DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4265#0021
20 ON THE PLAN OF ATHENS.
cannot be mistaken ; I mean an insulated rock, the site of the Acropolis. This rock I suppose to be
about 150 feet in height, and from 900 to 1000 in length, upon its surface, which is nearly level;
whilst its sides arc everywhere a precipice, the western extremity alone excepted, where, with no
small labour and diligence, the entrance has been constructed.
On this eminence was built the original city, which grew to be so populous a as not to afford
sufficient room for the numbers who resorted to it, so that it became necessary to erect, on the plain
below, additional dwellings for the inhabitants, and the frequent accession of new-comers. In a
place destitute of good water, as these low grounds are, the desire of obtaining a ready and constant
supply of that necessary article of life would most probably have induced a number to settle near the
Ilissus, and the fountain Callirhoe' ; whence indeed they seem to have procured it in the earliest
times b. In this vicinity, Cecrops, the founder of Athens, is said to have built the Temple of Saturn
and Ops c; and, here also, we are told by Pausanias, that Deucalion erected the most ancient Tem-
ple of Jupiter Olympius ; near to which were the Pythium and the Delphinium, both places of great
antiquity ; whence we may fairly infer, that this part eastward of the Acropolis was among the first
selected for the new habitations ". To this advantage of a permanent spring, others might prefer a
situation at the western end; which, in case of a sudden alarm, would secure to them a retreat to
the Acropolis, as to a place of security, and the residence of government; with which it would af-
ford them an immediate communication. These are motives that probably induced them to erect
their dwellings near the only entrance, although, by this situation, they were placed at a greater dis-
tance from good water. Near this part likewise stood many ancient temples and public buildingsc;
which indicates its being, in early times, chosen as a desirable situation on which to fix their new
habitations. Thus much may be said for the general idea of the situation of Athens, and of the
manner in which it appears to have been gradually augmented. To what extent it was afterwards
continued, can be ascertained even at this time from the vestiges of the ancient city walls, which may
be traced, with little intermission, throughout their whole circuit; their measures agree minutely
with the dimensions assigned to them by Thucydides f. The foundations of the ancient gates, may,
for the most part, be distinguished ; of these the Dipylon particularly claims our attention. Arriving
from the Piraeeus, you pass through the outer Ceramicus before you come to the foundations of this
gate, which still remain ; passing on, you enter the Ceramicus within the city ; proceeding toward
a " The most powerful of those, who were driven from the ' It may he observed, on our author's plan of Athens, that
other parts of Greece by war or sedition, betook themselves to at the north and east sides of the city lie has not marked the
the Athenians for secure refuge, and as they obtained the pri- circuit of the antient walls; indeed, notwithstanding the frequent
vileges of citizens, have constantly, from the remotest time, con- traces of foundations at the probable site of the walls in those
tinued to enlarge that city with fresh accessions of inhabitants, directions, yet they are not to be identified as belonging to the
insomuch," &c. Thucydides, L. I. c. II. fortifications of the Asty. The walls of Athens, towards Hy-
b " The Athenians affirm, that they [the Pelasgians] were mettus and Pentelicus, are spoken of by Pliny and Vitruvius,
justly ejected on account of the injuries they had done ; for the as having been composed of brick, which may have been
former say that, while the Pelasgians continued to inhabit under the cause, possibly, of their disappearance, although walls of
Mount Hymettus, they frequently left their habitations, and, in this description, when well built, were panegyrized by those
contempt of the Athenians, offered violence to their sons and authors for length of duration. Thucydides states that the
daughters, who were sent for water to the place called Nine peribolus of Athens was forty-three stadia, without reckoning
Fountains." Herodotus, L. VI. c. 137- the distance between the extremities of the Long Walls, which,
c Philochorus Saturno et Opi primum in Attica statuisse aram if we suppose them to have embraced the heights of the Museum
Cecropem elicit. Macrobius, Sat. Lib. I. c. 10. and Pnyx, would give about three stadia more, producing a cir-
d " Before this time [of Theseus], that part which is now the cumference of about five miles and a quarter. The population
citadel, and that which lies on the south side of the citadel, con- of Athens itself is not recorded in ancient authors; but during
stituted the whole of the city. The temples, built either within the most nourishing period of the republic, the number of Attic
the citadel or without, sufficiently shew it, for in the southern citizens is reported as having been 20,000 ; and that of
part of the city particularly, stand the Temples of the Olympian metceci or aliens domiciled in Attica, to have been 10,000 ; while
Jove, of the Pythian Apollo, of Terra, and of Bacchus in Lim- the number of slaves was reckoned to be 400,000, distributed
nis, in honor of whom the old Bacchanalian feasts are celebrated, throughout Attica. The population of the above classes, inclu-
de. Near it also is the fountain, now called the Enneakrounos, sive of their families, resident within Athens itself, Colonel
or Nine Pipes, from the manner in which it was embellished by Leake computes at 116',000: an estimate perhaps much under-
the tyrants ; but formerly, when all the springs were open, it rated, considering the known superior populousness of less
was called Callirhoe, which, as being near at hand, they preferred considerable ancient cities.
on the most solemn occasions." Thucydides, L. II. C. XV. Vitruv. L. II. C. VIII. Plin. Nat. Hist. L. XXXV. G. XIV.
