battle-array, about to engage, at noe near Argos. In the middle of the wall were the Athenians and Theseus fighting with the Amazons. Next these was the taking of Troy, with the kings assembled in council; Ajax, and, among the female captives, Cassandra, whom he had violated. Lastly, there was the battle of Marathon.

By the Hephæsteum °, and Eurysaceum or Heroum of Eurysaces, near the Agora P, was the Colonus Agoræus, or hill of the Agora; called also Misthius, from its being a place where servants were hired. It was behind the long portico, (probably Poecile and the royal united,) and had given its name to that part, which was otherwise termed Melite. Eurysaces was the son of Ajax, and had lived in Melite; as also Themistocles, who erected there a temple to Diana Aristobula, after vanquishing the Persian fleet at Salamis; and there was likewise the house of Phocion, and the Melanippeum, or Heroum of Melanippus, son of Theseus. The extent of Melite is not defined; but it was contiguous with Cœle, for the Cimonian monuments in that region were near the Melitensian gate. It probably approached or comprised the theatre, as in Melite was a large house where the tragedians studied their parts; and it comprehended the Eleusinium, for in Melite Hercules was initiated into the lesser mysteries, and had a temple. Melite bordered on Colyttus.

The Agora was a large open spot, subdivided into

Hephæsteum,] See note t, p. 119. R.

P Agora,] There were several Agoræ of lesser note, besides the old and the new one. R.

4 Colonus Agoræus,] The Colonus Agoræus was probably the isolated rock near the northern skirts of the present town. R.

stations for sellers of provisions and a variety of other articles, some of which were sheltered by sheds or standings from the sun. The city-guard, consisting of a thousand men, once had tents in the middle, but afterwards was removed to the Areopagus. It was surrounded with temples, porticoes, and statues, but the extent of it is not defined. The altars of Apollo and Cybele are placed in it; as also the statues of Conon and his son Timotheus. These two were near the Perischonisma, a portion of it, by the altar of the twelve gods, consisting of an area of fifty feet, encompassed with a rope, the tribunal of the archon styled the king, who sate there with the other archons; a party of the guard preventing the approach of improper persons. Moreover, the statues of Harmodius and Aristogiton were in the Agora; and that of Solon, which stood before Pœcile. Lycurgus and Demosthenes and the two patriots are also on record, as in the Ceramicus. Xenophon recommends, that at the public festivals, the Athenian cavalry should be marched round the Agora, beginning from the Mercuries; and pay respect to the temples and statues of the gods as they passed; and when the circuit was finished, should gallop off in squadrons from the Mercuries as far as the Eleusinium. The procession, he imagines, if so regulated, would prove highly pleasing to the deities, as well as to the spectators.

The altar of Pity or Philanthropy, in the Agora, was exceedingly ancient. It was said, that the Heraclidæ had fled to it from Eurystheus, and that

in the Agora,] in the Agora by the Poecile. R.

a herald, as he was dragging them from it, was slain by the ephebi, or youth of Athens, who continued to wear mourning for the outrage to the time of Atticus Herodes, when the colour of their chlamys, or cloak, was changed from black to white. Of all the Greeks, the Athenians alone, Pausanias tells us, regarded this deity, as useful in the casualties of life and the manifold changes of human affairs. He remarks, that the Athenians, who had established the duties of philanthropy, had also possessed more religion than any other people; and he adds, that such as had excelled in piety were attended in proportion by good fortune. The altar, which remained under Julian, has been described as shaded with trees, among which was an olive, known to suppliants, and laurels decked with fillets; as frequented by the wretched, and ever wet with their tears; as hung with tresses of hair, and with the votive garments of persons who had been relieved.

CHAP. XIX.

ABSTRACT OF PAUSANIAS-OF THE TEMPLE OF THE DIOSCURI AND OF AGRAULOS-COLUMNS OF DIFFERENT KINDS OF MARBLE- OF THE DELPHINIUM-OF THE TEMPLE OF VENUS IN THE GARDENS.

IN the preceding chapter we have accompanied Pausanias from the gate Dipylon into the region called Agræ, whither he will now conduct us by a different way, on the opposite side of the Acropolis,

He

and, as it were, through the present town. begins with the Gymnasium of Ptolemy, and then notes the temple of Theseus, with the temple of the Dioscuri; and above it, that of Agraulos. The Prytaneum was near; and, going from it into the lower parts of the city, there was a temple of Serapis; and, not far from this, the place where Theseus and Pirithous made their fatal compact"; near which was a temple of Ilithya. This brings him to the temple of Jupiter Olympius dedicated with the statue by the emperor Hadrian, who had also erected temples of Juno and of Jupiter Panhellenius, and a Pantheon, in which his acts were inscribed; and there were edifices richly adorned, and books, and the Gymnasium of Hadrian. These buildings, it may be observed, were in New Athens. The peribolus or enclosure of the Olympieum contained also a temple of Saturn and Rhea, and a sacred portion of the goddess styled Olympia. Near the Olympieum was Apollo Pythius, and the Delphinium, or temple of Apollo Delphinius; from which the author passes to the temple of Venus in the gardens, Cynosarges, the Lyceum, the Ilissus, and Eridanus, the region called Agræ, the temple of Diana, and the Stadium.

The temple of the Dioscuri, which was called also the Anaceum, with that of Aglauros, stood on the hill of the Acropolis near the front. The Persians under Xerxes endeavoured to set fire to the palisades,

* He begins with the Gymnasium of Ptolemy,] Pausanias having finished his excursion through the city south of the Acropolis, describes next the buildings, &c. north of it, and begins with the Hephæsteum, &c. R.

u Vide Sophocl. Edip. v. 1588.

which then secured the entrance of the fortress; discharging arrows with burning flax from Areopagus ; but got possession by climbing a precipice, before deemed inaccessible, beyond the gates, opposite to the temple of Aglauros. Pisistratus summoned the people to attend at the Anaceum, came forward from the Acropolis, and addressed them in a low voice; while his guards removed their arms, unperceived, and secured them in the temple of Aglauros. It was in this temple the military oath was administered to the young Athenians, when they attained to the age of twenty years, and were enrolled among the citizens.

Among the ill-matched columns in the churches are several of the marble imported by Hadrian, for his Pantheon and Gymnasium. In the former were one hundred and twenty from Phrygia, and in the latter one hundred from Libya. The produce of the Attic quarries is white; that of the Phrygian white variegated with different colours.

X

Ægeus lived by the Delphinium; and in it was a spot fenced about, where, it was said, the cup fell with the poison, which, at the instigation of Medea, he tendered to Theseus, before he knew him to be his son. A Mercury to the east of the temple was called the Mercury at the gate of Ægeus. The temple of Venus in the gardens was without the walls, though not remote from the town, as may be inferred from the story of the Canephori. A church in the skirt of Athens y, with an extensive

* See Ruins of Athens, p. 39.

y A church in the skirt of Athens,] If the church of Sotera Lycodemon be that alluded to, it stands within the circuit of the