two members to parliament. It is a very old corporation, and is governed by a portreeve. Its former name was Atereth. It is 117 miles W. by S. of Dublin, and 14 E. of Galway.

There are three fairs in the year. The church is in good repair. The London Hibernian Society and the Kildare Place Society unite with the incumbent in the support of a free school, in which about forty children (boys and girls) are educated. The population of the town in 1831 was 1093: that of the whole parish, 12,580. This last statement includes the population of the chapelry of Monivea; in which are a chapel of ease and several free schools, including a charter school, and two schools connected with the Kildare Place Society. The living is a consolidated rectory and vicarage, in the diocese and province of Tuam.

Athens is situated about five miles from the sea-coast, 37° 58' N. lat., 23° 43' E. long., occupying part of the central plain of Attica, and some heights which run down into the plain, but are quite detached from the mountains on the north frontier of the province. Of these eminences, the most conspicuous are Mount Anchesmus (now St. George) with its peaked summit rising higher than the Acropolis, on the north east of the city and beyond the antient walls; the Acropolis, which was entirely included within the old walls; the Areopagus, opposite to the west end of the Acropolis; and the hill of the Museum, partly included within the antient walls, the highest eminence on the south. On the east side of the city, the little river Ilissus, which rises a few miles north-east of Ambelókipo, runs in a south west direction past the city, separating the heights of Athens on the west, from the higher and more continuous range of Hymettus on the east: it was joined a little above the site of the Lyceium by the Eridanus from the east. This little river, which in its natural state might have reached the marshy lands near the coast, is now reduced by the heats of summer and the channels for artificial irrigation to an ineonsiderable stream; and in antient times its current must have been diminished from the same cause. The Cephisus, which runs due south past the west side of the city, at the distance of about a mile and a half from the walls, is also nearly exhausted by the cuts for irrigation before it reaches the neighbourhood of Peiræus.

There was a Dominican friary in Athenry, which was burnt in the year 1432. The remains show it to have been a fine building; the great east window is bold, and of good workmanship. Part of the ruins have been taken down to erect barracks. A Franciscan friary was also founded here in 1464.

This town gives name to one of the baronies of the county. (Parliamentary Papers. Seward's Topog. Hibernica.) ATHENS, or ATHE'NE (ASñva), the chief city of Attica, one of the antient political divisions of Greece.

We propose in this article to give, first, a brief description of the topography of the city, referring to ATTICA for the geographical description of the province; and next, a brief outline of its political and literary history, referring to the proper articles for the minuter detail.

The accompanying plan of Athens will show the circuit of the wall at the time when the city had attained its greatest magnitude. Beginning with the Gate of Acharnæ on the

[Plan of Athens, from the authorities of Col. Leake and Mr. Cockerell.]

north, it ran eastward near the base of Anchesmus, and past |
the Diomeian Gate to the Gate of Diochares, which led to
the Lyceium: it then continued parallel to the Ilissus on the
west side of that stream to the Fountain Callirrhoe, or En-
neacrunus; and thence to the hill of the Museum, which
it crossed, comprehending the still existing monument of
Philopappus within its circuit. Its course from the Museum
was north, taking in the chief part of the Pnyx and Mount
Lycabettus, to the Dipylum which led to the outer Cera-
meicus, or great burying ground, and to the Academia, or
school of Plato: in the depression between the Pnyx and
Lycabettus was the Peiraic Gate. A line from Dipylum to
the Gate of Acharnæ completes the circuit. The direction
of the wall from the Ilissus along the south and west sides
of the city to the Dipylum is quite clear; the rest of the

wall, being built of brick chiefly, or entirely, has not left any traces. The city was connected with its ports, Peiræus, Munychia, and Phalerum, by Long Walls (paxpȧ TEIXn), which abutted on the city, respectively at the hill of the Museium, and the Gate of Peiræus. The direction of the Long Walls from the Peiræus is E. by N. by compass, as appears from examination of their existing foundations. The southern wall, which ran from the city to the Phalerum, was called the Phaleric wall; the northern, which ran from the Peiraic Gate to the Peiræus, and was a

double wall, was sometimes called the Long Walls and sometimes the Peiraic Wall.* (See the plan annexed to the

Much has been written on the passage of Thucyd. ii. 13; and we are aware We have given in the of the difference of opinion as to these Long Walls. text what we believe to be the true interpretation with reference to the time when Thucydides wrote.

map of Attica.)

