556 PANORAMIC VIEW OF ATHENS. 



E. 6. The Collis Coloneus, the birth-place and residence of 

 Sophocles, and the scene of one of his tragedies. Suidas. and Cic. 

 de Fin. 1. v. 1. It was ten stadia from Athens. See Corsini, F. A. 

 Diss. V. 207. .■..;. 



K. 6. The Academy*; a road passing from the gate Dipylon through 

 the Ceramicus, and near the tombs of statesmen and warriors, led to 

 the Academy, distant six stadia from the gate. The site of the 

 Academy is now laid out in gardens. It is overshadowed with w^oods 

 of olive, a few planes and cypresses, and watered by the Cephissus. 

 We meet with many illustrations of the scenery of the Academy and 

 Colonasan hill in the writers of the ancient drama. See particularly 

 (Edip. Col. 671. 700. and Aristoph. Nub. 1005. 



The Lacedaemonians in their invasions of Attica always spared the 

 olive woods of the Academy. Plut. in Thes. 



I. 3. Lycabettus, a low rocky knoll, joining the hill of Museeus. 



G. 5. The Via Sacra, ascending the mountain between iEgaleos 

 and Corydalus. Achai'nae was situated near this place, as appears 

 from Thucydides. Archidamus leading the Peloponnesians from 

 Eleusis to Athens came to Acharnse, where he fortified himself, but 

 did not descend into the plain. Thucy. 1. ii. c. 20. Stuart is mis- 

 taken in placing ^Egaleos to the N. of Corydalus. Thucydides 

 expressly says that it was on the right of the road from Eleusis to 

 Athens ; and that it was near the sea, we know from Xerxes having 

 taken his position under it to view the battle of Salamis. Herod, viii. 



[The Via Sacra crosses the Cephissus in a direction nearly west of 

 Athens. This river, says Strabo, flowing through the plain where the 

 bridge is, J/^: ts tuv (txsXcov tuv (X770 Tov a(mog £ig rov Un^xiX kocQ'^kovtuv, 



It is evident from this passage that the long walls were destroyed 

 in the time of Strabo ; for if they had been entire, the river could 



* The forest of olive-trees seen in this direction is one of the most striking features in 

 the plain of Athens. The groves and plantations in and about the city in ancient times, 

 intermixed with the public and religious edifices, must have justified the application of the 

 epithet Trayxa^ij to Athens. (iElian, V. H. iii. 26.) ""AXo-ti Vs t'i; ttx roiaS' Ux «^>i>! ttoKi;-" 

 says a comic poet, (apud D. Chrysos. Orat. Gi.) speaking of the city. — Ed. 



I Strabo, lib. ix. 



