518 



ON THE TOPOGRAPHY OF ATHENS. 



thus to limit the distance of the wells from each other, or they would 

 have been very soon drawn dry. 



This law, the very provisions of which demonstrate the insufficiency 

 of such a resource for a condensed population, has, nevertheless, been 

 very absurdly applied to the city alone ; and the question seems 

 never to have occurred, how Athens could have been better supplied ? 

 For the Athenians, at an early period, are known to have indulged 

 in the luxury of baths *, and were not less nice than the Romans 

 or even the present inhabitants of those countries, in the discrimin- 

 ation of water ; nor could the practicability of conveying it by an 

 aqueduct have escaped the observation of that ingenious and 

 enterprising people. On the contrary, there are some plain In- 

 dications, I think, of this art having been understood and practised 

 here at an early period, in the following passage of Phrynichus, 



Me rcov o Aivxovosvc, olf 6 rag xpyvxg ayuv. Upon which Salmasius (to 



whom I am indebted for this authority) observes, " Metonem per ista, 

 plane designavit, qui etiam aquilex fuit, non tantum astronomus ;" for 

 according to the testimony of the same writer (Phrynichus,) which is 

 quoted by Suidas, it appears, that a fountain was constructed by 

 Meton within the walls of Athens. 'Ev ru> KoXcovu xpyvriv r\ya. [o Meruv) 

 xa,Ta.(Tx.evK<roiTo 9 <pij<rtv o Opi/i/^o;, Movot^ottu. (Meurs. Reliq. Att.) The 

 Colonus here mentioned is supposed to have been an eminence 

 somewhere near the Agora, and therefore called Ayo^Tog, to distinguish 

 it from the "inTriog, which was situated near the academy. But we have 

 the positive testimony of Thucydides that Athens was supplied in this 

 way, in the following passage of his description of the plague which 

 prevailed there: kx) \v touq o$o7g szaXtvfiovvro, mz) crept rdtg K^v.enq aira<rag 

 rv rou vdarog e7ri9vf>iicx. L. 2. 



In the Lysis of Plato, Socrates says, " I was going out of the 

 Academy directly towards the Lyceum, by the way which lies without 



* It is said in one of the comedies of Aristophanes, " that the Gymnasia were empty; 

 but the baths were always full." Demosthenes complains of the degree to which this 

 usage had spread among the mariners of the fleet. 