ATH

That part of the city walls included between the two points where the Phaleric and Peiraic walls respectively abut on them is not included by Thucydides (ii. 13) in his estimate of the extent of the city walls which required defence; and we must, in like manner, deduct from the circuit of the wall inclosing the Peiræus and the Munychia, the space on the land side between the western extremities of the Phaleric and the Peiraic walls. The circumference of the city, then, according to Thucydides, in B.C. 431,

Stadia.

43

35

40

56

174

This result will give a total circuit of about nineteen or twenty miles. (See Leake's Topography of Athens, p. 368.) The chief Gates of Athens, as far as their position can be with any probability determined, are indicated in the plan. The cemeteries of the city surrounded it on every side, but were most conspicuous on the north and north-west, where they commenced immediately on the outside of the walls. The road from Dipylum to the Academy was lined with the tombs of illustrious men, such as Pericles, Thrasybulus, Chabrias, and Phormion. Here too were the monuments erected to the memory of those who fell in their country's service: a slab of stone, with the name and township (nog) of each individual, was the honour paid by the state to its citizens who died in battle. (Pausanias, i. 29.) The Academy itself was surrounded with a wall, planted with trees, and ornamented with fountains of water. Near it was the tomb of Plato.

The tombs on the east side of the city were separated from it by the Gardens (Kño), the Lyceium, and the Cynosarges, and do not appear to have been so extensive.

The wall which surrounded the city was strengthened at intervals with towers: there were also square towers on the long walls which connected the city with the ports. These walls (the Peiraic and Phaleric) were about four miles in length, and at a distance of 550 feet from one another: when the city was in its highest state of prosperity, the open space between them contained a considerable number of houses, which formed a kind of intermediate town between the Asty, or Upper City, and the Peiræus.

The three ports of Athens, going from west to east, were the Peiræus, now Port Dhrako, which contained three natural bays; the Munychia, now Stratiotiki, separated from the Peiræus by the round projecting and hilly peninsula of Munychia; and Phalerum, now Port Phanári. These three ports, with the buildings attached to them, once formed a separate city larger than Athens itself. A sea wall, sixty Greek feet high, and constructed of wrought stone, extended from the bay of Phalerum all round the rocky peninsula of Munychia, terminating about Cape Alcimus: the north-west and west side of the Peiræus was also inclosed by a wall running down to the sea; a wall ran from the Phaleric Port across the high ground to the head of the middle bay of the Peiræus; and a third wall ran across the narrow isthmus of the Munychia. The importance and strength of the fortifications of the maritime city, and especially of the Munychia, appear from the siege of this place by Demetrius Poliorcetes, and by Sulla; the possession of the ports enabled any person to command the city.

The Peiræus was the great dock-yard of the Athenians, and the chief harbour for the vessels engaged in the corn and other foreign trade. It contained large warehouses, public arsenals, the armoury of Puilon, several temples, a theatre, of which some traces remain, a long portico or arcade (papà σroά) analogous to the bazaars of Eastern cities, which probably contained the Deigna (a place for the exhibition of samples of goods), and Phreattys (a court of summary justice), and other buildings. Of all the edifices of the Peiræus, nothing now remains but some traces of foundations and broken pieces of sculptured The port, though its entrance is very narrow, is still a safe one: the ground inside is very good, and rather to the southward of the centre a ship may drop her anchor in about seven fathoms stiff mud, and moor with open hawse towards any point of the compass, for she will ride so secure

marble.

11

that neither wind nor sea can hurt her.' (Capt. W. H.
The peninsula of the Munychia contains the
Smyth.)
foundation of a temple, the remains of a small theatre, and
clear indications that it was extensively built upon. Nothing
remains of the buildings which once adorned the Phalerum.
The line, however, of the extensive system of walls which
defended the maritime demi, or towns, can still be traced
in most parts; and in the Munychia, on the side towards
exist, formed in some parts of large squared stones cramped
the sea, courses of masonry, both of walls and towers, still
with iron. (See Thucyd. i. 93.)

