DATE OF THE AGORA.
But, nevertheless, the accumulation of débris continued, and in the course of time the new tombstones, as well as the Agora itself, were buried and disappeared, while the site of the tombs remained always fresh in the memory of the inhabitants. I think, however, we may consider it as perfectly certain that the Agora continued to serve for the National Assembly until the capture of Mycenæ by the Argives (468 B.C.), because not only were the Myceneans attached to those sacred precincts by the most glorious and most affectionate reminiscences, but also because the Agora was the most imposing and most beautiful situation in the whole city, whence the Assembly overlooked not only the whole lower city, but also the whole plain, with Argos, Tiryns, Nauplia, as well as the splendid Gulf of Nauplia. It is therefore equally certain that until 468 B.C. the Agora was kept clean, and that the accumulation in it only began after the Myceneans had been forced to emigrate. I think I have proved by the passages in Euripides[378] that this poet must necessarily have visited Mycenæ; for he was fully acquainted with the peculiar architecture of its Cyclopean walls, he perfectly knew the Agora in the Acropolis, and he was well aware that close to it was the building, laid bare by my spade, to which tradition pointed as the ancient Royal Palace.
To the above testimony might also be added the passage where the messenger says to Orestes, "Even if thou camest within the walls (the Acropolis) thou wouldst not be able" (to kill Aegisthus)[379]; further, the passage where the messenger says of a person that he "seldom comes to the city (Mycenæ) and to the circle of the Agora."[380]
From the former of these passages we also infer that Euripides knew the Palace of Aegisthus to be in the Acropolis, and from the latter we have an additional proof that he knew the Agora to be of circular form. I think we might, as a further proof of Euripides' acquaintance with Mycenæ, also adduce the passage: "I see the people go and sit down on the height (no doubt the Acropolis) where, as tradition goes, Danaus first assembled the people on common seats when he was brought to trial for the offence against Aegyptus."[381] Mr. Newton thinks that the poet speaks here of Argos, and so it certainly appears by the names of Aegyptus and Danaus, of whose visit to Mycenæ there is no tradition; besides, the walls of the Acropolis of Argos were attributed to Danaus. But after reading all that precedes, I think the passage can only refer to the Acropolis of Mycenæ. However that may be, at all events the passage gives us an additional proof that the people were sitting in the Agora.
It is impossible to say how many years after its capture by the Argives (468 B.C.) Mycenæ was visited by Euripides, who was born in 480 and died in 402 B.C. But the particulars he gives us of the Agora, as well as his allusions to the royal palace, seem to leave no doubt that he saw these monuments, and that consequently they were not yet totally buried in the débris when he visited the Acropolis.
EURIPIDES SAW MYCENÆ.
On the other hand, my excavations have proved that the Agora was already covered by a deep accumulation of débris when the later Greek city was built on its top, and for the various reasons I have adduced[382] there can be no doubt that the new settlement was founded about 400 B.C. But as all the débris which covered the Agora must necessarily have been washed down by the rain from the five upper natural or artificial terraces of the steep mount of the Acropolis, we are led to the conclusion that Euripides visited Mycenæ in his younger years, and thus shortly after the city's capture, for otherwise the enormous accumulation of débris in about 400 B.C. would be altogether inexplainable.
But though buried deep below the new city, the precise site of each tomb was perfectly remembered by the inhabitants of the Argolid. After an existence of about 200 years, the new city was, for some cause or other, again and finally abandoned. But still the tradition remained so fresh, that nearly 400 years after the destruction of the new town the exact place of each tomb was shown to Pausanias. Nay, the interest which the inhabitants of the Peloponnesus felt in the sepulchres was still so great sixteen or eighteen centuries after the tragic event, that, as Pausanias states, the Lacedæmonians of Amyclæ disputed with Mycenæ the honour of having Cassandra's tomb, which they thought they possessed in their own city. At all events, Pausanias[383] says that the Amycleans had in their village the sanctuary and the statue of Alexandra, whom they identified with Cassandra.