The age of the Peisistratids (560-511 B.C.) marked an era in the history of Athenian topography. The greatest of their foundations, the temple of Olympian Zeus, will be referred to later. Among the monuments of their The Academy and Lyceum. rule, in addition to the enlarged Agora and the Enneacrunus, were the Academy and perhaps the Lyceum. The original name of the Academy may have been Hecademia, from Hecademus, an early proprietor (but see [Academy, Greek]). The famous seat of the Platonic philosophy was a gymnasium enlarged as a public park by Cimon; it lay about a mile to the north-west of the Dipylon Gate, with which it was connected by a street bordered with tombs. The Lyceum, where Aristotle taught, was originally a sanctuary of Apollo Lyceius. Like the Academy, it was an enclosure with a gymnasium and garden; it lay to the east of the city beyond the Diocharean Gate.
Little was known of the buildings on the Acropolis in the pre-Persian period before the great excavations of 1885-1888, which rank among the most surprising achievements of modern research. The results of these operations, which were conducted by the Archaeological Society under the direction of Kavvadias and Kawerau, must be summarized with the utmost The Acropolis before the Persian wars. brevity. The great deposits of sculpture and pottery now unearthed, representing all that escaped from the the ravages of the Persians and the burning of the ancient shrines, afford a startling revelation of the development of Greek art in the 7th and 6th centuries. Numbers of statues—among them a series of draped and richly-coloured female figures—masterpieces of painted pottery, only equalled by the Attic vases found in Magna Grecia and Etruria, and numerous bronzes, were among the treasures of art now brought to light. All belong to the “archaic” epoch; only a few remains of the greater age were found, including some fragments of sculptures from the Parthenon and Erechtheum. We are principally concerned, however, with the results which add to our knowledge of the topography and architecture of the Acropolis. The entire area of the summit was now thoroughly explored, the excavations being carried down to the surface of the rock, which on the southern side was found to slope outwards to a depth of about 45 ft. In the lower strata were discovered the remnants of Cyclopean or prehistoric architecture already mentioned. Of later date, perhaps, are the limestone polygonal retaining walls on the west front, which extended on either side of the early entrance. Of these a portion may probably be attributed to the Peisistratids, in whose time the Acropolis once more became the stronghold of a despotism. Its fortifications, though not increased, were apparently strengthened by the Tyrants. To its embellishment they probably contributed the older ornamental entrance, facing south-west, the precursor of the greater structure of Mnesicles (see [Propylaea]) and the colonnade of the “Hecatompedon,” or earlier temple of Athena, at this time the only large sacred edifice on the citadel. The name was subsequently applied to the cella, or eastern chamber, of the Parthenon, which is exactly 100 ft. long, and also became a popular designation of the temple itself.
The ancient Hecatompedon may in all probability be identified with an early temple, also 100 ft. long, the foundations of which were pointed out in 1885 by Dörpfeld on the ground immediately adjoining the south side of the The old temple of Athena. Erechtheum. On this spot was apparently the primitive sanctuary of Athena, the rich temple πίων νηός of Homer (Il. ii. 549), in which the cult of the goddess was associated with that of Erechtheus; the Homeric temple is identified by Furtwängler with the “compact house of Erechtheus” (Od. vii. 81), which, he holds, was not a royal palace, but a place of worship, and traces of it may perhaps be recognized in the fragments of prehistoric masonry enclosed by the existing foundations. The foundations seem to belong to the 7th century, except those of the colonnade, which was possibly added by Peisistratus. According to Dörpfeld, this was the “old temple” of Athena Polias, frequently mentioned in literature and inscriptions, in which was housed the most holy image ξόανον of the goddess which fell from heaven; it was burnt, but not completely destroyed, during the Persian War, and some of its external decorations were afterwards built into the north wall of the Acropolis; it was subsequently restored, he thinks, with or without its colonnade—in the former case a portion of the peristyle must have been removed when the Erechtheum was built so as to make room for the porch of the maidens; the building was set on fire in 406 B.C. (Xen. Hell. i. 6. 