Kourtese, and situated upon
a circular and insulated hill, which seems to have been completely
covered with buildings. On the side of the hill are six ancient
terrace walls of the third style of masonry, rising one above another,
on which the houses and streets were situated. Strabo,1 as well as
Homer,2 calls it a well-built town, and says that it extended round
a hill, and was 80 stadia from Corinth, which agrees nearly with
two hours and a half that it took us to reach it, from that place.
The Acrocorinthos, which had been concealed from us by intervening
hills, became visible from hence in a direction of N. 65 E., and
Strabo says he saw it from the Acrocorinthos. Both the geographer
and Pausanias call it a small town. The walls of this city appear
to owe their dilapidation more to violence than to time, as where
they have been suffered to remain their preservation is perfect.
They were probably demolished by the destructive fury of the
tyrants of the world at the period of the taking of Corinth. Ac-
cording to the testimony of Pausanias, the detested tyranny of the
Romans destroyed, at that unhappy epoch, all the fortified places
in Greece.3 The destruction of many most interesting remains of
Grecian fortification is no doubt to be attributed to the overbearing
policy of that people.
1 tti Xopy iri^Oixoufisya-j Tta.v'ia.yo'ivv am Ithiyjo-jj-syou xaXwy. B. 8. p. 377.
* Iliad. 2. v. 570.
4 xai7e;;/ij KtpiiihoY oral "iilnyicr^iyai Wokttf rpav. 13. 1. C. 1.
by earthquakes, and furrowed by winter torrents. In a short space
of time we crossed five rivulets running towards the Corinthian
gulf. To our right was the village of Rakani, and further on to our
left that of Omar Tschaousch, with a few cypresses about it.
A short way further two small streams from the right cross the
road, and join a larger stream which is on the left, flowing towards
Corinth. Near the junction of the latter are some ancient vestiges.
In two hours and thirty-three minutes from Corinth, we arrived at
the ruins of Kleonai, at present named Kourtese, and situated upon
a circular and insulated hill, which seems to have been completely
covered with buildings. On the side of the hill are six ancient
terrace walls of the third style of masonry, rising one above another,
on which the houses and streets were situated. Strabo,1 as well as
Homer,2 calls it a well-built town, and says that it extended round
a hill, and was 80 stadia from Corinth, which agrees nearly with
two hours and a half that it took us to reach it, from that place.
The Acrocorinthos, which had been concealed from us by intervening
hills, became visible from hence in a direction of N. 65 E., and
Strabo says he saw it from the Acrocorinthos. Both the geographer
and Pausanias call it a small town. The walls of this city appear
to owe their dilapidation more to violence than to time, as where
they have been suffered to remain their preservation is perfect.
They were probably demolished by the destructive fury of the
tyrants of the world at the period of the taking of Corinth. Ac-
cording to the testimony of Pausanias, the detested tyranny of the
Romans destroyed, at that unhappy epoch, all the fortified places
in Greece.3 The destruction of many most interesting remains of
Grecian fortification is no doubt to be attributed to the overbearing
policy of that people.
1 tti Xopy iri^Oixoufisya-j Tta.v'ia.yo'ivv am Ithiyjo-jj-syou xaXwy. B. 8. p. 377.
* Iliad. 2. v. 570.
4 xai7e;;/ij KtpiiihoY oral "iilnyicr^iyai Wokttf rpav. 13. 1. C. 1.