Turres, labore majus humano decus."
and in another passage[131]
"Ulixes ad Ithacæ suæ saxa sic properat, quemadmodum
Agamemnon ad Mycenarum nobiles muros."
THE LOWER CITY.
Over the space of about a square mile to the west-south-west and south of this Acropolis, and exactly between the aforesaid deep ravines, extended the Lower City,[132] the site of which is distinctly marked by the remnants of numerous Cyclopean substructions of houses, by a Cyclopean bridge, by five Treasuries, and finally by the fragments of beautifully painted archaic pottery with which the ground is strewn. The site of the lower town is traversed in its whole length by a ridge, which to the right falls off gradually into the plain, and to the left more steeply into the deep ravine, which issues from between the south end of the citadel-cliff and the second peak of Mount Eubœa. The summit of this ridge has evidently been artificially levelled for two purposes; firstly, for the principal street of the town, which commenced at the Lions' Gate and ended at the Cyclopean bridge, an engraving of which forms the vignette to this chapter;[133] and secondly, for the city wall, which ran to the right of the street as far as the same bridge, and undoubtedly united it with the Acropolis at its north-west corner, near the Lions' Gate.
Another branch of this wall extended all along the western bank of the torrent which the bridge spanned, and doubtless connected the latter with the south-western corner of the Acropolis. Of both branches of this wall very numerous traces remain, though with difficulty perceptible. Thus a part of the lower town, but scarcely one-third of it, was enclosed by a circuit wall. This was very insignificant, because its thickness on the ridge is only 6 feet, and it is still less on the bank of the torrent; so that it cannot have been high, and it was probably intended only to impart greater strength to the great Cyclopean walls of the Acropolis, and to prevent the Lions' Gate leading directly into the open country. After carefully examining the remnants of this city wall in numerous places, I see, in consideration of its weakness, no reasonable ground to object to regarding it as of later date than the walls of the citadel.
The remaining part of the town has been, as the remnants of the house-walls show, a vast and well-built suburb, whence, when attacked by the enemy against whom their own means of defence were insufficient, the inhabitants could retire into the fortified part of the city and into the citadel. Some of the buildings of this suburb are very large, and show a most splendid Cyclopean masonry. I call particular attention to the vast building on the very bank of the deep glen in a westerly direction from the Lions' Gate, of which all the four walls are still visible. It is 93 feet long and 60 feet broad, and may have been a temple. I call attention also to the foundations of a large Cyclopean building, perhaps a temple, on the crest of a hill S.S.W. of the Acropolis and north of the village of Charvati. This hill appears to have been at the extremity of the suburb in this direction, for the Mycenean potsherds cease beyond it. I found there two well-polished axes of diorite.
In two glens in the immediate vicinity of this hill are the only two wells of Mycenæ. The ruins of Cyclopean buildings close to them, and the Mycenean potsherds which extend beyond them, can leave no doubt that both wells were within the suburb. Strange to say, Professor E. Curtius has thought the ancient quarry of Charvati to be ruins of the city wall, and he has therefore put this village on his map still within the site of Mycenæ; but this is a great mistake; the city never extended so far.