ATHENS. 
for its reception. The triumphal arch was of CHAP. 
course prepared ; and lasting characters, thereon 
inscribed, have proclaimed to succeeding ages 
that "THE ATHENS OF HADRIAN HAD ECLIPSED 
THE CITY OF THESEUS." 
We now advanced towards the stupendous 
pillars which also bear the name of that 
emperor ; and a much more difficult task would 
remain, if we should undertake to develope the 
circumstances of their history. According to 
the routine of objects as they were observed by 
Pausanias, on this side of the city, the hundred 
and twenty pillars of Phrygian marble, erected 
by Hadrian, were in this situation ; that is to- 
gay, south-eastward of the Acropolis 3 . Sixteen 
columns of white marble, each six feet in 
diameter, and nearly sixty feet in height, now 
remain standing; all of the Corinthian order,, 
beautifully fluted, and of the most exquisite 
workmanship 4 . But, by the appearance of the 
(3) T Js ivifaiiffrctra, Ixaror t'xaffi xlatis Gfwyiw titan, Pausan. Attica t 
p. 43. Lips. } 696. 
(4) Such is their extraordinary size, when compared with the rela- 
tive proportion of any other architectural pillars tu natural objects, 
that in every representation of them hitherto engraven, where figures 
of living beings have been introduced by the artist to afford a scale for 
their dimensions, the design has been frustrated by the reluctance of 
the 