We shall endeavour briefly to describe those localities in
antient Athens which seem at present to be pretty well iden-
tified. It appears probable that even in its best days the first
appearance of Athens was not very pleasing, and that its
attractions were mainly due to the public edifices. A Greek
traveller of the latter part of the fourth century B.C. (Dica-
archus, Hud. Min. Geog. vol. ii.) describes the city as dusty,
and badly supplied with water, and the streets ill laid out,
a fault which he attributes to the great antiquity of the
A stranger, on the first view,' he adds, ' might doubt if this
place. Most of the houses were mean, and only a few good.
The most striking object is the Acropolis, or Citadel, a
is Athens; but after a short time he would see that it was.'
rock which rises abruptly from the plain, and is crowned
with the Parthenon. Opposite to the west end of the Acro-
polis, and separated from it by a depression, is the Areopa-
gus, or Hill of Mars, on the eastern and highest extremity of
Adjacent to the Areopagus on the west was the Pnyx,
which was the court of the Areopagus. [See AREOPAGUS.]
where the public meetings were held in the more antient
period of the state, and where a béma, or pulpit of stone,
still marks the place from which the assembly was ad-
dressed. (On this béma, compare Leake, p. 42, and art.
ATTICA. Ersch and Gruber.)

North of the Areopagus is the Temple of Theseus, built of Pentelic marble, one of the best-preserved buildings of us doubt if we are really contemplating a building that was antient Athens. At first sight it appears so entire as to make erected about B.C. 470-465. It is a Doric temple of moderate The eastern pediment was adorned with on each flank. dimensions; a peripteral hexastyle, with thirteen columns sculptures, as well as the ten metopes of this front, and the four adjacent to them on each flank: casts of three of these metopes, which appear to refer to the exploits of Theseus and Hercules, and also of the frieze, are in the Stuart's Athens, vol. iii.] Elgin Room of the British Museum. [See THESEIUM, and

Nearly due east of the Temple of Theseus are the remains of what is probably the Stoa or Portico of Hadrian, one of the monuments with which this munificent emperor as has been done, that the architectural character of the embellished the city of Athens. It is not exact to state, west colonnade of this building corresponds to that of the Arch of Hadrian; still it seems most likely that these remains are part of the great work of that emperor, described was adorned with a hundred and twenty columns of Phrygian by Pausanias (i. 18), who informs us that the Stoa of Hadrian marble, and contained apartments whose roofs were gilded and made of alabaster: it contained also a library, and the apartments were decorated with statues and paintings. The Gymnasium of Hadrian was probably near the Stoa; and the Gymnasium of Ptolemy between the Stoa and the Temple of Theseus. South of the Stoa is the Tower of the Winds, called also the Tower of Andronicus Cyrrhestes. the New Agora, in the quarter called Eretria, between the [See ANDRONICUS; and Stuart, vol. i. p. 42.] The Gate of four fluted Doric columns, of Pentelic marble, supporting Great Stoa and the Tower, still exists: it is a portico of an entablature and pediment. (See the view and plans in Stuart, vol. i.)

The south-east quarter of the city, which is entered by next to the Acropolis. This building, of Pentelic marble, the Arch of Hadrian, was one of the oldest parts of it, consists of a circular arch with Corinthian columns, the rinthian columns, surmounted by an entablature, with a (See Stuart, iii. 90.) An inscripentablature of which supports another ordinance of Copediment in the centre. still testifies that the emperor gave his name to the part tion upon the frieze on the south-east side of the arch C 2 of the city between this edifice and the Ilissus. Here stood the magnificent temple of Jupiter Olympius, which being re-commenced about B.C. 175-165, on the site of an

[Temple of Theseus, from Stuart's Athens.]

older temple, and worked upon at intervals, was at length finished by the liberality of Hadrian. Sixteen columns of Pentelic marble, 60 feet high, and above 64 in diameter, are all that now remain of the 128 which once adorned this magnificent building, one of the largest erected by the Greeks in honour of their deities. (See Stuart, iii. p. 83.) This temple and its sacred enclosure were filled with statues: two of the emperor were made of stone from Thasos, and two others of stone from Egypt; the statue of the deity was a chryselephantine (gold and ivory) statue of colossal size. The fountain called Callirrhoe, or Enneacrunus (the nine springs), the only source of fresh water in the neighbourhood, was only a short distance from the south-east angle of the great temple. There were wells, as Pausanias remarks (i. 14), all through the city, but this was the only source of pure water. An aqueduct from Cephisia on the Cephisus was constructed for the use of the city by Hadrian and Antoninus his successor. The reservoir of water was made at the foot of Anchesmos, and adorned with a frontispiece of four Ionic columns. (See Stuart, iii. 94.) This monument, of which two columns were standing in 1754, is now destroyed.

