Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/286

  the sides. It is raised upon a stylobate of 3 feet, and is 27 feet in breadth. The columns, including the base and the capital, are 13½ feet high, and the total height of the temple to the apex of the pediment, including the stylobate, is 23 feet. The frieze, which runs round the whole of the exterior of the building is 1 foot 6 inches high, and is adorned with sculptures in high relief. It originally consisted of fourteen pieces of stones, of which twelve, or the fragments of twelve, now remain. Several of these are so mutilated that it is difficult to make oat the subject; but some of them evidently represent a battle between Greeks and Persians, or other Oriental barbarians. It is supposed that the two long sides were occupied with combats of horsemen, and that the western end represented a battle of foot soldiers. This building must have been erected after the battle of Salamis, since it could not have escaped the Persians, when they destroyed every thing upon the Acropolis; and the style of art shows that it could not have been later than the age of Pericles. But, as it is never mentioned among the buildings of this statesman, it is generally ascribed ta Cimon, who probably built it at the same time as the southern wall of the Acropolis. Its sculptures were probably intended to commemorate the recent victories of the Greeks over the Persians. (Die Akropolis von Athen: 1 Abth. Der Tempel der Nike Apteros, von Ross, Schaubert und Hansen, Berl. 1839; Leake, p. 529, seq.)

Pedestal of Agrippa.—On the western front of the northern wing of the Propylaea there stands at present a lofty pedestal, about 12 feet square and 27 high, which supported some figure or figures, as is clear from the holes for stanchions on its summit. Moreover we may conclude from the size of the pedestal that the figure or figures on its summit ware colossal or equestrian. Pausanias, in describing the Propylaea, speaks of the statues of certain horsemen, respecting which he was in doubt whether they were the sons of Xenophon, or made for the sake orna-

ment (ttrtpiiriuai); and in the next clause he proceeds to speak of the temple of Nike on the right hand (or southern wing) of the Propylaea, we may conclude that these statues stood in front of the northern wing. (Paus. i. 22. § 4.) Now, it has been well observed by Leake, that the doubt of Pausanias, as to the persons for whom the equestrian statues were intended, could not have been sincere; and that, judging from his manner on other similar occasions, we may conclude that equestrian statues of Gryllus and Diodorus, the two sons of Xenophon, had been converted, by means of new inscriptions, into those of two Romans, whom Pausanias has not named. This conjecture is confirmed by an inscription on the base, which records the name M. Agrippa in his third consulship; and it may be that the other Roman was Augustas himself, who was the colleaguen of Agrippa in his third consulship. It appears that both statues stood on the same pedestal, and accordingly they are so represented in the accompanying restoration of the Propylaea.

3. The Parthenon.

The Parthenon ( i.e. the Virgin's House) was the great glory of the Acropolis, and the most perfect production of Grecian architecture. It derived its name from its being the temple of Athena Parthenos ('Aftin ni^ms), or Athena the Virgin, a name given to her as the invincible goddess of war. It was also called Hecatompedos or Hecatompedon, the Temple of One Hundred Feet, from ita breadth ('EjcaT^i*tii(, BC *tiit, 'EnaT^wsSur, Etym. M. p. 321, 21; Harpocrat. Suid. s. v.); and sometimes Parthenon Hecatompedos. (Plut Pericl. 13, ''de Glor. Athen.'' 7.) It was built under the administration of Pericles, and was completed in 438. (Philochor. ''ap, Schol. ad Aristoph. Pac.'' 604.) Wedo not know when it was commenced; bat notwithstanding the rapidity with which all the works of Pericles were executed (Plut. l. c.), its erection could not have occupied less than eight years, since the Propylaea occupied five. Tbs architects, according to Plutarch (l. c.), were Callicrates and Ictinus: other wrilers generally mention Ictinus alone. (Strab. ix. p. 39G; Paus. viii. 41. § 9.) Ictinus wrote a work upon the temple. (Vitruv. vii. Praef.) Tbs general superintendence of the erection of the whole building was entrusted to Pheidias.

The Parthenon was probably built on the site of an earlier temple destroyed by the Persians. This is expressly asserted by an ancient grammarian, who

