ATHENS 



454 



ATHENS 



(1) Acropolis 



i of Diony- 

 sus 



(3) Temple of Diony- 



sus 



(4) Olympieum 

 T..wer of the 



Winds 

 Hill of the 

 Nymphs 



(7) Areopagus 



(8) Theseum 



(6) 



(9) Stadium 



(10) Long Walls 



(11) Sacred Gate 



(12) Lyceum 



(13) Arch of Hadrian 



(14) Aqueduct of 



1 !;idrian 



(15) Agora, or market 



place 



(16) Parthenon 



(17) Erechtheum 



(18) Temple of Victory 



vicinity during the past decades have resulted 

 in the recovery of many monuments of the 



The Ancient City. When ancient Athens is 

 spoken of it is Athens in the time of Pericles 

 which is meant, rather than Athens throughout 

 its long growth or its later period of decay. 

 In the Age of Pericles, then, Athens was a 

 strong walled city, built about the Acropolis, 

 a rocky elevation about 300 feet above the 

 level of the city, having on its summit a com- 

 paratively level area of somewhat less than 

 ten acres (see ACROPOLIS). Originally this was 

 the fortress to which the inhabitants retreated 

 in time of danger. It could be reached only 

 on the we.<t, where a stairway of sixty marble 

 !"d to a series of colonnades and porticoes 

 railed the Propylaea, or Gateway, a magnifi- 

 cent structure built of white marble and 

 trimmed with black marble. Just within the 

 entrance was the great statue of Athena, the 

 patron and defender of the city, and on the 

 right, a little to the rear, was the Temple of 

 the Wiur/lcxx Victory. To the right of the 

 renter rose the crowning glory of Athens, the 

 Parthenon, an exquisitely beautiful temple 



(19) Propylaea (21) Temple of Rome 



(20) Pedestal of Agrippa 



dedicated in 438 B.C. (see PARTHENON), and to 

 the left stood the Erechtheum, a beautiful tem- 

 ple of which there still remains the famous 

 Porch of the Maidens (see CARYATIDES). 



The city surrounded the Acropolis on every 

 side, extending to a distance of about a mile 

 therefrom. To the north and directly in front 

 of the Acropolis was the Tower of the Winds, 

 an octagonal marble structure erected in 159 

 B. c. and still fairly well preserved ; to the 

 west were the Hill of the Nymphs and the 

 Areopagus (Mars Hill), the rocky eminence 

 from which Paul is supposed to have preached 

 to the Athenians; and to the northwest lay 

 the Theseum, which remains the best preserved 

 of all the ancient Greek temples. On the 

 southwest slope of the Acropolis was the 

 ancient Theater of Dionysus, and beyond it the 

 stately Olympieum, begun about 535 B.C., but 

 not finished until 700 years later. 



Under the Romans, Athens was a flourishing 

 city which in the second century Hadrian 

 ornamented with many new buildings; but 

 after that time much of the beauty of the 

 city was destroyed, and the pagan temples 

 became for the most part Christian churches 



