DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.1031#0219
CHAP. XXIV.J A PHALERIC WALL. 193
The execution of the middle or most recent wall,
commenced by Pericles, seems to have been very dila-
tory, as was often the case with the construction of
public works at Athens. The comic poet 3Cratinus,
remarking on the tardiness of its progress, said that
it was then extending itself to the sea by means of
long words and prolix sentences, while in act and
deed it did not stir an inch :
... iraXat yap avro
Aoyoiat wpoayei TlepiicXetjs, epyoiai o owe mvei'
...for Pericles, an age since,
In word extends it, though in deed he really does not touch it.
And I cannot but suspect that there is an indirect
allusion to some architectural work at Athens, only
just executed, in the very minute and copious detail
of the processes of masonry adopted by the birds
in the construction of The Long Walls of their own
City, which was but a picture of Athens suspended
4 in the air.
If so, the middle wall would not have been com-
pleted long before b.c. 414, when that play was
acted5.
3 Cratin. ap. Plutarch., vn. p. 383. Reiske.
4 See some of the analogies traced in Siivern's Essay, p. 28. of Mr
W. R. Hamilton's translation.
5 The following are the details of an excursion from Athens towards
the south-west, made with a view of tracing the vestiges of the long walls:
H. MIN.
At vm. 45. (a.m.) leave the temple of Theseus.
ix. On brow of Pnyx hill.
4. Walls there, abutting on kvk\os dtrreos.
20. Cross Ilissus.
N
The execution of the middle or most recent wall,
commenced by Pericles, seems to have been very dila-
tory, as was often the case with the construction of
public works at Athens. The comic poet 3Cratinus,
remarking on the tardiness of its progress, said that
it was then extending itself to the sea by means of
long words and prolix sentences, while in act and
deed it did not stir an inch :
... iraXat yap avro
Aoyoiat wpoayei TlepiicXetjs, epyoiai o owe mvei'
...for Pericles, an age since,
In word extends it, though in deed he really does not touch it.
And I cannot but suspect that there is an indirect
allusion to some architectural work at Athens, only
just executed, in the very minute and copious detail
of the processes of masonry adopted by the birds
in the construction of The Long Walls of their own
City, which was but a picture of Athens suspended
4 in the air.
If so, the middle wall would not have been com-
pleted long before b.c. 414, when that play was
acted5.
3 Cratin. ap. Plutarch., vn. p. 383. Reiske.
4 See some of the analogies traced in Siivern's Essay, p. 28. of Mr
W. R. Hamilton's translation.
5 The following are the details of an excursion from Athens towards
the south-west, made with a view of tracing the vestiges of the long walls:
H. MIN.
At vm. 45. (a.m.) leave the temple of Theseus.
ix. On brow of Pnyx hill.
4. Walls there, abutting on kvk\os dtrreos.
20. Cross Ilissus.
N