whom we live, and move, and have our being.' "Higher up, ascending a hill covered with thistles and red pebbles, you arrive," says M. La Martine, "at the Pnyx, the scene of the stormy assemblies of the people of Athens, and of the fluctuating triumphs of its orators or its favourites; enormous masses of black stone, some of which measure twelve or thirteen cubic feet, lie upon one another, and support the terrace, on which the people collected. Still higher up, at the distance of about fifty paces, we perceive a huge square block, wherein steps have been cut, which probably served for the orator to mount his rostrum, which thus overlooked the people, the city, and the sea. This possesses not the character of the people of Pericles, but seems Roman. The recollections it inspires are, however, delightful. Demosthenes spoke from thence, and roused or calmed that popular sea, more stormy than the Ægean, which he could also hear roll behind him."

Near the Piraan gate is still to be seen, in a state of admirable preservation, the ground-plot and entire structure of the Pnyx, or place of parliament of the Athenians, as it was appropriated by Solon to the use of the citizens. Nearly the whole of it is an excavation from the rock, and the several parts were carved in one solid mass of stone, with the exception of the semicircular area, the extremity of which consists of masonry.

The Gymnasium of Ptolemy, which stands near the temple of Theseus, is greatly dilapidated, and in no small degree concealed by dwellings. The Erectheum is situated about one hundred and fifty feet north of the Parthenon. This structure consisted of two contiguous temples; that of Minerva Polias, with its portico towards the east, and that of Pandrosus, with its two porticoes standing at the north and south angles, the entrance to the Pandroseum being on the northern side. The Turks made a pow

der magazine of one of the vestibules of this building, which is one of the finest specimens of Ionian architecture now existing; and it has been judiciously remarked of the sculpture everywhere displayed in this edifice, that it is difficult to conceive how marble has been wrought to such a depth, and brought to so sharp an edge, the ornaments having all the delicacy of works of metal.

In that portion of the Erectheum which was dedicated to Minerva Polias, the columns of the front porch are standing, but without any part of their entablature. The marble of this ruin is of virgin whiteness; and the workmanship, as the structure is very diminutive in comparison with the Parthenon, presents a still more exquisite example than that temple, of the polish and edge which were given to all the parts of Grecian architecture. The line of no pencil can excel the delicate accuracy of contour in the swell of the torus and the ornaments of the base; and the hand, in passing repeatedly over the marble, seeks in vain for the slightest inequality or even roughness on the surface.

A bluish-gray limestone seems to have been used in some of the Grecian works, particularly in the exquisite ornaments of the Erectheum, where the frieze of the temple and of its porticoes is not of marble like the rest of the building, but of this sort of slate-limestone. This resembles the limestone employed in the walls of the cella in the temple of Ceres at Eleusis, and in buildings before the use of marble was known for purposes of architecture: such, for example, is the kind of stone in the temple of Apollo at Phigalia, and in other edifices of equal antiquity; it effervesces briskly in acids, and has all the properties of common compact lime, except that it is hard enough to cut glass, and, of course, is susceptible of a fine polish, exhibiting a flat conchoidal fracture, which is somewhat splintery. "We could not discover," says Dr. Clarke, "a single fragment VOL. I.-H

of porphyry, which was remarkable, as this substance was almost always used by the ancients in works of great magnificence."

The temple of ANCHESMIAN JUPITER stood upon a commanding eminence. The pagan shrine has been succeeded by a small Christian sanctuary. Of the scene from the top of this steep and craggy rock, Wheler speaks in a style of enthusiasm rather uncommon with him: "I wish I could make you taste the same satisfaction while I describe the prospect, that I then did and still do when I consider it. Here, either a Democritus might sit and laugh at the pomps and vanities of the world, whose glories so soon vanish; or a Heraclitus weep over the manifold misfortunes of it, telling sad stories of the various changes and events of life. This would have been a place to inspire a poet, as the brave actions performed within his view have already exercised the pens of great historians. Here, like Virgil, he might have sat and interwoven beautiful descriptions of the rivers, mountains, woods of olives, and groves of lemons and oranges, with the celebrated harbours on the shores and islands, all lying before him as on a map, which I was content to do only in contemplation; and with a sea-compass to mark out the most considerable places on paper.'

