DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0108
SITE OF THE A a OB A.
91
That the site here described was that of the agora is strongly cor-
roborated by some inscriptions, belonging to the fourth century B.C.,
found upon it about twenty years ago, under the northern side of the
Areiopagus. The subjects of them are here immaterial, the only thing
important for our object being that two of them are ordered to be
placed before the Bouleuterion, or senate house, and a third near the
statue of Zeus Eleutherios.1 All these inscriptions were found together,
under the foundations of a small house. They cannot, therefore, have
been in their original place ; but it is not likely that they were brought
from any great distance, and it will be seen when we come to treat of
the agora as described by Pausanias, that the statue and portico of Zeus
Eleutherios and the Bouleuterion lay not very far from each other and
near the spot where the inscriptions were discovered.
Proceeding in a southerly direction from the Diplyon, which stood
at the north-westernmost angle of the walls, the next gate must have
been one between the little hill, or rock, on which stands the church of
St. Athanasius, and the northern foot of the Nymphs' Hill. It is alto-
gether improbable that there should have been another gate in the
intervening space; for, first, the distance is too inconsiderable (less
than three hundred yards) to admit of one; and, secondly, the nature
of the ground, from the rock just mentioned and the more extended
height of Colonus Agorseus in its rear, would have afforded no com-
modious approach to such a gate from within. Dr. Ernst Curtius,
indeed, affirms that there are vestiges of a gate in the hollow between
Agia Triada and Agios Athanasios, and thinks this may have been
the Peirai'c Gate.2 Now this was a very natural place for a gate, for
the nature of the ground would make it a convenient outlet from the
city. But a gate here would most probably have been the original
Dipylon, the site of which, there is good reason to believe, must have
1 Pee Eangabe, Ant. Hellen. t. ii. Nos.
381, -130, 478. Cf. Kumanudes, Pro-
gramme of Archaiol. Soc. in Athens, July,
1861, p. 10; Arch. Ephemcris, 4101, 57;
1108, 51; Curtius, Att. Stud. ii. 29.
2 Erlauterndpr Text der sieben Karten,
S. 32. As the aspirate is dropped in
modern Greek, we have written Agios for
''Ayios.
91
That the site here described was that of the agora is strongly cor-
roborated by some inscriptions, belonging to the fourth century B.C.,
found upon it about twenty years ago, under the northern side of the
Areiopagus. The subjects of them are here immaterial, the only thing
important for our object being that two of them are ordered to be
placed before the Bouleuterion, or senate house, and a third near the
statue of Zeus Eleutherios.1 All these inscriptions were found together,
under the foundations of a small house. They cannot, therefore, have
been in their original place ; but it is not likely that they were brought
from any great distance, and it will be seen when we come to treat of
the agora as described by Pausanias, that the statue and portico of Zeus
Eleutherios and the Bouleuterion lay not very far from each other and
near the spot where the inscriptions were discovered.
Proceeding in a southerly direction from the Diplyon, which stood
at the north-westernmost angle of the walls, the next gate must have
been one between the little hill, or rock, on which stands the church of
St. Athanasius, and the northern foot of the Nymphs' Hill. It is alto-
gether improbable that there should have been another gate in the
intervening space; for, first, the distance is too inconsiderable (less
than three hundred yards) to admit of one; and, secondly, the nature
of the ground, from the rock just mentioned and the more extended
height of Colonus Agorseus in its rear, would have afforded no com-
modious approach to such a gate from within. Dr. Ernst Curtius,
indeed, affirms that there are vestiges of a gate in the hollow between
Agia Triada and Agios Athanasios, and thinks this may have been
the Peirai'c Gate.2 Now this was a very natural place for a gate, for
the nature of the ground would make it a convenient outlet from the
city. But a gate here would most probably have been the original
Dipylon, the site of which, there is good reason to believe, must have
1 Pee Eangabe, Ant. Hellen. t. ii. Nos.
381, -130, 478. Cf. Kumanudes, Pro-
gramme of Archaiol. Soc. in Athens, July,
1861, p. 10; Arch. Ephemcris, 4101, 57;
1108, 51; Curtius, Att. Stud. ii. 29.
2 Erlauterndpr Text der sieben Karten,
S. 32. As the aspirate is dropped in
modern Greek, we have written Agios for
''Ayios.