Col. William Leake, Travels in the Morea (v.1-3)

§ 3.196 CHAPTER XXVII: ACHAIA. The most remarkable events in the early history of Achaea, are represented in the same manner by Strabo and Pausanias, who very nearly agree also on the less important subject of the genealogy and personal adventures of the family of Hellen, as connected with the history of this and the other provinces of the Peloponnesus. The only historical fact which can reasonably be deduced from such traditions, compared with the evidence of the earliest of Greek historians, Homer, is, that the name of the Achaeans originated in Thessaly, and had spread very widely in Greece, particularly in Peloponnesus, prior to the time, when Grecian history can be said to commence. Aegialus, or the country adjacent to the northern shore of the Peloponnesus, was occupied, at the earliest period of which history has

§ 3.197 any knowledge, by the Ionians of Attica, who there founded twelve cities. When the Achaei were expelled from Laconia and Argolis by the Heracleidae, eighty years after the Trojan war, they placed themselves under the conduct of Tisamenus, a grandson of Agamemnon, and proceeding to Aegialus, displaced the Ionians, who returned into Attica, and from thence, under the sons of Codrus, proceeded into Asia. The division of the Asiatic Ionia into twelve cities, and the adoption by the Asiatics of the worship and rites of Neptune of Helice, are convincing evidences of the truth of this part of Grecian history, and shew that the foundation of the twelve cities of Achaea was anterior to that occupation of the Aegialus which caused its name to be changed into that of Achaea. There is reason to believe, therefore, that in Achaea the federal system began earlier, as well as lasted longer, than in the other parts of Greece, where in general, when the regal government, which was the most common in the early ages, had ceased, the principal city of the province acquired such a predominance as led to the comparative insignificance and the real decline of all the others, and this state of things continued until foreign power acquired the chief influence in the government of Greece. But

§ 3.198 Achaea the federation of several cities of nearly equal power, assisted by an extensive alliance, survived even through a great part of the latter aera, and was the means, at length, of conferring upon Achaea the empty honour of giving its name to all southern Greece, as long as that country continued to be a province of the Roman empire. It is in the nature of a confederacy of small republics to take little interest as a nation in external politics, until some one of the states obtaining superior importance, becomes a point of union for a central government, and an example to the others of more enlarged views and a higher feeling of national honour. Achaea gave no assistance to the defence of Greece against the Persians During several ages she was exempted by her situation from the necessity of taking any active part in the wars of the leading states of Greece. Thus she had more leisure than any other province to cultivate the arts of peace, and increased so much in wealth and population, as to become the founder of some Greek colonies in Italy, whose rapid advances to opulence and power may be attributed to their adoption of the wise laws and institutions of Achaea. “When Xerxes and the Medes”, says Pausanias, “invaded Greece, the Achaeans neither

§ 3.199 aided Leonidas at Thermopylae, nor Themistocles and the Athenians in the sea-fights at Euboea and Salamis. There is no mention of them as auxiliaries, either among the Athenians or Lacedaemonians, nor did they partake in the affair at Plataea, as is manifest from their names not appearing in the common offering of the Greeks at Olympia. It appears to me therefore, that at that time their attention was turned towards the affairs of their own country, and that, elated with their Trojan victory, they could not bear to be commanded by the Lacedaemonians, who were. Dorians. This, in time, became still more evident, for when the Lacedaemonians were afterwards at war with the Athenians, the Achaeans readily brought assistance to the Patrenses, and were not less favourably inclined to the Athenians. As to the subsequent wars,' the Achaeans took a part, in the action at Chaeroneia, against Philip and the Macedonians, but it is said that they were not engaged in the battle at Lamia, not having then recovered from the effects of the defeat in Boeotia.”

§ 3.200 It was not until the decline of the great republics of Greece, that the Achaeans assumed the importance, which their tranquillity and good internal government, during the earlier periods, insured for them during the last ages of independent Greece. When the Lacedaemonians,” observes Pausanias, “after the defeat at Leuctra, the assembling of the Arcadians in Megalopolis, and the reestablishment of the Messenians, were no longer able to preserve their former prosperity; when the Thebans had been reduced to such a desolate condition by Alexander, that, not many years afterwards, when they were restored by Cassander, they were found incapable of defending themselves; when the Athenians, although benevolence was shewn to them by the Greek nation in deference to the memory of their former actions, could never secure themselves from the arms of the Macedonians; when the Greeks had no general council, and each state attended to its own affairs, there were none who, in power, could be compared to the Achaeans, all whose cities, except Pellene, had ever been free from the government of tyrants, and had never suffered from war and pestilence so much as the other Greeks. They established, therefore, a community of designs and operations, and assembled a council called the Achaic in Aegium, which, ever since the destruction of

§ 3.201 Helice by an inundation, had excelled all the other cities of Achaea in dignity and power.” Pausanias then proceeds to devote ten chapters to the events of that instructive period in the decline of Greece, when its power was chiefly divided among the Achaeans, Aetolians, and Lacedaemonians. Intent only on their own quarrels, these states, as well as the smaller, were blind to the danger threatened from the steady policy, the military strength, and the unrelenting ambition of Rome. Instead of uniting to oppose that danger, instead of endeavouring to cement alliances with the kings of Macedonia, Illyria, and Asia, each state in its turn supported Rome against its Grecian rivals, and thus invited the Romans to bring them all in succession under the yoke. By constantly referring the decision of their puerile quarrels to the senate of Rome or its emissaries, they offered to the Romans a temptation, which a more just and less ambitious government would hardly have been able to resist. To Achaea, as most abundant in the resources of wealth, high reputation, extensive alliances, disciplined forces, and commanders of ability and honesty, the chief disgrace of the ruin of Greece is to be ascribed. The great qualities of Aratus and Philopoemen, instead of

§ 3.202 being exerted in producing unanimity, were exercised upon the disputes between the democracies and oligarchies, and in counteracting the effects of the support which the latter received from Macedonia or from Sparta. One man only, and he belonging to a people uncivilized in comparison with the Achaeans, is recorded as having foreseen the consequences of the quarrels of the Greeks among one another. Livy, copying from Polybius, has preserved the speech of Agelas of Naupactus, in recommendation of the only policy which could save Greece from ruin, but which neither Aratus, nor Philopoemen, nor Polybius himself, had the sense, or courage, or consistency, to pursue. In justice, however, to Aratus and Philopoemen, it should be added, that during the whole career of the former, and the greater part of that of the latter, the Romans had not yet conceived the designs upon Greece with which they were soon afterwards inspired by their successes in other quarters, and by the subsequent folly or wickedness of the Greek leaders. Philopoemen appears, before his death, to have taken alarm at the conduct of the Romans, although it was a conduct which he himself had invited, by allowing the Achaeans to assist the Romans against Philip, Antiochus, and Nabis.

§ 3.203 The opposition of the democratic and tyrannic, or oligarchic interests, which is the great mover of the politics of Greece from the beginning to the end of its history, or, at least, from the time when it became republican to the final loss of its independence — the restless, invidious, factious, and treacherous spirit which has characterized so many of its leading men in all ages, conducted the country with rapidity to its ruin, when there was an abundance of individuals of that character, uncorrected by the control of such men as Aratus and Philopoemen. One is surprised to find Polybius, who has left us many sensible observations upon war and politics, approving of the support given by the Achaean league to the Romans against Perseus, instead of recommending to his countrymen to form an effectual union of the whole Greek nation against the Italians, whose ill success in the first two years of the third Macedonian war, was highly encouraging to such an united effort. In fact the writings of Polybius betray that early and constant partiality for the Romans which, cooling the ardour of his patriotism and blinding him to the dangers of his country, must, by its effects, have contributed to the subjugation of Greece not less certainly than the glaring folly and villainy of a Diaeus or a Callicrates. But though he cannot be

§ 3.204 commended for the wisdom of his views, it is a strong proof of his honesty, that not all his exertions or talents, nor all his admiration of the Romans, could save his party from the persecutions of Callicrates, nor himself from being included among the thousand leading men of Achaea who were detained seventeen years in Italy, until only 300 of them survived. Ultimately this was a fortunate event for Polybius, for Greece, and for literature, by enabling him to obtain the friendship of some of the most illustrious Romans, to visit Italy, Spain, and Africa, to intercede with Rome in favour of conquered Greece, and finally to write a history of his own times, for which he was better qualified than any man then living. Unhappily we have but fragments of this great work, in consequence of which, the historical digression in Pausanias, which has given rise to these remarks, is the more valuable as containing the best materials for the history of the last years of the Achaean league and of Grecian independence. It is difficult to understand the nature of the revolution which was effected by Nero in the political state of Greece, or to comprehend what kind of liberty that was for which the people were indebted to the caprice of such a

§ 3.205 tyrant. It is probable, that his favours were confined to a remission of a part of the tribute to Rome, and that he deprived the Roman praetor of a part of his authority over the municipalities; the consequence of which could only have been to throw all the cities into that state of anarchy which had been a common attendant of their democratic constitutions even in better times. Whatever may have been the immediate effects of the decree of Nero, they did not long continue; Vespasian soon found it necessary to replace Greece in its former state, which was undoubtedly the best suited to the country under the circumstances of those times. The twelve cities founded in Aegialus by the Ionians and occupied by the Achaeans who expelled them, were Dyme, Olenus, Pharae, Tritaea, Patrae, Rhypae, Aegium, Helice, Bura, Aegae, Aegeira, Pellene. This is the catalogue of Herodotus and of Strabo. According to Pausanias, Patrae was not founded until after the occupation of the country by the Achaei, and he names Ceryneia in the place of it. Polybius omits Aegae and Rhypae, and substitutes Leontium and Ceryneia. But Polybius refers

§ 3.206 to the cities of the Achaean confederacy as it was established on the abolition of the monarchy, which had continued from Tisamenus to Ogygus, when Aegae was already a ruin, and Rhypae in a state of imbecility. About the year 305 BC, the federation was suspended by the discord among the cities, which had been caused by the interference of the Macedonians in the affairs of southern Greece. It was renewed between the years 281 and 274 BC, by seven cities of the western part of Achaea, which, thirty years later, were joined by Sicyon, Corinth, and Megara, and ultimately by the greater part of the Peloponnesus. During the two centuries intervening between the times of Polybius and of Strabo, all the smaller towns of Achaea had fully partaken in the general ruin of Greece; and Augustus having annexed Dyme, Pharae, and Tritaea to the jurisdiction of the Roman colony of Patrae, there remained, when Pausanias visited the country, about 170 years afterwards, very little besides ruins and places of worship in any of the Achaean cities, except Patrae and Aegium.

§ 3.207 April 15. — A strong north-eastern wind has continued to blow at Patra from the 6th to this day. The temperature, in the warmest hours of the day, was rather high, about 70° Fahrenheit: the hills in the gulf were capped, and it generally rained in the afternoon within the gulf. In February the same wind and the same appearance of the atmosphere prevailed, with a lower thermometer, though high for the season. I remarked this effect of the NE wind the more, because in Greece its general character is that of a clear and sharp wind, and it generally accompanies the fine weather in winter. Upon inquiry I found that the wind at sea all this time was scirocco (south-east). It seems, that in the narrow western parts of the gulf, between the capes Psaromyti and Papa, there are two prevailing winds, known by the names of Έμπασια and Ευγαζια, which, in the kakophonic Zantiote pronunciation of our worthy consul, sound very like what would be written in English, Bashaw and Washaw. Εμβάζει ο αέρας and Ευγάζει ο κόρφος are also common expressions to indicate the two winds. All the steady westerly breezes in the summer blow into the gulf and along its mid-channel. At Patra the Evgazia generally draws from the NE, being

§ 3.208 deflected upon Patra by the great mountains Rigani, Kaki Skala, and Paleo-Vuni. It is even known to blow in that direction when the wind is south at sea, and when beyond Cape Papa it is met by a true south wind, blowing through the channel of Zakytho. In the wider parts of the Corinthiac, as well as in the Saronic Gulf, the winds are more nearly what they are in the open sea, but modified in their course by the mountains. Thus, the Argolic Gulf gives the southerly wind a good deal of easting in the Corinthiac Gulf, from whence it draws through the mid-channel of the Strait of Naupactus, and becomes, as I have said, a north-east at Patra. The difference of the two kinds of north-east is strongly marked at Patra, a real north-east being clear and sharp; a false one being marked by the usual indications of a scirocco, namely, heat, covered mountains, and a hazy sky. Although the true north-east generally accompanies the fine weather in winter, and is light and frosty, terrible gales sometimes occur from that quarter, such as the euroclydon which blew St. Paul to Malta. These foul weather north-easters cap the mountains, but they are not very common, and a fall of rain soon brings about a change. In general the quality of the several winds in Greece are nearly the same as in England.

