[210] The Peiræus, one of the chief ports of Athens, is often used to express the maritime city generally and the lower city, as opposed to Athens, which was called the Upper City. The two cities were united by the Long Walls, about four miles in length.
[211] The Academia, one of the suburbs of Athens, was planted with trees, among others with the olive. It was on the north-west side of the city. In the Academia there was a Gymnasium, or exercise place, and here also Plato delivered his lectures; whence the name Academy passed into use as a term for a University (in the sense of a place of learning) in the Middle Ages, and has now other significations. The Lycæum was another similar place on the east side of Athens.
[212] This was Epidaurus on the east coast of Argolis in the Peloponnesus, which contained a temple of Æsculapius, the god of healing. Olympia on the Alpheius, in Elis, contained the great temple of Jupiter and immense wealth, which was accumulated by the offerings of many ages. This and other temples were also used as places of deposit for the preservation of valuable property. Pausanias (v. 21, vi. 19, and in other passages) has spoken at great length of the treasures of Olympia. These rich deposits were a tempting booty to those who were in want of money and were strong enough to seize it. At the commencement of the Peloponnesian war (B.C. 431) it was proposed that the Peloponnesian allies should raise a fleet by borrowing money from the deposits at Olympia and Delphi (Thucydides, i. 121), a scheme which the Athenians, their enemies, appear to have looked upon as a mode of borrowing of which repayment would form no part. (i. 143. είτε καὶ κινήσαντες, &c.). Many of the rich churches in Italy were plundered by the French during their occupation of Italy in the Revolutionary wars; their search after valuables extended to very minute matters. The rich stores of the Holy House of the Virgin at Loreto were nearly exhausted by Pope Pius VI. in 1796 to satisfy the demands of the French. It is said that there is a new store got together for the next invader.
[213] The history of this ancient body cannot be given with any accuracy except in detail. (See the article "Amphictyons," Penny Cyclopædia.) The "royal presents" were the gifts of Crœsus, king of Lydia (in the sixth century B.C.) the most munificent of all the donors to the temple. Among his other presents Herodotus (i. 51) mentions four of these silver casks or jars, and he uses the same word that Plutarch does. The other three had probably been taken by some previous plunderer. In the Sacred war (B.C. 357) the Phokians under Philomelus took a large part of the valuable things at Delphi for the purpose of paying their troops. (Diodorus, xvi. 30.)
[214] Flamininus, whose life Plutarch has written under the name of Flaminius, defeated Philip V. king of Macedonia B.C. 197. Manius Acilius Glabrio, who was consul B.C. 191, defeated in that year Antiochus III. king of Syria, commonly called the Great, at Thermopylæ in Greece. Antiochus afterwards withdrew into Asia. Æmilius Paulus defeated Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, at Pydna B.C. 168, upon which Macedonia was reduced into the form of a Roman Province (Livius, 45, c. 18.). Plutarch has written the Life of Paulus Æmilius.
[215] See the Life of Marius, c. 42.
[216] See c. 20, 21. C. Flavius Fimbria was the legatus of the consul L. Valerius Flaccus. Cicero (Brutus, 66) calls him a madman.
[217] The Medimnus was a dry measure, reckoned at 11 gallons 7.1456 pints English. It was equivalent to six Roman modii. (Smith's Dictionary of Antiquities.)
[218] This plant may have had its name from the virgin (parthenos) goddess Athene, whom the Romans call Minerva. Plinius (N.H. 22, c. 20) has described it. It is identified with the modern feverfew by Smith in Rees' Cyclopædia,—a plant of the chamomile kind; rather unpleasant for food, as one might conjecture. The oil-flasks were of coarse leather. In Herodotus (ix. 118) we read of a besieged people eating their bedcords, which we may assume to have been strips of hides, or leather at least.
[219] For all matters relating to the topography of Rome and Athens, the reader must consult a plan: nothing else can explain the text. The gate called Dipylum or Double-Gate was the passage from the Keramicus within the walls to the Keramicus outside of the walls on the north-west side of Athens.