508 



ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF ATHENS. 



Mr. W. seems to have been aware of this objection, and has en- 

 deavoured to obviate it ; first, by removing the Pelasgicum from the 

 north side of the Acropolis to the south, and secondly, by occupying 

 as much of the vacant space as he could on this side, with the 

 southern extremity of the Ceramicus, and the left wing of his city of 

 Theseus ; which is thus conveniently made to extend beyond that 

 line to which it was before limited. But that the situation of the en- 

 closure called the Pelasgicum was on the northern side of the 

 Acropolis, is proved by its connection with the cave of Pan, as it is 

 stated in the following passage of Lucian : — kou to «V Iksivov Trjv uVo t£ 



ctKgoTToXsi (TTTTjXvyyot TavTyv a,7roX(xj3o[A,£vog otKSt piy.gov V7ro tou neXacrytKOU : 



and the cave here alluded to, is represented on this side of the 

 Propylaea, on a bronze medal of Athens, which I have already men- 

 tioned. Besides, we learn from Plutarch, that the KifimUv rei^og was 

 the southern wall of the Acropolis, so that the Pelasgic wall which 

 overlooked the enclosure, must have been the northern. 



It is therefore clear, that if the author of this hypothesis means to 

 be consistent, he must abandon the ground which he has thus 

 endeavoured to occupy ; the consequence of which is, that all that 

 portion of the city which I have proved from Pausanias and other 

 writers, to have comprehended the most ancient and most important 

 part of it ; and to have been best situated both in regard to security 

 and a supply of water ; will present in Mr. W.'s plan a blank space of 

 ground, unaccountably interposed between the city and that fortress 

 to which it looked for protection. But enough has been said to prove 

 the weakness of this new hypothesis, and we may safely revert to the 

 old explanation of these adulatory inscriptions, which are evidently 

 intended to feed the vanity of the Emperor Hadrian ; a proof of 

 which, is the negation which is introduced into the southern in- 

 scription, showing that the northern is to be read first, and that the 

 reader is supposed to be advancing from the old city towards the 

 Olympium. * 



* In Stuart's plan of Athens the aqueduct of Hadrian lies to the south of the line of the 

 arch, which stands, he says, nearly north-east and south-west. The inscription over the 



