ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF ATHENS. 



503 



eastern base of the hill of the Acropolis; describing some very 

 remarkable edifices in this quarter, (the quarter of the Tripods ; 

 dtp ov Je zuXova-i to %&p/o^,) and then continues his march round the 

 upper slope of the hill, until he reaches the entrance of the Acropolis ; 

 without touching the line of his first excursion through the Ceramicus, 

 which was on his left. It is proper to remark, that the term ex- 

 cursion which I have here made use of, cannot be applied in a literal 

 sense, because Pausanias merely describes what objects were to be 

 seen, without expressly mentioning that he had visited them. 



Before Pausanias begins his account of Sparta, he thinks it 

 necessary to observe, that he should follow the same rule as he had 

 laid down in his description of Attica ; not to describe every object 

 that occurred without distinction ; but to select what best deserved 

 notice. 



We may collect from this observation, that he had passed over a 

 number of objects unnoticed in his description of Athens; but not 

 without motives for such an omission. 



Meursius has collected with much learning and industry, all that 

 has been said by ancient writers on the subject of the public buildings 

 which are thus omitted. Of these, many were no longer in existence 

 at the period when Pausanias visited Athens, among which, I suspect, 

 were the Pythium and the Leocorium, which from their celebrity he 

 was not likely to have passed over unnoticed. Some, too, are of his 

 own, or even of a later age. Pausanias, therefore, is responsible only 

 for having omitted what he saw, and as the buildings which may be re- 

 ferred to this head, were, as far as we know, of a Macedonian- Greek 

 or a Roman origin, it is probable, that his omission of these was 

 deemed more consistent with the object he had in view, a description 

 of the antiquities, and not, generally speaking, of the public buildings 

 of Athens. Thus, for instance, he passes over without notice the 

 temple of the Winds, because it was a modern structure ; while he 

 dwells with feelings of interest on the Anaceum and the sacred portion 

 of Aglaurus. He dispatches, too, in a few words, and as it were in a 

 parenthesis, the great additions which had been made to the city by 

 Hadrian. For the same reason, Pausanias barely and incidentally 



