to ascend and measure the upper part. From the traces of painting on the walls above, it appears that a church has been erected against it. This fabric, which is of the Corinthian order, with the tower of the winds and other structures at Athens, is seen to disadvantage from the accession of soil round about it. Beyond it, within the region of new Athens, is the majestic ruin of the temple of Jupiter Olympius.

Deucalion was said to have erected the first temple of Jupiter on this spot; and the place of his burial was shewn near it to prove that he had lived at Athens. Pisistratus, the second founder dying, his sons carried on the work; but after they were slain, so many difficulties occurred, that it remained for ages unfinished; a specimen of the only temple in the world designed with a grandeur worthy of the Ruler of heaven; and exciting astonishment in every beholder. About four hundred years after Pisistratus, Antiochus Epiphanes promised to complete it; and Cossutius, a Roman, the architect, is extolled for his noble ideas of magnitude in the cell, and for disposing the columns and the entablature with an exact symmetry, which testified his exquisite knowledge and skill. It is likely he was employed in fitting up the inside of the fabric, in which, as well as in the parthenon, were colonnades. The temple was a dipteros and hypæthros, or with double rows of columns, and open to the sky; though not, as was most common, with ten, but with eight, columns in front. Rome afforded no example of this species. It was one of the four marble edifices, which had raised to the pinnacle of renown the architects,* who planned them; men,

Antistrates, Callæschros, Antimachides, and Porinus, were the earlier architects employed on this fabric.

it is said, admired in the assembly of the gods, for their wisdom and excellence.

Sylla, when he punished Athens, dared to plunder even Jupiter Olympius, and removed columns and brazen thresholds to adorn the capitol at Rome. The structure still continuing imperfect, the kings in alliance with Augustus agreed to finish it by contribution, and jointly dedicate it to the genius of the emperor. Afterwards, by command of Caligula, the image of Jupiter was transported to the capitol, where the god submitted to lose his own head, which was broken off, and to accept in its room that of a monster less civil to him even than Sylla. It was reserved for Hadrian to put the last hand to a work, on which Athens had expended seven thousand and eighty-eight talents, and which Antiochus, with united kings, had been ambitious of completing. This achievement of the emperor was celebated in a hymn sung at the sacrifice, when he dedicated the fabric to Jupiter, more than seven hundred years after its foundation by Pisistratus; and he acquired from it the title of Olympius. He placed in the temple an uncommon serpent brought from India.

We shall insert here an extract from Pausanias relating to this temple. "The image of Jupiter is worth seeing, not for its similitude to other statues in size, for those of the Romans and Rhodians are not colossal, but as made of ivory and gold and with art, as will be perceived by those who consider its magnitude. The statues of Hadrian there are two of Thasian marble, and two of Egyptian. The Athenian colonies stand in brass before the columns. The whole inclosure is about four stadia, half a mile, in circumference, and full of statues ; for one of Hadrian was dedicated by each of the cities; and

Athens has exceeded them all by offering the Colossus (which was behind the temple and worthy of notice). The antiquities within the inclosure are a brazen Jupiter, and a temple of Saturn and Rea, and the portion of this goddess who is called Olympia. There the pavement is rent asunder as much as a cubit; and they relate, that after the Deucalionéan flood, the chasm afforded a passage to the water; and they cast yearly into it wheat flower mixed with honey. And, besides a statue of Isocrates, there is a brazen tripod supported by Persians, of Phrygian marble, worth seeing." Of the pedestals, which belonged to these statues, several are found scattered about in the town, fixed in the walls, or half buried in earth; and some of the inscriptions are preserved. Among them is that of one of the Thasian images, which I saw immured at a church, and copied. Within the peribolus or inclosure is part of another, a massive piece of white marble, lying probably near its original site, the face, which is inscribed with very large characters, downwards. From these it appears that the priest of the temple, at the time of their erection, was named Tiberius Claudius Atticus, and, it is supposed, was the famous Herodes. The inclosure has been demolished, but a terrace of considerable extent is still sustained by part of the wall, which on the side next to the Ilissus is strengthened with buttresses.

The ruin of the temple of Jupiter Olympius consists of prodigious columns, tall and beautiful, of the Corinthian order, fluted; some single, some supporting their architraves; with a few massive marbles beneath; the remnant of a vast heap, which only many ages could have consumed, and reduced into so scanty a compass. The columns are of very extraordinary dimensions, being about six feet in diameter, and near sixty

in height.* The number without the cell was one hundred and sixteen or twenty. Seventeen were standing in 1676: but, a few years before we arrived, one was overturned, with much difficulty, and applied to the building a new mosque in the bazar or market place. This violence was avenged by the basha of Negropont, who made it a pretext for extorting from the vaiwode or governor fifteen purses; the pillar being, he alleged, the property of their master, the Grand Seignior. It was an angular column, and of consequence in determining the dimensions of the fabric. We regretted, that the fall of this mighty mass had not been postponed until we came, as it would have afforded an opportunity of inspecting and measuring some members, which we found far too lofty to be attempted. On a piece of the architrave, supported by a couple of columns, are two parallel walls, of modern masonry arched about the middle, and again near the top. You are told it has been the habitation of a hermit, doubtless of a Stylites; but of whatever building it has been part, and for whatever purpose designed, it must have been erected thus high in air, while the immense ruin of this huge structure was yet scarcely diminished, and the heap inclined so as to render it accessible. It was remarked that two stones of a step in the front had coalesced at the extremity, so that no juncture could be perceived; and the like was discovered also in a step of the parthenon. In both instances it may be attributed to a concretory fluid, which pervades the marble in the quarry. Some portion remaining in the pieces, when taken green as it were, and placed in mutual contact, it exuded, and united them by a process similar to that in a bone of an animal when broken and properly set.

Ruins of Athens, p. 39.

The water anciently conveyed in channels to the city and to the Piræus, coming from sources in the mountains, which abound with ore, was hard, and had a scum swimming on the surface, such as may be still seen at the public cisterns, was unfit to drink, and applicable solely to other uses. The wells afforded a more wholesome fluid, but were the occasion of many quarrels. Solon enacted that all, who lived within four stadia, or half a mile, of a public well, should have the privilege of drawing from it; that those who were more remote should provide their own water, but should be allowed a certain quantity daily from the next well, if they found none on digging ten fathom deep. The transgressors were fined by the epistates, or prefect of the waters. The city now abounds in wells, some houses having three or four, in consequence of these early and wise regulations.

New Athens was supplied with water, by the munificence of Hadrian, from remote sources, at a vast expense. He founded a very extensive aqueduct, of which many piers are yet standing in the tract beneath Cephisia, or Cevrisha, as that village is now called. It was finished by his son and successor, Antoninus Pius, in his third consulate. The water was partly conveyed by a duct running along the side of the adjacent hill, and distributed to the town from a reservoir, or cistern, cut in the rock, and fronted with an arcade of marble, of the Ionic order. One half of this remains, consisting of two columns, and the spring of the arch. The soil is risen some feet round about the shafts. Over the columns is half the inscription,* which was copied entire by Spon

* In the Modern Universal History it is made to refer to New Athens, in Delos. See volume of Chronology, p. 1031.