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statue erected to him, when consul,* by the council and people of Megara, in return for his benefactions and good will toward the city. In the plain behind the summits, on one of which was a temple of Minerva, is a large basin of water, with scattered fragments of marble, the remains of a bath or of a fountain, which is recorded as in the city, and remarkable for its size and ornaments, and for the number of its columns. The spring was named from the local nymphs called Sithnides.

The stone of Megara was of a kind not discovered any where else in Hellas; very white, uncommonly soft, and consisting entirely of cockle-shells. This was chiefly used, and, not being durable, may be reckoned among the causes of the desolation at Megara, which is so complete, that one searches in vain for vestiges of the many public edifices, temples, and sepulchres, which once adorned the city. I observed some of the stone at Athens in the minaret of the Parthenon.

Megara was engaged in various wars with Athens and Corinth, and experienced many vicissitudes of fortune. It was the only one of the Greek cities, which did not re-flourish under their common benefactor Hadrian; and the reason assigned is, that the avenging anger of the gods pursued the people, for their impiety in killing Anthemocritus, a herald, who had been sent to them in the time of Pericles. The Athenian generals were sworn, on his account, to invade them twice a year. Hadrian and Atticus were followed by another friend, whose memory is preserved by an inscription on a stone, lying near a church in the village. "This too is the work of the most magnificent Count Diogenes son of Archelaus, who, regarding the Grecian cities as his own family, has

In the year of Christ, 143.

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bestowed on that of the Megarensians one hundred pieces of gold toward the building of their towers, and also one hundred and fifty more with two thousand two hundred feet of marble, toward re-edifying the bath; deeming nothing more honourable than to do good to the Greeks, and to restore their cities." This person is not quite unnoticed in history. He was one of the generals employed by the emperor Anastasius on a rebellion in Isauria. He surprised the capital, Claudiopolis, and sustained a siege with great bravery.*

Megara retains its original name. It has been much infested by corsairs, and in 1676 the inhabitants were accustomed, on seeing a boat approach in the day-time, or hearing their dogs bark at night, immediately to secrete their effects and run away. The vaiwode or Turkish governor, who resided in a forsaken tower above the village, was once carried off. It is no wonder, therefore, that Nisæa has been long abandoned. On the shore, when we crossed the promontory from our boats, some women, who were washing linen, perceiving my hat, and Lombardi in a strange dress, with a gun on his shoulder, fled precipitately. Our men called after them, but could not presently persuade them to lay aside their terror, and resume their employment. The place was burned by the Venetians in 1687.

The Megaris is described as a rough region, like Attica, the mountain called Oneian or the Asinine, now Macriplayi, or the Long Mountain, extending through it toward Boeotia and Mount Citharon. It belonged to Ionia or Attica, until it was taken by the Peloponnesians in the reign of Codrus, when a colony of Dorians settled in it. The western boun

* In the year of Christ, 494.

dary of the plain is a very high mountain called Palæovouni, or the Old Mountain, anciently Gerania. It was covered with a fresh verdure. Megarus, in the deluge which happened under Deucalion, was said to have escaped to its summits. From the hill by the village we could discern the two tops of Parnassus, distinct, and far above the clouds. They are formed by mountains heaped on mountains, and can be seen only at a considerable distance.

Our lodging at Megara was an open shed adjoining to the house of a Greek priest, a young man of great simplicity, with a thick black beard. He was oeconomus or bailiff, no Turk residing there. In the court were fowls of the rumpless breed. A woman was sitting with the door of her cottage open, lamenting her dead husband aloud. Some cavities in the ground, near the road from the port, seem to have been receptacles of grain. I inquired for medals, and in the evening, when the inhabitants were returned from their labour, notice was given by a crier, standing on the flat roof of a cottage, at the foot of a hill near the centre of the village; but very few were produced of any value. The oeconomus had an Athenian tetradrachm fastened to his purse, which he refused to part with, regarding it as an amulet or charm.

CHAP. XLIV.

Leave Megara-Vestiges of buildings-Of the Scironian rocks and way-The present road to Corinth-Pass the night in a cave-Coast by the Scironian way-Vestiges of Cromyon -Of Sidús.

WE purchased provisions, with wholesome wine, at Megara; and, after some stay, I descended again to Nisæa, purposing to proceed to the isthmus of Corinth; not without regret on quitting the hospitable priest, and a lodging free from

vermin.

The wind blowing fresh and contrary, we rowed from Nisæa to the side of the bay opposite to Minoa, and put into a small creek made with stones piled to break the waves, by the entrance on the Scironian way, the ancient road to Corinth. Near it were heaps of stones among corn, as at Megara, the vestiges of a town or village; a sarcophagus cut in the rock; the ruin of a small building, the wall faced on the outside with masonry of the species termed Incertum; and by it a lime-kiln, and a piece or two of the entablature, not inelegantly carved. This was probably one of the sepulchres which Pausanias describes on the way to Corinth. A torrentbed, which we crossed, going to Megara from Nysæa, winds to the sea on this side of the plain.

The Scironian rocks are a termination of the Onean mountains, washed by the sea. The track over them was six miles long, often on the brink of dreadful precipices, with the mountain rising above, lofty and inaccessible. Sciron, while general of the Megarensians, made it passable to persons on

foot; and the emperor Hadrian widened it, so that two chariots might drive one by another. A prominent rock in a narrow part was named Moluris; and from it, as they fabled, Ino threw herself into the sea with Melicertes. It was accounted sacred to Leucothea and Palæmon, by which names she and her son were enrolled among the marine deities. Beyond Moluris were the Accursed Rocks, where was the abode of Sciron. The infamy of his haunt continued for many ages. On a summit was a temple of Jupiter; and farther on, a monument of Eurystheus, who was slain there by Iolaus ; and descending, a temple of Apollo; after which were the boundaries of the Megarensians next the territory of Corinth; where, they related, Hyllus the son of Hercules contended in single combat with an Arcadian. The north-west wind, blowing from these rocks, was called Sciron at Athens.

The name of the Scironian road is now (the robber being forgotten) Kachè Scala, The bud way. In 1676 it was as terrible from the ambuscades of the corsairs, as of old from the cruelty of Sciron. It has since been disused, and a road made over the mountain, on which the Turks have established a dervene or guard, with regulations to prevent the assembling or escape of robbers and banditti. The distance from Megara to Corinth, which is now computed at nine hours, was by the Scironian way only six; but on it the traveller was in continual peril.

We left our boats in the creek, and ascended to an arched cave in the rock, black with the smoke of fires kindled by travellers, who had rested there, or by mariners and fishermen who, like us, had declined venturing along so dangerous a coast in the night, or waited for favourable weather. We

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