528 ATHENS. 
CHAP, animals 1 were conducted into the arena, and the 
. v -, < entrances and retreats for those who contested 
prizes, yet remain almost in their entire state. 
Nothing has been removed or destroyed, but the 
parts which were merely ornamental ; and these 
are not missed in the general survey of a struc^ 
ture necessarily simple as to its form, but 
inexpressibly great and striking in its aspect: 
and this effect is owing, not solely to its artificial 
character, but to the grandeur of its appearance 
as a work of Nature ; the very mountains having 
contributed to the operations of art, in its 
formation a . Such a combination may be often 
observed in antient theatres of a semicircular 
form; but there is not, either in Hellas or mAsia 
Minor, an instance, where the natural lineaments 
of the country have admitted of a similar 
adaptation to the appropriate shape of the 
Grecian Stadium. This splendid memorial of 
Attic splendour, and of the renown of a private 
citizen of Athens, became ultimatelv his funeral 
(1) When Hadrian was in Athens, he presided at the Panathenaa t 
and caused one thousand wild beasts to be hunted in the Stadium, for 
the diversion of the people. "Athenis mille ferarum venationem in 
Stadia exhibuit." Spartianus, in ejus Vita, c. 1.'). 
(2) There is a very fine view of it, as engraved by iMndseer from 
a drawing by Reveley, in. Stuart's Athent, vol. III. c. 7. PI. 3. 
Loud. 1794. 
