Dyer, Thomas Henry: Ancient Athens: Its history, topography, and remains (London, 1873)

468 ANCIENT ATHENS.

such allusions may be made because the Propylaea were visible from the
Pnyx, which is enough for our purpose, though he goes on to say that
the demonstrative pronoun in the passages (irpoirvKaia Tavra) may be
also used concerning well-known things, though not actually present.1
Nor will this last explanation suit the passage we have quoted from
iEschines, where the word aTrofOXeireiv proves actual view. Another
proof of the locality may be found in Lucian's ' Bis Accusatus' (c. 9),
where Mercury bids Justice sit down on the Areiopagus and look at
the Pnyx which lies over against it. M. Eangabe, a resident of Athens,
declares that he has searched all round the Acropolis to discover
whether there is any other place capable of holding a numerous
assembly, from which can be seen the Areiopagus, the Propylaea, and
the sea (Plut. Them. 19)—to which he might have added a view into
the agora—and he positively declares that there is none;2 an affirma-
tion which we can confirm from local observation. The only place
that might afford the smallest chance is the Musaeum Hill; but this
M. Eangabe particularly examined, and he gives the following account
of it: "I have traversed, step by step, all the western side of the hill.
Before arriving at the double tomb of Zosimus, on the north, there is
not the slightest space at all level, and the sea is completely masked.3
Above the tomb there are some points from which may be seen at the
same time the Areiopagus, the Propylaea, and the sea; but at these the
orator would have his audience either a great deal above his head or
below his feet, and the ground is so broken that it could not accom-
modate more than a few hundred persons. On the other side, and to
the south of the tomb, neither the Propylaea nor the Areiopagus are
visible."

So striking is the identity of the place we have described with all
that we know about the Pnyx, that we should not have thought it
worth while to enter into even this brief discussion of its site had not

1 Harpocr. (in irpcm. Tavra) bvvarai pev s The view of the sea is, we think, uu-
otiktikws XtyfoSai arc opafitvav tZ>v npo- necessarily imported into the argument,
mAaiav dno rf/s ttvkvos, k.t.\. from the fanciful reason given by Plutarch

2 Antiquit&s Helleniques, t. ii. j>. 5S0 (Them. 19) for altering the direction of the
sq. bema. See Appendix iii.