The capture and sack of Athens by Sulla (March 1, 86 B.C.) seems to have involved no great injury to its architectural monuments beyond the burning of the Odeum of Pericles; a portion of the city wall was razed, the Monuments of the Roman period. groves of the Academy and Lyceum were cut down, and the Peiraeus, with its magnificent arsenal and other great buildings, burnt to the ground. After this catastrophe the benefactors of Athens were for the most part Romans; the influence of Greek literature and art had begun to affect the conquering race. The New, or Roman, Agora to the north of the Acropolis, perhaps mainly an oil market, was constructed after the year 27 B.C. Its dimensions were practically determined by excavation in 1890-1891. It consisted of a large open rectangular space surrounded by an Ionic colonnade into which opened a number of shops or storehouses. The eastern gate was adorned with four Ionic columns on the outside and two on the inside, the western entrance being the well-known Doric portico of Athena Archegetis with an inscription recording its erection from donations of Julius Caesar and Augustus. The whole conclave may be compared with the enclosed bazaars or khans of Oriental cities which are usually locked at night. The Agrippeum, a covered theatre, derived its name from Vipsanius Agrippa, whose statue was set up, about 27 B.C., beneath the north wing of the Acropolis propylaea, on the high rectangular base still remaining. At the eastern end of the Acropolis a little circular temple of white marble with a peristyle of 9 Ionic columns was dedicated to Rome and Augustus; its foundations were discovered during the excavations of 1885-1888. The conspicuous monument which crowns the Museum Hill was erected as the mausoleum of Antiochus Philopappus of Commagene, grandson of Antiochus Epiphanes, in A.D. 114-116. Excavations carried out in 1898-1899 showed that the structure was nearly square; the only portion remaining is the slightly curved front, with three niches between Corinthian pilasters; in the central niche is the statue of Philopappus.
The emperor Hadrian was the most lavish of all the benefactors of Athens. Besides completing the gigantic Olympieum he enlarged the circuit of the city walls to the east, enclosing the area now covered by the royal Novae Athenae: the buildings of Hadrian. public gardens and the Constitution Square. This was the City of Hadrian (Hadrianapolis) or New Athens (Novae Athenae); a handsome suburb with numerous villas, baths and gardens; some traces remain of its walls, which, like those of Themistocles, were fortified with rectangular towers. An ornamental entrance near the Olympieum, the existing Arch of Hadrian, marked the boundary between the new and the old cities. The arch is surmounted by a triple attic with Corinthian columns; the frieze above the keystone bears, on the north-western side, the inscription αἴδ᾽ εἴσ᾽ Ἀθῆναι, Θησέως ἡ πρὶν πόλις and on the south-eastern, αἴδ᾽ εἴσ᾽ Ἁδριανοῦ καὶ οὐχὶ Θησέως πόλις. One of the principal monuments of Hadrian’s munificence was the sumptuous library, in all probability a vast rectangular enclosure, immediately north of the New Agora, the eastern side of which was explored in 1885-1886. A portion of its western front, adorned with monolith unfluted Corinthian columns, is still standing—the familiar “Stoa of Hadrian”; another well-preserved portion, with six pilasters, runs parallel to the west side of Aeolus Street. The interior consisted of a spacious court surrounded by a colonnade of 100 columns, into which five chambers opened at the eastern end. A portico of four fluted Corinthian columns on the western side formed the entrance to the quadrangle. This cloistered edifice may be identified with the library of Hadrian mentioned by Pausanias; the books were, perhaps, stored in a square building which occupied a portion of the central area. Strikingly similar in design and construction is a large quadrangular building, the foundations of which were discovered by the British School near the presumed Cynosarges; this may perhaps be the Gymnasium of Hadrian, which Pausanias tells us also possessed 100 columns. A Pantheon and temples of Hera and Zeus Panhellenius were likewise built by Hadrian; the aqueduct, which he began, was completed by Antoninus Pius (A.D. 138-161); it was repaired in 1861-1869 and is still in use.
