Page:The geography of Strabo (1854) Volume 2.djvu/93

 B. ix. c. i. 1416. ATTICA. 85 There also are the Pharmacussae, 1 two small islands, in the larger of which is shown the tomb of Circe. 14. Above this coast is a mountain called Corydallus, and the demus Corydalleis : then the harbour of Phoron, (Robbers,) and Psyttalia, a small rocky desert island, which, according to some writers, is the eye-sore of the Piraeus. Near it is Atalanta, of the same name as that between Eubbea and the Locri ; and another small island similar to Psyttalia ; then the Piraeus, which is also reckoned among the deini, and the Munychia. 15. The Munychia is a hill in the shape of a peninsula, hollow, and a great part of it excavated both by nature and art, so as to serve for dwellings, with an entrance by a nar- row opening. Beneath it are three harbours. Formerly the Munychia was surrounded by a wall, and occupied by dwell- ings, nearly in the same manner as the city of the Rhodians, comprehending within the circuit of the walls the Piraeus and the harbours full of materials for ship-building ; here also was the armoury, the work of Philon. The naval station was capable of receiving the four hundred vessels ; which was the smallest number the Athenians were in the habit of keeping in readiness for sea. With this wall were connected the legs, that stretched out from the Asty. These were the long walls, 40 stadia in length, joining the Asty 2 to the Piraeus. But in consequence of frequent wars, the wall and the fortification of the Munychia were demolished ; the Piraeus was contracted to a small town, extending round the harbours and the temple of Jupiter Soter. The small por- ticoes of the temple contain admirable paintings, the work of celebrated artists, and the hypaethrum, statues. The long walls also were destroyed, first demolished by the Lacedaemo- nians, and afterwards by the Romans, when Sylla took the Piraeus and the Asty by siege. 3 16. What is properly the Asty is a rock, situated in a plain, with dwellings around it. Upon the rock is the temple 1 Megala Kyra, Micra Kyra. 2 rb aarv, the Asty, was the upper town, in opposition to the lower town, of Piraeus. See Smith's Dictionary for a very able and interesting article, Athence ; also Kiepert's Atlas von Hellas. 3 Sylla took Athens, after a long and obstinate siege, on the Jst March, B. c. 86. The city was given up to rapine and plunder.