§ 3.209 This day (April 15) I return to Vostitza in company with Mr. Consul Strane. The pace of our agoyatic hacks is slow. At 10.25 set out; — 10.50, cross a river, (the Meilichus of Pausanias) on its banks are the villages of Apano and Kato Sykena, in a small valley, which to the west is bounded by the rugged heights near Patra, and in the opposite direction by similar heights separating the valley from the plain of Kasteli: 11.85 cross several small torrents (the Charadrus of the ancients) which join the sea a little west of the castle; — 11.50 cross a stream which joins the sea a little east of the castle (the Selemnus ). 12.25 arrive at the head of the bay of Tekieh (Panormus). Two Greek ships of Galaxidhi are at anchor in the bay; they sailed a few days ago from Patra for the purpose of keeping Easter at home, but having been arrested by the evgazia have lost the feast both at Patra and Galaxidhi. This is a great disappointment to the poor sailors, as Easter “comes but once a year”, and the Greeks are allowed by their tyrants to keep their Bairam without molestation. The Easter lamb is generally purchased several days before the Sunday, but never killed till the morning or the evening before. From Thursday to Monday no work is done, and not a boat sails. At Patra I saw the boatmen on Easter Sunday ranged in parties along the beach — each boat's crew seated on the ground in the hot sun, round a great fire, roasting lambs, and waiting with impatience, after the forty days' fast, till they were dressed. By nine or ten o'clock in the forenoon most of the families in the town had dined, and were already half drunk and dancing. At Patra the Greeks have full liberty to enjoy the festival of Lambri with all its honours of fine clothes, firing of crackers and pistols, painted eggs, roasted lambs, drinking, music, and dancing; but they cannot make the midnight procession through the streets as at Kalamata, where they spoke to me with great pride and satisfaction of their superiority in this respect over all the rest of the Morea. At 12.35 leave Tekieh; at 1.15 cross a stream which flowing from a narrow gorge in the advanced part of Panachatcum on the right, joins the sea at Drepanum; 1.35, Psatho-pyrgo; 3.45, khan of Lambiri; leave it at 5.07, and arrive, at 7.20, at the great plane tree of Vostitza.

§ 3.210 April 17. — Sail this morning to Xylo-kastro in a boat bound to that place to load currants: the distance by sea is about thirty English miles. In less than an hour we reach Cape Ghyftissa, a low promontory, which terminates the olive-covered plain of Vostitza at a distance of two or three miles from the town: it shelters the roadsted on the eastern side, and seems to have been formed by the alluvions of the river Selinus, like the promontory of the Meganitas, on the western side of the harbour. A bay three miles eastward of Ghyftissa is much frequented for the fishery of sardeles, an inferior kind of anchovy, which are salted in the gulf and carried to the islands. The fishermen are chiefly of Zakytho; they catch, among other fish, the Gofo which weighs sometimes from seventy to one hundred pounds. In the adjacent plain are the villages of Taratzes and Temena or Temeni: the latter name seems to indicate the position of the temenus of Neptune Heliconius; for although the temple and sacred grove were submerged by the earthquake which destroyed Helice, a part of the sacred portion of Neptune may have been saved, and have continued sacred to him. We are becalmed for two or three hours off Trupia and the mouth of the river of Kalavryta. Trupia is a metokhi of the monastery of Megaspilio, delightfully situated at the foot of steep hills

§ 3.212 on a woody height overlooking a narrow maritime plain, which is covered with currant vineyards. The wind springing up from the west, we quickly pass Cape Akrata, and arrive abreast of that called Avgo. The rivers of this coast all issue from the mountains through narrow' rocky openings, which give the coast a very peculiar aspect from the sea, the mountains, which all either rise abruptly from the shore, or are separated from it only by narrow levels, being divided into distinct masses by the rocky ravines. The rivers of Salmeniko and Vostitza, the Bokhusia, the river of Kalavryta, the Akrata, those of Zakhuli, and Trikkala, have all the same character. Between the Bokhusia and the river of Kalavryta the maritime plain, as I have just remarked, is covered with currant plantations; eastward of Akrata there is another similar level on the seaside, above which rise steep fertile slopes, studded with villages and clothed with corn fields, which produce some of the best Grinia wheat in the Morea. The sea is whitened by the water of the rivers which flow from the mountains above this bay. At Avgo we approach a barren, uncultivated coast, covered with shrubs and broken into small hills consisting of white precipices like those of Zakytho and Patra. Avgo is a promontory of these white cliffs, of a conical form, and, although not high, it is a very conspicuous object throughout the gulf. We then pass a pyrgo of Nuri Bey at Kamari, where begins a narrow plain extending to Xylo kastro. This plain, though much of it is uncultivated, produces rice, corn, olives, and currants. It is marshy, of a white argillaceous soil, like all the shore to the eastward of Cape Akrata, and so extremely unhealthy in summer as to be almost uninhabitable. A few overseers of the property of the Νοταραΐοι, or family of Notara, and of Nuri Bey, are the only persons who remain in that season at Kamari and Xylokastro. At 6 in the evening we land at the magazine of Xylo-kastro, and ride to the village, which stands at the foot of the hills half a mile distant. It consists only of half a dozen huts, belonging to one of the Notarei. The adjacent hills produce a good red wine unmixed with resin.

§ 3.213 April 18. — At 7.15 we set out for Trikkala, and enter the narrow vale of the river of Xylo-kastro, which, flowing from Mount Zyria, leaves the village of Xylo-kastro on the left bank at its exit from the gorge. At 7.40 the valley widens. Like the maritime plain of Xylo-kastro, it is covered with currant vineyards, thriving in a soil of white clay, and giving, it is said, triple the return of those which grow in the rich mould of Gastuni. To our right rise white precipices of the same kind of soil as the valley, but clothed with large pines, which form a wild and beautiful scenery. Before us are the two great summits of Mount Cyllene — Zyria (the proper Cyllene ) to the right, and Ghymno-vuni, or Mount Stymphalus, to the left. They are separated by a ravine, through which flows the principal branch of the river of Xylo-kastro. Under Zyria, in a lofty situation, is seen the town of Trikkala. At the opening of the valley we are met by the horses sent for us by the Notarei. Pass a pyrgo and zevgalati belonging to one of them. At 8.30, leaving on the left the valley, which is now narrow, we ascend the rugged hills to the right; the road very bad: towards the summit of the ridge the ground is more even. At 8.57 some Hellenic foundations occur in the road. At 925, being just below the village of Zugra, I observe some fragments of a temple, or other public edifice, on the road side to the left: it was situated on a narrow precipitous ridge, which advances

§ 3.215 from the main height of Zugra towards the river. Among the fragments are those of a cornice and of a semicircular pilaster, the diameter of which is one foot two inches. Proceeding, at 9.30, along the eastern side of the height of Zugra, I arrive, at 9.42, at some other ancient foundations. At 9.50, a little beyond a fountain on the road side, there is a small catacomb cut in the side of the rocky hill. Three or four minutes beyond this are more extensive remains; in some places three or four courses of regular masonry still subsist: the place is called Portes (the Gates), the catacomb Furno (the Oven). From the Furno I ascend to the summit of the height of Zugra, where I find the remains of a large ancient city — doubtless Pellene; for Strabo and Pausanias agree in placing the Pellenaea next to the Sicyonia westward; and in shewing, that the city stood at a distance of sixty stades from the sea, in a strong and lofty situation. Apollonius also has exactly described this position when he says, that Pellene stood on the brows of Aegialus: επ' οφρύσιν Αιγιαλοίο. The distance of sixty stades from the sea will agree very well with our two hours and a third,

§ 3.216 making some allowance in time for the rugged ascent. Parnassus, Helicon, Cithaeron, and Geraneia are seen from hence, and Cyllene occupies all the horizon to the southward. The hill or ridge of Pellene has a direction nearly north and south, Toward the southern end of it are some foundations mixed with plain columns. On the middle and highest summit of the hill I trace the foundations of a small inclosure, or citadel, within which is a piece of fluted Doric column, a foot and a half in diameter; and on the eastern side of the hill, below it, some other pieces of the same columns, near which lie those of a plain Doric frize — the triglyphs one foot seven inches and a half in width. Northward of the acropolis there are many foundations round a single tree, together with the ruin of a circular building, thirty-two feet in diameter: the masonry of the foundation is of a very regular Hellenic kind — the upper part of rough materials and tiles. Other remains are scattered over the heights in this quarter; but there is no building clearly traceable. To the east the hill of Zugra slopes to the precipices and steep declivities which overhang the river of Xylo-kastro. Zugra is a hamlet of ten houses, standing on this face of the height, just under the northern end of the ruins.

§ 3.217 The site of the ruins is called Tzerkovi. Pausanias remarks, that “the Pellenenses bordered on the Aegeiratae, and were the last of the Achaeans towards Sicyon and the Argolis; that between Aegeira and Pellene there was a small town, called Donusa, which had formerly been conquered and destroyed by the Sicyonii, and that it was said to be the same place mentioned by Homer in the Catalogue, but that the name had been negligently altered [into Γονόεσσα] by Pisistratus, or some of those who assisted him, when he collected the poems of Homer from the records in which they were dispersed.” “ Aristonautae,” Pausanias adds, “was a haven of the Pellenenses, to which there was a road along the sea of 120 stades from Aegeira. From thence to Pellene was half that distance. The city was placed on a hill, the summit of which was acute, and, from this cause, uninhabited: the town was divided into two parts, situated below the summit on either side. On the road [from Aristonautae ] to Pellene there

§ 3.218 was a statue of Hermes surnamed Dolius, of a square form, bearded, and having a hat on the head. In the same road, and near the city, there was a temple of Minerva, built of the stone produced in the country; it contained a statue of ivory and gold, which, according to the Pellenenses, was made by Phidias, and was an earlier work of that artist than either the statue of Minerva in the acropolis of Athens or that at Plataeae. They affirmed also, that there was an adytum sacred to Minerva under the basis of the statue, and that the air rising from thence, being moist, preserved the ivory. Above the temple of Minerva there was a grove, surrounded with a wall, sacred to Diana Soteira, and, opposite to it, the temple of Bacchus Lampter: at his festival, called Lampteria, torches were brought into the temple at night, and bowls of wine were placed in various parts of the city. Pellene contained also a temple of Apollo Theoxenius,

§ 3.219 with a statue of the god in brass; and there was a contest, called the Theoxenia, in which the natives contended for a prize of money. Near the temple of Apollo was that of Diana, whose statue was represented drawing the bow. In the agora there was a fountain supplied by a conduit; for the sources below the town, at the place called Glyceiae, were not plentiful. For washing, they employed rain water. The Gymnasium, destined to the exercise of the ephebi, contained a statue in stone of a native, named Promachus son of Dryon; to whom the Pellenenses had also raised a statue in brass at Olympia.” The lesser quarter of Pellene contained a temple of Lucina. Below the Gymnasium was the Posidium, formerly a demus; though deserted, it was still held sacred to Neptune. Sixty stades distant from Pellene was the Mysaeum, and a little beyond it Cyrus: in either place were copious fountains. At Mysaeum a festival of seven days was celebrated in a grove of trees in honour of Ceres, to whom the place was sacred. At Cyrus there was a sanctuary of Aesculapius, where suppliants were cured: at the principal fountain stood a statue of Aesculapius.

§ 3.220 To the westward of the site of Pellene the ridge descends suddenly to another stream, called Fonissa, which rises in the northern part of Mount Zyria, and flows in the direction of Mount Koryfi, a high insulated peak, very conspicuous from every part of the gulf — probably the αιπεινή Γονόεσσα of Homer. On its summit stands a ruined church of Panaghia Spiliotissa. The river Fonissa, after making a half circle to the west of this hill, joins the sea near Kamari. Having returned from the summit of the ridge to the Portes, I proceed at 11.23, and follow the crest of a height between the two rivers; it is a continuation of the ridge of Pellene, At 12.15 a high precipitous mountain, branching northward from the northern end of Zyria, and called Mavrioro, is four or five miles on the right, covered with firs and snow. This is probably the ancient Chelydorea, to which Pausanias refers in his Arcadics, when he remarks that the Pheneatice bordered upon two of the districts of Achaea, those of Aegeira and Pellene, and that its boundaries towards the latter were at a place near Mount Cyllene, called Porinas,

§ 3.221 and likewise in the mountain Chelydorea, of which the greater part belonged to the province of Achaea, that is to say, to the Pellenenses. Chelydorea received its name from the tortoise which Mercury was said to have found here, and converted into a lyre. At 12.20 we begin to ascend the steep slopes upon which Trikkala is situated. The town is divided into three quarters, called Apano, Meso, and Kato. At 12A3 we arrive at the Lower, and, proceeding a quarter of an hour higher, alight in Meso Makhala, at the house of Dr. Notara, where he and his two brothers, with their families, all reside in the same pyrgo. They are sons of the Gorgonda Notara, with whom Chandler lodged at Corinth. The eldest still occupies the family-house in that town. Panutzo, the second, is not married; he is modest, amiable, religious, and a good Hellenic scholar, and having neither art nor activity enough to fill the situation of Hodja-bashi, has resigned that honour to his younger brother Sotiraki, who is better adapted to such an office. Panutzo has a library in a room which he has built adjoining to his brother's pyrgo, and which serves for a dining-room for the family. His books are chiefly of medicine and divinity,

§ 3.222 and there is but a poor collection of classics; it is however, the only attempt at a private library that I have met with in Greece. The slopes of the hills on either side of the river of Xylo-kastro, from the foot of Mount Cyllene to the sea, form the most valuable part of the district of Trikkala, as they formerly did that of Pellene. They produce good corn, but with a return of not more than seven or eight to one. In some places the springs with which they abound feed channels of irrigation for fields of arabo-siti. The branch of the river which flows from Mount Zyria through Trikkala, is a white muddy torrent falling in cascades over the rocks: the main stream rises between Ghymno-vuni and Ziria, in a valley called Flamboritza, which belongs to the Notarei, and supplies excellent pasture in summer. On the other side of Ghymno-vuni is the plain of Stymphalus. Panutzo says that there is a theatre at Stymphalus cut in the rock, which is under water at this season, but visible in summer. He does not pretend however, that he has seen it; nor can I comprehend whereabouts it can be. He states also that there are two peaks at the summit of Mount Zyria, on one of which is a church of St. Elias, and on the other some foundations of the temple of Mercury Cyllenius. The houses of Trikkala are much dispersed among gardens, which are well watered by numerous rills from the mountain, and produce apples, plums, and cherries, in great plenty, but the fruit is not very good, as no pains are ever taken to improve its quality by ingrafting, or by new stocks from other places.

