Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 3.djvu/17

Rh Propylsea there stood, so late as the year 1676, the small Ionic temple dedicated to Athena Nike, and commonly known by the ancients as the temple of the Wingless Victory (Nt/oy a-m-epos), which has already been mentioned as probably one of the buildings of Cimon. Perhaps before the 18th century this building was pulled down by the Turks, and the only remains of it parts of the frieze built into a wall which were known in his day were carried off by Lord Elgin, and are now in the British Museum. In 1835 careful excavations were made under the directions of Professor Ross, when not only were the remains of the Propylsea opened up far more clearly than before, but also nearly all the fragments of this little temple of Victory were discovered; they had been used for building a Turkish battery, and so preserved. Thus the temple was at once restored by a reconstruction of the original fragments. Few quarters of ancient Athens have received more advan tage from judicious excavation in recent years than this western end of the Acropolis. From the disastrous termination of the Peloponnesian war to the yet more fatal defeat at Chseroneia, the architec tural history of Athens is a blank, only interrupted by the restoration of the Long Walls and the rebuilding of the fortifications of Pirseeus by Conon, both of which had been destroyed by Lysander. The financial genius of the orator Lycurgus, whose administration lasted from 338 to 325 B.C., replenished to some extent the exhausted resources of his country. He reorganised her finance, he catalogued and rearranged the sacred and national treasuries, and brought order and efficiency into every department of state. This new impulse made itself felt in building activity. The Dionysiac theatre was now first completed ; and though, as we have already seen, many of the sculptures and other marbles recently uncovered on its site are the restorations of a very much later age, yet we may confidently assume that in all material points the theatre as we are now able to view it represents the condition of the building as it idium. stood in the time of Lycurgus. Another remarkable work which signalised his administration was the Panathenaic Stadium. On the southern side of the Ilissus, at right angles to the stream, a hollow space was scooped out of the soil, some 680 feet in length and 130 in breadth. It is possible that the site had been used for gymnastic contests before the orator s time ; it was he, however, who first undertook to level it properly and lay it out. But it was reserved for the munificence of Herodes Atticus finally to complete it. He furnished the place with magnificent seats of Pentelic marble, tier upon tier, capable of accommodat ing, at the very least, 40,000 spectators. An attempt was recently made to excavate the Stadium, but it was found that every trace of antiquity had been destroyed, the marble having been used as a quarry for building pur poses. The administration of Lycurgus is an important era in Athenian architecture ; for after his time we never seem to hear of any more buildings having been reared by the Athenian Government. The best-known extant edifices of the period immediately following were the work of wealthy reet of private persons. Round the eastern end of the Acropolis, ipods, starting from the eastern entrance of the Dionysiac theatre, then leaving the Odeium of Pericles to the left, and thence sweeping westward to the Agora, there ran a street which formed a favourite promenade in ancient Athens, commonly known as the &quot;Street of Tripods.&quot; It gained this name from the small votive shrines which adorned it, supporting upon their summit the bronze tripods which had been obtained as prizes in the choragic contests. The tripods thus mounted often themselves served as a frame to some masterpiece of sculpture, such, for example, as the famous satyr of Praxiteles. It had early become the custom to dedicate the prize tripods within the sacred precincts of the theatre : but when this space was filled, they gradually extended all along this street, and their erection was made more and more a matter of private display. One of these shrines still stands, and is well known as the monument of Monument Lysicrates. It bears the following inscription upon its of L J rsi architrave: &quot;Lysicrates, son of Lysitheides, of the deme cr Cicynna, was choragus ; the tribe Acarnantis gained the prize with a chorus of boys ; Theon accompanied them upon the flute; Lysiades of Athens taught them; Euaenetus was archon.&quot; In other words, the date of this monument was 335 B.C. Fifteen years after that a somewhat similar shrine was reared at the topmost summit of the back of the great theatre, where an ancient grotto was by Thrasyllus Monument converted into a choragic monument. The Byzantine of Thra- Christians transformed the building into a chapel of the s i llus - Virgin, under the title of Panaghia Spiliotissa, or Our Lady of the Grotto. Early travellers describe this little shrine as consisting of three pilasters engaged in a plain wall, surmounted by an inscribed architrave ; above was supported a figure of Dionysus, now preserved, but in a much injured state, in the British Museum. On the top of the statue originally rested the tripod that formed the prize of Thrasyllus. The Macedonian period again marks a new epoch in the Mace- history of Athenian topography. Henceforward almost (Ionian every embellishment Athens received was at the hands of period, the various foreign princes, whose tastes inclined them to patronise a city so rich in historical associations, and so ready to reward each new admirer with an equal tribute of servile adulation. But whatever decoration the city might owe to royal vanity or munificence, her connection with these foreign potentates brought her far more of injury than advantage. She became entangled in their wars, and usually found herself upon the losing side. Upon the death of Alexander the Athenians claimed their liberty, but they at once had to submit to Antipater (322 B.C.), who placed a garrison in Munychia. It perhaps was he who defaced the ancient Pnyx ; at all events, from this time forward the political oratory of Athens became silent for ever. In 318 B.C. Demetrius the Phalerean was made governor of Athens by Cassander, arid received every kind of homage from his servile subjects. But as soon as the other Demetrius, surnamed Poliorcetes, appeared in the Piraeus, the Athenians welcomed him with open arms. For restoring to them the forms of democracy he was extolled with abject adulation, and had assigned to him a residence in the Opisthodomus of the Parthenon itself, where he profaned the sanctuary of the virgin goddess with unbridled sensuality. Upon the defeat of Antigonus at Ipsus (301 B.C.), Demetrius fled from Athens, and under Lachares, the leading demagogue of the time, the city enjoyed the shadow of independence. But the demagogue soon developed into a tyrant, and when Demetrius reappeared in 296 B.C. and besieged the city, Lachares had to fly from the indignation of the citizens, taking with him the golden shields that adorned the eastern front of the Acropolis, and having rifled the chryselephan tine statue itself. Again, in 268 B.C., Athens endured a long siege from Antigonus Gonatas, who laid waste the surrounding country. Still more disastrous was the in effectual siege by Philip V. in 200 B.C., who, pitching his camp at Cynosarges, destroyed everything that lay around the temple of Heracles, the gymnasium there, and the Lyceium as well. At length, in 146 B.C., Greece became a Roman province, and Athens succumbed peacefully to the Roman yoke. During the inglorious period of Athenian history which has just been sketched, several new buildings were reared by the munificence of foreign princes. Ptolemy Philadelphia 