Fig. 48.
2. A misunderstanding of the text of Thucydides.
What has led topographers to make this singular and unmeaning division of old and new? why have they placed the old agora South of the Acropolis? Simply because, misunderstanding the words of Thucydides, they think he placed it South. Thucydides says, it will be remembered ([p. 7]), that, in the days before Theseus, ‘what is now the citadel was the city, together with what is below it towards about South.’ We have seen that the simple and satisfactory explanation of the words is that the reference is to the bit of ground known as the Pelargikon, extending mainly West and South-West of the Acropolis and included in the ancient city. We have also seen—and this is of paramount importance—that the sole gist and point of Thucydides’ argument is to show the smallness of the ancient city, to prove that it was practically the same as the citadel, only there was this bit over ‘towards about South.’ It is the fatal accuracy of Thucydides that has led to his being misunderstood. It is actually thought that he desires to prove two points: first, that the ancient city was the citadel; second, that the portion of the city not contained in the citadel was to the South[292]; whereas, as already seen, the direction of the city has nothing, could have nothing, to do with the case.
Once embarked on the wrong hypothesis that Thucydides lays two propositions before us, and that one of them is that the city lay to the South, the downward road is easy. The four sanctuaries of Thucydides are selected, it is supposed, to prove the second proposition, i.e. that the city is to the South. Four sanctuaries lie ready, only too ready, to hand. We have, South-East of the Acropolis ([Fig. 49]), a great Olympieion; we know from Pausanias[293] that close by it was a great Pythion, within the Olympieion was a precinct of Ge; and last and most convincing of all, on the South-East slope of the Acropolis is the great Dionysiac theatre, with its precinct and two temples. Truly a little archaeology is a dangerous thing. So obvious, so striking are these identifications, that at the first glance they seem to compel adhesion.
But a moment’s thought obliges us to see that, if tempting, these identifications are impossible. From its position the sanctuary of Dionysos Eleuthereus might well have been one of those named by Thucydides, because, as already noted ([p. 67]), while from his words it would be impossible definitely to say whether the sanctuaries are North, South, East, or West, assuredly the theatre and precinct of Dionysos Eleuthereus are ‘towards’ (πρὸς) the ancient city. But, as we have already ([p. 83]) seen, it is from this familiar precinct, the sanctuary of the later Dionysos Eleuthereus, that Thucydides is expressly differentiating his more ancient precinct; the same is the case with the Olympieion. Thucydides and everyone at Athens knew that this vast temple was begun in the time of Peisistratos; was it likely to be chosen as a sanctuary to show the limits (or even the direction) of the city of Kekrops?
Fig. 49.