§ 3.223 April 19. — Ride up, and employ the morning in making observations from the highest point, immediately above Trikkala, called Varnevo, which commands a fine view of the eastern part of the Corinthiac gulf, with parts of those of Argos and Aegina, though, unfortunately for my purpose, neither Larissa (the castle of Argos ) nor the Acro-Corinth are visible. Some of the hills of the Phliasia hide the latter from view, and Mount Mavrioro impedes the view to the westward. I cannot discover or hear of any remains in this vicinity, that will answer to Mysaeum and Cyrus. Trikkala itself, though corresponding to them by its abundance of water, is too near to Pellene, being not more than half the sixty stades of Pausanias. It is evident, however, that they were in some part of the adjacent mountains, for the distance aforesaid can only be measured inland from the site of Pellene, that place being itself not more than sixty stades from the sea. The valley of Flamboritza seems the most probable situation. Olurus, a small town, or maritime castle, belonging to Pellene was probably at Xylo-kastro; which, standing at the entrance of the gorge leading from the maritime plain into the Pellenaeda was a position of great importance to the safety of that district. Though Xylo-kastro is now only a small hamlet, inhabited by the cultivators of the plain, and containing no remains of antiquity, the name seems to indicate that a fortress once occupied the site.

§ 3.224 April 20. — From Trikkala to Vasilika. The road, in order to avoid the abrupt descent to the main branch of the Xylo-kastro river, and the ascent from its right bank, makes a detour by the foot of the Ghymno-vuni. Here it traverses the lower part of the pine forests, which, in direct contradiction to the name of the mountain, cover the lower part of it. After passing many rivulets and copious springs, we arrive at Markasi, a small village, standing opposite to Trikkala on the right side of the great glen of the Xylo-kastro river, and about three miles distant in a straight line from Trikkala. From Markasi we continue to ascend the heights obliquely, chiefly through pine woods: at the hamlet of Ghelini, which stands on the edge of the great acclivity, we enter an elevated level, where the soil, unlike that of the district of Pellene, is red; there are many oaks dispersed over the plain, which is tolerably well cultivated, though the soil is by no means fertile. Beyond this elevated tract, which towards Ghymnovuni is bordered by pine forests, we descend into the valley of Kesari, in which the waters run to the right, and form a small lake discharged by a katavothra, the issue of which is probably the fountain of Stymphalus, for over the same extremity of the vale I perceive Mount Apelaurum in face of Stymphalus, at the foot of which are the Stymphalian zerethra; thus the two katavothra and the intermediate fountain lie nearly in a line. Apelaurum is here called Mermingo-longo, or Ant-forest. To the left of it appears Mount Armenia, and a part of the range of Artemisium. On the hill forming the western side of the valley into which we descend, stands the village of Kesari, with a large white pyrgo; this we leave on the right at some distance, and nearer, in the same direction, another village, Klemendi we then cross the northern end of the valley, which is narrow in this part. Left Trikkala at 9.15, passed Markasi at 11, Ghelini at 12.10, and Klemendi at 1. After a halt of ten minutes on the ascent of the eastern side of the valley of Kesari, we turn to the left, and from the summit of the mountain enjoy a fine prospect of the Isthmus, with a part of the gulf of Eghina. The ridge is covered with a mixture of pines and oaks, through which we descend in the direction of Sicyon, until we arrive upon broken clayey ground like that near Xylokastro. At 2.25, on the descent, I observe fragments of ancient pottery in the gullies by the road-side, and, on a neighbouring eminence to the right, some Hellenic foundations: soon afterwards descend into the valley of the stream which joins the sea on the western side of Skyon, and which takes its rise at no great distance above the place where we cross it. In this valley, at 2.50, pass some Hellenic foundations; at 2.56, some mills are on the right, worked by a derivation from the stream. Soon afterwards ascend the steep side of the hill of Sicyon, and arrive at the theatre at 3.15. As we ascended, I observed below, on either bank of the river, some heaps of ruins and squared blocks of stone.

§ 3.226 April 21. — At 9.10 descend from the village of Vasilika by a rugged road through an opening in the cliffs on the northern side of the hill of Sicyon. On the descent there is a fine fountain; the road then bends to the right, and at the bottom crosses a river, the ancient Asopus, which is now a large stream, but in summer is dry: 9.38, Ibrahim Bey, a village and large pyrgo belonging to Nuri Bey are on the right; many other small villages are seen in the plain, which, as formerly, is planted in many parts with olives and still preserves its ancient agricultural riches, in proportion at least to the general desolation. In natural fertility, however, it is not to be compared to Elis or Messenia; the best part is that immediately around Sicyon. The soil of the remainder, like that of Zakytho and a large portion of Achaea, is a white argillaceous substance, corrected perhaps by a mixture of calcareous matter. It is more adapted I believe to olives and vines, particularly the currant, than to grain which is better produced in some of the hilly parts of Achaea, or in the richer plains of Patrae, Dyme, and Elis. At 10.45, in the middle of the olive plantations of Vokha, as the plain is now called, we cross a small river, probably the Nemea, which anciently formed the boundary of the Corinthia and Sicyonia; and at 11.05 another stream, called the Longo Potamo; soon afterwards we pass another branch of the same, — and at 11.36 enter Corinth. Though with post-horses our pace from Sicyon has been slow, on account of the muddy roads and the nature of the soil, which after rain resembles soap.

§ 3.229 CHAPTER XXVIII: CORINTHIA. From the remotest period of Grecian history to the Roman conquest, Corinth maintained, with a very small territory, the highest rank among the states of Greece. In the meridian ages she was surpassed by some other cities, but was preeminent in the dawn as well as in the decline of independent Greece. Hers was the earliest school of policy and the arts, and she was the last to resist the ambition of Rome. The numerous colonies sent forth under Corinthian leaders are proofs of her power, populousness, and civilization, long before Athens or Sparta had assumed a superiority among the states of Greece. By the peculiarity of her position, Corinth became the centre of commercial intercourse between Europe and Asia, the chief port for the exchange of commodities between Greece and foreign nations, and the most frequented point of communication between the different parts of Greece itself. The multitude which flocked at the end of every third year to the Isthmian games was an additional source of wealth, so that the public revenue was proportionally greater than that of any of the states of Greece. It was in the period between the decline of Argos and the rise of Athens, when the public power and riches were concentrated in the persons of the Bacchiadae and Eetionidae, that Corinth was in the height of its splendour, but the same local advantages continued to maintain the republic in a high secondary station, until it became the head of that confederacy which, at length, was the only barrier opposed by independent Greece to the conquering arms of Rome. It is not surprising therefore, that when the Romans, tempted by the riches, provoked by the imprudent insolence of some of the citizens of Corinth, and encouraged by the treachery of others, succeeded in reducing the Achaean league to submission, their conquest of Corinth should have been followed by its pillage and destruction. The best part of the Corinthia was then given to Sicyon, and so complete was the ruin of the city, that the site was deserted for many years; serving only during that time

§ 3.231 to supply antiquities and works of art to Rome, where a taste for such objects was first strongly excited by the abundance and beauty of those found in the plunder and among the ruins of Corinth. A hundred and two years after the conquest by Mummius, Corinth was revived by Julius Caesar, who at the same time restored Carthage. He repeopled Corinth with Roman freedmen, mixed with Greeks from various quarters, and conferred upon it all the privileges of a Roman colony. When visited, about two centuries afterwards, by Pausanias, it preserved a larger share of its former magnificence than could have been expected after such calamities as it had undergone. [Nevertheless, the site, I conceive, cannot have been quite uninhabited, as the Romans neither destroyed the public buildings, nor persecuted the religion of the Corinthians. And as many of those buildings were still perfect in the time of Pausanias, there must have been some persons who had the care of them during the century of desolation.] The commanding situation, which gave so much distinction to the narrow territory of Corinth among the republics of Greece, although not of the same consequence in modern times,

§ 3.232 would be sufficient perhaps to make Corinth the capital, should Greece be ever united into one national body. Independently of those advantages, military and commercial, which it derives from a proximity both to the Adriatic and Aegaean branches of the Mediterranean, and from its occupying the communication between Peloponnesus and northern Greece, Corinth possesses some of the peculiarities which recommend Athens and Argos, in a greater degree than either. In the abundance of water for which it was anciently so justly renowned it has a superiority over those cities, very important in such a climate. The Acro-Corinth is a stronger and more commanding position than either the acropolis or the Larissa; Lechaeum, though devoid of the natural strength of Munychia or of Nauplia, yet, as lying at one third of the distance of those ports from their respective cities, is more convenient to commerce and more easily brought within a system of military protection: while the ports of the Corinthia on the Saronic Gulf, which, with the exception of Cenchreiae, were probably considered by the ancients less commodious than the landlocked harbour of Athens, are scarcely

§ 3.233 inferior to the latter in their aptitude to modern navigation. Pausanias, before he begins to describe the city of Corinth, speaks in the following terms of Lechaeum, of the road which led from the Isthmic Posidonium to Cenchreiae, of Cenchreiae itself, and of the objects on the road from Cenchreiae to Corinth. “Leches and Cenchrias, the reputed sons of Neptune by Peirene, daughter of Achelous, gave name,” he says, “to the two ports of the Corinthians. In Lechaeum there is a temple of Neptune with a brazen statue. In the road from the Isthmus to Cenchreiae there occurs a temple of Diana, containing an ancient statue made of wood. In Cenchreiae there is a temple of Venus with a statue of stone, and near it, upon a rock in the sea, a brazen Neptune. On the other projection of the port are temples of Aesculapius and of Isis. Over against Cenchreiae is the bath of Helene. This is an abundant source of salt water, slightly warm, flowing from a rock into the sea. On the road ascending [from Cenchreiae] to Corinth there are several sepulchral monuments

§ 3.234 near the gate is that of Diogenes of Sinope, whom the Greeks surname the Dog. There are also near the city a grove of cypresses named Craneium, the sacred portion of Bellerophontes, a temple of Venus Melanis, and the tomb of Lais, on which is the figure of a lioness holding a ram between her fore feet.” The position of Lechaeum is indicated by a height on the coast opposite to the middle of the modern town of Corinth: a lagoon adjacent to it may perhaps be the remains of the port, which was probably for the most part artificial, and was therefore more easily filled up by the effects of neglect, and by that accumulation of soil which, in the course of fifteen centuries, has changed the face of many of the level shores of Greece. Cenchreiae is not richer in vestiges of antiquity than Lechaeum, but it retains its ancient name, in the usual form of the modern accusative case, with the loss only of the Γ, Κεχριες. One part of the description of the place by Pausanias is curiously illustrated, and his text at the same time amended, by an existing colonial

§ 3.235 coin of Corinth of the time of Antoninus Pius. On the obverse, the port of Cenchreiae is represented as inclosed between two promontories; on each of which stands a temple. In the sea at the entrance of the port there is a statue of Neptune, holding a trident in one hand and a dolphin in the other. Comparing this representation with the passage of Pausanias, which is cited at length in a preceding note, it appears probable that the word used by him was not ρεύματι but ερματι “rock”, though some further correction in the words διά τής θαλάσση seems still to be required. Hence also it appears, that the temple of Venus stood on one of the promontories, a fact which is not very clearly indicated by the words of Pausanias. The bath of Helene is found at a mile to the southward of the port of Kekhries, near a cape forming the termination of the ridge which borders the Isthmus on the south, and which, at the western end, is separated from the Acrocorinthus by a ravine watered by a small river. The cape separates the bay of Kekhries from that which takes its name of Galataki from a village near the shore. The water of the bath of Helene rises at such a height and distance

§ 3.236 above the sea, that it serves to turn a mill in its passage. The water is tepid as Pausanias has remarked. The description of Corinth by Strabo is valuable, as it was one of the places, (perhaps one of the few places in Greece) which he visited in person. “Its situation”, he says as it is described by Hieronymus, Eudoxus, and others, and as we ourselves saw it soon after its restoration by the Romans, is as follows. A lofty mountain, named Acro-Corinth, rises three stades in perpendicular height, with an ascent by the road of thirty stades. It terminates in an acute vertex, and is most steep on the northern side, under which a level tableland is occupied by the city. The city was forty stades in circuit, and was surrounded by a wall in every part where it is not covered by the mountain. The Acro-Corinth was comprehended within the same inclosure, and was encompassed by it in every part except where the mountain was incapable of receiving a wall. On the ascent we observed the remains of the ancient line of fortification, so that it appeared that the entire circumference of the city was about eighty-five stades. In other parts the mountain is less precipitous, though it rises everywhere to a great height and is conspicuous on all sides.

