302 A T H E N S. 
considered as its source ; and at last, finding 
that alterations of the structure availed nothing 
towards its dissolution, the meetings in the 
Pnyx were entirely abolished. The place itself 
has, however, been suffered to remain unaltered 
to the present day, and may serve to illustrate 
passages in antient authors which before were 
but imperfectly understood. A very accurate 
design of the structure, as it now exists, has 
been already published by Stuart, in which the 
/3^o,a is represented : and if it were possible to 
naturalize this word, it might be preferable to 
any other, as applied to the pulpit, whence the 
Grecian orators addressed the people. Rostrum 
is a Roman appellation, and introduces associa- 
tions of a foreign nature : the same remark 
applies to Tribunal: Logum, and Thymele, are 
terms borrowed from the Grecian theatres: 
it is Bema only which, upon the authority of 
Plutarch, confines the name, and fixes the atten- 
tion, accurately and exclusively, to the throne 
of Grecian eloquence. Here we find the object 
itself within the Pnyx, fronted towards the city 
and the plain, exactly as it was left by the 
Athenian Tyrants. The altar is also seen; 
forcibly illustrating, at this hour, the following 
passage of the comic poet : 
zgareZ vvv rov XtQov rov'v ry Tlvvxi. 
