Page:Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ (1836).djvu/555



"That Athens was wholly enslaved to idolatry, has been abundantly proved by our philological illustrators, especially the indefatigable Wetstein, from Pausan. Attic. 1, 24: Strabo 10. p. 472, c: Lucian, t. 1. Prometh. p. 180: Liv. 45, 27. So also Pausan. in Attic. c. 18, 24. (cited by Pearce and Doddridge,) who tells us, that Athens had more images than all the rest of Greece; and Petron. Satir. c. 17, who humorously says, 'It was easier to find a god than a man there.'" (Bloomf. Annot.)

"[Greek: kai en tê agora.] Of the market-places at Athens, of which there were many, the most celebrated were the Old and the New Forum. The former was in the Ceramicus, a very ample space, part within, and part without the city. See Meurs. Dissert. de Ceramico Gemino, § 46. and Potter's Archaeolog. 1, 8. p. 30. The latter was outside of the Ceramicus, in a place called Eretria. See Meur. Ath. Attic. l. 1. c. 6. And this seems to be the one here meant. For no forum, except the Ceramicus and the Eretriacum, was called, absolutely, [Greek: agora], but had a name to denote which was meant, as Areopagiticum, Hippodamium, Piraeum, &c. In process of time, and at the period when Paul was at Athens, the forum was transferred from the Ceramicus into the Eretria; a change which, indeed, had been introduced in the time of Augustus; and that this was the most frequented part of the city, we learn from Strabo 10. p. 447. Besides, the Eretriac forum was situated before the [Greek: stoa], or portico, in which the Stoics, of whom mention is just after made, used to hold their public discourses. It was moreover called [Greek: kyklos], from its round form."

"[Greek: Areion pagon], Mars' Hill. [Greek: Pagos] signifies properly a high situation. This was a hill opposite to that of the citadel on the west; as we learn from Herod. 8, 52. [See the passages produced supra, to which I add Liv. 26, 44. Tumulum quem Mercurii vocant. Edit.] It was so called, either because it had been consecrated to Mars (as the Campus Martius at Rome,) or because (as Pausanius relates, Att. C. 28,) Mars, when he had slain Halyrrothius, son of Neptune, was the first who there pleaded a capital cause, which took place before the twelve gods. The judges used to sit by night, and sub dio; and whatever was done was kept very secret. [whence the proverb [Greek: Areopagonitou siôpêloteros], to which may be compared ours, 'as grave as a Judge.' Edit.] They gave their judgment, not viva voce, but in writing. Nor were any admitted into the number of Areopagists but persons of noble birth, of unspotted morality, and eminent for justice and equity. See more in Meurs. de Areopago." (Kuin.) (Bloomf. Annot.)

Paul taking his stand there, in that splendid scene, uttered in a bold tone and in his noblest style, the great truths which he was divinely consecrated to reveal. Never yet had Athens, in her most glorious state, heard a discourse which, for solemn beauty and lofty eloquence, could equal this brief declaration of the providence of God in the religion of his creatures. Never did the world see an orator in a sublimer scene, or in one that could awaken higher emotions in those who heard, or him who spoke. He stood on the hill of Mars, with Athens beneath and around him, and the mighty Acropolis rising with its "tiara of proud towers," walls and temples, on the west,—bounding and crowning the view in that direction;—to the north-east lay the forum, the late scene of his discussions, and beyond lay the philosophic Academia, around and through which rolled the flowery Cephisus. Before him sat the most august and ancient court in the Grecian world, waiting for the revelation of his solemn commission respecting the new deities which he was expected to propose as an addition to their polytheistic list;—around him were the sages of the Athenian schools, listening in grave but curious attention, for the new things