§ 3.237 There is a small temple of Venus on the summit, and beneath the summit is the fountain Peirene, which does not flow, but remains always full of sweet and pellucid water. It is said, that from this fountain and some subterraneous veins, the sources are fed which run from the foot of the mountain through the city, and supply it with a sufficiency of water. There is also an abundance of wells in the city, and, as it is said, in the Acro-Corinth also, though we did not see any. Below the Peirene are considerable remains of the Sisypheium, a certain temple or palace built of white marble.” Pausanias begins his account of Corinth with the gate of Cenchreiae, between which and the agora he has not noticed any object. His description may be divided into four parts: 1. The agora. 2. The street leading to Lechaeum. 3. The street leading to Sicyon. 4. The ascent to the Acrocorinthus, followed by a description of that fortress. In the agora stood a Diana Ephesia — two wooden statues of Bacchus, one surnamed Lysius, the other Baccheius; they were covered with gilding, except the faces, which were painted red; — a temple of Fortune with an

§ 3.238 upright statue of Parian marble — a temple sacred to all the Gods — near the latter a fountain is suing from the mouth of a dolphin at the feet of a brazen Neptune, and a statue of Apollo Clarius in brass — a statue of Venus by Hermogenes of Cythera — two brazen upright statues of Hermes, one of them in a temple, the other in the open air — three statues of Jupiter in the open air, one called Chthonius, another Hypeistus, the other without any surname. In the middle of the agora there was a Minerva of brass, on the basis of which were figures of the Muses in relief Above the agora stood a temple sacred to Octavia, sister of Augustus. On the side of the agora leading to Lechaeum were Propylaea, upon which stood two gilded chariots, one bearing Phaethon and the other the Son. A little beyond the Propylaea, to the right of the road, stood a brazen Hercules, near which was the entrance to the fountain Peirene. The sources were adorned with white marble, and the water, which was excellent for drinking, flowed from some apartments resembling caverns into an open receptacle. Here also there was a statue of Apollo in an inclosure, which contained a picture of Ulysses punishing the suitors of Penelope. In continuing to follow

§ 3.239 the street leading to Lechaeum, there occurred a seated Hermes in brass, with a ram standing beside him, to indicate that Hermes is the deity who chiefly presides over flocks; not far from it were a Neptune, a Leucothea, and a Palaemon upon a dolphin. Near the statue of Neptune were baths constructed by the Spartan Eurycles, and adorned by him with various marbles, particularly with that of Croceae in Laconia. This was the most sumptuous bath in Corinth, although baths were numerous in the city in consequence of the abundance of fountains derived either from native sources or from the aqueduct of Stymphalus constructed by Hadrian, who had built also one of the baths in Corinth. On the left hand of the entrance into the bath of Eurycles stood a statue of Neptune, and near it a Diana represented as engaged in the chace. Beyond the latter was the most remarkable of all the fountains of Corinth; it was surmounted with a (brazen) statue of Bellerophontes mounted on Pegasus; the water flowed through the hoof of the horse.

§ 3.240 On the right of the street leading from the agora to Sicyon stood the temple of Apollo, containing a brazen statue of the god; a little farther was the fountain of Glauce. Above this was the Odeium, and near it the monument of Mermerus and Pheres, sons of Medeia, upon which stood a statue of Terror represented as a woman. Not far from this monument was the temple of Minerva Chalinitis, so called because Minerva, among other benefits conferred upon Bellerophontes, gave him the horse Pegasus, broke in the horse herself, and put the bridle upon him. The statue in this temple was made of wood, with the face, hands, and feet of white marble. The theatre was not far from the temple of Minerva, and contained a naked Hercules of wood, said to have been made by Daedalus. Above the theatre was the temple of Jupiter, surnamed Capetolius, a word equivalent to Coryphaeus in Greek; and

§ 3.241 not far from the theatre the ancient Gymnasium, — then the source of water called Lerna, which was surrounded with columns and seats, furnishing a cool retreat in the heat of summer; and temples of Jupiter and of Aesculapius, the former containing a brazen statue of Jupiter, the latter an Aesculapius and a Hygieia of white marble. In the ascent to the Acrocorinthus there were two sacred portions of Isis — one of Isis Pelagia, the other of Isis Aegyptia; and two others of Sarapis, in one of which he was surnamed “in Canobus”. Beyond these were some altars of the Sun, and a sanctuary of Necessity and Force, into which it was unlawful to enter. Above this stood a temple of the Mother of the Gods, containing a pillar and a throne, both made of stone. In a temple sacred to the Fates, to Ceres, and to Proserpine, there were not any statues visible. Here was the temple of Juno Bunaea, so called from its reputed founder, Bunus, son of Mercury. On the summit of the Acro-Corinthus there was a temple of Venus, containing statues of the

§ 3.242 goddess in armour, of the Sun, and of Love bearing a bow. Behind the temple there was a source of water, said to have been the same as that of Peirene in the city, to which it was supposed to descend underground. Upon comparing the two descriptions of ancient Corinth, by Strabo and Pausanias, it is remarkable, that although both agree in regard to the reported communication between the well of the Acro-Corinth and the fountain Peirene of the lower city, they differ as to the position of that lower fountain. Pausanias describes it on the road from the agora to Lechaeum, Strabo as issuing from the foot of the Acro-Corinth; and thus it appears that there were three sources at Corinth, all which, at some period of time at least, were known by the name of Peirene. All the three are still observable; namely, the well in the Acro-Corinth, the rivulets which issue at the foot of that hill, as described by Strabo, and the single source below the brow of the height on which the town is situated, in the position alluded to by Pausanias. It is not difficult to imagine, that between the times of Strabo and Pausanias a change may have taken place in the application of the name Peirene in the lower city, in consequence of the water of the northern fountain having

§ 3.243 been found by experience better than that of the sources at the foot of the Acro-Corinth. The practice of the modern Corinthians gives countenance to this supposition; for they use the former fountain alone for drinking, while the water which issues from below the Acro-Corinth, instead of being thought the lightest in Greece, as Athenaeus describes that of Peirene is considered heavy; the water is little used for drinking, and the springs are the constant resort of women washing clothes. As the remark of Athenaeus is nearly of the same date as the description of Pausanias, it is fair to apply them both to the same source of water. It appears that the new Corinthians, after the visit of Strabo, which was about fifty years posterior to their reestablishment, adopted Roman refinement on the subject of water so thoroughly, that, not contented with Peirene, or with Lerna, which sometimes was preferred to Peirene, or with any of their wells or other sources,, they at length prevailed upon the Emperor Hadrian to construct an aqueduct twenty miles in length, in order to bring water for them from Stymphalus.

§ 3.244 Pausanias divides the objects of curiosity at Corinth into such as belonged to the ancient Greek city, and those which were constructed by the Roman colony. He does not distinguish them all, but we may include among the latter the temple of Jupiter Capetolius, the temple of Octavia, the Odeium, the sanctuaries of Isis and Sarapis, the baths of Eurycles, and the aqueduct of Hadrian. There still exist the ruins of two buildings of Roman Corinth, and the remains also of two of the principal temples of the ancient city. The Roman remains are: — 1st. A large mass of brick work on the northern side of the bazar of modern Corinth, perhaps a part of one of the baths built by Hadrian; Wheler seems to have found it in 1676 nearly in its present state: 2dly. An amphitheatre, which that traveller did not see: it is excavated in the rock on the eastern side of the modern town, not far from the left bank of the torrent which I have already mentioned as separating the Acro-Corinth from the heights to the eastward. As this amphitheatre is not noticed by Pausanias, it is possibly a work posterior to his time. The area below is 290 feet by 190: the thickness of the

§ 3.245 remaining part of the cavea is 100 feet. Above this there was probably a superstructure of masonry supported upon arcades, but no remains of it are now to be seen. At one end of the amphitheatre are the remains of a subterraneous entrance for the wild beasts, or gladiators, who were to gratify the Roman taste of the colony of Corinth. The ruins belonging to ancient Corinth are: — 1st. On the western outskirts of the modern town, remains of the peristyle of a Doric temple; it forms part of the inclosure of a house. There are now standing five fluted columns belonging to one of the fronts, and three (counting the angular column twice) belonging to one of the sides of the peristyle, making seven columns in all. Of these, the three columns of the side, and the two adjoining columns of the front, are complete, with their architraves in four pieces. Of the two remaining columns of the front, the capital of one is gone, and the architraves of both. The columns are five feet ten inches in diameter at the base; the shafts are formed of a single piece of limestone, covered with a coating of fine stucco, according to a common practice of the Greeks when the material was not of the hardest kind. When Wheler visited Corinth in 1676, there were twelve columns standing,

§ 3.246 eleven of which preserved their architraves, and were so placed”, he remarks, “as to shew that they formed a portico about the cella of a temple”; the twelfth column was of the same diameter as the others, but stood upon a higher level — it was so situated, he adds, towards the western end within, as to prove that it had supported the roof of the pronaos. When Stuart designed this ruin, ninety years afterwards, it was in the same state; there were still four columns of the front remaining, and six of one of the sides, together with the column at the angle of the peristyle, and the column on a higher level, which Wheler supposed to have belonged to the pronaos, but which, being at the western end, belonged more probably to the posticum, as Greek temples generally faced the east. Some drawings of the same ruin, made about the year 1785, by Mayer, an artist employed by the British ambassador, Sir R. Ainslie, which have since been published, shew that between the visit of Stuart and that time the column of the posticum had fallen or had been removed. Not long afterwards four columns of the side, together with their three architraves, were thrown down, so that Mr. Hawkins, who visited the ruin in 1795, found it in its present state. The columns were demolished by the Turk whose house stands

§ 3.247 upon the site, because they stood in the way of some new buildings which he was projecting. The remains of this temple are not sufficient to enable us to ascertain its original length, the number of columns in the sides of Doric temples not having always the same proportion to the number in the front; but there can be no doubt that it had six columns in front, and that it was about sixty-five feet in breadth, or nearly the same as that of the temple of Nemea: it was therefore of the middle class of hexastyles as to magnitude, the larger, such as those of Paestum, Egesta, Syracuse, and Selinus, being about eighty feet; the smaller class, to which belong the temples of Theseus, Jupiter Panhellenius, and Apollo Epicurius, being about forty-five feet in breadth. 2. At a short distance to the northward of this ruin, on the brow of the cliffs overlooking the plain and bay of Lechaeum, there is an artificial level, on which I remarked the foundations of a large building, and some fragments of Doric columns, sufficient, I think, to prove that in this spot anciently stood another of the principal edifices of Grecian Corinth. It was apparently a temple of the usual plan, and of larger dimensions than that to which the extant columns belonged, for some fragments of shafts, probably not from the lowest part of the shaft,

§ 3.248 are six feet three inches in diameter, and the chord of the fluting is twelve inches. It seems therefore to have been a hexastyle about seventy-five feet in breadth. The position of these two temples renders it probable that they were both in or near the street leading from the agora to the Gate of Sicyon. The last-mentioned, having stood on the brow of a line of cliffs, which bounded the city on the north, must have been to the right of the street. Its dimensions and its situation, which is one of the most beautiful and commanding in Greece, shew that it was one of the chief, or rather the principal temple of the lower city, most probably that of Apollo, which Pausanias describes as being on the right hand proceeding towards the gate of Sicyon; for as to the temple of Jupiter, the epithet of Capetolius evinces that it was a work of the Roman colony, of which period the remains of the building alluded to have no semblance. According to the Corinthian mythology, Neptune and the Sun having contended for the possession of the Corinthia, Briareus adjudged the Isthmus to Neptune, and the Acro-Corinth to the Sun, who ceded it to Venus. The temple of Neptune was the chief building at the Isthmus, that of Venus occupied the summit of the Acro-Corinth: the temple of Apollo, therefore, was probably the chief sacred building in the lower town of Corinth.

§ 3.249 Of this, indeed, we derive a strong presumption from Herodotus. The temple of Jupiter Capetolius occupied, perhaps, a position on the edge of the cliffs to the westward of the temple of Apollo. The seven columns which are still standing probably belonged to the temple of Minerva Chalinitis. The great antiquity of the statue of the goddess, as described by Pausanias, and her epithet and worship, connected with the favourite fable of Bellerophontes and Pegasus, one of the earliest and most celebrated events of the Corinthian mythology, are in perfect conformity with the appearance of remote antiquity displayed in the existing columns. We not only find in them the narrow intercolumniation, tapering shafts, projecting capitals, and lofty architraves, which are the attributes of the early Doric, and which were perpetuated in the architecture of the western colonies of Greece, but we find also that the chief characteristic of those buildings is still stronger in the Corinthian temple than in any of them, its shaft being shorter in proportion to the diameter than in any known example of the Doric order, and, unlike that of any other Doric column of large

§ 3.250 dimensions, being composed of a single block of stone. Although no certainty can be obtained as to the date of this temple, I am inclined to think, when we consider the origin and history of the Doric order, and on comparing the peristyle of Corinth with the other most ancient temples, both of Greece Proper and of its western colonies, that the latest date to which it can be attributed is the middle of the seventh century before the Christian aera; but that it may be considerably more ancient. There were ruins of another very ancient building in the lower town of Corinth, in the time of Strabo, which seem to have disappeared before Pausanias travelled in Greece, as he makes no mention of it. Strabo describes the Sisypheium as situated below Peirene; he seems to have been doubtful with regard to its original use, but the manner in which he mentions its ruins shews its former magnitude; and its strength may be inferred from a circumstance mentioned by Diodorus. When Demetrius, son of Antigonus, was secretly admitted into the town by a party of the citizens, the garrison of Cassander took refuge partly in the

§ 3.251 Sisypheium, and a part in the Acro-Corinth. Demetrius, with great difficulty, and by the assistance of engines, obtained possession of the Sisypheium, after which the garrison of the Acro-Corinth surrendered. It might be doubted whether Strabo, in describing the position of the Sisypheium, with regard to Peirene, meant the fountain in the citadel, or that which issues from the foot of the Acro-Corinth, but there seems little doubt from Diodorus, that the Sisypheium was in the lower city. The table land at the foot of the Acro-Corinth, which was occupied by the city of Corinth, overlooks a lower level, extending along the sea-shore on one side to the Isthmus, and on the other to Sicyon. This lower level was traversed by two parallel walls, which connected Corinth with Lechaeum. Their length was twelve stades; the distance between them was not great, for Strabo describes the walls as built on either side of the road to Lechaeum.” On the other hand, it appears from a military

§ 3.252 operation which took place in the second year of the Corinthiac war that they included a space considerably broader than that of an ordinary road. Praxitas the Lacedaemonian, who was stationed at Sicyon, was introduced into the Longomural inclosure by some Corinthians disaffected towards the Argives and their allies, who were then in possession of Corinth. Finding the space between the walls too wide to be effectually occupied by his troops, which consisted of a Lacedaemonian mora, together with the Sicyonii and 150 Corinthian refugees, Praxitas added the protection of a rampart and ditch, stretching from the one wall to the other. In this hazardous position, with the enemy both in his front at Corinth, and in his rear at Lechaeum, Praxitas was attacked, after the interval of a day, by the combined forces from the city, the greater part of whom were Argives. The Lacedaemonians, as usual, were on the right of their line, the Sicyonii in the centre, the Corinthian refugees near the eastern wall.

