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https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4265#0086
CHAPTER III.
OF THE ARCH OF THESEUS, OR OF HADRIAN.
This arch stands nearly n.e. and s.w. and is about a quarter of a mile south-eastward from the
Acropolis, the front facing which has the following ancient inscription, on it:
a AIAEI£A0HNAI0H2E,Q2HnPINnOAI£.
And on that next the Ilissus, the channel of which lies south of it, at less than a quarter of a
Wile distance, is inscribed :
» AIAEISAAPIANOTKAIOTXIQHVEnsnOAIIc.
XnTHPIKAIKTIXTH
AYTOKPATOPI
AAPIANnOATMnifl1
Aid ib 'Aflrivai, OncriUf n ic^tt toAi;."
This is Athens, formerly the city of Theseus.'
" Aid' eiV 'A^hzvov, Kovxt 0«o-£iu; •jri'Kii;."
' This is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus.'
I found Hadrian to have been frequently complimented as the
second founder of Athens.
XflTHPIKAIKTlZTH SfiTHPI
AYTOKPATOPI KAIKTICTH
AAPIANJH AYTOKPATOPI
OAYMnmi ' AAPIANH
OATMnin
• As much of the interest of this edifice depends on the consi-
deration of the inscriptions on it, we will, as a preliminary to our
observations on the arch itself, introduce a few remarks on them.
Both inscriptions are wrought on the frieze without any hiatus
intervening between the words; and the characters have no re-
markable peculiarity. The first-quoted inscription with the name
A0HNAI faces the Acropolis, and consequently that with the name
of Hadrian fronts the Olympieum. The generality of travellers
concur in their transcripts of them, with the exception that in
consequence of a mutilation in the frieze with the south-eastern
inscription, the r.a) oi%i is by some given with the crasis (x'ou^l),
which the measure of the verse requires in reciting it.
All authors were agreed as to the meaning of these inscrip-
tions, until Dr. Chandler proposed a new construction for the first
word of them, resulting from which reading, a modern architect,
Mr. Wilkins, has ventured to observe, in a work entitled " Athe-
niensia ", that " the inscriptions alluded to appear to have misled
all former travellers who have attempted to illustrate the plan of
Athens." This author has consequently produced a most singular
hypothesis as to its topography, tending to reverse, in contra-
diction to decisive evidence, the position of the ancient city of
Theseus and that whence at Athens Hadrian derived his greatest
celebrity. To support this theory he draws a line across the plan
of Athens longitudinally through this building, and then confi-
dently decides, in consequence of viewing each side of the arch as
a picture frame with relation to the inscriptions, that the quarter
of Athens to the N.w. of it was Hadrianopolis, or the modern city,
and that all to the s. and E. of it was the city of Theseus. Col.
Leake has so satisfactorily controverted this paradox, that we will
1 This inscription is thus translated, ' To the Saviour and Founder, the Em-
peror Hadrian, the Olympian.' Chandler says, it was discovered by excavation
on a pedestal or base not far from the Temple of Theseus towards the Piraeus,
which he supposed to have been the very spot where a statue of Hadrian stood,
near the Porticus Regia, on the right hand on entering Athens. Ins. Ant_ p_
II. XLIV. [£D.]
' Chandler copied this, or a similar inscription on a marble base or pedestal at
Athens. Pausanias says, that each of the cities of Greece dedicated a statue to
Hadrian, within the peribolus of the Olympieum; it is probable that some of these
inscribed pedestals may have belonged to those dedications. Ins. Ant. P. H.
XLVI. Paus. Att. C. 18. [id.]
VOL. III.
here introduce the following extract from his valuable work on the
Topography of Athens. " This opinion", he remarks, " is chiefly
founded upon the interpretation of the inscription as given by
Chandler, who supposed AIAEIXA0HNAI to be » thit *A9w«»,
« the things which you see are Athens', &c. On the other hand,
Kavasila (Cabasilas), a modern Greek, who visited Athens about
the middle of the 16th century, Spon and Wheler likewise, and
after them Stuart, all construed AIAEI2A0HNAI to be a double
contraction for a'ih da) 'aKmm: nor was the interpretation
doubted by Gruter, Crusius, Meursius, or any of the learned men
who had occasion to speak of the inscription, until Dr. Chandler,
without any reason given, suggested the new reading.
