Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/280

 

The first appearance of Athens was not pleasing to a stranger. Dicaearchus, who visited the city in the fourth century before the Christian era, describes it "as dusty and not well supplied with water; badly laid out on account of its antiquity; the majority of the houses mean, and only a few good." He adds that "a stranger, at the first view, might doubt if this is Athens; but after a short time he would find that it was." (Dicaearch., init., p. 140, ed. Fuhr.) The streets were narrow and crooked; and the meanness of the private houses formed a striking contrast to the magnificence of the public buildings. None of the houses appear to have been of any great height, and the upper stories often projected over the streets. Themistocles and Aristeides, though authorised by the Areiopagus, could hardly prevent people from building over the streets. The houses were, for the most part, constructed either of a frame-work of wood, or of unburnt bricks dried in the open air. (Xen. Mem. iii. 1. § 7 ; Plut. Dem. 11; Hirt, Baukunst der Alten, p. 143.) The front towards the street rarely had any windows, and was usually nothing but a curtain wall, covered with a coating of plaster (: Dem. de Ord. Rep. p. 175; Plut. Comp. Arist. et Cat. 4); though occasionally this outer wall was relieved by some ornament, as in the case of Phocion's house, of which the front was adorned with copper filings. (Plut. Phoc. 18; Becker, Charikles. vol. i. p. 198.) What Horace said of the primitive worthies of his own country, will apply with still greater justice to the Athenians daring their most flourishing period: — ""Privatos illis census erst brevis, Commune magnum.""

(Mure, vol. ii. p. 98). It was not till the Macedonian period, when public spirit had decayed, that the Athenians, no longer satisfied with participating in the grandeur of the state, began to erect handsome private houses. "Formerly," says Demosthenes, "the republic had abundant wealth, but no individual raised himself above the multitude. If any one of us could now see the houses of Themistocles, Aristeides, Cimon, or the famous men of those days, he would perceive that they were not more magnificent than the houses of ordinary persons; while the buildings of the state are of such number and magnitude that they cannot be surpassed;" and afterwards he complains that the statesmen of his time constructed houses, which exceeded the public buildings in magnitude. (Dem. c. Aristocr. p. 689, Olynth. iii. pp. S5, 36; Böckh, Publ. Econ. of Athens p. 64, seq., 2nd ed.; Becker, Charikles, vol. i. p. 188.) The insignificance of the Athenian houses is shown by the small prices which they fetched. Böckh (Ibid. p. 66) has collected numerous instances from the orators. Their prices vary from the low sum of 3 or 5 minas (12l. 3s. 9d. and 20l. 6s. 3d.) to 120 minas (487l. 10s.); and 50 minas (203l. 2s. 6d.) seem to have been regarded as a considerable sum for the purchase of a house. Athens was inferior to Rome in the pavement of its streets, its sewers, and its supply of water. "The Greeks," says Strabo (v. p. 235), "in building their cities, attended chiefly to beauty and fortification, harbours, and a fertile soil. The Romans, on the other hand, provided, what the others neglected, the pavement of the streets, a supply of water, and com-mon sewers." This account must be taken with some modifications, as we are not to suppose that Athens was totally unprovided with these public conveniences. It would appear, however, that few of the streets were paved; and the scavengers did not keep them clean, even in dry weather. The city was not lighted (Becker, Charikles, vol. ii. p. 211); and in the Wasps of Aristophanes we have an amusing picture of a party at night picking their way through the mud, by the aid of a lantern (Vesp. 248); and daring a period of dry weather, as further appears from their own remarks. It would seem, from several passages in Aristophanes, that Athens was as dirty as the filthiest towns of southern Europe in the present day; and that her places of public resort, the purlieus of her sacred edifices more especially, were among the chief repositories of every kind of nuisance. (Aristoph. Plut. 1183, seq., Nub. 1384, seq., Eccles. 320, seq., Vesp. 394; from Mure, vol. ii. p. 46.)

We have not much information respecting the supply of water at Athens. Dicaearchus, as we hare already seen, says that the city was deficient in this first necessary of life. There was only one source of good drinking water, namely, the celebrated fountain, called Callirhoë or Enneacrunus, of which we shall speak below. Those who lived at a distance from this fountain obtained their drinking water from wells, of which there was a considerable number at Athens. (Paus. i. 14. § 1.) There were other fountains in Athens, and Pausanias mentions two, both issuing from the hill of the Acropolis, one in the cavern sacred to Apollo and Pan, and another in the temple of Aescolapius; but they both probably belonged to those springs of water unfit for drinking, but suited to domestic purposes, to which Vitruvius (viii. 3) alludes. The water obtained from the soil of Athens itself is impregnated with saline particles. It is, however, very improbable that so populous a city as Athens was limited for its supply of drinkable water to the single fountain of Callirhoë. We still find traces in the city of water-courses channelled in the rock, and they are mentioned by the Attic writers. (Aristoph. Acharn. 922, &c.) Even as early as the time of Themistocles there were public officers, who had the superintendence of the supply of water (, Plut. Them. 31). It may reasonably be concluded that the city obtained a supply of water by conduits from distant sources. Leake observes, "Modern Athens was not many years ago, and possibly may still be, supplied from two reservoirs, situated near the junction of the Eridanus and Ilissus. Of these reservoirS one was the receptacle of a subterranean conduit from the foot of Mt Hymettus; the other, of one of the Cephissus at the foot of Mt. Pentelicum. This conduit, which may be traced to the north of Ambelópilo, in proceeding from thence by Kato Marusi to Kifisia, where a series of holes give air to a canal, which is deep in the ground, may possibly be a work of republican times. One of these in particular is seen about midway between Athens and Kifisia, and where two branches of the aqueduct seem to have united, after having conducted water from two or more fountains in the streams which, flowing from Parnes, Pentelicum, and the intermediate ridge, form the Cephissus." Among the other favours which Hadrian conferred upon Athens was the construction of an aqueduct, of which the whole city probably reaped the benefit, though nominally intended only for the quarter called after his 