Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/12

Rh known as the intramural deme of Melite, a name derived, perhaps, from the balm which then grew there (the eiwS^s /xeAtVeia of Theocr., iv. 25). 1 The historian E. Curtius (Attische St udien, pt. i.) has, indeed, gone so far as to regard these rock-dwellings as earlier than the occupa tion of the Acropolis itself. But the contrary opinion of Thucydides is worth something, and the natural strength of the Acropolis would make it the most obvious spot for primitive occupation. Accordingly, we shall nob be giving too free a licence to our imagination if we conceive of primitive Athens as a twofold settlement, partly on the Acropolis and the low ground at its southern foot, and partly upon the eastern slopes of the hills on the west. It may even have been the consolidation of these two villages into one township that gave rise to the legend ascribing to Theseus the &amp;lt;rwoiKioyx.os or consolidation of Attica. It would be natural for legend to assign to one definite time, and connect with one great mythical name, that process of unification which probably was as gradual as it was spontaneous. As the population of the early town con tinued to increase, two more districts seem to have been in corporated Collytus, extending from the east of Melite, between the Acropolis and Areopagus, and Cerameicus, or the &quot; Potters quarter &quot; (&quot;Tuileries&quot;), which extended from the same two hills towards the north and north-west. The regions we have now described appear to have made up the Athens of Solonian times. The earliest historical event which illustrates Athenian topography is the rising of Cylon (Herod., v. 71 ; Thucyd., i. 126 ; Pausan., i. 28). The narratives of that event imply that the Acropolis was already fortified by the Enneapylurn, that the Areopagus was already the seat of the court which bore its name (see AREOPAGUS), and that near the entrance of the citadel stood an altar of the Semnse, or Furies, at which Cylon and his partisans were slain. This altar has been immor talised by Jilschylus in the splendid conclusion of the Leocoriuiu. Eumenides. Another sacred spot in early Athens must have been the Leocorium, where Hipparchus was assassin ated (Thucyd., i. 20 ; vi. 57). This was a shrine erected in honour of the daughters of Leo, who were sacrificed by their father to Athena, in order to avert a pestilence. The nature of the legend testifies to the antiquity of the site. The words of Thucydides respecting Cylon imply that the early city was already surrounded by a ring-wall, and this probably remained intact until the invasion of the Persians, although the buildings within the walls under went great alteration and improvements under the govern ment of Pisistratus and his sons. The reign of the Pisistratids was recognised by the ancients as marking an important era in Athenian topo- graphy. We have already mentioned the fountain of Enneacrunus as being built by them. It was Pisistratus Olympiuni. who laid the foundations of the great temple of Zeus Olympius upon the ancient site above mentioned. His magnificent design had an eventful history : left unfinished by its author, the Athenians, perhaps from dislike to the &quot; tyrant,&quot; made no effort to complete it. At length, after receiving additions from various foreign princes, it was completed by Hadrian (c. 130 A.D.), and formed the grandest edifice in the region of the city which, in acknow ledgment of the imperial munificence, was called Hadrian- opolis. The Olympiuni was one of the- largest temples in the world ; but of its 124 Corinthian columns only 15 are Pythium. now standing. The Pythium, or sanctuary of the Pythian 1 Many of the names of the Attic demes, and indeed of Greek local names everywhere, were derived from plants and flowers ; see Tozer s Lectures on the Geography of Greece, p. 338: &quot;The most plausible derivation that has been suggested for the name Afloat is from a.6-, the root of &v6os, a flower ; and Lobeck proposed to translate it by Florentia. &quot;(Hid., p. 161). Early city wall. The Pisis tratids. Apollo near the Olympium, was also ascribed to Pisis tratus, whose grandson and namesake dedicated an altar within it (Thucyd., vi. 54). To Pisistratus was ascribed the founding of the Lyceium, or temple of Apollo Lyceius, Lyceiiu which stood on the right bank of the Ilissus, a short distance from the city. The names both of Pericles and Lycurgus the orator are also associated with this building ; yet it is not known who added the gymnasium close by, which afterwards became famous as the favourite haunt of Aristotle, and the birthplace of the Peripatetic philosophy. The yet more famous seat of the rival philosophy seems also to have owed something to the Pisistratids, for Hipparchus was said to have enclosed the Academy with a Ac.iden wall. This was a gymnasium surrounded by pleasant gardens lying to the N. of the city, about a mile from the Dipylum gate. It owes all its fame, of course, to its connection with Plato, who lived, taught, and was buried there. This site, so full of glorious memories, cannot now be identified with certainty. Its trees, like those of the Lyceium, were despoiled by Sulla to make implements of war. The name of Pisistratus is connected with another The A&amp;lt;: important site. Professor E. Curtius (Attische Studien, pt. 2), supposes that the most ancient Athenian market lay on the S. of the Acropolis, and that the Pisistratids superseded it by a new market at the northern foot of the Areopagus. Be this as it may, we are sure that, as early as their times, this site formed the centre of Athenian commercial and civic life. The narrow valley between the Pnyx Hill and the Areopagus, where older topographers placed the Agora, is not a spacious enough site for the purpose. The obvious locality for an Agora would be the rectangular space enclosed by the Areopagus on the S.. by the Acropolis on the E., and on the W. by the eminence occupied by the Theseium. To the N. and N.E. no barrier existed ; accordingly, the entrance was from the Dipylum gate on the N.W., and on the N.E. the market received extension in Roman times. The Agora thus stood in the region known as Cerameicus. But as the Cerameicus extended for some miles in a N.W. direction, it became divided by the city wall into the outer and the inner Outer a Cerameicus. The outer Cerameicus was an agreeable inner C suburb, lying on the road to the Academy and Colonus, meicus&amp;gt; the home of Sophocles ; and it was here that citizens who died in their country s wars received a public burial. Through gate Dipylum one passed into the inner Ceramei cus, the most important quarter of which was naturally the Agora itself ; and so it was common to speak of the Agora as &quot; The Cerameicus.&quot; How much this market-place may have owed to the designs of the Pisistratids we cannot now determine. The statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton formed a conspicuous ornament of the south portion, and Thucydides (vi. 54) informs us that the grandson and namesake of Pisistratus adorned the Agora by building the altar of the twelve gods. If the Agora belongs to the age of Pisistratus, some of the civic build ings within it would also be coeval with him. Such were the Stoa Basileius, or Portico, where the archon basileius presided ; the Bouleuterium, where the senate of 500 held its sittings ; the Tholus close by it, where the Prytanes of the senate sacrificed a circular building with a dome of stone, from whence it gained its name ; and the Prytan- eiurn, said to be founded by Theseus (Thucyd., ii. 15), which contained the hearth-fire of the state, and where the Prytanes and public benefactors had the privilege of dining at the public expense. The statues of the ten heroes (eponymi), who gave their names to the Athenian tribes, decorated the Agora probably from the first ; against these statues were affixed public notices and proclamations. Other buildings in the Agora of later and ascertained dates will be enumerated in their proper place.