The Odeum of Regilla stands at the foot of the rock of the Acropolis. The remains of this edifice Wheler and all former travellers, excepting Chandler, have described as the theatre of Bacchus. Of this theatre nothing remains except the circular sweep of the seats, which, in the earliest ages of dramatic representation, was universally formed by scooping the sloping side of a rock.* The passion of the Atheni

* The theatre of the ancients was divided into three principal parts, each of which had its peculiar appellation. The division for the actors was called, in general, the scene or stage; that for the spectators was particularly termed the theatre, which must have been of vast extent, as at Athens it was capable of

ans for the theatre is not conceivable. Their eyes, their ears, their imagination, their understanding, all shared in the satisfaction; nothing gave them so sensible a pleasure in dramatic performances, either tragic or comic, as the strokes which were aimed at the affairs of the public, whether some chance occasioned the application, or the address of the poets, who knew how to reconcile the most remote subjects with the transactions of the republic. They entered by this means into the interests of the people, took occasion to sooth their passions, authorize their pretensions, justify, and sometimes condemn, their conduct, entertain them with agreeable hopes, and instruct them in their duties in certain nice conjunctures; in effecting which they often not only acquired the applauses of the spectators, but credit and influence in the public affairs and councils: hence the theatre became so grateful, and so much the concern of the people.*

containing above thirty thousand persons; and the orchestra, which, among the Greeks, was the place assigned for the pantomimes and dancers, though at Rome it was appropriated to the senators and vestal virgins.

The theatre was of a semicircular form on one side and square on the other. The space contained within the semicircle was allotted to the spectators, and had seats placed one above another to the top of the building. The square part in the front of it was the actors' division; and in the interval between both was the orchestra.

The great theatres had three rows of porticoes, raised one upon another, which formed the body of the edifice, and, at the same time, three different stories for the seats. From the highest of those porticoes the women saw the representation, protected from the weather. The rest of the theatre was uncov. ered, and all the business of the stage was performed in the open air.

"Plutarch, in his inquiry whether the Athenians were more eminent in the arts of war or peace, severely censures their insatiable fondness for diversions. He asserts that the money idly thrown away upon the representation of the tragedies of Sophocles and Euripides alone amounted to a much greater sum than had been expended in all their wars against the Per

The temple dedicated to Augustus consists of four Doric pillars of white marble, fluted, and, like those of all the other buildings of this order, without plinths or bases; they still support their architrave with the pontoon, on the top of which is a square piece of marble, seeming to have been placed there as the pedestal to some statue. There appears also to be some inscription on it, but, by reason of the height, unintelligible. It is impossible to give a plan of the whole, the remains affording but little light towards discovering what was its form.

In speaking of the Stadium Panathenaicum, the most wonderful of all the works of Herodes Atticus, "It has been usual to say of this," says Dr. Clarke, "that nothing now remains of its former magnificence. To our eyes, everything necessary to impress the mind with an accurate idea of the object itself, of its grandeur, and of the prodigious nature of

sians, in defence of their liberty and common safety. That judicious philosopher and historian, to the eternal infamy of the Athenians, records a severe but sensible reflection of a Lacedæmonian, who happened to be present at these diversions. The generous Spartan, trained up in a state where public virtue still continued to be the object of public applause, could not behold the ridiculous assiduity of the Choragi, or magistrates who presided at the public shows, and the immense sums which they lavished in the decorations of a new tragedy, without indignation. He therefore frankly told the Athenians that they were highly criminal in wasting so much time, and giving that serious attention to trifles which ought to be dedicated to the affairs of the public. That it was still more criminal to throw away upon such bawbles as the decorations of a theatre, that money which ought to be applied to the equipment of their fleet or the support of their army. That diversions ought to be treated merely as diversions, and might serve to relax the mind at our idle hours, if any kind of utility could arise from such trifling pleasures. But to see the Athenians make the duty they owed their country give way to their passion for the entertainments of the theatre, and waste unprofitably that time and money upon such frivolous diversions which ought to be appropriated to the affairs and the necessities of the state, appeared to him to be the height of infatuation."-MONTAGue.