DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0101
AT ATHENS.
other monuments, a new and larger temple of Athena, called the Heca-
tompedon, appears to have heen rising, but not yet completed. Eound
its sides were various temples, some of them mere caverns in the cliff;
others lower down were built of masonry. These will be described in the
sequel. At the south-east side was the new Dionysiac theatre; at the
south-west side various public buildings and temples bordering the agora,
the statues of the tyrannicides, the shrine of the Eumenides, &c. Such
perhaps, was the general appearance of Thesean Athens, when besieged
by the Persians.
That event happened in the archonship of Calliades, B.C. 480. The
Pythian oracle had directed the Athenians to defend themselves with
wooden walls. The sagacity, or complicity, of Themistocles, inter-
preted this to mean that they must take to their ships ; and this view
had been supported by the refusal of the sacred serpent in the Ere-
chtheium to take its food. The counsels of Themistocles prevailed.
Athens was almost deserted; a few only, unable or unwilling to fly,
shut themselves up in the Acropolis; and in order to carry out what
they supposed to be the commands of the oracle, erected some wooden
outworks, or palisades, before the entrance. The Persians, on their
arrival, found the gates and wall of the asty undefended, and encamped
without opposition on the Areiopagus. Arming their arrows with
burning tow, they soon set fire to and destroyed the wooden fence. But
the garrison, even after the destruction of the defence on which they
had superstitiously relied, still held out obstinately ; Xerxes began to
despair, when, probably on a hint from the Athenian exiles of the Peisi-
stratid faction who accompanied him, he succeeded in introducing his
men into the Acropolis through the temple of Aglauros below,1 no
1 Such is the account given by Hero-
dotus, viii. 51 sqq. It is therefore sur-
prising how Curtius can assume, without
adducing the least authority, that the for-
tifications of the Acropolis were demolished
after the departure of the Peisistratids,
and that the only defence during the
Persian siege was the palisade : '* Die Burg,
zur Tyrannenzeit noch Citadelle, war nach
Abzug der Pisistratiden demolirt worden
und am Aufgange nur nothdiirftig mit
Holzwerk verrammelt." — Erliiuternder
Text, p. 31. The palisade was evidently
a mere superstitious compliance with the
oracle, and the Persians still found the
walls unassailable. The existence of the
other monuments, a new and larger temple of Athena, called the Heca-
tompedon, appears to have heen rising, but not yet completed. Eound
its sides were various temples, some of them mere caverns in the cliff;
others lower down were built of masonry. These will be described in the
sequel. At the south-east side was the new Dionysiac theatre; at the
south-west side various public buildings and temples bordering the agora,
the statues of the tyrannicides, the shrine of the Eumenides, &c. Such
perhaps, was the general appearance of Thesean Athens, when besieged
by the Persians.
That event happened in the archonship of Calliades, B.C. 480. The
Pythian oracle had directed the Athenians to defend themselves with
wooden walls. The sagacity, or complicity, of Themistocles, inter-
preted this to mean that they must take to their ships ; and this view
had been supported by the refusal of the sacred serpent in the Ere-
chtheium to take its food. The counsels of Themistocles prevailed.
Athens was almost deserted; a few only, unable or unwilling to fly,
shut themselves up in the Acropolis; and in order to carry out what
they supposed to be the commands of the oracle, erected some wooden
outworks, or palisades, before the entrance. The Persians, on their
arrival, found the gates and wall of the asty undefended, and encamped
without opposition on the Areiopagus. Arming their arrows with
burning tow, they soon set fire to and destroyed the wooden fence. But
the garrison, even after the destruction of the defence on which they
had superstitiously relied, still held out obstinately ; Xerxes began to
despair, when, probably on a hint from the Athenian exiles of the Peisi-
stratid faction who accompanied him, he succeeded in introducing his
men into the Acropolis through the temple of Aglauros below,1 no
1 Such is the account given by Hero-
dotus, viii. 51 sqq. It is therefore sur-
prising how Curtius can assume, without
adducing the least authority, that the for-
tifications of the Acropolis were demolished
after the departure of the Peisistratids,
and that the only defence during the
Persian siege was the palisade : '* Die Burg,
zur Tyrannenzeit noch Citadelle, war nach
Abzug der Pisistratiden demolirt worden
und am Aufgange nur nothdiirftig mit
Holzwerk verrammelt." — Erliiuternder
Text, p. 31. The palisade was evidently
a mere superstitious compliance with the
oracle, and the Persians still found the
walls unassailable. The existence of the