" It was very customary, among the Greeks, to turn an inscrip-
tion into verse, whenever it was of a nature to admit of such
conversion; and it clearly appears, both from the style and mea-
sure of these two lines, that they are senarian iambics. This
was clearly understood by Cabasilas 3, as well as by Urbanus,
another learned person, who visited Athens about the same time,
and it accounts at once for the contractions in the words aid
ila-'. These words, moreover, are precisely in the form customary
on the opposite sides of a boundary, as appears from the column *,
which anciently stood in the isthmus of Corinth, on the I'elo-
ponnesian side of which was
Tot d ECTTl Tl'XoTTOVVYiO-QC, OVK Itov{<Zt
and on the other,
T« d ov%) YltXoTTQvi'r.o-oi;, ctXX' Iavi'a.
" Chandler's reading of AIAEI2, on the contrary, has no sup-
port in any customary mode of expression among the Greeks;
and the word $«»?, if it belong to any Greek dialect at all, is of
such rare occurrence, that it ought not to have been found in an
inscription, which, as. Chandler read it, would not have the plea
of poetry for the introduction of an unusual word. Nothhm- can
tend to render the correctness of Chandler's reading more suspi-
cious than that he and Mr. Wilkins should have deduced in-
ferences diametrically opposite from the same words, Chandler
having still supposed Hadrianopolis to have been upon the south-
east side of the arch, while Mr. Wilkins, justly regarding it as
absurd, that the words ' what you see ' should refer to a part of
the city, upon which the traveller, on reading them, would turn
his back, thought they were meant to direct his view to that
3 . . . . i%6>r'lgov, Iv & Kat fiatr'tXaa. "hia pagpaguv xut xi'ovuv fitytffruv iifl' r
<rrii tfu>>M Xl£tyiyp&7rra.i povoffTi^ov x.ai 'in ffai^opivov:
A'io ejV 'ADwai, ©rifficus « w^iv rr'oXt;,
Simeon Cabasilas ap. Martin. Crus. Turcograsc. p. 461.
Crusius, in a note upon this passage, says, " A"S' j,y 'A^m/, &c........
tame versum......Urbanus, qui Grammatieam Groecam post Gazam scrip-
sit a se Athenis in arcu marmoreo Adriani imperatoris visum scribit, additumque
in fronte orientem versus hunc A'/S' sjV 'AS?i«y»i;, &c." Urban di Belluno was
preceptor of Pope Leo X.; he died in 1524.
* Strabo, p. 392. Plutarch says it was erected by Theseus. Vid. Plut. in
Vit. 25. [a*]
OF THE ARCH OF THESEUS, OR OF HADRIAN.
This arch stands nearly n.e. and s.w. and is about a quarter of a mile south-eastward from the
Acropolis, the front facing which has the following ancient inscription, on it:
a AIAEI£A0HNAI0H2E,Q2HnPINnOAI£.
And on that next the Ilissus, the channel of which lies south of it, at less than a quarter of a
Wile distance, is inscribed :
» AIAEISAAPIANOTKAIOTXIQHVEnsnOAIIc.
XnTHPIKAIKTIXTH
AYTOKPATOPI
AAPIANnOATMnifl1
Aid ib 'Aflrivai, OncriUf n ic^tt toAi;."
This is Athens, formerly the city of Theseus.'
" Aid' eiV 'A^hzvov, Kovxt 0«o-£iu; •jri'Kii;."
' This is the city of Hadrian, and not of Theseus.'
I found Hadrian to have been frequently complimented as the
second founder of Athens.
XflTHPIKAIKTlZTH SfiTHPI
AYTOKPATOPI KAIKTICTH
AAPIANJH AYTOKPATOPI
OAYMnmi ' AAPIANH
OATMnin
• As much of the interest of this edifice depends on the consi-
deration of the inscriptions on it, we will, as a preliminary to our
observations on the arch itself, introduce a few remarks on them.
Both inscriptions are wrought on the frieze without any hiatus
intervening between the words; and the characters have no re-
markable peculiarity. The first-quoted inscription with the name
A0HNAI faces the Acropolis, and consequently that with the name
of Hadrian fronts the Olympieum. The generality of travellers
concur in their transcripts of them, with the exception that in
consequence of a mutilation in the frieze with the south-eastern
inscription, the r.a) oi%i is by some given with the crasis (x'ou^l),
which the measure of the verse requires in reciting it.
All authors were agreed as to the meaning of these inscrip-
tions, until Dr. Chandler proposed a new construction for the first
word of them, resulting from which reading, a modern architect,
Mr. Wilkins, has ventured to observe, in a work entitled " Athe-
niensia ", that " the inscriptions alluded to appear to have misled
all former travellers who have attempted to illustrate the plan of
Athens." This author has consequently produced a most singular
hypothesis as to its topography, tending to reverse, in contra-
diction to decisive evidence, the position of the ancient city of
Theseus and that whence at Athens Hadrian derived his greatest
celebrity. To support this theory he draws a line across the plan
of Athens longitudinally through this building, and then confi-
dently decides, in consequence of viewing each side of the arch as
a picture frame with relation to the inscriptions, that the quarter
of Athens to the N.w. of it was Hadrianopolis, or the modern city,
and that all to the s. and E. of it was the city of Theseus. Col.