1), and the conflagration is identical with that mentioned by Demosthenes (In Timocr. xxiv. 155); its “opisthodomos” served as the Athenian treasury in the 5th and 4th centuries; the temple is the ἀρχαῖος νεὼς τῆς Πολιάδος mentioned by Strabo (ix. 16), and it was still standing in the time of Pausanias, who applies to it the same name (i. 27. 3). The conclusion that the foundations are those of an old temple burnt by the Persians has been generally accepted, but other portions of Dörpfeld’s theory—more especially his assumption that the temple was restored after the Persian War—have provoked much controversy. Thus J.G. Frazer maintains the hitherto current theory that the earlier temple of Athena and Erechtheus was on the site of the Erechtheum; that the Erechtheum inherited the name ἀρχαῖος νεώς from its predecessor, and that the “opisthodomos” in which the treasures were kept was the west chamber of the Parthenon; Furtwängler and Milchhöfer hold the strange view that the “opisthodomos” was a separate building at the east end of the Acropolis, while Penrose thinks the building discovered by Dörpfeld was possibly the Cecropeum. E. Curtius and J.W. White, on the other hand, accept Dörpfeld’s identification, but believe that only the western portion of the temple or opisthodomos was rebuilt after the Persian War. Admitting the identification, we may perhaps conclude that the temple was repaired in order to provide a temporary home for the venerated image and other sacred objects; no traces of a restoration exist, but the walls probably remained standing after the Persian conflagration. The removal of the ancient temple was undoubtedly intended when the Erechtheum was built, but superstition and popular feeling may have prevented its demolition and the removal of the ξόανον to the new edifice. The temple consisted of an eastern cella with pronaos; behind this was the opisthodomos, divided into three chambers—possibly treasuries—with a portico at the western end. The peristyle, if we compare the measurements of the stylobate with those of the drums built into the wall of the Acropolis, may be concluded to have consisted of six Doric columns at the ends and twelve at the sides. In one of the pediments was a gigantomachy, of which some fragments have been recovered.
In 1896 excavations with the object of exploring the whole northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis were begun by Kavvadias. The pathway between the citadel and the Areopagus was found to be so narrow that it is The grottoes of Pan and Apollo. certain the Panathenaic procession cannot have taken this route to the Acropolis. On the north-west rock the caves known as the grottoes of Pan and Apollo were cleared out; these consist of a slight high-arched indentation immediately to the east of the Clepsydra and a double and somewhat deeper cavern a little farther to the east. In the first mentioned are a number of niches in which πίνακες (votive tablets) were placed: some of these, inscribed with dedications to Apollo, have been discovered. The whole locality was the seat of the ancient cult of this deity, afterwards styled “Hypacraeus,” with which was associated the legend of Creüsa and the birth of Ion. The worship of Pan was introduced after the Persian wars, in consequence of an apparition seen by Pheidippides, the Athenian courier, in the mountains of Arcadia. Another cave more to the west was revealed by the demolition of the bastion of Odysseus. To the east a much deeper and hitherto unknown cavern has been revealed, which Kavvadias identifies with the grotto of Pan. Close to it are a series of steps hewn in the rock which connect with those discovered in 1886 within the Acropolis wall. Farther east is an underground passage leading eastward to a cave supposed to be the sanctuary of Aglaurus where the ephebi took the oath; with this passage is connected a secret staircase leading up through a cleft in the rock to the precinct of the Errephori on the Acropolis. It is conceivable that the priestesses employed this exit when descending on their mysterious errand.