§ 3.253 The Sicyonii were defeated by the Argives in the centre, and pursued towards the sea, while the Corinthian refugees, on the left, defeated an adverse body of mercenaries under Iphicrates, and advanced to the part of the city wall which separated the town from the Longomural inclosure. When the Argives found that the Lacedaemonians had maintained their position against the Corinthians opposed to them, they endeavoured to regain the city, but were intercepted by the Corinthian refugees. By this check they came into contact with the Lacedaemonians in such a manner as gave the latter the greatest advantage against the right or uncovered side of the Argives, who, thus exposed, were inevitably driven against the eastern wall. Many were slain in endeavouring to mount the steps leading up to the battlements, others were trodden down in the confusion by their own comrades. The dead bodies, says Xenophon, were piled up like heaps of corn, or wood, or stones. The walls of Corinth were celebrated for their height and strength, and they inclosed a larger space than those of any city in Greece, except Athens. If we reckon the periphery of

§ 3.254 the Long Walls, including Lechaeum, at thirty stades, and add to it the eighty-five stades assigned by Strabo to the circumference of the city, including the Acro-Corinth, the entire circuit of the fortifications will be 115 stades. This was about sixty stades less than the circumference of the walls of Athens, including its ports; but when it is considered that sixty or seventy stades of the Athenian walls inclosed only a kind of broad street, it will not appear that the whole of the inclosed space was much smaller at Corinth than at Athens, though probably there was a larger portion of uninhabited ground within the walls of Corinth. We read in Plutarch, that when Aratus surprised the Acro-Corinth, a part of his troops, after entering the town, reached the citadel without being seen, and that another part hid themselves under the rocks, while the patrol passed by. The narrative of Xenophon in the place which has just been referred to, shews the great importance of the Corinthian Long Walls in time of war. They completed a line of fortification from the summit of the Acro-Corinth to the sea, and thus intercepted the most direct and easy communication from the Isthmus into the

§ 3.255 Peloponnesus, for the rugged mountain which borders the southern side of the Isthmian plain, has only two passes, one by the opening on the eastern side of the Acro-Corinth, which obliged an enemy to pass under the eastern side of Corinth, and was moreover defended by a particular fortification, as some remains of walls still testify, the other along the shore at Cenchreiae, which was also a fortified place in the hands of the Corinthians. And hence the importance! of the pass of Cenchreiae, in all operations between the Peloponnesians and an enemy without the Isthmus, as is clearly shewn on more than one occasion in the Hellenics of Xenophon. Not long after the battle of Leuctra, when the victorious Boeotians invaded Laconia, and when the Athenians, having been persuaded to join the alliance against Thebes, sent Iphicrates with an army to Corinth to intercept the Boeotians on their return through the Isthmus, Xenophon censures the Athenian commander for posting on the Oneium (the passes of Mount Geraneia ) a body of men insufficient to withstand the Boeotians, while he left the most important pass of all, that of Cenchreiae, unguarded Three years afterwards, BC 366., when Epaminondas

§ 3.256 took the field in order to force the Achaeans and Arcadians to a more attentive observance of their alliance with Thebes, he directed the Argive commander, Peisias, to advance from Argos, and seize the passes of Oneium, in order to secure the safe passage of the Boeotians to the Isthmus. Peisias first surprised the height above Cenchreiae in the night, and occupied it with 2000 hoplitae, having provisions for seven days, the Thebans meantime advancing from the northward upon the passes of Geraneia. The Lacedaemonian and Athenian commanders upon that mountain, thus threatened in the rear, made no further resistance, and their enemy advanced without difficulty into Achaea. The successful attempt of Praxitas upon the Long Walls was immediately followed by the demolition of a part of them, by an incursion of the Lacedaemonians into the northern part of the Corinthia, and by the capture of Sidus and Crommyon. The Athenians felt their own territory so insecure, while the enemy was master of the Lechaean walls, that they took an early opportunity, after the departure of Praxitas, to march to Corinth with their whole disposable force, attended by masons and carpenters, and built up first the wall towards Sicyon, as their allied

§ 3.257 enemies were still in considerable force in that place, and then, with more leisure, the eastern wall. These works, however, were soon demolished, and the gates of Peloponnesus once more thrown open by Agesilaus, who, after having ravaged the Argolis in his way from Sparta, reached Corinth by the way of Tenea. His brother Teleutias at the same time attacked Lechaeum by sea, and destroyed its docks, The description of Corinth by Wheler and Spon shews that very little change has occurred here in the last 180 years; and as Nuri Bey defies the firmahn of the Porte, by which I obtained admittance into the Palamidhi and the other fortresses, asserting that his requires a particular and separate firmahn, I must be satisfied with verifying the accounts of Wheler and Spon, as well as an exterior view will permit. They were an hour in riding on horseback, by a narrow rugged path, to the first gate. Here they were obliged to alight, and to enter on foot. The first inclosure was well covered with houses, of which a part was in ruins, but many still inhabited; for those in the town consisted at that time chiefly of occasional residences for pleasure or business: the families of both Turks and Christians keeping the best part of their

§ 3.258 moveable property in the Castle, to which they were in the habit of retiring for security, whenever the corsairs, to whose robberies the coasts of Greece were then much exposed, excited any alarm below. The fortress contained a great number of cisterns, hewn in the rock, for collecting rain water, and two natural sources, the higher of which, towards the southern side of the hill, was very plentiful: it is the ancient Peirene. There were three or four mosks in the Castle, and five or six small churches, but most of the latter were ruined. The cathedral of the metropolitan bishop, dedicated to St. Nicolas, was “a very mean place for such an ecclesiastical dignity;” but it contained two old manuscripts of the Scripture, divided according to the usual readings of the Greek Church, and two liturgies of St. Basil, written upon long scrolls of parchment, rolled upon cylinders of wood. From the first, or outer castle, the two travellers entered the inner through a gate strongly built, with towers on each side of it. The inclosure into which it conducted comprehended all the remainder of the summit of the Acro-Corinth; Wheler reckoned it at two miles in circumference. The wall which surrounded it was strengthened, on two of the highest points, by towers, or bastions. On the eastern pinnacle of the mountain stood a small mosk, from whence

§ 3.259 they enjoyed the same magnificent prospect which Strabo has described. It may be seen almost as well by mounting a broad slope, between two crests of rock which project above the surface of the northern side of the AcroCorinth. This slope leads up, like a great natural road, to the very wall of that, which Wheler has described as the second inclosure of the fortress, and which, though inner in one sense, is exterior in another, since it encompasses the greater part of the summit of the hill, and has no second protection, except on the side of the western inclosure. The view comprehends perhaps a greater number of celebrated objects than any other in Greece, though in extent it is not to be compared to some others which I have seen. Hymettus bounds the horizon to the eastward, and the Parthenon is distinctly seen at a direct distance of not much less than fifty English miles. Beyond the Isthmus and bay of Lechaeum rise the Oneia, beyond which are seen all the great summits of Locris, Phocis, Boeotia, and Attica; and the two gulfs from the hill of Koryfi (Gonoessa) on the Corinthiac, to Sounion at the entrance of the Saronic. To the westward the view is impeded by a great hill, which may be called the Χήμμα, or eye-sore, of the Acro-Corinth, especially with regard to modern war. Its summit is a

§ 3.260 truncated peak, which may be reached on horseback by turning to the right of the road which leads to the Acro-Corinth, at a small distance short of the first gate. This height is particularly formidable to the western or lower inclosure of the modern fortress, which slopes towards the hill, and is completely exposed to its fire, at a distance of about 1000 yards. The wall of the greater inclosure is neither very strong nor very high, nor is it defended by a ditch; so that, while the attention of the garrison of the lower fortress is occupied from the height to the west, nothing but a force so numerous as to occupy all the points of the larger inclosure can secure it from an assault; for the passage up the northern slope of the hill which I have mentioned is not the only one by which the summit may be gained. It appears that the Venetians made some additions to the works of the western inclosure, during the twenty-five years they were in possession of Corinth, after Wheler's visit; but it does not seem from his description that they altered the general plan of the fortifications, or improved the defences of the great inclosure of the summit. It would require such additions, together with a very large garrison, to render the Acro-Corinth a very defensible post against a regular army in the present times.

§ 3.261 As pirates of late years have not been so formidable in these seas as they were in the time of Wheler, a larger proportion of the inhabitants of Corinth now reside in the lower town, and a smaller in the Castle, and there are fewer Turks; but the amount of population seems to be nearly the same. He reckons 1500, half of whom were Turks. There are now about 200 Greek, and 100 Turkish houses. The rayah householders pay from eighty to 600 piastres a year for the χαρτΙ, or acquittance for all taxes. The modern town, like the ancient, is situated on the intermediate level which lies between the foot of the Acro-Corinth and the range of cliffs. It occupies a large space of ground, being divided into several separate portions, with intervals of vine-yard and corn-land, and many of the houses are surrounded with gardens of orange, fig, almond, and other fruit trees, mixed with cypresses. The most remarkable object is the palace of Nuri Bey, standing in a large inclosure, near the middle of the cliff above mentioned. It is difficult to account for the extreme unhealthiness of Corinth in the summer and autumn, as the situation seems such as to expose it to the most complete ventilation. The dews are said to be particularly heavy. Like many of the other celebrated cities of Greece, Corinth retains its ancient name, and,

§ 3.262 in common with its neighbours, Megara, Aegina, and Argos, retains it without any alteration, although many a traveller perhaps has left Corinth with a different impression. The fact is, that the name is still written Κόρινθος, but as it generally occurs after the article τον, the initial of the name after n receives the sound of g, according to a modern practice, which was also that of the ancients. In rapid speech, the position of the accent on the first syllable has the effect of shortening the last two: and the final v or ς is often mute in modern Greek. Thus, Corinth in writing becomes Gortho in the vulgar tongue, though not always so in politer pronunciation: the Turks call it Ghiurdos. Corintho is the chief town of a kaza which is sixty miles in length, extending westward from Fonia ( Pheneus ) inclusive, as far as Fanari and Potamia, which are situated between Epidaurus and Troezen: to the south-eastward it confines on the districts of Argos and Nauplia. There are eighty villages, besides many small tjiftliks. Wheler says that the Kadi boasted of a jurisdiction extending over 300 villages; either therefore the kaza was still larger in his time than it is now, or it is much depopulated. The latter I believe to be the case, though it is certain that the district, particularly in the vicinity of the town, has benefited much from the hereditary

§ 3.263 power of the family of Nuri Bey, which has been established at Corinth during nearly a century; for here, as in every other part of Turkey, where a powerful family has been long settled, their interest in the prosperity of the district counteracts in some degree the usual blind and eager avarice of the Turkish character, and produces an effect favourable to the security of the subject: and this is greater and more permanent in proportion to the moderation of the governor, as by avoiding the character of accumulating treasure, he is so much the less exposed to the jealousy and rapacity of the Porte. In some parts of the district of Corinth, the vacuum caused by the Russian insurrection, and by the Albanian invasion consequent upon it, has been in great measure filled up by a settlement of Albanian peasants. No part of the vilayeti is remarkable for fertility, except the plains of Corinth and Sicyon, though corn is produced in every part. The principal produce is the oil, grain, silk, currants of the coast, and the cheese, butter, skins, honey, vermilion, resin, sheep and cattle of the interior: die latter part of the district is chiefly mountainous, but it contains a few inclosed plains, which, like those of Arcadia, are in great part unproductive, for want of drainage. The bey complained much to me of the blockade of the

§ 3.264 Adriatic and Naples, produced by Bonaparte's decrees against our commerce. The Sclavonian ships no longer come here for oil and cheese, while oil is at an excessive price at Trieste, and the cheese of the Morea is spoiling. In the garden of Notara's house, in which I am lodged, there is a well, the mouth of which is formed of a single cylindrical piece of white marble, pierced in the centre, a foot and a half in height, and sculptured with ten human figures in very low relief. The marble probably served the same purpose anciently as it now does; that is to say, that it was the peristomium.of a well, belonging perhaps to one of the temples of Corinth. It is said to have been formerly the mouth of a well in the house of a Turk in the eastern part of the town, who sold or made a present of it to Notara, and who, now that it has excited much attention from travellers, is so angry with himself for having parted with it, that he refuses to sell another piece belonging to the same monument, which still lies buried in his garden. The latter fragment, however, if it really exists, cannot contain much more than some ornamental moulding at the top of the peristomium, corresponding to a circle of Ionic

§ 3.265 eggs and beads which is under the feet of the figures, for the entire heads of the figures are still traced on Notara's marble, though much injured, and some of them almost obliterated, having probably been destroyed by the Turks, according to their custom when they meet with any representation of the human figure. The completeness of the stone at the bottom, and its incompleteness at the top, induced M. Notara, when he applied it on his well, to place the former side upwards, and thus to reverse the figures. They are all in a walking attitude. Seven of them face in one direction, and the remaining three in the opposite. The two that meet represent Apollo and Minerva, the former wearing a chlamys, with his right shoulder bare, his lyre under the left arm, and the plectrum in the right hand. Minerva is bare-headed; all the upper fore part of her body is covered in front with a scaly aegis, upon which appears a serpent, instead of the head of Medusa. She bears a helmet in her right hand, and a spear in the left. She is followed by Hercules, shouldering an enormous club, and carrying a bow and quiver in his left hand; a lion's skin, tied by the paws round his

