516 



ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF ATHENS. 



The Itonian gate was probably the next as we advance in this 

 direction. It is mentioned by iEschines the philosopher *, in the 



following words : — '£lq fo Bocttov Tyv TTotfoi to TeT^oq ysifiivj Touq It avian; 

 (7t\vj<rlov yap unci tuv ttvXuv, irpoq tv\ kfAO&^ovlh p^A??,) JtoiTotXotfAftctvofASv oJutov. 



Now, Plutarch gives us pretty accurate information where this column 

 was situated ; for speaking of Hippolyta, the* Amazon who was slain 

 by Molpadia, in the battle between Theseus and the Amazons, he 

 adds, — xal t%v ^n'AjjVj ryv irat^at to fyq Fyq ttj; OXvprrlu;, \tv\ tuutvi xeir&eei. 

 The Itonian gate therefore must have stood on the eastern side of the 

 Peribolus of the Olympium, or between that and the Pythium ; for 

 Strabo speaks of a wall, probably the wall of the city, in that 

 situation, -j- 



I must now conduct my readers back to the western side of the 

 city, where the situation of the Melitensian gate seems to be clearly 

 pointed out in the following passage of the life of Thucydides by 



MarcellillUS : — npo? yoip Tdttq MeXtTicrt TrvXoitq xocXxpevixiq ignv ev KoiXw toc 

 KuXvptva, KlfjLuvoq [xvypxTtx. According to Herodotus, the sepulchre 

 of Cimon, the father of Miltiades, was in front of the Acropolis, 

 beyond the way called through Coele. We are told by an anonymous 

 author, who is quoted by Meursius, that the dwelling of Cimon was 

 in Pnyx, which would lead us to suppose that the monuments of 

 that family, and consequently the gate which stood in their vicinity, 

 could not have been very distant ; and in reality, the form of the 

 ground between Pnyx and the Areopagus, (a very remarkable' hollow, 

 and the only one at Athens,) fully confirms this supposition.^: 



The Melitensian gate was, therefore, the first as you advance 

 northward from the Piraean gate, and probably at no great distance 



* In Axiocho. 



f "Efi 8* aori) (>) tiyiqa. t5 A/oj Aorqa-rtcilu) ev tm tei^ei peru^C tov TIvSlov xa) too Okvfj.iriov. 

 Lib. ix. 



% Chandler describes this spot very accurately : — " We now enter a valley," says he, " at 

 the foot of the hill of the Acropolis, in which is a track leading between Pnyx and the 

 Areopagus, toward the temple of Theseus. This region was called Coele or the Hollow. 

 On the left hand is a gap in the mountain, where, it is believed, was the Melitensian gate, 

 and within is a sepulchre or two in the rock. Going on, other sepulchres hewn in the side 

 of the mountain like those first mentioned occur." 



