316 ATHENS. 
sentiment of gratitude, to receive with all the 
honours of triumph the patron who had restored 
the temples of their Gods ; the champion who 
had trodden down the enemies of their faith 1 . 
If ever, in the history of the world, there was a 
time when it was peculiarly appropriate that a 
triumph should be decreed, it was at this period, 
and upon this occasion. The antient city 
seemed to revive with more than pristine splen- 
dour from its ruins. Ever since the age of 
Diccearchus, its condition had been described as 
so wretched, that foreigners, upon the first 
sight of it, would scarcely believe they beheld 
what once had been so renowned a city 9 : but 
a new Athens bad arisen under the auspices of 
the Emperor. Magnificent temples, stately 
shrines, unsullied altars, awaited the benedic- 
tion of the sacerdotal monarch ; and it would 
indeed have been marvellous if the Athenians, 
naturally prone to adulation, neglected to 
bestow it upon a benefactor so well disposed 
(1) Upon his return to ATHENS, Hadrian presided as magistrate at 
the celebration of tlie Dionysia, anil wore the Athenian dress. He also 
gave to the Athenians the island CEPHALLEXIA. Vid, Dio. Cass. in Vit. 
Hadrian. 
(2) 'Amrrnftiti X ifytifmi M T i* 0tviupii, ti *o<r ifnt * 
f^ttrayeoiusfiiiH tui 'Afr,**i*r TO\IS . Dicaarchi Status Gra-ciae, p. 8 
Ozon. 1703. 