The Stadium, in which the Panathenaic Games were held, was first laid out by the orator Lycurgus about 330 B.C. It was an oblong structure filling a natural depression near the left bank of the Ilissus beneath the eastern declivity The Stadium and Odeum of Herodes Atticus. of the Ardettus hill, the parallel sides and semicircular end, or σφενδόνη around the arena being partially excavated from the adjoining slopes. The immense building, however, which was restored in 1896 and the following years, was that constructed in Pentelic marble about A.D. 143 by Tiberius Claudius Herodes Atticus, a wealthy Roman resident, whose benefactions to the city rivalled those of Hadrian. The seats, rising in tiers, as in a theatre, accommodated about 44,000 spectators; the arena was 670 ft. in length and 109 ft. in breadth. The Odeum, built beneath the south-west slope of the Acropolis after A.D. 161 by Herodes Atticus in memory of his wife Regilla, is comparatively well preserved; it was excavated in 1848 and in 1857-1858. The plan is that of the conventional Roman theatre; the semicircular auditorium, which seated some 5000 persons, is, like that of the Dionysiac theatre, partly hollowed from the rock. The orchestra is paved with marble squares. The façade, in Peiraic stone, displays three storeys of arched windows. The whole building was covered with a cedar roof. The Stadium had been already completed and the Odeum had not yet been built when Pausanias visited Athens; these buildings were the last important additions to the architectural monuments of the ancient city.
(J. D. B.)
II. The Modern City
At the conclusion of the Greek War of Independence, Athens was little more than a village of the Turkish type, the poorly built houses clustering on the northern and eastern slopes of the Acropolis. The narrow crooked lanes of this quarter still contrast with the straight, regularly laid-out streets of the modern city, which extends to the north-west, north and east of the ancient citadel. The greater commercial advantages offered by Nauplia, Corinth and Patras were outweighed by the historic claims of Athens in the choice of a capital for the newly founded kingdom, and the seat of government was transferred hither from Nauplia in 1833. The new town was, for the most part, laid out by the German architect Schaubert. It contains several squares and boulevards, a large public garden, and many handsome public and private edifices. A great number of the public institutions owe their origin to the munificence of patriotic Greeks, among whom Andreas Syngros and George Averoff may be especially mentioned. The royal palace, designed by Friedrich von Gärtner (1792-1847), is a tasteless structure; attached to it is a beautiful garden laid out by Queen Amalia, which contains a well-preserved mosaic floor of the Roman period. On the south-east is the newly built palace of the crown prince. The Academy, from designs by Theophil Hansen (1813-1891), is constructed of Pentelic marble in the Ionic style: the colonnades and pediments are richly coloured and gilded, and may perhaps convey some idea of the ancient style of decoration. Close by is the university, with a colonnade adorned with paintings, and the Vallianean library with a handsome Doric portico of Pentelic marble. The observatory, which is connected with the university, stands on the summit of the Hill of the Nymphs; like the Academy, it was erected at the expense of a wealthy Greek, Baron Sina of Vienna. In the public garden is the Zappeion, a large building with a Corinthian portico, intended for the display of Greek industries; here also is a monument to Byron, erected in 1896. The Boulē, or parliament-house, possesses a considerable library. Other public buildings are the Polytechnic Institute, built by contributions from Greeks of Epirus, the theatre, the Arsakeion (a school for girls), the Varvakeion (a gymnasium), the military school (σχολὴ εὐελπίδων), and several hospitals and orphanages. The cathedral, a large, modern structure is devoid of architectural merit, but some of the smaller, ancient, Byzantine churches are singularly interesting and beautiful. Among private residences, the mansion built by Dr Schliemann, the discoverer of Troy, is the most noteworthy; its decorations are in the Pompeian style.
The museums of Athens have steadily grown in importance with the progress of excavation. They are admirably arranged, and the remnants of ancient art which they contain have fortunately escaped injudicious restoration. Museums. The National Museum, founded in 1866, is especially rich in archaic sculptures and in sepulchral and votive reliefs. A copy of the Diadumenos of Polyclitus from Delos, and temple sculptures from Epidaurus and the Argive Heraeum, are among the more notable of its recent acquisitions. It also possesses the famous collection of prehistoric antiquities found by Schliemann at Tiryns and Mycenae, other “Mycenaean” objects discovered at Nauplia and in Attica, as well as the still earlier remains excavated by Tsountas in the Cyclades and by the British School at Phylakopi in Melos; terra-cottas from Tanagra and Asia Minor; bronzes from Olympia, Delphi and elsewhere, and numerous painted vases, among them the unequalled white lekythi from Athens and Eretria. The Epigraphical Museum contains an immense number of inscriptions arranged by H.G. Lolling and A. Wilhelm of the Austrian Institute. The Acropolis Museum (opened 1878) possesses a singularly interesting collection of sculptures belonging to the “archaic” period of Greek art, all found on the Acropolis; here, too, are some fragments of the pedimental statues of the Parthenon and several reliefs from its frieze, as well as the slabs from the balustrade of the temple of Nike. The Polytechnic Institute contains a museum of interesting objects connected with modern Greek life and history. In the Academy is a valuable collection of coins superintended by Svoronos. Of the private collections those of Schliemann and Karapanos are the most interesting: the latter contains works of art and other objects from Dodona. There is a small museum of antiquities at the Peiraeus.
