DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0328
( 30S )
CHAPTER X.
the reliefs and inscriptions of athenian tombs.
At Athens the grave-stones of the ancient inhabitants
are not only among the most interesting, but among the
most extensive remains. Near Piraeus, through all the
Ceramicus, and in many other parts of the city, excava-
tions have constantly brought to light a vast quantity
of inscribed and sculptured slabs and columns, which
have mostly, unlike antiquities of many other classes,
remained at Athens, and now fill one wing of the new
museum and the whole space in front. But there is a
group of grave-stones of equal interest which are left
standing, just where they were disinterred, by the old
road which led through the gate Dipylon from Athens
to Eleusis, the road annually trodden by the procession
at the Eleusinia. These tombs, in size and beauty supe-
rior to the rest, are preserved for us, as is supposed, by
a fortunate chance.* Sulla, when he attacked Athens
and remorselessly massacred the miserable inhabitants,
made his approach close to the gate Dipylon. There
he erected the long aggeres by which his engines were
brought close to the wall, and there his soldiers threw
down several hundred yards of the city ramparts, which
were formed of sun-baked bricks. Hence a vast mass
of ruin which completely overwhelmed and buried the
lines of tombs immediately without the gate, and pre-
* See F. Lenormant's Vote Eleusinienne, vol. i.
x
CHAPTER X.
the reliefs and inscriptions of athenian tombs.
At Athens the grave-stones of the ancient inhabitants
are not only among the most interesting, but among the
most extensive remains. Near Piraeus, through all the
Ceramicus, and in many other parts of the city, excava-
tions have constantly brought to light a vast quantity
of inscribed and sculptured slabs and columns, which
have mostly, unlike antiquities of many other classes,
remained at Athens, and now fill one wing of the new
museum and the whole space in front. But there is a
group of grave-stones of equal interest which are left
standing, just where they were disinterred, by the old
road which led through the gate Dipylon from Athens
to Eleusis, the road annually trodden by the procession
at the Eleusinia. These tombs, in size and beauty supe-
rior to the rest, are preserved for us, as is supposed, by
a fortunate chance.* Sulla, when he attacked Athens
and remorselessly massacred the miserable inhabitants,
made his approach close to the gate Dipylon. There
he erected the long aggeres by which his engines were
brought close to the wall, and there his soldiers threw
down several hundred yards of the city ramparts, which
were formed of sun-baked bricks. Hence a vast mass
of ruin which completely overwhelmed and buried the
lines of tombs immediately without the gate, and pre-
* See F. Lenormant's Vote Eleusinienne, vol. i.
x