§ 3.266 neck, hangs over his back. Behind him is a female, enveloped from the neck to the feet in a loose peplus, bound in the middle with a narrow zone. Diana follows Apollo, extending her left hand, in which is a bow, and with her right leading a stag by one of the feet. A quiver appears over her left shoulder: her right arm is disencumbered of the peplus, and shews a short tunic, covering only the breast and brachium, and apparently made of fur. She is followed by a matronly figure, whose limbs are extremely muscular, and who is clothed in a peplus differing only from that of the female following Hercules in having the ulnae bare. Next to her comes Mercury, naked, with the exception of a chlamys hanging upon his arms, and known only by the wings at his heels. He is followed by three females, of much lighter proportions than the others. In the first and third of these females the peplus is thrown aside from the right shoulder, and exhibits a tunic of fur, like that of Diana; the lining of fur appears also on the pepli of these two figures, at the feet. The middle figure is drest in a peplus like that of the matron who follows Diana; her looks are cast down, and her head is covered with a veil, of which she holds a comer between the thumb and finger of the right hand, while her left is joined to the right

§ 3.267 hand of the female who precedes, and who looks round, and appears to lead her. The last of these three females touches the elbow of the middle one with her left hand, looking at the same time in the opposite direction, and with a coquettish air holding up the lower end of her peplus with the right hand. The form of the breast is more developed in this figure than in any other; the peplus adheres more closely to the limbs, the shape is more displayed, and a broad belt, on which some ornaments are visible, passes across the left shoulder, and under the right arm — all shewing, but particularly the cestus, that the figure is intended for Venus. This monument is the best specimen I have met with in Greece, of that early style of Greek sculpture (before it was brought to perfection at Athens ), which Pausanias calls the Aeginetan, but of which Corinth and Sicyon were equally the schools. The noble and correct simplicity of true taste are conspicuous in the whole design, though the execution is still very distant from the perfection of the Attic style. With the exception of the three young females following Mercury, which form an extremely graceful group, all the other figures have an Egyptian rigidity of form and attitude. The drapery falls in equal folds and plaits, in the manner commonly known by the name of Etruscan, and is

§ 3.268 wrought with a diligence and care, proving that the steps by which the Greeks arrived at such perfection in the expression of drapery, were not less slow and painful than their progress in the imitation of animate nature, an observation which may account for the general imperfection of modern sculptors in drapery, who have never passed through the same long process of practice and experience, in this particular production of the chisel. It is evident that the subject of this relief is one of the actions of Hercules; on the vases of Athens, which so often represent them, we find him constantly attended by Minerva, as he is on this monument. It would seem also, that the veiled damsel, preceded by Mercury, and led by Venus and another female, is a bride. Is it the marriage of Hercules and Hebe? ADDITIONAL NOTE TO CHAPTER XXVIII: I have offered an opinion that the hexastyle temple, of which the extant columns at Corinth formed a part, is not less ancient than the middle of the seventh century before the Christian aera. In a question which admits only of a conjectural result, some kind of petitio principii is generally necessary. I assume, therefore, that the short monolithic shaft of the Corinthian temple, is a proof of its superior antiquity to

§ 3.269 every known example of the Doric order. The substitution of a more slender shaft, composed of several pieces of stone, in the place of a single mass of shorter proportions, is a natural step in the progress of architecture, in which art we generally find that the raising of large masses by the application of numerous hands, has preceded the study of a pleasing form, and the economy of materials and manual labour. It is incredible that the heavy proportions of the Corinthian temple should ever have been reverted to in Greece, after the more agreeable effect of a lighter column and entablature had been experienced, and they had been generally adopted. On the other hand, it is evident that a long course of years was required to bring the order into that almost perfect form to which it had attained, when a temple of the dimensions of that at Corinth was constructed. The peripteral hexastyle may be considered as having completed the invention in its simple state, before those decorations were gradually introduced, which were principally derived from the improving art of statuary, and which ended in giving to the Doric order the very different character exhibited in the great Athenian examples. It is almost unnecessary to remark, that this order of architecture, although styled Doric, is, in fact, the European Greek, in contradistinction to the Asiatic Greek, called the Ionic: it was invented in European Greece, about the same time that the Ionic was produced in Asia, and was equally employed by every tribe of Greeks, as well in Greece Proper, as by the colonies of those tribes in Italy and Sicily. At the same time it is not improperly termed Doric, inasmuch as it was brought to perfection in the Doric cities, which were the earliest schools of art in European Greece. The order I conceive to have been indigenous in that country, and to have been brought by slow gradations into its perfect state, without any assistance from foreign aid; for every part of it is traceable to the wants and consequent inventions of a people in a rude state of society, inhabiting a particular soil and

§ 3.270 climate, whose structures gradually improved, until the cell with a pitched roof, which enclosed the worshipped idol, was surrounded with a gallery supported by columns, and thus assumed the shape of a Doric temple. That some kind of temple was coeval with idolatry, we can hardly doubt. In the Iliad, in the Odyssey, as well as in the other very ancient poems ascribed to Homer, temples are frequently mentioned by the same term not, by which they were known to the Greeks in all subsequent ages. On the other hand, had Greek architecture then attained any of those characteristics by which it was afterwards known, Homer would scarcely have omitted to give some indication of them in the course of his poems. A similar inference may be drawn from the ruins of Mycenae, which are anterior to the time of the poet, and contain specimens of an architecture very different from the Doric. The artiste of those times were chiefly noted for the construction of treasuries, not of temples, which afterwards served for the same purposes as the former. Another fact deducible from the remains of Mycenae, as well as from the descriptions left by Pausanias and other authors of the Greek buildings of those times, is that the early colonies from Egypt, although they introduced some of the mythology of that country, did not transplant its arts in any great degree; for there is nothing at Mycenae bearing any resemblance to the monuments of Egypt, nor indeed have the temples of Greece any similarity to those of Egypt beyond the existence of columns, which are so natural an invention, that they are found in the huts or caves of similar climates in every part of the world, and in the course of improvement have become the principal ornament of sacred buildings in the most distant countries. In fact, the peculiarities of the architecture, both of Egypt and Greece, may be traced to the nature of each country. In a narrow valley, scarcely ever irrigated by the atmosphere, but annually inundated by the river, inclosed between stony ridges, and deficient in forest trees, the dwellings and temples were excavated in the rocks,

§ 3.271 or, at a later period, were imitations of caverns, with flat roofs, situated on heights beyond the reach of the inundation. In the rainy climate of Greece, on the other hand, a pitched roof was necessary: the country abounding in timber as well as stone, the earliest Doric buildings were naturally formed of the material more easily wrought, and hence the temple in stone was an imitation of a construction in wood, as all the details of Doric architecture tend to prove. Upon the whole, therefore, it may be concluded that the Doric order arose as soon as internal tranquillity had followed the settlement of the Heracleidae, in the Peloponnesus, and that it arose in those cities which were the earliest seats of art in Greece; namely, Sicyon, Corinth, and Argos. As a proof that the first temples were built of wood, there still remained, in the time of Pausanias, the ruins of an oaken temple at Mantineia of extreme antiquity; and the oaken column in the opisthodomus of the Heraeum of Olympia, if not actually a relic of a more early wooden temple of the same dimensions, was at least a memorial, shewing that the most ancient Heraeum had been constructed in that material. Three centuries are not too much to allow for the space of time which elapsed between the first conception of the Doric temple in wood, and its execution in stone, of the dimensions of the extant columns of Corinth. This would bring down the Corinthian temple to the eighth century before the Christian era. The next inquiry is, how far the period to which I have assigned the temple of Corinth will be justified by a comparison of its construction with that of the other existing monuments of Doric architecture, of which the date is better known; for of none, except the buildings of Athens and the temple of Phigaleia, is there any absolute certainty in this respect. The examples which may be presumed to approach the nearest to the Corinthian temple in point of time, and which, as being all hexastyles, furnish the most proper objects of comparison, are the Panhellenium of Aegina, the temples of Syracuse and Egesta, and the oldest of those at Pestum and Selinus. The following

§ 3.272 considerations may lead to an approximation to the date of the Panhellenium. Aeacus, grandfather of Achilles, was said to have been the founder of this temple; by which we can only understand the founder of the temple first erected on Mount Panhellenium. The natural resources of Aegina will not allow of the supposition, that the building of which the remains exist could have been executed in any period but that in which the island had acquired the height of its power and opulence by the success of its commerce. This success appears to have been developed simultaneously with that of Corinth, after the restoration of settled governments in the Peloponnesus under the Heracleidae, when the prosperity of Aegina increased rapidly under the protection of Argos and Epidaurus, until the island became an independent state, but at what exact period we have no means of ascertaining. About the year 560 BC, when Amasis, king of Egypt, encouraged commercial intercourse between Greece and Egypt, by creating a Greek city at Naucratis, in the Delta, Aegina was the only European republic which had a commercial colony there, and its Egyptian commerce seems to have rivalled that of the two most opulent states of Asia; for, when nine other Asiatic cities built a temple in common at Naucratis for the use of their citizens, Miletus, Samos, and Aegina each erected in that city a separate temple, dedicated to the principal deity of the metropolis; that of the Milesii to Apollo, that of the Samii to Juno, and that of the Aeginetae to Jupiter. It is difficult to conceive that, when this temple was executed, the great national work on Mount Panhellenium was not already completed; it is evident, at least, from Herodotus, that at that time the power

§ 3.273 of Aegina, as indicated by its rivalship with the Samii, was already of ancient date. The period below which it cannot well be supposed that the Panhellenium was erected, was when Athens, which Aegina in the height of its power had defied and insulted, obtained superiority at sea. It was after the expulsion of the Pisistratidae, B.C. 510, that the Athenians, already very considerable in wealth and power, began to turn their attention to naval affairs, with such success that, although they suffered some, injury from the Aeginetae about the year just mentioned, they had collected, thirty years afterwards, a fleet of fifty ships, which, in union with twenty from Corinth, was able to oppose the navy of Aegina with varying success. When both states put forth their utmost strength, in the battle of Salamis, BC. 480, Athens had one hundred and eighty ships, Aegina only forty-two. Such an increasing disparity in the power of two hostile neighbours, led inevitably to the subjection of the smaller; and, although Herodotus speaks in strong terms of the wealth which Aegina acquired by the Persian spoil at Plataea, it is neither to this period that we can attribute the erection of Panhellenium, nor to that in which the arts of peace were suspended throughout Greece by an overwhelming invasion, nor to that when the island was exerting itself to the utmost against a neighbour becoming every year more powerful; but to the earlier time when Aegina rivalled the chief states of Asia, and exceeded, in commerce and naval power, all those of Europe, with the exception of Corinth. Considering all

§ 3.274 these circumstances, it does not seem probable that the Panhellenium was undertaken at a period much later than 600 BC. On comparing it with the neighbouring temple of Theseus, which is known to have been built about 465 BC, and which is so exactly of the same class of hexastyles that the breadth of the two buildings is equal within a foot, we find such a similarity between them as at first sight would dispose the spectator to doubt that there can have been so great a difference between their dates as I have supposed. Their iconic decorations, however, furnish the strongest evidence of this difference; nor does the comparison, in this instance, admit of any deception, the sculptures of the Theseium having formed a part of the construction, which could not have been added subsequently to the erection of the temple; whereas the statues in the aeti of the Panhellenium, which may have been so added, would in this case only strengthen the opinion of there having been a considerable interval between the erection of the two temples. As to the statues having been more ancient than the building, that is almost impossible, at least with regard to the greater part of them, as they were obviously made expressly for the aeti; in short, it can hardly admit of a doubt, that they were contemporary with the building. Nor is it in the least surprising, that we should find architecture in a more advanced state than sculpture at any given period of antiquity, previous to that of the perfection of iconic sculpture, the latter art being so much the more difficult. Independently of these works, there are some proofs, in the comparative construction of the two temples, that the Panhellenium is the more ancient, if an entablature considerably heavier and a shorter column be admitted as an evidence of such antiquity. In the Panhellenium the height of the entablature is to that of the column, including the capital, as 1 to 253; in the Theseium the column is nearly three times the height of the entablature.

§ 3.275 The lower diameter of the shaft being unity, the height of the column, including the capital, is 53 in the Panhellenium; 57 in the Theseium. If a century at the least elapsed between the building of the temples of Jupiter Panhellenius and of Theseus, a much greater difference of date would be justified by an architectural comparison of the former building with the remains of the temple of Corinth, in which the short monolithic shaft and an architrave still heavier than that of the Panhellenium, seem to attest a much remoter antiquity. It would be absurd, however, to apply the rule of proportion to such a question; the only opinion, therefore, which can be given with any degree of confidence is, that the most recent period of time to which the Corinthian hexastyle can be attributed is the reign of Cypselus, who ruled at Corinth from the year 663 to the year 633 B.C., and than whom there is no Corinthian monarch more likely to have erected this edifice, as he was equally noted for the wealth which he extorted from his subjects, and for the magnificence of his dedications to the gods. [The architrave is the only member of the entablature preserved. According to the usual proportions of the several members among one another, the entire height of the entablature of the Corinthian temple was not less than half that of the column, including the capital.]

