Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/321

 ATHEKAE. 10.Limnae {Aiftamt), was a district to the south of the Acropolis, in which the temple of Dionysus was situated. (Thuc. ii. 15.) It was not a demus, as stated by the Scholiast on Callimachus (H. in Del. 172), who has mistaken the Limnae of Messenia far the Limnae of Athens.

Colonus, which we have spoken of as a hill in the city, is maintained by Sauppe to have been a separate domus; but see above, p. 298, b.

The Euboean cities of Eretria and Histiaea were said by some to have teen named from Attic demi (Strab. x. p. 445); and from another passage of Strabo (x. p. 447) it has been inferred that the so-called New Agora occupied the site of Eretria. [See p. 898, b.] It is- doubtful whether Eretria was situated in the city; and at all events it is not mentioned elsewhere, either by writers or inscriptions, as a demus.

Respecting the city demi the best account is given by Sauppe, De Demis Urbanis Athenarum, Weimar, 1846.

1. The Outer Cerameicus and the Academy.—The road to the Academy ('Aira^fi/a), which was distant six or eight stadia from the gate named Dipylum, ran through the Outer Cerameicus. (Liv. xxxi. 24; Thuc. vi. 57; Plat. Parm. 2; Plut. Sull. 14; Cic. de Fin. v. 1; Lucian, Scyth. 2.) It is called by Thucydides the most beautiful suburb of the city (JM. rov KoXXitrrw Tpoatrrtlw rqr tS- Xtms, Thuc. ii. 34). On each side of the road were the monuments of illustrious Athenians, especially of those who had fallen in battle; for the Outer Cerameicus was the place of burial for all persons who wen honoured with a public funeral. Hence we read in Aristophanes (Aves. 395):

6 Ktpofieuehs 8«(era< ni.

Over each tomb was placed a pillar, inscribed with the names of the dead and of their demi. (Paus. i. 29. § 4; comp. Cic. de Leg. ii. 26.) In this locality was found an interesting inscription, now in the British Museum, containing the names of those who had fallen at Potidaea, 432.

The Academy is said to have belonged originally to the hero Academus, and was afterwards converted into a gymnasium. It was surrounded with a wall by Hipparchus, and was adorned by Cimon with walks, groves, and fountains. (Diog. Laërt. iii. 7; Said. a. «. 'Ivriipxov rcixtor; Plut. Cim. 13.) The beauty of the plane trees and olive plantations was particularly celebrated. (Plin. xii. 1. s. 5.) Before the entrance were a statue and an altar of Love, and within the inclosure were a temple of Athena, and altars of the Muses, Prometheus, Hercules, &c. (Paus. i. 30. § 1.) It was from the altar of Prometheus that the race of the Lampadephoria commenced. The Academy was the place where Plato taught, who possessed a small estate in the neighhoorhood, which was his usual place of residence. (Diog. Laërt. l. c.; Aelian, V. H. ix. 10.) His successors continued to teach in the same spot, and were hence called the Academic philosophers. It continued to be one of the sanctuaries of philosophy, and was spared by the enemy down to the time of Sulla, who, during the siege of Athens, caused its celebrated groves to be cut down, in order to obtain timber for the construction of his military machines. ATHEMAE. 303 (Plut. Sull. 12; Appian, Mithr. 30.) The Academy, however, was replanted, and continued to enjoy its ancient celebrity in the time of the emperor Julian. Near the temple of Athena in the Academy were the Moriae, or sacred olives, which were derived from the sacred olive in the Erechtheium. The latter, as we have already seen, waa the fint olive tree planted in Attica, and one of the Moriae was shown to Pausanais as the second. They were under the guardianship of Zeus Morius. (Comp. Suid. s. v. Hoplai; Schol. ad Soph. Oed. Col. 730.) A little way beyond the Academy was the hill of Colonus, immortalised by the tragedy of Sophocles; and between the two places were the tomb of Plato and the tower of Timon. (Paus. i. 30. §§ 3, 4.) The name of Akadhimia is still attached to this spot. "It is on the lowest level, where some water-courses from the ridges of Lycabettus are consumed in gardens and olive plantations. These waters still cause the spot to be one of the most advantageous situations near Athena for the growth of fruit and pot-herbs, and maintain a certain degree of verdure when all the surrounding plain is parched with the heat of summer." (Leake, p. 195.)

2. Cynosarges {Kvydaofyts), was a sanctuary of Hercules and a gymnasium, situated to the east of the city, not far from the gate Diomeia. It is said to have derived its name from a white dog, which carried off part of the victim, when sacrifices were first offered by Diomus to Hercules. (Paus. i. 19. § 3; Herod, v. 63, vi. 116; Plut. Them. 1; Harpocrat. s. v. 'Hpcb^cia; Hesych. Suid. Steph. B. s. v. Kw6a^apy9s,') Antisthenes, the founder of the Cynic school, taught in the Cynosarges. (Diog. Laërt vi. 13.) It was surrounded by a grove, which was destroyed by Philip, together with the trees of the neighbouring Lyceium, when he encamped at this spot in his invasion of Attica in 200. (Liv. xxxi. 24.) Since Cynosarges was near a rising ground (Isocr. ''Vit. X. Orat.'' p. 838), Leake places it at the foot of the south-eastern extremity of Mount Lycabettus, near the point where the arch of the aqueduct of Hadrian and Antoninus formerly stood. The name of this gymnasium, like that of the Academy, was also given to the surrounding buildings, which thus formed a suburb of the city. (Forchhammer, p. 368.)

3. Lyceium (Atetiov), a gymnasium dedicated to Apollo Lyceius, and surrounded with lofty plane trees, was also situated to the east of the city, and a little to the south of the Cynosarges. It was the chief of the Athenian gymnasia, and was adorned by Peisistratus, Pericles, and Lycurgus. (Paus. i. 19. § 3; Xen. Hipp. 3. § 6; Hesych. Harpocrat. Suid. s. v. A^ircioi'.) The Lyceum was the place in which Aristotle and his disciples taught, who were called Peripatetics, from their practice of walking in this gymnasium while delivering their lectures. (Diog. Laërt v. 5; Cic. Acad, Quaest. i. 4.) In the neighbourhood of the Lyceium was a fountain of the hero Panops, near which was a small gate of the city, which must have stood between the gates Diocbaris and Diomeia. (Plat. Lys. 1; Hesych. s. v. IldmM^.)

4. Lycabettus (Atfjcotfirrr^s), was the name of the lofty insulated mountain overhanging the city on its north-eastern side, and now called the Hill of St. George, from the church of St George on its summit [See p. 255, a.] This hill was identified by the ancient geographers with Anchesmus (*A7- X*^/(^0) which is described by Pausanias (i. 32