* The Areopagus—The Prytaneum—The Temple of Bac- Thucyd. L. II. C. XIII. Demosth. in Arist. I. p. 785, ed. Reiske.
chus in Limnis. Ctesicles ap. Athen. L. VI. C. XX. Leake's Topy. p. 380. [ed.]
cannot be mistaken ; I mean an insulated rock, the site of the Acropolis. This rock I suppose to be
about 150 feet in height, and from 900 to 1000 in length, upon its surface, which is nearly level;
whilst its sides arc everywhere a precipice, the western extremity alone excepted, where, with no
small labour and diligence, the entrance has been constructed.
On this eminence was built the original city, which grew to be so populous a as not to afford
sufficient room for the numbers who resorted to it, so that it became necessary to erect, on the plain
below, additional dwellings for the inhabitants, and the frequent accession of new-comers. In a
place destitute of good water, as these low grounds are, the desire of obtaining a ready and constant
supply of that necessary article of life would most probably have induced a number to settle near the
Ilissus, and the fountain Callirhoe' ; whence indeed they seem to have procured it in the earliest
times b. In this vicinity, Cecrops, the founder of Athens, is said to have built the Temple of Saturn
and Ops c; and, here also, we are told by Pausanias, that Deucalion erected the most ancient Tem-
ple of Jupiter Olympius ; near to which were the Pythium and the Delphinium, both places of great
antiquity ; whence we may fairly infer, that this part eastward of the Acropolis was among the first
selected for the new habitations ". To this advantage of a permanent spring, others might prefer a
situation at the western end; which, in case of a sudden alarm, would secure to them a retreat to
the Acropolis, as to a place of security, and the residence of government; with which it would af-
ford them an immediate communication. These are motives that probably induced them to erect
their dwellings near the only entrance, although, by this situation, they were placed at a greater dis-
tance from good water. Near this part likewise stood many ancient temples and public buildingsc;
which indicates its being, in early times, chosen as a desirable situation on which to fix their new
habitations. Thus much may be said for the general idea of the situation of Athens, and of the
manner in which it appears to have been gradually augmented. To what extent it was afterwards
continued, can be ascertained even at this time from the vestiges of the ancient city walls, which may
be traced, with little intermission, throughout their whole circuit; their measures agree minutely
with the dimensions assigned to them by Thucydides f. The foundations of the ancient gates, may,
for the most part, be distinguished ; of these the Dipylon particularly claims our attention. Arriving
from the Piraeeus, you pass through the outer Ceramicus before you come to the foundations of this
gate, which still remain ; passing on, you enter the Ceramicus within the city ; proceeding toward
a " The most powerful of those, who were driven from the ' It may he observed, on our author's plan of Athens, that
other parts of Greece by war or sedition, betook themselves to at the north and east sides of the city lie has not marked the
the Athenians for secure refuge, and as they obtained the pri- circuit of the antient walls; indeed, notwithstanding the frequent
vileges of citizens, have constantly, from the remotest time, con- traces of foundations at the probable site of the walls in those
tinued to enlarge that city with fresh accessions of inhabitants, directions, yet they are not to be identified as belonging to the
insomuch," &c. Thucydides, L. I. c. II. fortifications of the Asty. The walls of Athens, towards Hy-
b " The Athenians affirm, that they [the Pelasgians] were mettus and Pentelicus, are spoken of by Pliny and Vitruvius,
justly ejected on account of the injuries they had done ; for the as having been composed of brick, which may have been
former say that, while the Pelasgians continued to inhabit under the cause, possibly, of their disappearance, although walls of
Mount Hymettus, they frequently left their habitations, and, in this description, when well built, were panegyrized by those
contempt of the Athenians, offered violence to their sons and authors for length of duration. Thucydides states that the
daughters, who were sent for water to the place called Nine peribolus of Athens was forty-three stadia, without reckoning
Fountains." Herodotus, L. VI. c. 137- the distance between the extremities of the Long Walls, which,
c Philochorus Saturno et Opi primum in Attica statuisse aram if we suppose them to have embraced the heights of the Museum
Cecropem elicit. Macrobius, Sat. Lib. I. c. 10. and Pnyx, would give about three stadia more, producing a cir-
d " Before this time [of Theseus], that part which is now the cumference of about five miles and a quarter. The population
citadel, and that which lies on the south side of the citadel, con- of Athens itself is not recorded in ancient authors; but during
stituted the whole of the city. The temples, built either within the most nourishing period of the republic, the number of Attic
the citadel or without, sufficiently shew it, for in the southern citizens is reported as having been 20,000 ; and that of
part of the city particularly, stand the Temples of the Olympian metceci or aliens domiciled in Attica, to have been 10,000 ; while
Jove, of the Pythian Apollo, of Terra, and of Bacchus in Lim- the number of slaves was reckoned to be 400,000, distributed
nis, in honor of whom the old Bacchanalian feasts are celebrated, throughout Attica. The population of the above classes, inclu-
de. Near it also is the fountain, now called the Enneakrounos, sive of their families, resident within Athens itself, Colonel
or Nine Pipes, from the manner in which it was embellished by Leake computes at 116',000: an estimate perhaps much under-
the tyrants ; but formerly, when all the springs were open, it rated, considering the known superior populousness of less
was called Callirhoe, which, as being near at hand, they preferred considerable ancient cities.
on the most solemn occasions." Thucydides, L. II. C. XV. Vitruv. L. II. C. VIII. Plin. Nat. Hist. L. XXXV. G. XIV.
* The Areopagus—The Prytaneum—The Temple of Bac- Thucyd. L. II. C. XIII. Demosth. in Arist. I. p. 785, ed. Reiske.
chus in Limnis. Ctesicles ap. Athen. L. VI. C. XX. Leake's Topy. p. 380. [ed.]