Leake has so satisfactorily controverted this paradox, that we will
1 This inscription is thus translated, ' To the Saviour and Founder, the Em-
peror Hadrian, the Olympian.' Chandler says, it was discovered by excavation
on a pedestal or base not far from the Temple of Theseus towards the Piraeus,
which he supposed to have been the very spot where a statue of Hadrian stood,
near the Porticus Regia, on the right hand on entering Athens. Ins. Ant_ p_
II. XLIV. [£D.]
' Chandler copied this, or a similar inscription on a marble base or pedestal at
Athens. Pausanias says, that each of the cities of Greece dedicated a statue to
Hadrian, within the peribolus of the Olympieum; it is probable that some of these
inscribed pedestals may have belonged to those dedications. Ins. Ant. P. H.
XLVI. Paus. Att. C. 18. [id.]
VOL. III.
here introduce the following extract from his valuable work on the
Topography of Athens. " This opinion", he remarks, " is chiefly
founded upon the interpretation of the inscription as given by
Chandler, who supposed AIAEIXA0HNAI to be » thit *A9w«»,
« the things which you see are Athens', &c. On the other hand,
Kavasila (Cabasilas), a modern Greek, who visited Athens about
the middle of the 16th century, Spon and Wheler likewise, and
after them Stuart, all construed AIAEI2A0HNAI to be a double
contraction for a'ih da) 'aKmm: nor was the interpretation
doubted by Gruter, Crusius, Meursius, or any of the learned men
who had occasion to speak of the inscription, until Dr. Chandler,
without any reason given, suggested the new reading.
" It was very customary, among the Greeks, to turn an inscrip-
tion into verse, whenever it was of a nature to admit of such
conversion; and it clearly appears, both from the style and mea-
sure of these two lines, that they are senarian iambics. This
was clearly understood by Cabasilas 3, as well as by Urbanus,
another learned person, who visited Athens about the same time,
and it accounts at once for the contractions in the words aid
ila-'. These words, moreover, are precisely in the form customary
on the opposite sides of a boundary, as appears from the column *,
which anciently stood in the isthmus of Corinth, on the I'elo-
ponnesian side of which was
Tot d ECTTl Tl'XoTTOVVYiO-QC, OVK Itov{<Zt
and on the other,
T« d ov%) YltXoTTQvi'r.o-oi;, ctXX' Iavi'a.
" Chandler's reading of AIAEI2, on the contrary, has no sup-
port in any customary mode of expression among the Greeks;
and the word $«»?, if it belong to any Greek dialect at all, is of
such rare occurrence, that it ought not to have been found in an
inscription, which, as. Chandler read it, would not have the plea
of poetry for the introduction of an unusual word. Nothhm- can
tend to render the correctness of Chandler's reading more suspi-
cious than that he and Mr. Wilkins should have deduced in-
ferences diametrically opposite from the same words, Chandler
having still supposed Hadrianopolis to have been upon the south-
east side of the arch, while Mr. Wilkins, justly regarding it as
absurd, that the words ' what you see ' should refer to a part of
the city, upon which the traveller, on reading them, would turn
his back, thought they were meant to direct his view to that
3 . . . . i%6>r'lgov, Iv & Kat fiatr'tXaa. "hia pagpaguv xut xi'ovuv fitytffruv iifl' r
<rrii tfu>>M Xl£tyiyp&7rra.i povoffTi^ov x.ai 'in ffai^opivov:
A'io ejV 'ADwai, ©rifficus « w^iv rr'oXt;,
Simeon Cabasilas ap. Martin. Crus. Turcograsc. p. 461.
Crusius, in a note upon this passage, says, " A"S' j,y 'A^m/, &c........
tame versum......Urbanus, qui Grammatieam Groecam post Gazam scrip-
sit a se Athenis in arcu marmoreo Adriani imperatoris visum scribit, additumque
in fronte orientem versus hunc A'/S' sjV 'AS?i«y»i;, &c." Urban di Belluno was
preceptor of Pope Leo X.; he died in 1524.
* Strabo, p. 392. Plutarch says it was erected by Theseus. Vid. Plut. in
Vit. 25. [a*]