DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1038#0072
58
the citadel of Argos. No. 8 is of a still later period, having
regular horizontal courses, but in which the perpendicular
only begins to appear. No. 1 exhibits a species of mason-
ry of an aera certainly not much anterior to the age of Epa-
minondas, under whose auspices the cities of Mantinea,
Megalopolis, and Messene, on Mount Ithome were forti-
fied, with towers of the same description, with precisely the
same ornament at the angles.1 If the argument be not
conclusive, yet the comparison of these walls with those of
which the date is certain, appears the most rational way of
judging of their antiquity. Near the square tower, on the
top of the citadel, a large and deep circular cistern is found
cut in the rock. This might, in some degree, have reme-
died the inconvenience occasioned by the distance of the
fountain. There is a second cistern toward the western
side of the fortress, not many yards distant from the for-
mer. Cisterns are to be discovered in the most ancient ci-
tadels of Greece, and there are many instances of castles
supplied by no other method.
The house or palace of Ulysses had before it a paved
' See No. 9.
the citadel of Argos. No. 8 is of a still later period, having
regular horizontal courses, but in which the perpendicular
only begins to appear. No. 1 exhibits a species of mason-
ry of an aera certainly not much anterior to the age of Epa-
minondas, under whose auspices the cities of Mantinea,
Megalopolis, and Messene, on Mount Ithome were forti-
fied, with towers of the same description, with precisely the
same ornament at the angles.1 If the argument be not
conclusive, yet the comparison of these walls with those of
which the date is certain, appears the most rational way of
judging of their antiquity. Near the square tower, on the
top of the citadel, a large and deep circular cistern is found
cut in the rock. This might, in some degree, have reme-
died the inconvenience occasioned by the distance of the
fountain. There is a second cistern toward the western
side of the fortress, not many yards distant from the for-
mer. Cisterns are to be discovered in the most ancient ci-
tadels of Greece, and there are many instances of castles
supplied by no other method.
The house or palace of Ulysses had before it a paved
' See No. 9.