DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0226
STOA BASILEIOS.
207
Ares. We must therefore here reject the testimony of the pseudo-
iEschines altogether as that of an ignorant forger.1
On the tiled roof of the Stoa Basileius were figures in terra cotta
representing Theseus hurling Sciron into the sea, and Hemera, or
Aurora, carrying off Cephalus. Near the portico were statues of Conon
and his son Timotheus, and of Euagoras, the Cyprian king, who per-
suaded the King of Persia to make over his Phoenician triremes to
Conon. We learn from Demosthenes that Conon's statue was of bronze,
and doubtless the rest of the group were of the same material.2
The Council of the Areiopagus appears sometimes to have assembled
in the Stoa Basileius, and on these occasions it was surrounded with a
rope in order to keep off persons who had no business there.3 The
rope was drawn at a distance of fifty feet, and policemen stood by to
prevent improper persons from approaching.4 It was to the Stoa
Basileius that Socrates was summoned to answer the charges brought
against him by Melitus and others, as Plato tells at the end of his
' Theastetus.' Before it stood an altar at which the Thesmothetae, after
undergoing an examination by the Senate, took an oath to perform their
office in a just and proper manner.5 In this stoa were preserved the
/cvpfteis, or stone-pillars on which the laws relating to religion were
engraved,6 and which, as we have observed, were brought hither by
Ephialtes from the Acropolis.
Close to the Stoa Basileius was a statue of Zeus, surnamed
Eleutherius, and another of the Emperor Hadrian, who was remarkable
for his benevolence towards his subjects, and particularly towards the
Athenians. Such is the eulogy of him by Pausanias, to which we may
1 There are now twelve letters extant
under the name of iEschines. Photius
considered only nine to be genuine (Cod.
61 and 264). Taylor denounced them
all as spurious, and the fourth by name
(Keiske, vEsch. t. iii. p. 654). But M.
Le Has has asserted the genuineness of the
tenth from an inscription found at Delos.
' Expedition de Jloree,' t. iii. p. 25.
2 c. Lept. p. 478, Keiske. C. Nop.
Timoth. ; Xenoph. Hell. iii. 4, 1; Isocr.
Euag. p. 200, Steph.
3 ttjv i£ 'Apeiov irdyov fiov\i)v orav iv tt/
{SaaiXeliO aroa Ka6e£oiievq Trepiaxoivio-rjTci,
ic.r.X.—Pemosth. in Aristog. 776.
4 Jul. Poll. lib. viii. 124.
5 Pollux, viii. 86.
6 Aristot. ap. Harpocr. in voc.; Phot.
Lex.
207
Ares. We must therefore here reject the testimony of the pseudo-
iEschines altogether as that of an ignorant forger.1
On the tiled roof of the Stoa Basileius were figures in terra cotta
representing Theseus hurling Sciron into the sea, and Hemera, or
Aurora, carrying off Cephalus. Near the portico were statues of Conon
and his son Timotheus, and of Euagoras, the Cyprian king, who per-
suaded the King of Persia to make over his Phoenician triremes to
Conon. We learn from Demosthenes that Conon's statue was of bronze,
and doubtless the rest of the group were of the same material.2
The Council of the Areiopagus appears sometimes to have assembled
in the Stoa Basileius, and on these occasions it was surrounded with a
rope in order to keep off persons who had no business there.3 The
rope was drawn at a distance of fifty feet, and policemen stood by to
prevent improper persons from approaching.4 It was to the Stoa
Basileius that Socrates was summoned to answer the charges brought
against him by Melitus and others, as Plato tells at the end of his
' Theastetus.' Before it stood an altar at which the Thesmothetae, after
undergoing an examination by the Senate, took an oath to perform their
office in a just and proper manner.5 In this stoa were preserved the
/cvpfteis, or stone-pillars on which the laws relating to religion were
engraved,6 and which, as we have observed, were brought hither by
Ephialtes from the Acropolis.
Close to the Stoa Basileius was a statue of Zeus, surnamed
Eleutherius, and another of the Emperor Hadrian, who was remarkable
for his benevolence towards his subjects, and particularly towards the
Athenians. Such is the eulogy of him by Pausanias, to which we may
1 There are now twelve letters extant
under the name of iEschines. Photius
considered only nine to be genuine (Cod.
61 and 264). Taylor denounced them
all as spurious, and the fourth by name
(Keiske, vEsch. t. iii. p. 654). But M.
Le Has has asserted the genuineness of the
tenth from an inscription found at Delos.
' Expedition de Jloree,' t. iii. p. 25.
2 c. Lept. p. 478, Keiske. C. Nop.
Timoth. ; Xenoph. Hell. iii. 4, 1; Isocr.
Euag. p. 200, Steph.
3 ttjv i£ 'Apeiov irdyov fiov\i)v orav iv tt/
{SaaiXeliO aroa Ka6e£oiievq Trepiaxoivio-rjTci,
ic.r.X.—Pemosth. in Aristog. 776.
4 Jul. Poll. lib. viii. 124.
5 Pollux, viii. 86.
6 Aristot. ap. Harpocr. in voc.; Phot.
Lex.