Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Athens-BOI

3
A T H
listhe- The revolution which expelled the Pisistratids (510 B.c.),
3an age. ant[ gave Athens a free government, left its mark upon the
he Pelas- topography of the city. The old Pelasgic fortress (to
icum. ’EvvedTriiAov), in which “ the tyrants ” had for a time held
out, was now broken down, and the site occupied by its
ruins was devoted by the Delphic oracle to eternal
desolation. Only in the Peloponnesian war, when the
country population was crowded within the city walls, do
we read of this spot being occupied by dwellings (Thucyd.,
ii. 17). Another work which may probably be assigned
to the age of Clisthenes is the first arrangement of the
'he Pnyx. Pnyx, or place of public assembly. The hill that is
i commonly known as the Pnyx Hill contains one of the
most remarkable ruins in Athens; the silence, however,
of Pausanius respecting what was probably in his day
already a mere ruin has occasioned some doubt concerning
its proper identification. The spot in question consists of
two terraces sloping down the hill towards the Areopagus,
from S.W. to N.E. The upper terrace, indeed, does not
slope, but is levelled out of the solid rock near the summit
>i1 of the hill, being about 65 yards in length (E. to W.),
and about 43 in breadth at its broadest part (N. to S.)
It is bounded at the back (S.) by a rock-wall, and at the
W. end there stands a cubical block, allowed to rise out
of the solid rock when this upper terrace was levelled.
There is good reason for considering this as the altar for
the sacrifices (ra Trepib-na) with which every assembly of the
ecclesia was opened (Bursian, Philologas, 1854, p. 369, foil.;
Dyer, Athens, p. 462). The lower and considerably larger
terrace is separated from the upper terrace by another wall
cut out of the solid rock. This wall, which is nearly 126
yards long, is not quite straight, but encroaches slightly upon
the upper terrace, and forms at the centre a very obtuse angle.
At this point there rises, projecting from the wall, a large
cubical mass, cut out of the solid rock, resembling somewhat,
though on a larger scale, the altar described above. It is
itself 11 feet square and 5 feet high, and stands on a plat¬
form consisting of three very massive steps. This remarkable
monument has been recognised by tradition as the o-KoXa tov
id ArigocrOeveos, and almost every traveller since Chandler’s
M time has regarded it as no other than the famous bema of
the ancient Athenian assembly. The rock-wall from which
it projects forms the chord of a vast semicircular space, the
enclosure of its arc being a wall of “ Cyclopean ” masonry.
The radius of the semicircle measures between 76 and 77
yards from this outer wall to the bema. Here, then, was
the auditorium of the Pnyx. But several difficulties beset
the identification. Towards the bottom of the lowrer bema
Prof. E. Curtius (Attische Studien, pt. i.) has discovered
another similar though smaller bema. Again, Plutarch
asserts that the bema which had originally faced towards
the sea was by the Thirty Tyrants turned round the other
way, in their hatred of the maritime democracy. More¬
over, if the block of marble above mentioned be rightly
identified as the bema, then it would have the auditorium
sloping downwards from it, an arrangement ill suited for
addressing a tumultuous popular assembly. Dr Curtius
accordingly pronounces the entire identification to be a
mistake, and would regard this spot as a primitive precinct
and rock-altar of the Most High Zeus. It would not be
difficult, if space allowed, to disprove Dr Curtius’s theory.
Far more reasonable is the view of Dr Dyer (A them, App.
iii.) He thinks that the lowTer and smaller bema dis¬
covered by Dr Curtius was the bema of Clisthenes, which
did (however much Plutarch’s statement is discredited by
his own absurd explanation) face in the direction of the
sea. The orator would thus speak from the arc of the
semicircle, having the audience above him. The Thirty
may well have defaced the Pnyx, and it would have been
natural for Thrasybulus after the anarchy to restore it on
E N S
a large scale, hewing out what is still known as the bema,
giving the semicircular wall a wider sweep, and raising
the tiers of seats at least to a level with the new bema,
if not above it. For there is no reason to suppose that
the surface of the lower terrace has undergone no change
in the lapse of centuries, or that the “ Cyclopean” wall
surrounding it never exceeded its present height.
A building of greater architectural importance and of The Diony*
equal interest belongs to this same period. Dramatic siac theatre,
performances at Athens originally took place in wooden
theatres extemporised for the occasion; but the fall of
one of these led, in the year 500 B.c., to the erection of
the marble theatre on a site already consecrated to
Dionysus as the Lenseum, upon the S.E. slope of the
Acropolis. (Suidas, s. v. UpcmW?.) We may be sure
that the first stone theatre was comparatively simple in
construction, consisting of a koIXov or auditorium, with
tiers of rock-hewn seats, and an opxgvTpa, or space for the
chorus, while the stage itself and its furniture were of
wood. The excavation of the Dionysiac theatre in 1862
has made every one familiar with the row of marble
thrones for the various priests and officers of state, the
elaborate masonry of the stage, the orchestra floor, and
other features. But these and other interesting decora¬
tions of the theatre belong to a later age. It was under
the administration of Lycurgus the orator (337 b.c.) that
the building w^as first really completed; and many of the
sculptures which have been lately brought to light belong
to a restoration of the theatre in the 2d, or perhaps even
in the 3d, century a.d.1
Enough has now been said of the condition of Athens
before the Persian War. It was surrounded by a ring-wall Theses n
of narrow circuit, some doubtful traces of which are sup- wall,
posed to remain. At its centre stood the Acropolis, already
crowded with temples and sanctuaries, some upon the
summit, some built at its foot, and others—like the famous
grotto of Pan, on the N.W. slope—mere caves in its rocky Grotto of
sides. Pan'
The Persian invasion, which forced the Athenians to take After the
refuge in their “ wooden walls,” and to leave their city at Persian
the mercy of the barbarian, marked an important epoch in war-
the annals of Athenian building. Upon the retreat of Mar-
donius, the Athenians returned to Attica to find their city
virtually in ruins. Its fortifications and public buildings
had been destroyed or burnt, and the private dwellings
had been wantonly defaced or ruined by neglect. Amid
the enthusiasm of hope which followed upon the great
deliverance of Greece, a natural impulse led the Athenians
to rear their city more glorious from its ruins. Themis-
tocles fanned their patriotism with the foresight of a
statesman, and Athens rose again with marvellous rapidity.
This haste, however, though creditable to their patriotism,
and, indeed, necessary in order to forestall the jealous op¬
position of Sparta, was not without its evils. The houses
were rebuilt on their old sites, and the lines of the old
streets, narrow and irregular as they had been, were too
readily followed. A similar haste marked the rebuilding of
the city walls, a work in which men and women, old and
young, took zealous part, not scrupling to dismantle any
building or monument, private or public, which could sup¬
ply materials for the building. But in rebuilding the walls Rebuilding
Themistocles gave them a wider circuit, especially towards of the
the N. and N.E. (Thucyd., i. 90, 93). At the same time ''vall3>
he determined to construct new harbours, and to fortify
the Piraeeus, regarding the navy of Athens as her principal
source of strength. It is doubtful whether the “ Long
Walls ” formed a distinct portion of his designs ; but he
may certainly be regarded as the founder of the greatness
1 The best account yet given of the Dionysiac theatre is to be found
in Dr Dyer’s ascent work on Athens.