In the fifty years between the Persian and the Peloponnesian wars architecture and plastic art attained their highest perfection in Athens. The almost complete destruction of the buildings on the Acropolis and in the lower city, among The classical period: the walls of Themistocles. them many temples and shrines which religious sentiment might otherwise have preserved, facilitated the realization of the magnificent architectural designs of Themistocles, Cimon and Pericles, while the rapid growth of the Athenian empire provided the state with the necessary means for the execution of these sumptuous projects. Of the great monuments of this epoch few traces remain except on the Acropolis. After the departure of the Persians the first necessity was the reconstruction of the defences of the city and the citadel. The walls of the city, now built under the direction of Themistocles, embraced a larger area than the previous circuit, with which they seem to have coincided at the Dipylon Gate on the north-west where the Sacred Way to Eleusis was joined by the principal carriage route to the Peiraeus and the roads to the Academy and Colonus. The other more important gates were the Peiraic and Melitan on the west; the Itonian on the south leading to Phalerum, the Diomean and Diocharean on the east, and the Acharnian on the north. The wall, which was strengthened with numerous towers, enclosed the quarters of Collytus on the north, Melite on the west, Limnae on the south-west and south, and Diomea on the east. The scanty traces which remain have not been systematically excavated except in the neighbourhood of the Dipylon; the discovery of sepulchral tablets built into the masonry illustrates the statement of Thucydides with regard to the employment of such material in the hasty construction of the walls. The circuit has been practically ascertained in its general lines, though not in details; it is given by Thucydides (ii. 13. 7) as 43 stades (about 5½ m.) exclusive of the portion between the points of junction with the long walls extending to the Peiraeus, but the whole circumference cannot have exceeded 37 stades. Possibly Thucydides, who in the passage referred to is dealing with the question of defence, included a portion of the contiguous long walls in his measurement; this explanation derives probability from his underestimate of the length of the long walls.
The design of connecting Athens with the Peiraeus by long parallel walls is ascribed by Plutarch to Themistocles. The “Long Walls” (τὰ μακρὰ τείχη, τὰ σκέλη) consisted of (1) the “North Wall” (τὸ βόρειον τεῖχος), (2) the The “Long Walls”. “Middle” or “South Wall” (τὸ διὰ μέσου τεῖχος, Plato, Gorg. 555 Ε; τὸ νότιον τεῖχος); and (3) the “Phaleric Wall” (τὸ Φαληρικὸν τεῖχος; The north and Phaleric walls were perhaps founded by Cimon, and were completed about 457 B.C. in the early administration of Pericles; the middle wall was built about 445 B.C. The lines of the north and middle walls have been ascertained from the remnants still existing in the 18th century and the scantier traces now visible. The north wall, leaving the city circuit at a point near the modern Observatory, ran from north-east to south-west near the present road to the Peiraeus, until it reached the Peiraeus walls a little to the east of their northernmost bend. The middle wall, beginning south of the Pnyx near the Melitan Gate, gradually approached the northern wall and, following a parallel course at an interval of 550 ft., diverged to the east near the modern New Phalerum and joined the Peiraeus walls on the height of Munychia where they turn inland from the sea. The course of the Phaleric wall has been much disputed. The widely-received view of Curtius that it ran to Cape Kolias (now Old Phalerum) on the east of the Phaleric bay is not accepted by recent topographers. The exigencies of the defensive system planned by Themistocles could only have been satisfied by a juncture of the Phaleric wall with that of the Peiraeus. The existence of any third wall was denied by Leake, according to whose theory the southern parallel wall would be identical with the Phaleric. The language of Thucydides, however, seems decisive with regard to the existence of three walls. The Phaleric wall, branching from the city circuit at some point farther east than the middle or south wall, may have followed the ridge of the Sikelia heights, where some traces of fortifications remain, and then traversed the Phalerum plain till it reached the Peiraeus defences at a point a little to the north-west of their junction with the middle wall. The Phaleric wall, proving indefensible, was abandoned towards the close of the Peloponnesian war; with the other two walls it was completely destroyed after the surrender of the city, and was not rebuilt when they were restored by Conon in 393 B.C. The parallel walls fell into decay, during the Hellenistic period, and according to Strabo (ix. 396) were once more demolished by Sulla.