§ 3.276 But the temple of Corinth may also be ascribed, as I have already remarked, with great probability, to a remoter antiquity; for example, to the beginning of the eighth century, when Corinth, under the Bacchiadae, was already in the height of power and opulence, and when the populousness, which caused large colonies to be sent in the course of the two following centuries to Syracuse, Corcyra, Epirus, and Acarnania, was extremely favourable to the erection of great monuments. To any earlier time the temple can hardly be attributed consistently with the supposition, that the invention of the Doric order was not in progress until after the return of the Heracleidae. An objection to the high antiquity here assigned to the Corinthian temple may, perhaps, arise on comparing it with the oldest hexastyles of Paestum and Sicily; in all which, although none of them are probably older than the sixth century before J.C., we find proportions only a little lighter than those of Corinth, and differing from that specimen chiefly in having shafts formed of several pieces instead of one. I am inclined to attribute the resemblance to that common practice among colonies of adhering to metropolitan customs after they have become obsolete in the mother country, and which is found to prevail even in regard to language. The western colonists appear not to have diverged for a long time from the proportions which they brought with them at the time of their migration, and which were naturally not very different from those of the extant columns at Corinth. Corinth was at that time the principal seat of the arts in Greece, and consequently furnished, as well to her own colonies as to those from other parts of Greece, both models of Doric architecture and a great portion of the artists, who were some of the most important members of the new settlements. The changes which subsequent architects thought proper to make in the models originally taken from Greece, seem not to have been imitations of the contemporary improvements of the

§ 3.277 mother country, but to have arisen from the views of taste and expediency entertained by the colonial artists themselves. Hence arose a style of colonial Doric different from that of Greece Proper, and of which in general the characteristics are, a shorter and more tapering column, a more spreading echinus, a smaller intercolumniation, a greater entasis, and a higher entablature. I shall subjoin, in justification of these remarks and for the reader's convenience, a short statement of the proportions of the principal hexastyles of the western colonics, with the probable dates of each. Paestum. The hexastyle at Paestum, commonly called the temple of Neptune, is of the larger class: its breadth is nearly equal to that of four other hexastyles at Selinus, but it is shorter than three of them. The height of the column, including the capital, is 415 times the lower diameter of the shaft; the intercolumniation, 11; the diminution of the shaft upwards, or the difference between its upper and lower diameter, is one-thirteenth of the height of the shaft; the height of the entablature is to that of the column, including the capital, as 1 to 24. Posidonia, or Paestum, having been scarcely noticed by history, the evidence of its importance, like that of many other Greek cities, is to be derived only from its ruins and its coins. It was already a place of importance in the year.535 B.C., when the neighbouring town of Hyela was first built. It was probably founded about the year 700 B.C., not long after Sybaris had received a mixed colony of Achaeans and Troezeniane, who not having agreed together, the Troezenians sought a new settlement on the shore of the Paestan bay, and gave to it the name of Posidonia, which was the more ancient appellation of Troezen.

§ 3.278 The great hexastyle was probably built about the year 600 BC. Syracuse. Among the hexastyles of the western states still existing, the most interesting to compare with the temple of Corinth is that of Syracuse, this city having been the greatest and most illustrious of the Corinthian colonies. Its remains now form part of the church of Santa Maria delle Colonne, in the Piazza of Syracuse. It was nearly of the same dimensions as the other great hexastyles of the western colonies; but the proportions were a little lighter than those of the temples of Paestum and Egesta, and, consequently, it did not so nearly approach those of the temple of Corinth. The height of the columns is 44 times the lower diameter; the intercolumniation 11; the diminution of the shaft upwards one-nineteenth of its height; the height of the entablature is to that of the column as about 1 to. Diodorus informs us, that the temple of Minerva at Syracuse was erected under the aristocracy of the Gamori, or Geomori, by an architect named Agathocles, who was said to have been punished by the goddess for purloining some of the best pieces of stone intended for the building, and converting them to the construction of a private dwelling for himself. It is the received opinion of the modern Syracusans, that the existing temple was dedicated to Minerva; and, independently of the tradition, which may be allowed to have some degree of weight, there are good reasons for the supposition. In the island Ortygia, to which the modern town of Syracuse, like the first Corinthian colony, is confined, there were two principal temples, one dedicated to Diana, the other to Minerva. The temple of Minerva, who, as usual, was the

§ 3.279 guardian of the citadel, and was supposed to preside over the councils and arms of the state, stood in a lofty and conspicuous situation: for it was a custom among the Syracusan seamen to offer sacrifices to the goddess at the moment when a shield on the summit of her temple disappeared from their sight in sailing away from the island. The church of Santa Maria, in the Piazza, stands exactly in the central and highest part of Ortygia. Near the harbour, on the northern side of the island, there are some vestiges of another temple, which apparently was of larger dimensions: this probably was the temple of Diana; for as we learn from the ancient authors, that all Ortygia was sacred to the latter goddess, and that a festival of three days was held in her honour, it is easy to conceive, that her temple may have been larger than that of Minerva, though not perhaps so splendid. The Gamori were the nobles, who inherited the lands divided among the original colonists who accompanied Archias from Corinth. They obtained the government in the year 596 B.C., (the same year, according to the Parian Chronicle, in which Sappho fled from Mytilene to Syracuse;) and they were expelled by the lower orders not long before the time when Gelo made himself master of Syracuse under pretence of reestablishing the Gamori. The latter event took place in the year 494 BC The temple, therefore, may be considered a work of the middle of the sixth century BC. Egesta, or Segesta, one of the most ancient of the Greek settlements in Sicily, was unfortunate in having been less favourably situated for commerce than any of its neighbours, and in having been constantly in a state of hostility with one or other of them concerning its boundaries, that incessant subject of dispute among the Greek republics. It was particularly with Selinus that Egesta quarrelled on this subject,

§ 3.280 and Selinus having been much the richer state in consequence of its commercial advantages, the game was a losing one for the Egestaei, who were at length so much distressed in consequence, that they implored the assistance of the Athenians in the year 416 B.C and gave rise to their Sicilian expedition. When the Athenian fleet arrived, however, the Egestaei were unable to produce more than thirty talents towards the expenses of their allies. Not long afterwards they invited that fatal intervention of the Carthaginians which put an end to all works of peace in the western part of Sicily. Of the inferiority of the Egestaei in wealth to the other Sicilian republics, in the most flourishing period of Sicilian history, there is some appearance in their extant monuments. The theatre is very small, and there are no remains of more than one temple, which, although of such large dimensions as testify great power in the republic at the time when it was undertaken, indicates, by its unfluted columns, that it was never completed according to the original intention of the architect. As it appears from Diodorus, that the wars of the Egestaei and Selinunti commenced as early as the 50th Olympiad, BC 580, it is not impossible that the completion of the temple may have been interrupted at that early period, for it has an appearance of one of the most ancient Doric buildings in existence. Like the two great hexastyles at Syracuse and Paestum, it has fourteen columns on the sides. Its dimensions are very nearly those of the temple at Paestum; but the columns were rather smaller and less tapering, and the intercolumniation greater. The entablature is nearly half the height of the column, which is a greater proportion than occurs in any known example of the Doric order, except the temple at Corinth. Selinus. The labours of Messrs. Angell and Harris, who devoted an entire year to the examination of the ruins of

§ 3.281 Selinus, and who, at the expense of the life of the latter gentleman, obtained for the first time accurate measurements of six temples at that place, have thus acquired a most important addition to the existing knowledge of Doric architecture. The details of the several temples not having been yet published, it can only be here remarked, that two of them appear to furnish a remarkable exception to the other examples of colonial Doric, in having a wider intercolumniation, a lighter entablature, and a more slender shaft, though an equally spreading echinus in the capital; while the others have proportions not very different from those already quoted of the hexastyles of Paestum and Syracuse. Selinus was founded, by a colony from Hybla, about the year 636 BC., and in 410 was taken by the Carthaginians. It continued, indeed, to'be inhabited by a mixed population of Selinusii, Himeraei, and others, until the year 268 B.c., when it was destroyed by the Carthaginians, and the inhabitants removed to Lilybaeum; but there cannot be a question, that all the great buildings of which the remains are still preserved are the productions of the earlier and only flourishing period of the republic. The ancient history of Sicily is so little known to us, that we have difficulty in understanding by what extraordinary means it was, that a territory of small dimensions, and a city not enjoying much advantage of situation, were enabled to raise so many magnificent temples in so short a space of time. Four of them were of the larger class of hexastyles; a fifth was an octastyle, which in magnitude and beauty of design was exceeded by very few of the buildings of antiquity; and the sixth, although of the smaller class of hexastyles, was larger than either of the' three existing hexastyles of Greece proper at Aegina, Athens, and Phigaleia. Three of the temples of

§ 3.282 Selinus, of which the octastyle is one, stood in the city; the other three, of which the small hexastyle is one, stood on the western height, which was anciently the acropolis. The latter situation being that in which the earliest temple was probably built, and the middle temple on the western height having been apparently more ancient than the other great hexastyle on that hill, we may presume that it is the most ancient of the four great hexastyles of Selinus. As the Hyblaean colony must have arisen to power and opulence with great rapidity, it may easily be conceived, that this temple was commenced at least as early as the year 600 B.C. Its eastern front was adorned with sculptured metopes, three of which, in tolerable preservation, were discovered, together with fragments of some of the others, by the English architects, the survivor of whom has published the drawings of them. One of the three metopes represents three human figures and a quadriga; the subject of a second is the common fable of the Gorgotomia, or Perseus cutting off the head of Medusa; that of the third is Hercules carrying off the Cercopes on his shoulders. Although these works betray the unskilfulness of an inferior order of artists, as well as the rudeness of archaic art, they resemble in manner the statues of the Panhellenium, with which they appear, from what I have just stated as to the date of the temple, to have been nearly coeval. Their inferiority of style is easily accounted for, the statues of Aegina having been produced in one of the best schools of Greek art, those of Selinus in a very distant colony. A similar difference and the same kind of inferiority are found in the reliefs of the temple of Phigaleia compared with those of the Parthenon, although the temples were built by the same architect. Two of the other large hexastyles of Selinus were decorated with sculptures. In the middle temple of the eastern hill the decoration was confined, as in the middle temple of the western hill, to the metopes of the eastern front; in the southern temple of the eastern hill it was confined to the metopes of the pronaos and posticum.

§ 3.283 Some fragments only of these sculptures have been discovered; but those which belonged to the middle temple are sufficient to shew, that the sculptures related to the exploits of Minerva, that the style is that which the ancients called the Aeginetan, but that it is of a less remote antiquity than that of the metopes of the middle temple of the western hill — a circumstance which agrees with the comparative construction of the two temples: the columns being more slender, the intercolumniation greater in proportion to the lower diameter of the column, and the peristyle wider in the eastern than in the western temple. The octastyle temple of Selinus having, like many such great undertakings, never been completed, may from this circumstance be regarded as the most recent of the Selinusian edifices. It was probably a contemporary and rival of the temple of Jupiter Olympius in the neighbouring city of Acragas, and dedicated to the same deity; for Herodotus shews, that there was a sanctuary of Jupiter in the agora of Selinus; and, by alluding to an altar only, and not to a temple, he affords a strong argument, that the great octastyle was not begun at the time of which he speaks, or about 500 BC. The date of the Acragantine temple is better known than that of any Doric building, except those of Athens and Phigaleia. It was commenced by Theron, who died in the year 472, after a reign of ten years, and it appears to have been undertaken almost immediately after he ascended the throne; for

§ 3.284 Diodorus informs us, that the Carthaginian captives, who were taken at Himera in the year 480, were employed at Acragas in cutting stones “for the construction, among other purposes, of the greatest temples of the gods.” As the historian has elsewhere given a particular description of the Olympium, and descanted upon its magnitude, we cannot doubt that he alluded to that temple. When the Carthaginians captured and demolished Acragas, in the year 405, the temple still wanted the roof, and had, therefore, been more than seventy-five years in progress. Acragas. The two hexastyles at Acragas, commonly called the temples of Juno and Concord, resemble each other so nearly, as well in dimensions as in other respects, that one cannot but feel inclined to ascribe them to the same age. They are nearly of the same size as the small hexastyle of Selinus: the columns are 47 diameters in height. As these temples are lighter in their proportions than the temples of Paestum, Syracuse, Egesta, and Selinus, they may be supposed not earlier than the year 500; but probably not much later, as the architects of Magna Graecia appear in the fifth century to have begun to despise that simplicity and uniformity of design which are still remarkable in the two Acragantine temples. This deviation is very conspicuous in the plan and details of the heptastyle of Jupiter Olympius at Acragas, and in the enneastyle at Paestum. The florid ornaments under the capitals of the columns in the latter temple, as well as in the smaller hexastyle at the same place, indicate a similar deviation. These, however, were elegant innovations; hut the architect seems to have been deficient in the good taste of Sicily when he made the entasis, or swelling of the columns, so apparent that they look like a caricature of the Doric order. At Athens the entasis is so small, that its existence has only been recently ascertained.

