TEMPLE OF OLYMPIAN JOVE.
Continuing my way still farther round the base of the Acropolis, I presently perceived a low-browed hill, partially covered with a rocky ledge. It was the ancient Areopagus, or Hill of Mars. Here the Supreme Court of Athens held its sessions. Such was the simple grandeur of the old Athenians that the only covering of this court-room was the canopy of heaven. For the immortal gods no temple could be too magnificent; but for the serious business of deciding life and death the Greeks would have no sumptuous decoration. The sessions of the court were always held at night, so that no face or gesture could exert the slightest influence. It must have been a scene of wonderful solemnity, for here accusers and accused stood, as it were, between their venerable judges and the gods, while in the dome of night a cloud of glittering witnesses looked down upon them from illimitable space.
THE ARCH OF HADRIAN.
THE SENTINELS.