ATHENS. 297 
mentioned by Plutarch, both in his Life of Cimon, 
and of Theseus; when, after the conquest of 
Scyros, the son of Miltiades arrived in Athens, 
bearing the mouldering bones and weapons he 
had so marvellously discovered. They were 
received by the Athenians, says Plutarch 3 , as if 
Theseus himself had returned among them. The 
solemnity of their interment took place in the 
very midst of the city, near to the Gymnasium* ; 
accompanied by every splendid pomp and 
costly sacrifice with which the Athenians, of all 
people, were the most ready to appease the 
manes of a departed hero. This event happened 
during the Archonship of Apsephion ; so that the 
THESE'UM has now braved the attacks of time, 
of earthquakes, and of barbarians, during a 
lapse of considerably above two thousand 
years 5 ; and its relative position with regard to 
the Gymnasium renders it an important point of 
(3) "Clftftp otlvoi (ranif-^ofiittt 11; re atru* Ibid. 
(4) TLaox. 70 vyv yvfttafur. Ibid. 
(5) The arrival of Cimon with the bones of Tliestus happened in the 
same year as the birth of Socrates; that is to say, in the fourth yenr 
of tlie 77th Olympiad, 469 years before Christ, according to Corsini. 
.EscHYLi'S aud SOPHOCLES then disputed the prize of Tragedy, which 
was adjudged to SOPHOCLES. (I'id. Chronicon ex Marmoribus /Jrun- 
deliftnis, Epoch. 57 .^ If we allow, therefore, ten years for the building 
of the temple, (and./?i>ehas been considered a sufficient number,) this 
edifice has stood nearly twenty-three centuries. 
