514 ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF ATHENS. 



in it by mistake for Hp/ai or the Sepulchral gate, which probably stood 

 at the foot of the Museum hill, and was the next in succession to 

 the Pirasan ; for some sepulchres are still observable in the side of 

 the rock which forms the base of that hill.* Here, too, the funereal 

 rites might have been performed with less danger of interruption than 

 on the other side, while the city was pressed by a besieging enemy. The 

 evidence however, which results from all this, is far from being conclu- 

 sive; and it amounts only to a high degree of probability, that the Sepul- 

 chral gate of the city stood in the situation which 1 have described, 

 • That which is called by Philostratus f the gate of the Ceramicus, 

 was, without doubt, the next in succession eastward ; and either this 

 or the preceding must have borne the denomination of 'iTnrociei; or the 

 Equestrian. The expression a Troppw tuv 'Wmuv in the passage of 

 Philostratus which I have just referred to, would lead to the conclu- 

 sion that it was the Ceramic ; and the ttuXm ou 'tto^'^'.o tcov iTtTtluv seem 

 to be the same gate noticed by Pausanias in the following passage : 



'ou(r< c£ TTfOj Tyjv cttoccv viv Wcacihyiv oi/oj^x^ovcriv octto tuv -y^a^uv, eTTtv tp[/.7;i; 



yaA»OU; KaAOVUSVOg AyopaS.Of, Kai 7rUA>J TTAyitriOV iTTBCTTt OS 01 TOOTTXIOV 



Adrjvdiui' j7r7rojwa;:/('a k^xttstxvtuv YlXeiarTa,^-xpv. On the Other hand, there 

 is a passage in Plutarch's life of Hyperides, which seems to show the 

 connection of the Equestrian gate with the Sepulchral. % 



The Ceramic gate must have been the same as that which has 

 already been noticed near the JVIercury of the Agora, and it is pro- 



* " On our left," suys Cliandlor, " were the door-waj's of ancient sepulchres, hewn out 

 in the rocii." By a law of Solon the dead were not permitted to be interred within the 

 city ; and although many sepulchral monuments of persons of distinction are noticed by 

 Pausanias both on the road to the Academy and to Eleusis, yet it is not improbable that 

 persons of inferior note were deposited in one particular situation, the gate leading to 

 which was called Sepulchral. The author of the Etymologicon says, Hg/ai, TrJXai A.S))v?(7(, 

 8ia TO TB5 vey-^Hc, e>ifegs(T^ai kxs'i Itti ra riflx, o Ifi T«V Tupac. The choice of a western gate 

 for this purpose seems to have been consistent with their mythology. 



+ Haf^XSev si; to Tcov Ti^i/iTuiv finXeuTrigwv, o 8s ajxoSofiJjTai waga Tcic tou Ksqaii.uK5 TTitXa:, s 

 Toppcu tujV Tttttscuv. — Pliilostratus in Philagro Soph. lib. xi. 



\ T»; 8e uixsfsc, to. Ofu Xu^ovtx:, ^a^cci ti ajxa. toij yovEU<n, ngo Tuiv 'iTwaScuv ttuAcuv. The 

 a^a Toij yovs5(7i, probably referring to a place of common interment. 



