DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.2984#0077
64
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF ATHENIAN ARCHITECTURE
rebuilt with modifications in the time of Valerian, i.e. about a.d. 256. The gateway which we now
see, although in actual construction decidedly of debased work, is put together with some feeling for
classical tradition, and some materials taken from ruined buildings of the very best period were used
in its construction, especially the Doric entablature which surmounts the wall over the gateway.
The cross grooves above mentioned, which arc near the point B of the woodcut, show the direction
of the road at B, at which point there was very probably a gate; but if unsupported by outworks
such as arc shown on the woodcut, this would have offered an inadequate system of defence. A very
important point in the proposed scheme is the rock-cut foundation at A, which seems to have been
"■ AiiciriUltoad
Fig. 5.
that of a gate pier, especially when taken in connection with the fact that the contiguous portion of
the Cimonium between C and D has been rebuilt. The walls shown westward of A in the second plan
are hypothetical, excepting that it is not unlikely that the wall of the present guardhouse is
built upon the old foundations. Again, if we suppose a gate also at B (one of the nine gates of
the Acropolis as designed by the Pelasgi), it would have formed a defensive combination very similar
to the chief entrance at Tiryns. It also follows, almost necessarily from the evidence of the retaining
wall towards the south and the narrow roadway formed between the rocks, that the main approach,
of which there are also other traces farther eastwards,1 was by the zigzag course indicated by the
dotted line, by which any soldiers, as they approached the gate, would have exposed their unshielded
side to the main wall of the citadel not less than 60 feet above them. There is a levelled area of
sufficient extent in front of the supposed gate. There may also have been a branch road, converging
from the west along the line occupied by the present Turkish gateway.
In its final and most complete state, but subsequent to the time of Pericles, the <rcat staircase
as shown in plan on the Plate and in section in the woodcuts in page 65, was divided into two
main flights, which were separated by a landing or platform of about 20 feet wide, at the level of
the base of the tower on which the Temple of Victory is built.
There was another approach, but by foot only, on the north side of the Acropolis, which passed
1 At several places on the south side of the Acropolis are traces of a and in front of the Temple of Esculapius, and arrived at the point under
carriage road, which, emerging from the street of the Tripods, passed be- consideration,
tween the Theatre of Bacchus and the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus,
AN INVESTIGATION OF THE PRINCIPLES OF ATHENIAN ARCHITECTURE
rebuilt with modifications in the time of Valerian, i.e. about a.d. 256. The gateway which we now
see, although in actual construction decidedly of debased work, is put together with some feeling for
classical tradition, and some materials taken from ruined buildings of the very best period were used
in its construction, especially the Doric entablature which surmounts the wall over the gateway.
The cross grooves above mentioned, which arc near the point B of the woodcut, show the direction
of the road at B, at which point there was very probably a gate; but if unsupported by outworks
such as arc shown on the woodcut, this would have offered an inadequate system of defence. A very
important point in the proposed scheme is the rock-cut foundation at A, which seems to have been
"■ AiiciriUltoad
Fig. 5.
that of a gate pier, especially when taken in connection with the fact that the contiguous portion of
the Cimonium between C and D has been rebuilt. The walls shown westward of A in the second plan
are hypothetical, excepting that it is not unlikely that the wall of the present guardhouse is
built upon the old foundations. Again, if we suppose a gate also at B (one of the nine gates of
the Acropolis as designed by the Pelasgi), it would have formed a defensive combination very similar
to the chief entrance at Tiryns. It also follows, almost necessarily from the evidence of the retaining
wall towards the south and the narrow roadway formed between the rocks, that the main approach,
of which there are also other traces farther eastwards,1 was by the zigzag course indicated by the
dotted line, by which any soldiers, as they approached the gate, would have exposed their unshielded
side to the main wall of the citadel not less than 60 feet above them. There is a levelled area of
sufficient extent in front of the supposed gate. There may also have been a branch road, converging
from the west along the line occupied by the present Turkish gateway.
In its final and most complete state, but subsequent to the time of Pericles, the <rcat staircase
as shown in plan on the Plate and in section in the woodcuts in page 65, was divided into two
main flights, which were separated by a landing or platform of about 20 feet wide, at the level of
the base of the tower on which the Temple of Victory is built.
There was another approach, but by foot only, on the north side of the Acropolis, which passed
1 At several places on the south side of the Acropolis are traces of a and in front of the Temple of Esculapius, and arrived at the point under
carriage road, which, emerging from the street of the Tripods, passed be- consideration,
tween the Theatre of Bacchus and the Choragic monument of Thrasyllus,