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however, deduced its origin from remote antiquity, and continued to a late period, undergoing several alterations. Among its kindest benefactors is reckoned Herodes, who was afterwards king of Judea. Seeing, on his way to Rome, this relique of old Greece, subsisting in a manner unworthy of its former renown, and dwindling from poverty, he displayed vast munificence as president, and provided an ample revenue for its future support and dignity; extending, it is said, his liberality through the Eleans to the whole world, which was interested in the prosperity of Olympia..

The computation of time by Olympiads, which began about four hundred years after the destruction of Troy, was used until the reign of Theodosius the Great; when a new mode of reckoning, by indictions or from the victory of Augustus Cæsar at Actium, was introduced; the Olympic games, with general assembly, were abolished; and the image made by Phidias was removed to Constantinople. Jupiter and Pelops were banished from the seat, which they had possessed for ages. Olympia has since been forgotten in its vicinity, but the name will be ever respected, as venerable for its precious era, by the chronologer and historian.

CHAP. LXXVI.

Vestiges of Olympia-Miráca—The river Alpheus.

EARLY in the morning we crossed a shallow brook, and commenced our survey of the spot before us with a degree of expectation, from which our disappointment on finding it almost naked received a considerable addition, The

ruin, which we had seen in the evening, we found to be the walls of the cell of a very large temple, standing many feet high and well-built, the stones all injured, and manifesting the labour of persons, who have endeavoured by boring to get at the metal, with which they were cemented. From a massive capital remaining it was collected that the edifice had been of the Doric order. At a distance before it was a deep hollow, with stagnant water and brick-work, where it is imagined was the stadium. Round about are scattered remnants of brick buildings, and vestiges of stone walls. The site is by the road-side, in a green valley, between two ranges of even summits pleasantly wooded. The mountain once called Cronium is on the north, and on the south the river Alpheus.

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As Miràca was not far off, we resolved to inquire there for other ruins. It was a small village on a hill, perhaps that of Pisa. Sheaves of wheat were collected about an area or two, and a few men with women and children were employed in harvest-work. Our approach occasioned some alarm, and they appeared shy, until we informed them of our business. We descended again into the valley, and travelled up it for two hours. We then returned, and our men with difficulty procured some fowls, on which we dined by the shallow brook.

The Alpheus had now a majestic stream, which in winter is greatly increased by torrents rushing from the mountains. The wide bed on each side was dry. It is accounted the largest river in the country, and affords plenty of fish. We saw a weir of stakes made across it, on which a man was watching, sitting under a shed roofed with boughs, over the middle of the current.

CHAP. LXXVII.

Journey of Mr. Bocher--Ruin of a temple-Near Phigalia.

MR JOACHIM BOCHER, architect, a native of Paris, visited us in the Lazaretto at Zante, which island he had adorned with several elegant villas. This gentleman in November, 1765, from Pyrgo crossed the Alpheus, and passing by Agolinizza traversed a wood of pines to Esidore, where is a Turkish khan. An hour beyond, leaving the plain by the sea, he began to ascend the mountains, and passing by some villages arrived at Vervizza at night. This was a long journey. His design was to examine an ancient building near Caritena. He was still remote from that place, when he perceived a ruin, two hours from Vervizza, which prevented his going any farther.

The ruin, called The Columns, stands on an eminence sheltered by lofty mountains. The temple, it is supposed, was that of Apollo Epicurius, near Phigalia, a city of Arcadia. It was of the Doric order, and had six columns in front. The number, which ranged round the cell, was thirty-eight. Two at the angles are fallen; the rest are entire, in good preservation, and support their architraves. Within them lies a confused heap. The stone inclines to grey with reddish veins. To its beauty is added great precision of execution in the workmanship. These remains had their effect, striking equally the mind and the eyes of the beholder.

Pausanias describes Phigalia as surrounded by mountains,

of which one, named Cotylium, was distant about forty stadia, or five miles. The temple of Apollo stood on this, at a place called Bassæ. It was planned by the same architect as the Parthenon at Athens, and had a roof of stone. The Peloponnesians had no temple, one at Tegea excepted, so much celebrated for the beauty of the materials, and the harmony of the proportions. The god was styled Epicurius, from the aid he was supposed to have given in a pestilence. The statue, which was of brass, and twelve feet high, had been removed, and was then in the agora or market place of Megalopolis. This city, now called Leontari, was fifty stadia, or six miles and a quarter in circuit. The river Helisson ran through it into the Alpheus.

CHAP. LXXVIII.

Our situation—We return to Chiarenza-Arrive at Zante-
Perform quarantine-Remove from the Lazaretto.

WE had experienced, since our leaving Athens, frequent and alarming indisposition. We had suffered from fruits, not easily eaten with moderation; from fatigue; from the violent heat of the sun by day, and from damps and the torments inflicted by a variety of vermin at night; besides the badness of the air, which was now almost pestilential on this side of the Morea. My companions complained. Our servants were ill; and the captain, whose brown complexion was changed to sallow, had grown mutinous, and declared he would go away with his vessel, as he must perform a long quarantine at Zante, if his return were delayed; the annual

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unhealthiness of the Morea, toward the end of harvest, requiring increase of caution, and the magistrates of the island restraining the intercourse with the continent at that season.

In the afternoon we mounted for Pyrgo. We passed the night in the garden, in which we had stopped before; the gnats again molesting us exceedingly. Irritated on finding our faces, hands, and legs, carefully covered, the terrible insect buzzed about us with a droning noise, which sounded in the ear scarcely less loud than a trumpet. The following day we dined under a spreading tree, near a clear spring among thickets; probably that called anciently Piera, in the way through the plain to Elis. There the præfects of Olympia, and the matrons chosen to preside at the games in honour of Juno, killed a pig, and were purified with holy water, before they entered on their offices. We rested in the garden at Gastouni, and set out early in the morning for Chiarenza; both my companions, with some of our men, much indisposed. We found the Athenian lad, whom we had left behind ill of a tertian fever, mended. The sick sailor had embraced an opportunity, which offered, and was gone home to Zante.

We sailed from Chiarenza on Sunday the 20th of July, 1766; and the same evening entered the harbour of Zante, in which a squadron of Venetian ships of war under admiral Emo lay at anchor, waiting, as we were informed, for orders to proceed against the Dey of Algiers. We were hailed from the land, and the boat going ashore, the British consul, John Sargint, Esq. acquainted us that we must attend in the morning at the Health-Office. We were then ordered to the Lazaretto to perform a quarantine of fourteen days.

The Lazaretto is by the sea-side, at a distance from the

town.

We were lodged over our servants and baggage in a

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