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rounded with a fence, and had on it a rough stone. The terror of some dreadful judgment to be inflicted from Heaven had preserved it entire and unaltered to his time; and, in a country depopulated and neglected, it may still endure for

many ages.

The form of trial instituted on this occasion passed early into Attica; where by the sea-side, without the Piræus, at a place called Phreattys, was a tribunal, at which fugitives, for involuntary murder, were permitted to appear on any new accusation, and to plead from their vessel; the judges sitting on the shore. They were punished, if found guilty; but if acquitted, had liberty to depart, and fulfil the term of their banishment.

The Æginetans preserved two famous statues, named Damia and Auxesia, or Ceres and Prosperine, at Oea, twenty stadia, or two miles and a half from the city. The Athenians demanded the yearly offerings, which the Epidaurians, from whom they were taken, had agreed to make to Minerva Polias and Erectheus; or the images, which they regarded as their property, being formed of their sacred olive, by command of the Delphic oracle. Their dispute is recorded. by Herodotus; and Pausanius, in the second century, relates that he saw the goddesses, and sacrificed to them as at Eleusis.

The present town, it may be conjectured, was Oea. It stands on the acclivity of a steep rock; which, perhaps, was preferred to the old site, as less exposed to the ravages of corsairs and other plunderers. It is in the way to the mountain Panhellenius, from which it is separated by a narrow valley, which winds and runs far into the island. It is distant about three quarters of an hour from the sea, where nearest, the track narrow and rough. The houses are mean, in number

about four hundred, rising on the slope, with flat roofs and terraces of gravel. It is remarkably free from gnats, and other troublesome insects. The wells afford good water, but the air is accounted unhealthy. On a summit above the town are some windmills, and cisterns or reservoirs, with the rubbish of a fortress erected by the Venetians in 1654. The houses, which in 1676 amounted to about fourscore, have been demolished, with the two churches; one of which was for the Latin or Catholic Greeks, and had in it a monument of a Venetian governor, of marble. The Æginetans have a bishop, and so many churches scattered over the island, that, as they affirm, the number equals the days in the year. We had this place in view at the temple of Jupiter, and afterwards I passed two days in it with a Greek of Athens, the governor; no Turk residing there. I then re-visited the ruin, and was near an hour and a half riding to it, though, in a straight line, it is not far off. I was mounted on a low mule, with a guide on foot, the track rough and bad.

The soil of Ægina is, as described by Strabo, very stony, especially the bottoms, and naked, but in some places not unfertile in grain. Besides corn, it produces olives, grapes, and plenty of almonds. Perhaps no island abounds more in doves, pigeons, and partridges. Of the latter, which have red legs, we sprang several covies; and our caraboucheri, or captain, caught one with his hands. It has been related, that the Æginetans annually wage war with the feathered race, carefully collecting or breaking their eggs, to prevent their multiplying, and in consequence a yearly famine. They have no hares, foxes, or wolves. The rivers in summer are all dry. The vaiwode or governor farmed the revenue of the Grand

Seignior for twelve purses.* About half this sum was repaid yearly by the caratch-money, or poll-tax.

CHAP. V.

We arrive in the Piraus-Of the ports of Athens-Phalerum and Munychia-Remark on Phalerum-Piraus-The townThe long walls-Other fortifications-Their state under the Romans-Present state of Phalerum and Munychia-Of the Piræus-Inscriptions.

THE vicinity of Ægina made Pericles style it the eyesore of the Piræus. It was distant only twenty miles. We sailed in the afternoon with a fair wind, and in the evening anchored in this renowned haven. We were hailed from the custom-house, and the captain went on shore. On his return, we had the satisfaction to hear that the plague had not reached Athens. We intrusted our recommendatory letters to a person departing for the city. Some Greeks, to whom the captain had notified his arrival, came on board early in the morning. The wine circulated briskly, and their meeting was celebrated, as usual among this lively people, with singing, fiddling, and dancing. We left them, and were landed by the custom-house, exceedingly struck with the solemn silence, and solitude of this once crowded emporium.

Athens had three ports near each other, the Piræus, Munychia, and Phalerum. Of these the Piræus is formed by a recess of the shore, which winds, and by a small rocky peninsula

* A purse is 500 piasters.

spreading toward the sea. A craggy brow, called Muny chia, separates it from the Phalerian and Munychian ports, which indent the narrow isthmus, on the opposite or eastern side. It was an ancient tradition, that this whole peninsula had been an island, lying before the coast. The city was not more than twenty stadia, or two miles and a half from the sea by Phalerum ; but the distance is perhaps increased. From the port it was thirty-five stadia, or four miles a quarter and a half; and more from Munychia, which is beyond. From the Piræus it was forty stadia, or five miles, and, it is related, the city port was once as far.

Phalerum was said to have been named from Phalerus, a companion of Jason in the Argonautic expedition. Theseus sailed from it for Crete; and Menestheus, his successor, for. Troy; and it continued to be the haven of Athens to the time of Themistocles. It is a small port, of a circular form, the entrance narrow, the bottom a clean fine sand, visible through the transparent water. The farm of Aristides and his monument, which was erected at the public expense, were by this port. Munychia is of a different form or oval, and more considerable; the mouth also narrow.

The traveller, accustomed to deep ports and bulky shipping, may view Phalerum with some surprise; but Argo is said to have been carried on the shoulders of the crew; the vessels at the siege of Troy were drawn up on the shore, as a bulwark, before the camp; and the mighty fleet of Xerxes consisted chiefly of light barks and galleys. Phalerum, though a basin, shallow, and not large, may perhaps, even now be capable of receiving an armament like that of Menestheus, though it consisted of fifty ships.

The capital port was that called Piræus. The entrance of

this is narrow, and formed by two rocky points; one belonging to the promontory of Eetion; the other, to that of AlciWithin were three stations for shipping; Kantharus, so named from a hero; Aphrodisium, from a temple of Venus; and Zea, the resort of vessels laden with grain. By it was a demos or borough-town of the same name before the time of Themistocles, who recommended the exchanging its triple harbour for the single one of Phalerum, both as more capacious, and as better situated for navigators. The wall was begun by him, when archon, in the second year of the seventy-fifth Olympiad, four hundred and seventy-seven years before Christ; and afterwards he urged the Athenians to complete it, as the importance of the place deserved. This whole fortification was of hewn stone, without cement or other material; except lead and iron, which were used to hold together the exterior ranges or facings. It was so wide that the loaded carts could pass on it in different directions; and it was forty cubits high, which was about half what he had designed. The bones of this great man, when transported from Magnesia by the Mæander, were, with propriety, deposited in the Piræus, near the biggest port, probably Kantharus, by which were the arsenals. "When you are got within the elbow, which projects from the promontory of Alcimus, where the water is smooth, you are near the site of his tomb." It was in shape like an altar or round, and on a large basement.

The Piræus, as Athens flourished, became the common emporium of all Greece. Hippodamus, an architect, celebrated, besides other monuments of his genius, as the inventor of many improvements in house-building, was employed to lay out the ground. Five porticoes, which uniting, formed

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