310 GREECE. 



portunity of entering into a careless and unsuspicious conversation 

 with Evenius, i(.a,ry]i/.ivo\j Evyjviou vj ^uKu, probably on some seat of this 

 kind in the place of general resort. The Septuagint version, which 

 continually alludes to Grecian customs, makes Job refer to this, when 

 in enumerating the felicities of his prosperous youth, he says, \v SI 

 TrXocTciaii; sTidsTo f/,o\j 6 SI(pfog. xxix. 7. The names of the official part 

 of the government at Athens appear to have some connection with a 

 distinction of this kind, the presidents for the time being were called 

 ITpos^pc/; the NO|WO(puAa;t£j were said (ruyx.oi.di^£(T9oci with the Pi'oedri ; 

 but though this sort of conjecture may appear trivial, the influence of 

 climate which invariably suggests some kind of coincidence in com- 

 mon habits of life to the inhabitants of any particular country, how- 

 ever remote in age or circumstances, and which now carries the idle 

 Turks to the bazar, as it did the Greeks to the agora, must have then 

 made a constant seat in the morning assembly a pleasant as well as 

 an honourable distinction. 



On lilt 0poi/c/( aiid A/ifpot of the Gi^eeks. 



[Although the subject is not one of great importance, we may add 

 some instances by way of confirming Mr. Raikes's remark. The 

 Nof^cipuXccKei; sate at public spectacles IttI Qpovuv, a name given to these 

 chairs of honour. (Vales, in Harpoc. 55.) They were consecrated 

 to particular deities in ancient temples ; in the vestibule of that at 

 Olympia there was among other offerings, a throne presented by 

 Arimnus king of the Etrusci. (Pans. v. 12.) In the temple of the 

 Lycian Apollo at Argos, there was in the time of Pausanias, the 

 throne of Danaus (II.) on the road from the Acrocorinthus, there 

 was in a temple a column and throne of white marble, consecrated 

 to Cybele. Id. lib. ii.) At Naxia, a seat was appropriated as the 

 inscription informs us to the great priest Aristarchus ; one of white 

 marble was placed at Abydos for Xerxes, when he surveyed his 

 troops. (Herod, lib. vii.) Hypsipyle, queen of Lemnos, after haranguing 

 the people sits down on the marble chair of her father Thoas. ( ApoU. 



