DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.803#0018
12 THE BRITISH MUSEUM*
ever minute, to our knowledge of Grecian topogra-
phy and monuments, will be found to throw light on
some hitherto obscure passage, and to give a life and
freshness to the writers of antiquity, that will prove
one of their greatest attractions. Those who read
the historians of antiquity merely in translations,
find it more difficult to seize the true spirit of the
narrative and the character of the people, than one
who is well acquainted with the original languages.
But the true understanding of many important poli-
tical events in the history of an ancient country is not
attainable either by the scholar or the unlearned,
without a clear conception of what that country is,—
of its mountains, rivers, climate, productions,—and
especially of those spots which, like Athens, were for
so many centuries the dwelling-place of an ever busy
and restless people, whose intellectual energies have
left us so rich a legacy of thoughts and actions.
Both those who are obliged to confine themselves to
the reading of ancient authors in modern versions,
and those who can comprehend the originals, will
find in Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and
in the dramatic writers of Athens, an additional
charm, when description has made them familiar
with the localities and objects alluded to by these
authors.
On landing in the now almost deserted harbour of
Porto Leone, the ancient Piraeus of Athens, the
traveller advances into the interior about four miles,
through a plain but little cultivated. The rock of the
Acropolis, which is constantly in view, serves to point
out the site of this antient city; and the first object
which appears on entering the gate is the temple of
Theseus, standing almost in its original condition, hut
little injured either by time or the hand of the bar-
barian. So perfect does this edifice at first sigh'
appear, that it contributes perhaps more powerfully
ever minute, to our knowledge of Grecian topogra-
phy and monuments, will be found to throw light on
some hitherto obscure passage, and to give a life and
freshness to the writers of antiquity, that will prove
one of their greatest attractions. Those who read
the historians of antiquity merely in translations,
find it more difficult to seize the true spirit of the
narrative and the character of the people, than one
who is well acquainted with the original languages.
But the true understanding of many important poli-
tical events in the history of an ancient country is not
attainable either by the scholar or the unlearned,
without a clear conception of what that country is,—
of its mountains, rivers, climate, productions,—and
especially of those spots which, like Athens, were for
so many centuries the dwelling-place of an ever busy
and restless people, whose intellectual energies have
left us so rich a legacy of thoughts and actions.
Both those who are obliged to confine themselves to
the reading of ancient authors in modern versions,
and those who can comprehend the originals, will
find in Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, and
in the dramatic writers of Athens, an additional
charm, when description has made them familiar
with the localities and objects alluded to by these
authors.
On landing in the now almost deserted harbour of
Porto Leone, the ancient Piraeus of Athens, the
traveller advances into the interior about four miles,
through a plain but little cultivated. The rock of the
Acropolis, which is constantly in view, serves to point
out the site of this antient city; and the first object
which appears on entering the gate is the temple of
Theseus, standing almost in its original condition, hut
little injured either by time or the hand of the bar-
barian. So perfect does this edifice at first sigh'
appear, that it contributes perhaps more powerfully