DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.803#0037
TYPOGRAPHY OF ATHENS. 31
sale of oil."' This: long inscription which is much
damaged may be seen in Spon.
A little distance north of this gate are remains of
a very considerable edifice. " When complete," says
Colonel Leake, " it was a quadrangle of 376 feet by
•252, adorned at the western end with a portal and
colonnade of Corinthian columns, three feet in dia-
meter, of which ten are standing. In the centre of
the enclosure are the ruins of a building, which now
form part of the church of Megali Panaghia: they
consist on one side of the remains of an arch, and on
the other of an architrave, supported by a pilaster,
and three columns of the Doric order, which are one
foot nine inches in diameter, and of a declining
period of the arts ; round the inside of the quadrangle,
at a distance of twenty-three feet from the wall, are
also vestiges of a colonnade, and in the northern
wall, which still exists, there is one large quadran-
gular niche, 34 feet in length, and two circular
niches nearly equal to it in diameter." It is difficult
to conceive that this can be any other building than
that which Colonel Leake supposes it to be, namely,
the Great Stoa of Hadrian ; the plan of which is thus
briefly but. obscurely described by Pausanias (Attica,
18) :—" His most splendid work is one hundred and
twenty columns of Phrygian stone. The walls of the
building are formed after the fashion of sioai (piazzas) ;
and there are chambers or apartments therein, whose
roofs (or perhaps rather ' ceilings') are adorned with
gilding and alabaster. The apartments are also orna-
mented with statues and paintings, and furnished with
books." Brief as this description is, we.can so far
understand it, by a comparison with what we suppose
to be its remains, as to see that the munificent emperor
had built an extensive piazza to accommodate the citi-
zens, and that to gratify their taste he had formed, or
.perhaps only improved the public library, which was
adorned with statues, and paintings. We have very
sale of oil."' This: long inscription which is much
damaged may be seen in Spon.
A little distance north of this gate are remains of
a very considerable edifice. " When complete," says
Colonel Leake, " it was a quadrangle of 376 feet by
•252, adorned at the western end with a portal and
colonnade of Corinthian columns, three feet in dia-
meter, of which ten are standing. In the centre of
the enclosure are the ruins of a building, which now
form part of the church of Megali Panaghia: they
consist on one side of the remains of an arch, and on
the other of an architrave, supported by a pilaster,
and three columns of the Doric order, which are one
foot nine inches in diameter, and of a declining
period of the arts ; round the inside of the quadrangle,
at a distance of twenty-three feet from the wall, are
also vestiges of a colonnade, and in the northern
wall, which still exists, there is one large quadran-
gular niche, 34 feet in length, and two circular
niches nearly equal to it in diameter." It is difficult
to conceive that this can be any other building than
that which Colonel Leake supposes it to be, namely,
the Great Stoa of Hadrian ; the plan of which is thus
briefly but. obscurely described by Pausanias (Attica,
18) :—" His most splendid work is one hundred and
twenty columns of Phrygian stone. The walls of the
building are formed after the fashion of sioai (piazzas) ;
and there are chambers or apartments therein, whose
roofs (or perhaps rather ' ceilings') are adorned with
gilding and alabaster. The apartments are also orna-
mented with statues and paintings, and furnished with
books." Brief as this description is, we.can so far
understand it, by a comparison with what we suppose
to be its remains, as to see that the munificent emperor
had built an extensive piazza to accommodate the citi-
zens, and that to gratify their taste he had formed, or
.perhaps only improved the public library, which was
adorned with statues, and paintings. We have very