Beyond the quarter called Hadrian's City, on the east side of the Ilissus, is the Panathenaic Stadium, first constructed by Lycurgus the orator, B.C. 350, and adorned with Pentelic marble by Herodes Atticus, in the reign of Hadrian. All the marble has disappeared; but part of the masonry at the south-east or circular end, and the cavea, or part destined for the exhibition of the Panathenaic games, remains. Its length in the interior is 675 feet.

On the hill of the Museium, which is separated from the Acropolis by a depression, we find the monument of the Syrian mentioned by Pausanias (i. 25). According to the inscriptions it was erected by Philopappus, or in honour of Philopappus, the son of Epiphanes, in the reign of Trajan: it contained three niches, two of which remain, in which were placed the statue of Philopappus himself, occupying the centre, of his grandfather Antiochus the last king of Commagene, and that of Seleucus Nicator, the founder of the dynasty of the Seleucida. (See Spon, ii. 157, Amst. ed.; Dodwell's Travels, i. 392; and the view in Stuart, iii. 99.) We have now noticed the chief existing monuments of Athens in the lower part of the city, with the exception of the small choragic monument of Lysicrates, erected about B.C. 334 (the year of Alexander's expedition into Asia), vulgarly called the Lantern of Demosthenes: it stands between the south-east angle of the Acropolis and the great Temple of Jupiter, and is or was partly walled up in the buildings of the Capuchin convent. This little edifice, which consists

of a circular colonnade of Corinthian columns, resting on a high quadrangular basement, is only six feet in diameter. on the central piece, which rises from the cupola that crowns the colonnade, a tripod originally stood.

Of the great divisions of Athens which appear to be ascertained, we may mention the Inner Cerameicus, adjacent to the Dipylum, within the walls; the Old Agora, in the depression about the Areopagus; the New Agora, on the north side of the Acropolis, the gateway of which, as already observed, and three inscriptions still remain; and the Limnæ, or Marshes, a low and originally a swampy part of Athens, which contained the Lenæum, or Temple of Bacchus. This last quarter of Athens was always considered inferior in salubrity to that north of the Acropolis.

The Acropolis, or the old Cecropian fortress of Athens, is a rock, which rises abruptly from the plain, with its sides naturally scarped, except at the west end; its greatest length may be about 1200, and its greatest breadth about 550 feet. Before we describe briefly the edifices which stand on the platform of the Acropolis, we must notice those which stood immediately around its base.

Along the base, on the east side, extending southwards from the supposed site of the Prytaneum, probably ran the street to which Pausanias gave the name of Tripods (i. 20). This street, or quarter, was so called from a number of small temples or edifices crowned with tripods, to commemorate the victories gained by the Choragi in the neighbouring theatre. The great Dionysiac Theatre, the place for dramatic exhibitions, was on the south-east side of the Acropolis; the inner curve was excavated in the rock, and the part which projected into the plain was formed of masonry. In the recess of this excavation, and above the theatre, Pausanias (i. 21) describes a cavern, which was converted by Thrasyllus (B.c. 320), a victorious choragus, into a small temple. A noble seated figure, of colossal size, now generally called the statue of Bacchus, which originally was placed on the entablature of the small temple, is in the Elgin Room (No. 111) in the British Museum. (See article ATTIC; and the plate in Stuart, ii. 92.) A brass coin of Athens, in the British Museum, represents the interior of the theatre, showing distinctly the seats for the spectators, with the caves (for there are more than one) just under the south wall of the Acropolis; rising above which we observe the Parthenon, and other buildings which stand on the platform of the rock.

The dimensions of this theatre cannot now be ascertained, but we may safely infer it was a very large one. Dicæarchus expresses his admiration of its beauty.

On the south-west side of the Acropolis is the site of the

was the representative of the deity whose worship strove for | the supremacy. Among the various names by which Athens was known, we find that of Poseidonia, or the City of Neptune (Strabo, ix. 397); and the name of Athens itself was given to eight different places, (See Steph. Byzant. 'Anvaι.)

The fable of the two deities contending for Attica is represented on a coin of Athens.