§ 3.285 CHAPTER XXIX CORINTHIA April 23. I ride this afternoon to Kalamaki, a harbour in the Saronic Gulf, from the head of which, to the shore of the Bay of Corinth, the isthmus is narrowest. Having traversed for twenty minutes the flat summit on the eastern side of Corinth, where a thin stratum of soil covers the rock, I then cross by a bridge a stream flowing from the opening between the Acro-Corinth and the rocky ridge of nearly equal height, which extends from thence to the shore of the Saronic Gulf, and there terminates on the southern side of Kekhries. We then pass over a cultivated level to Hexamili, a small village with a large tower, belonging to Nuri Bey. Beyond this the rock makes its appearance in many places above the soil. It was from hence that the ancient Corinthians obtained their stone

§ 3.286 for building; for I observe that all these rocks have been quarried. At Hexamili the road to Kekhries (Cenchreiae) branches off to the right: we continue to pass among quarries and open pastures, where are large flocks of sheep and goats; and in one hour and forty minutes from Corinth arrive at the Posidonium, or Isthmic Hierum, near the harbour anciently called Schoenus and now Kalamaki. Here I find the vestiges of a theatre, and a stadium. Of the former there remain only the substruction of the cavea, and some traces of the proscenium, of the latter some foundations of the wall which supported the rectilinear end; the circular end has been ruined by a torrent which has broken through it. From the upper end to the remains of the wall I measured 650 feet. At about fifty yards from this wall, to the northward, and about double that distance eastward of the theatre, are the remains of an ancient enclosure, which was undoubtedly the peribolus of the temple of Neptune. The wall which surrounded the sacred ground is now a heap of ruins; it was of the most regular kind of Hellenic masonry externally, but filled up with rubble between the casings. It was flanked with square towers; the northern side formed

§ 3.287 part of a line of fortification, which stretched across the isthmus. Among the stones of the peribolus I find a few fragments of a large Doric edifice, particularly that of a column, of which the chord of the fluting is ten inches and a half in length; this is the only measurable dimension, but it is sufficient, I think, to shew that the column belonged to the Temple of Neptune, though I could not find a vestige of the foundations of that building. The inclosed space is now a level pasture. The northern wall of the peribolus, or Isthmic wall, takes a southerly direction eastward of the peribolus, and is traced as far as a brow which overhangs, on the northern side, a small torrent bed, terminating in a level at the head of the Bay of Kalmaki. Another wall crossed from the same brow to a height on the southern side of the level, where probably stood a small fortress, forming part of a plan of defence towards the sea; ail these walls were flanked with square towers. Westward of the peribolus the Isthmic wall is traced, for about 800 yards, to the foundations of another small fortress; and from thence, westward across the isthmus, as far as the bay of Lechaeum, and thus the whole appears clearly to have been a connected system of permanent fortification for the defence of the isthmus, as well as for the safety of the hierum. The level

§ 3.288 of Kalamaki terminates to the westward in eminences of a soft kind of rock, which are covered with small shrubs; these heights, though not many feet above the level of the sea, are sufficiently so to require an immense labour in cutting through them, to unite the two gulfs: they are the last falls of the Oneia, which rise gradually from this point to the great summit, anciently called Geraneia. The ruins of the Isthmic Hierum seem to have suffered great dilapidation since Wheler's visit in 1676. He says, “There are yet to be seen the ruins, not only of the town, old walls, and several old churches, but also the remains of the Isthmian Theater. Here were many more temples, and excellent edifices, mentioned by Pausanias, and many more he gives no account of, as we learned from a very fine inscription we found half way in the ground, by a little ruined church, which speaks of many temples, gardens and porticos, repaired by one Publius Licinius Priscus Juventianus. There are yet remaining in several places foundations of the walls that were built by the Lacedaemonians from one sea to the other, to secure their peninsula from the incursions of their enemies;

§ 3.289 which the Venetians repaired, when they had in possession the kingdom of Morea, and were lords of it.” Chandler in 1766 searched in vain for the inscription mentioned by Wheler, and found, upon inquiry, that it had been removed to the Museum of Verona. Pausanias has given the following description of the Isthmic Hierum. “Farther on, a pine tree is still seen, growing by the sea-side; here was the altar of Melicertes: it is said that the dolphin brought the boy [Melicertes or Palaemon] to this place, and that Sisyphus, finding the body, buried it in the Isthmus, and established the contest of the Isthmia in his honour. At the beginning of the isthmus is the place where the robber Sinis &c.... The Corinthians say that Neptune contended with the Sun for this country; that Briareus, being umpire of the dispute, assigned the Isthmus to Neptune, and to the Sun the hill above the city of Corinth; and that hence the Isthmus became sacred to Neptune. The remarkable objects here are a theatre and a stadium, both constructed of white marble.

§ 3.290 In approaching the temple of Neptune, there are on one side statues of athletae, who have been victorious in the Isthmia, and on the other pine trees, planted for the most part in a straight line. Upon the temple, which is not very large, stand Tritons; in the pronaos are two statues of Neptune, one of Amphitrite, and a fourth of the Sea: all these figures are in brass. The dedications within the temple were made in my time, by Herodes the Athenian. They consist of four horses, all gilded, except the hoofs, which are of ivory: two Tritons stand by the horses, golden as far down as the loins, and of ivory below. Amphitrite and Neptune are standing in the chariot, and the boy Palaemon stands upright upon a dolphin: these figures also are of ivory and gold. On the basis which supports the chariot there is a sculpture in relief. In the middle Thalassa supports Venus, who is

§ 3.291 represented as a child: on either side are the nymphs called Nereides. On the same basis are seen the sons of Neptune and of Tyndarus, for these also are considered salutary to ships and seamen. The other dedications in the temple are statues of Calm, and of the Sea, a horse formed like a whale below the chest, Ino, Bellerophontes, and the horse Pegasus. Within the sacred inclosure to the left, is the temple of Palaemon, containing statues of Neptune, Leucothea, and Palaemon; there is another sacred place called the Adytum, which has a subterraneous entrance, and where Palaemon is said to be concealed. There is also an ancient sanctuary, called the altar of the Cyclopes, where sacrifices are made to them. As to the tombs of Sisyphus and Neleus, it would

§ 3.292 not be possible for any person to find them, even though he had read the verses of Eumelus.... The celebration of the Isthmic games did not cease, even after the destruction of Corinth by Mummius, but the Sicyonii had the care of them; and, on the restoration of the city, the honour reverted to the new inhabitants.” The situation of the sacred περιβολο, or inclosure, which contained the Temple of Neptune and some other sanctuaries, the manner in which its inclosure was connected with the Isthmic wall, as well as the relative position of the stadium and theatre, are described in the plan of the Sacred Grove, which accompanies this volume. The ground inclosed by the peribolus was about 640 feet in length; at the southern end it had a breadth of 300 feet, which expanded at the northern end, by means of an oblique wall facing the south-east, to a breadth of 600 feet. I have already remarked, that I found, among the ruins of the peribolus, a part of a fluted Doric shaft, of which the chord of the fluting measured ten

§ 3.293 inches and a half, which is the same as the chord of the fluting at the base of the extant columns at Corinth. If we suppose the number of the flutings to have been twenty, as in the columns at Corinth, the Parthenon, the Theseium, and the far greater number of Doric specimens, it will follow, that the part of the shaft to which the fluting belonged was the same as that of the columns of Corinth at the base; but as it is more likely that the fluting was not exactly from the base, the columns were probably rather larger than those of Corinth. As Pausanias represents the Isthmic Posidonium not to have been of the larger class of temples (μέγεθος ου μείζονι), we may infer that it was a hexastyle, for an octastyle with such columns would have been not less than ninety feet in breadth. It was consequently not very different in dimensions from the hexastyle of Corinth, or about sixty-five feet in breadth. The southern part of the space inclosed by the peribolus seems to be exactly adapted to the reception of such a temple, for there would remain between it and the peribolus on three sides a breadth something greater than that of the temple, including its stylobate, or basis. The angular portion of the inclosure to the eastward we may suppose to have been occupied by the Palaemonium, which Pausanias describes,

§ 3.294 as being within the peribolus to the left. In this angle, also, were probably the Adytum of Palaemon, and the temple of the Cyclopes. The remaining space within the peribolus, eastward of the Palaemonium, and northward of the Posidonium, seems to have been occupied by the avenue which was formed, according to Pausanias, on one side by statues of victors in the Isthmic contest, on the other by a row of pine trees. I should infer also from Strabo, that a grove of these trees occupied all the vacant spaces around the stadium and theatre, as well as the sacred inclosure; so that, in this instance, the word αλσος appears not to have been applied, as in some others, to a mere nominal grove. From the inscription, copied by Wheler and Spon, now in the Maffei collection at Verona, it appears that there were several buildings at the Isthmic Posidonium, besides those which Pausanias mentions. The inscription records some erections and repairs, executed here by Publius Licinius Priscus Juventianus, who held the office of high priest

§ 3.295 for life, and was probably a wealthy Roman colonist of Corinth. He built lodgings for the use of the athletae, who assembled here from every part of the world, for the Isthmic contest. He restored also the following buildings: the Palaemonium, with its decorations; the sanctuary of Palaemon, and its sacred avenue; the altars of the patriote deities, with their peribolus and pronaos; the houses in which the athletae were examined, and in which the adjudication of the contests took place; the temple of the Sun, together with its statue and peribolus. He erected, moreover, at his own expense, the peribolus of the Sacred Grove, and within it temples of Ceres, Proserpine, Bacchus, and Diana, together with their statues and decorations, and pronai. He repaired the temples of Abundance and Proserpine, and the temple of Pluto, and the steps and substructions, which had been dilapidated by the effect of earthquakes or antiquity; and he dedicated a portico at the Stadium, as well as arched apartments, and their decorations, for the use of the superintendant of the agora.

§ 3.296 Of the places here mentioned, the Palaemonium and Stadium are noticed under those names by Pausanias. The ώγκττηριον and its ιερα εΐσοδος are evidently the same as the secret sanctuary of Palaemon and its subterraneous entrance, mentioned by Pausanias. That which the latter describes as a sanctuary containing altars of the Cyclopes, accords perfectly also with that which in the inscription is designated as the altars of local deities, having a pronaos and peribolus. As to the other buildings which were repaired by Juventianus, namely, the temples of the Sun, of Abundance, of Proserpine, and of Pluto, the silence of Pausanias concerning them may be ascribed, perhaps, to their ruinous condition when he visited the Isthmus. The temples of Ceres, Proserpine, Bacchus, and Diana, as well as the wall which surrounded the whole Sacred Grove, comprehending probably the Hierum, Theatre, and Stadium, we may conclude to have been erected for the first time by Juventianus, who appears, therefore, to have lived, or at least to have executed these works, after the time of Pausanias. The Isthmus, a word of uncertain origin, and which, from being the proper name of this place, has been adopted as a general term for the neck

§ 3.297 of a peninsula, comprehended in its more extended sense the whole Corinthian plain lying between the two seas: the narrowest part, from Schoenus to the eastern extremity of the bay of Lechaeum, was distinguished as the Diolcus, or place where vessels were dragged across. By Diodorus, Strabo, and Scylax, the breadth of the Isthmus is stated at forty stades, by Pliny at five miles, and by Lucian at twenty stades, which is as much below the truth as the former distance is above it, the real breadth being about three English miles and a half in direct distance. Mela, therefore, is correct in estimating the isthmus as four Roman miles in breadth, if we take it as road distance. As nothing can be more obvious and natural than the project of erecting works of defence across the Isthmus, for the protection of the peninsula, or than the more important design of cutting a canal through it, by which its defensive strength would be increased, at the same time that a circuitous and often a dangerous navigation round the southern end of the peninsula would be avoided; so we find, that both these operations are often alluded to in ancient history.

§ 3.298 The latter, partly owing to the real difficulty of the undertaking, and partly to the facility with which vessels so small as those employed by the ancients were dragged across the Isthmus, has never been effected. Of all the persons who entertained the project of cutting through the Isthmus, the Roman emperor Nero seems to have been the only one who ever really made the attempt. Neither Periander, nor Demetrius Poliorcetes, nor Julius Caesar, nor Caligula, nor Atticus Herodes, appear, to have done more than meditate such an operation.

§ 3.299 Nero, on the contrary, really began the work, superintended it in person, and, for the sake of example, assisted in, the labour; but he had only wrought five or six days, and advanced four stades, when the report of conspiracies at Rome, and the intelligence of those disaffections in the Roman army in Gaul which soon afterwards broke out in the rebellion of Vindex, obliged him to abandon the attempt, under the same pretext, of an inequality of level in the two seas, which had before served as an excuse to Demetrius. The words of Dion Cassius, Suetonius, and Lucian, but especially those of the last author, clearly shew, that the canal of Nero was begun at the Diolcus, or narrowest part of the Isthmus, and not at Lechaeum, as Dr. Chandler supposed. Philostratus, indeed, uses the words από του Λεχαίου: but it was customary to call the part of the Saronic gulf bordering on the eastern, shore of the Isthmus, the sea of Cenchreiae, and the Corinthian bay, on the opposite shore, the sea

§ 3.300 of Lechaeum, as appears from passages of Pausanias and Strabo cited below, as well as from Diodorus, who, in speaking of the wall erected by the Peloponnesians against Xerxes, calls it the wall from Lechaeum to Cenchreiae, though the length of forty stades, which he ascribes to it, added to the evidence of Herodotus, are decisive, that he meant, not a line between the harbours of Lechaeum and Cenchreiae, but the Diolcus. There remains little doubt, therefore, that the canal of which some vestiges are still to be seen in the narrowest part of the Isthmus, near the shore of the bay of Lechaeum, was the work of Nero. The excavation has now little depth; but it is 200 feet wide, and is traceable for about 1200 yards, in a direction at right angles to the shore, crossing the greater part of the level ground which here borders the sea and extends not much farther than the end of the trench; the remainder of the Diolcus consists of a valley somewhat elevated above the sea, and bordered to the south by a range of low cliffs.

§ 3.301 The rising ground, of which the cliffs are the termination, becomes blended, towards the Posidonium, with the heights which, branching from the foot of the Oneia, follow the shore of the Saronic gulf as far as Cenchreiae, leaving only, at the head of Port Schoenus, a small plain nearly on a level with the sea. The length of the trench, as just stated, is not very different from the four stades to which Dio limits the extent of Nero's progress, while its termination where the ground begins to rise is precisely in conformity with the words of Pausanias, who evidently alludes to this attempt of Nero, though he has not named the emperor. “He who attempted”, says the Greek traveller, “to make the Peloponnesus an island, by digging a trench through the Isthmus, was obliged to desist from the operation. Where they began to excavate is still manifest; but they did not carry forward the work to the rocky ground, so that the Peloponnesus remains as before a part of the continent.” Dr. Chandler, indeed, thought he had actually traced the beginning of Nero's canal near Lechaeum, where are some appearances of an excavation; but Nero himself could hardly have been so absurd as to attempt an excavation of seven miles, when one of half that distance would have attained his object much better.