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 woods 

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

 W e meet with many illustrations of the scenery of the Academy and 

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

 CEdip. 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 Musagus. 



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

 and Corydalus. Acharnae was situated near this place, as appears 

 from Thucydides. Archidamus leading the Peloponnesians from 

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

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

 taken in placing iEgaleos 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, Vix ts ruv o~kbXcov ruv oItto tou a,<TTtoq etg rov Yl&tQotux, xcxdrixovTuv, 

 tK$l$uo~tv eig to tpaXyptxov.'f 



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 7rayxft.X)j to Athens. (TElian, V. H. iii. 26.) ""AXcnj Ssti's ttw; toi«S" aAAij noKis;" 

 says a comic poet, (apud D. Chrysos. Orat. 64.) speaking of the city. — Ed. 



\ Strabo, lib. ix. 