The great advantages which the Peiraic promontory with its three natural harbours offered for purposes of defence and commerce were first recognized by Themistocles, in whose archonship (493 B.C.) the fortifications of the The Peiraeus. Peiraeus were begun. Before his time the Athenians used as a port the roadstead of Phalerum at the north-eastern corner of Phalerum bay partly sheltered by Cape Kolias. As soon as the building of the city walls had been completed, Themistocles resumed the construction of the Peiraeus defences, which protected the larger harbour of Cantharus on the west and the smaller ports of Zea and Munychia (respectively south-west and south-east of the Munychia heights), terminating in moles at their entrances and enclosing the entire promontory on the land and sea sides except a portion of the south-west shore of the peninsula of Acte. The walls, built of finely compacted blocks, were about 10 ft. in thickness and upwards of 60 ft. in height, and were strengthened by towers. The town was laid out at great expense in straight, broad streets, intersecting each other at right angles, by the architect Hippodamus of Miletus in the time of Pericles. In the centre was the Agora of Hippodamus; on the western margin of the Cantharus harbour extended the emporium, or Digma, the centre of commercial activity, flanked by a series of porticoes; at its northern end, near the entrance to the inner harbour, was another Agora, on the site of the modern market-place, and near it the μακρὰ στοά, the corn depot of the state. This inner and shallower harbour, perhaps the κωφὸς λιμήν, was afterwards excluded from the town precinct by the walls of Conon, which traversing its opening on an embankment (τὸ διὰ μέσου χῶμα) ran round the outer shore of the western promontory of Eëtionea, previously enclosed, with some space to the north-west, by the wider circuit of Themistocles. In the harbours of Zea and Munychia traces may be seen of the remarkable series of galley-slips in which the Athenian fleet was built and repaired. The galley-slips around Zea were roofed by a row of gables supported by stone columns, each gable sheltering two triremes. Among the other noteworthy buildings of the Peiraeus were the arsenal (σκευοθήκη) of Philo and the temples of Zeus Soter, the patron god of the sailors, of the Cnidian Artemis, built by Cimon, and of Artemis Munychia, situated near the fort on the Munychia height; traces of a temple of Asclepius, of two theatres and of a hippodrome remain. The fine marble lion of the classical period which stood at the mouth of the Cantharus harbour gave the Peiraeus its medieval and modern names of Porto Leone and Porto Draco; it was carried away to Venice by Morosini.
In 1870 the Greek Archaeological Society undertook a series of excavations in the Outer Ceramicus, which had already been partially explored by various scholars. The operations, which were carried on at intervals till 1890, The Dipylon and Ceramicus. resulted in the discovery of the Dipylon Gate, the principal entrance of ancient Athens. The Dipylon consists of an outer and an inner gate separated by an oblong courtyard and flanked on either side by towers; the gates were themselves double, being each composed of two apertures intended for the incoming and outgoing traffic. An opening in the city wall a little to the south-west, supposed to have been the Sacred Gate (ἱερὰ πύλη), was in all probability an outlet for the waters of the Eridanus. This stream, which has hitherto been regarded as the eastern branch of the Ilissus rising at Kaesariane, has been identified by Dörpfeld with a brook descending from the south slope of Lycabettus and conducted in an artificial channel to the north-western end of the city, where it made its exit through the walls, eventually joining the Ilissus. The channel was open in Greek times, but was afterwards covered by Roman arches; it appears to have served as the main drain of the city. Between this outlet and the Dipylon were found a boundary-stone, inscribed ὄρος Κεραμεικοῦ, which remains in its place, and the foundations of a large rectangular building, possibly the Pompeium, which may have been a robing-room for the processions which passed this way. On either side of the Dipylon the walls of Themistocles, faced on the outside by a later wall, have been traced for a considerable distance. The excavation of the outlying cemetery revealed the unique “Street of the Tombs” and brought to light a great number of sepulchral monuments, many of which remain in situ. Especially noteworthy are the stelae (reliefs) representing scenes of leave-taking, which, though often of simple workmanship, are characterized by a touching dignity and restraint of feeling. In this neighbourhood were found a great number of tombs containing vases of all periods, which furnish a marvellous record of the development of Attic ceramic art. A considerable portion of the district remains unexplored.
The Acropolis had been dismantled as a fortress after the expulsion of Hippias; its defenders against the Persians found it necessary to erect a wooden barricade at its entrance. The fortifications were again demolished by the The Acropolis of the classical period: its fortifications and area. Persians, after whose departure the existing north wall was erected in the time of Themistocles; many columns, metopes and other fragments from the buildings destroyed by the Persians were built into it, possibly owing to haste, as in the case of the city walls, but more probably with the design of commemorating the great historic catastrophe, as the wall was visible from the Agora. The fine walls of the south and east sides were built by Cimon after the victory of the Eurymedon, 468 B.C.; they extend considerably beyond the old Pelasgic circuit, the intervening space being filled up with earth and the débris of the ruined buildings so as to increase the level space of the summit. On the northern side Cimon completed the wall of Themistocles at both ends and added to its height; the ground behind was levelled up on this side also, the platform of the Acropolis thus receiving its present shape and dimensions. The staircase leading down to the sanctuary of Aglaurus was enclosed in masonry. At the south-western corner, on the right of the approach to the old entrance, a bastion of early masonry was encased in a rectangular projection which formed a base for the temple of Nike. The great engineering works of Cimon provided a suitable area for the magnificent structures of the age of Pericles.
