532 PELOPONNESUS. 
entering into this plain, we observed, upon our 
right hand, a Chapel, containing Ionic capitals, 
and other marble fragments. Hence we con- 
tinued our journey upon a level and highly fer- 
tile soil, cultivated like a garden : after crossing 
a river, we observed, in several places upon 
our left, the ruins of antient buildings. We 
then came to the site of the city of SICYON. 
So little is known concerning this antient seat 
of Grecian power, that it is not possible to ascer- 
tain in what period it dwindled from its high 
pre-eminence, to become, what it now is, one of 
the most wretched villages of the Peloponnesus. 
The remains of its former magnificence are still 
considerable; and, in some instances, they 
exist in such a state of preservation, that it is 
evident the buildings of the city either survived 
the earthquakes said to have overwhelmed 
them, or they must have been constructed in 
some later period. In this number is the 
Theatre; by much the finest and the most per- 
fect structure of the kind in all Greece. The 
different parts of the city, whereof traces are 
yet visible, serving as land-marks in pursuing the 
observations oiPausanias, may be comprehended 
under the following heads : 