Owing to the numbers and activity of its institutions, both native and foreign, for the prosecution of research and the encouragement of classical studies, Athens has become once more an international seat of learning. The Scientific institutions. Greek Archaeological Society, founded in 1837, numbers some distinguished scholars among its members, and displays great activity in the conduct of excavations. Important researches at Epidaurus, Eleusis, Mycenae, Amyclae and Rhamnus may be numbered among its principal undertakings, in addition to the complete exploration of the Acropolis and a series of investigations in Athens and Attica. The French École d’Athènes, founded in 1846, is under the scientific direction of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres. Among its numerous enterprises have been the extensive and costly excavations at Delos and Delphi, which have yielded such remarkable results. The monuments of the Byzantine epoch have latterly occupied a prominent place in its investigations. The German Archaeological Institute, founded in 1874, has carried out excavations at Thebes, Lesbos, Pares, Athens and elsewhere; it has also been associated in the great researches at Olympia, Pergamum and Troy, and in many other important undertakings. The British School, founded in 1886, has been unable, owing to insufficient endowment, to work on similar lines with the French and German institutions; it has, however, carried out extensive excavations at Megalopolis and in Melos, as well as researches at Abae, in Athens (presumed site of the Cynosarges), in Cyprus, at Naucratis and at Sparta. It has also participated in the exploration of Cnossus and other important sites in Crete. The American School, founded in 1882, is supported by the principal universities of the United States. In addition to researches at Sicyon, Plataea, Eretria and elsewhere, it has undertaken two works of capital importance—the excavation of the Argive Heraeum and of ancient Corinth. An Austrian Archaeological Institute was founded in 1898.
Notwithstanding certain disadvantages inherent in its situation, the trade and manufactures of Athens have considerably increased in recent years. Industrial and commercial activity is mainly centred at the Peiraeus, where Industry and commerce. cloth and cotton mills, 45 cognac distilleries, 14 steam flour mills, 8 soap manufactories, 13 shipbuilding and engineering works, chair manufactories, dye works, chemical works, tanneries and a dynamite factory have been established. The shipbuilding and engineering trades are active and advancing. The export trade is, however, inconsiderable, as the produce of the local industries is mainly absorbed by home consumption. The principal exports are wine, cognac and marble from Pentelicus. As a place of import, the Peiraeus surpasses Patras, Syra and all the other Greek maritime towns, receiving about 53% of all the merchandise brought into Greece. The principal imports are coal, grain, manufactured articles and articles of luxury. The total value of exports in 1904 was £459,565; of imports, £2,459,278. The number of ships entered and cleared in 1905 was 5020 with a tonnage of 5,796,590 tons, of which 416, with a tonnage of 609,822 tons, were British.
The Peiraeus, which had never revived since its destruction by the Romans in 86 B.C., was at the beginning of the 19th century a small fishing village known as Porto Leone. When Athens became the capital in 1833 the ancient name of The Peiraeus. its port was revived, and since that time piers and quays have been constructed, and spacious squares and broad regular streets have been laid out. The town now possesses an exchange, a large theatre, a gymnasium, a naval school, municipal buildings and several hospitals and charitable institutions erected by private munificence. The harbour, in which ships of all nations may be seen, as well as great numbers of the picturesque sailing craft engaged in the coasting trade, is somewhat difficult of access to larger vessels, but has been improved by the construction of new breakwaters and dry docks. The port and the capital are now connected by railway with Corinth and the principal towns of the Morea; the line opening up communication with northern Greece and Thessaly, when its proposed connexion with the Continental railway system has been effected, will greatly enhance the importance of the Peiraeus, already one of the most flourishing commercial towns in the Levant.