DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.800#0263
244
ANCIENT ATHENS.
with more justice, for the gateway to a market-place. This structure
consists of four Doric columns, 4 ft. 4 in. in diameter at the base, and,
including the capital, 26 ft. in height. The space between the middle
columns is about 12 ft.; between the side ones under 5 ft. Over the
middle of the pediment which they support is a large acroterium 9 or
10 ft. in length, with an inscription to Lucius Caesar, the grandson of
Augustus, of whom, apparently, it supported an equestrian statue.1
Lucius died in the second year after the birth of Christ, aged nineteen,
and the building, therefore, was completed about this time. But the
space beyond the gateway may have been used as a market-place long
before the propyheum itself was erected; for Cicero, in a passage where
he is evidently speaking of the ancient agora,2 calls it the Cerameicus,
and it is not probable that it obtained that name before the establish-
ment of the new agora. Indeed, this market-place did not receive its
final completion till the time of Hadrian, whose stoa, or Pantheon,
added the finish to its northern side.
That the propyheum in question formed the portico of a temple
was held by the older topographers, as Wheler, who considered it to
be the portico of a temple of Augustus ; but this we now know to have
been upon the Acropolis.3 Forchhammer4 and Ross5 are among the
most eminent modern writers who hold it to have been the portico of a
temple dedicated to Athena Archegetis, or protectress of the city,
founding their opinion upon the inscription on the architrave, which
purports that it was dedicated by the Athenian people to that goddess
from the money bestowed by C. Julius and Augustus Caesar.6 For the
1 6 hrjpos Aovkiov KaiVapa avTOKparapoi
Qeov viov 2fj3a(7TOV Kalaapos vlov.
2 De Fin. i. 11, 39, speaking of the
statue of Chrysippus. See a little further
on. The De Finibus was written about
b.c. 50.
3 Pee Journey, &c. p. 388.
4 Topographie, p. 57.
5 Theseion, p. 41.
6 6 Sfj/ios <wro tS>v fSo6ci<ri>v Sapeav {mo
Talov 'IovXi'ou Kaio-apos Beov Kai avro-
Kpdropos Kalaapos 6(ov uioO trejlaoTov
'A-Brjva 'ApxtjycriSt, arpaTrjyovvTos fVi tovs
wirXiVar EvkKcovs MapaBcoviov, toC Kai fita-
8a£aptpov rf/v (TnpSkftav imp tov irarpbs
Hpa&ov, rov Kai irpetrftdo-avros. cm ap\ov-
tos Ni/aou tov lapcmlaivos 'Adpovc'tos. It
was erected, therefore, in the reign of
Augustus; for Julius was a god, i.e., dead,
and Augustus emperor. Leake, vol. i. p.
213.
\
ANCIENT ATHENS.
with more justice, for the gateway to a market-place. This structure
consists of four Doric columns, 4 ft. 4 in. in diameter at the base, and,
including the capital, 26 ft. in height. The space between the middle
columns is about 12 ft.; between the side ones under 5 ft. Over the
middle of the pediment which they support is a large acroterium 9 or
10 ft. in length, with an inscription to Lucius Caesar, the grandson of
Augustus, of whom, apparently, it supported an equestrian statue.1
Lucius died in the second year after the birth of Christ, aged nineteen,
and the building, therefore, was completed about this time. But the
space beyond the gateway may have been used as a market-place long
before the propyheum itself was erected; for Cicero, in a passage where
he is evidently speaking of the ancient agora,2 calls it the Cerameicus,
and it is not probable that it obtained that name before the establish-
ment of the new agora. Indeed, this market-place did not receive its
final completion till the time of Hadrian, whose stoa, or Pantheon,
added the finish to its northern side.
That the propyheum in question formed the portico of a temple
was held by the older topographers, as Wheler, who considered it to
be the portico of a temple of Augustus ; but this we now know to have
been upon the Acropolis.3 Forchhammer4 and Ross5 are among the
most eminent modern writers who hold it to have been the portico of a
temple dedicated to Athena Archegetis, or protectress of the city,
founding their opinion upon the inscription on the architrave, which
purports that it was dedicated by the Athenian people to that goddess
from the money bestowed by C. Julius and Augustus Caesar.6 For the
1 6 hrjpos Aovkiov KaiVapa avTOKparapoi
Qeov viov 2fj3a(7TOV Kalaapos vlov.
2 De Fin. i. 11, 39, speaking of the
statue of Chrysippus. See a little further
on. The De Finibus was written about
b.c. 50.
3 Pee Journey, &c. p. 388.
4 Topographie, p. 57.
5 Theseion, p. 41.
6 6 Sfj/ios <wro tS>v fSo6ci<ri>v Sapeav {mo
Talov 'IovXi'ou Kaio-apos Beov Kai avro-
Kpdropos Kalaapos 6(ov uioO trejlaoTov
'A-Brjva 'ApxtjycriSt, arpaTrjyovvTos fVi tovs
wirXiVar EvkKcovs MapaBcoviov, toC Kai fita-
8a£aptpov rf/v (TnpSkftav imp tov irarpbs
Hpa&ov, rov Kai irpetrftdo-avros. cm ap\ov-
tos Ni/aou tov lapcmlaivos 'Adpovc'tos. It
was erected, therefore, in the reign of
Augustus; for Julius was a god, i.e., dead,
and Augustus emperor. Leake, vol. i. p.
213.
\