“Modern travellers have measured the remains of the Stadium which he constructed at Athens. It was six hundred feet in length, built entirely of white marble, capable of admitting the whole body of the people; and was finished in four years, whilst Herod was president of the Athenian games.
“To the memory of his wife Regilla he dedicated a theatre, scarcely to be paralleled in the empire: no wood, except cedar very curiously carved, was employed in any part of the building.
“The Odeum, designed by Pericles for musical performances, and rehearsals of new tragedies, had been a trophy of the arts over barbaric greatness, as the timbers employed in the construction consisted chiefly of the masts of the Persian vessels. Notwithstanding the repairs bestowed on that ancient edifice by a king of Cappadocia, it was again fallen to decay. Herod restored its ancient beauty and magnificence.
“Nor was the liberality of that illustrious citizen confined to the walls of Athens. The most splendid ornaments bestowed on the temple of Neptune in the Isthmus, a theatre at Corinth, a Stadium at Delphi, a bath at Thermopylae, and an aqueduct at Canusium in Italy, were even insufficient to exhaust his treasures.
“The people of Epirus, Thessaly, Eubœa, Bœotia, and Peloponnesus, experienced his favours; and many inscriptions of the critics of Greece and Asia, gratefully style Herodes Atticus their patron and benefactor.
“But we have had a long meeting this morning,” said Mr. Wilmot: “let us adjourn till tomorrow.”
CONCLUSION.
The indisposition of Mr. Wilmot on the following day, prevented the little party from meeting in the gallery as usual. It proved to be an attack of a very serious nature, which confined him to his room for some months. Susan and Ann attended him with an assiduity and affection, that proved his instructions had not been thrown away upon them. At intervals, they read the books from which his anecdotes had been taken; and thus became acquainted with the history of their own and other countries.