The greater monuments of the classical epoch on the Acropolis are described in separate articles (see [Parthenon], [Erechtheum], [Propylaea]). Next in interest to these noble structures is the beautiful little temple of Athena Nike, wrongly designated Nike The monuments on the Acropolis. Apteros (Wingless Victory), standing on the bastion already mentioned; it was begun after 450 B.C. and was probably finished after the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. The temple, which is entirely of Pentelic marble, is amphiprostyle tetrastyle, with fluted Ionic columns, on a stylobate of three steps; its length is 27 ft., its breadth 18½ ft., and its total height, from the apex of the pediment to the bottom of the steps, 23 ft. The frieze, running round the entire building, represents on its eastern side a number of deities, on its northern and southern sides Greeks fighting with Persians, and on its western side Greeks fighting with Greeks. Before the east front was the altar of Athena Nike. The irregularly shaped precinct around the temple was enclosed by a balustrade about 3 ft. 2 in. in height, decorated on the outside with beautiful reliefs representing a number of winged Victories engaged in the worship of Athena. The elaborate treatment of the drapery enveloping these female figures suggests an approach to the mannerism of later times; this and other indications point to the probability that the balustrade was added in the latter years of the Peloponnesian War. The temple was still standing in 1676; some eight years later it was demolished by the Turks, and its stones built into a bastion; on the removal of the bastion in 1835 the temple was successfully reconstructed by Ross with the employment of little new material. At either corner of the Propylaea entrance were equestrian statues dedicated by the Athenian knights; the bases with inscriptions have lately been recovered. From the inner exit of the Propylaea a passage led towards the east along the north side of the Parthenon; almost directly facing the entrance was the colossal bronze statue of Athena (afterwards called Athena Promachos) by Pheidias, probably set up by Cimon in commemoration of the Persian defeat. The statue, which was 30 ft. high, represented the goddess as fully armed; the gleam of her helmet and spear could be seen by the mariners approaching from Cape Sunium (Pausanias i. 28). On both sides of the passage were numerous statues, among them that of Athena Hygeïa, set up by Pericles to commemorate the recovery of a favourite slave who was injured during the building of the Parthenon, a colossal bronze image of the wooden horse of Troy, and Myron’s group of Marsyas with Athena throwing away her flute. Another statue by Myron, the famous Perseus, stood near the precinct of Artemis Brauronia. In this sacred enclosure, which lay between the south-eastern corner of the Propylaea and the wall of Cimon, no traces of a temple have been found. Adjoining it to the east are the remains of a large rectangular building, which was apparently fronted by a colonnade; this has been identified with the Χαλκοθήκη, a storehouse of bronze implements and arms, which was formerly supposed to lie against the north wall near the Propylaea. Beyond the Parthenon, a little to the north-east, was the great altar of Athena, and near it the statue and altar of Zeus Polieus. With regard to the buildings on the east end of the Acropolis, where the present museums stand, no certainty exists; among the many statues here were those of Xanthippus, the father of Pericles, and of Anacreon. Immediately west of the Erechtheum is the Pandroseum or temenos of Pandrosos, the daughter of Cecrops, the excavation of which has revealed no traces of the temple (ναός) seen here by Pausanias (i. 27). The site of this precinct, in which the sacred olive tree of Athena grew, has been almost certainly fixed by an inscription found in the bastion of Odysseus. At its north-western extremity is a platform of levelled rock which may have supported the altar of Zeus Hypsistus. Farther west, along the north wall of the Acropolis, is the space probably occupied by the abode and playground of the Errephori. Between this precinct and the Propylaea were a number of statues, among them the celebrated heifer of Myron, and perhaps his Erechtheus; the Lemnian Athena of Pheidias, and his effigy of his friend Pericles.