is remarkable that all the principal passes into Laconia lead to one point: this point is Sparta; a fact which shows at once how well the position of that city was chosen for the defence of the province, and how well it was adapted, especially as long as it continued to be unwalled, to maintain a perpetual vigilance and readiness for defence, which are the surest means of offensive success."

ATTICA AND ITS EARLY HISTORY.

ATTICA probably derives its name from its geographical character as a projecting peninsula. It is a triangle, with its mountain base united to the mainland, and its sides washed by the Egean sea. It is bounded by

1 Probably from 'akтh. Attica would thus be a corruption from Actica.

mountain ranges which isolate it from the rest of Greece-mountain heights often inaccessible, but pierced by several important passes. In the north-west of Attica, near the Bay of Eleusis, facing Salamis across the narrow strait, and enclosed by mountain ranges, was the Eleusinian Plain. Eastward of this lies another great plain, an amphitheatre, of which Athens was the centre, called the Athenian Plain, or, more simply and more frequently, the Plain. An important rocky pass connected the two plains of Athens and Eleusis; the path that ran through it was called the Sacred Way. This road occupies a conspicuous place in Athenian history; it was traversed every year by a sacred procession, and each side was lined with public monuments. On the northeast of the Athenian Plain was the rough mountain district called the Highland, that had only a solitary piece of level ground opening on the sea, immortalized in history as the Plain of Marathon. On the south-east of the Plain was the Midland District,2 which was an undulating country. There was also the Sea-coast District, which included the whole of the south of Attica. This district was hilly and barren in itself, but boasted of the rich silver mines of Laurium. We thus obtain five natural divisions of Attica: the two Plains, the Highland, the Midland, and the Sea-coast Districts. We shall afterwards see that important political divisions corresponded with these natural divisions.

1

The rivers are only slender streams, with waters that fail in summer, but were swollen in winter or after heavy rains. Two little rivers, whose fame is commensurate with that of the proudest streams, glide through the Athenian Plain, the Cephissus and the Ilissus. The Cephissus is the only river of Attica which is supplied with water throughout the entire year. Once it flowed in a single channel, and was perhaps embanked; "it is now allowed to find its way through the olive groves in several streams, from which there are many smaller deviations, for the purpose of watering olive-trees and gardens." 4 The Ilissus is a smaller stream, and has

3 Mesogea (μeooyaía), now Mesoghia. 4 Colonel Leake.

now lost the shady banks and the spreading plane-trees for which it was once celebrated. The mountains are veined with marble; the quarries of Pentelicus and Hymettus have always been widely known and held in high esteem. The country was cultivated with extraordinary care, but wheat was only scantily produced. The soil was, however, noted for early and delicious fruits. The olive-trees and fig-trees were especially famous; at the present day there are extensive groves of olive-trees along the banks of the Cephissus. The olive was regarded with religious veneration as the special gift of the goddess Athena. Fine honey was abundant; the classical poets sang of the bees which clustered on the wild flowers of Mount Hymettus. Horses and horned cattle were scarce, but pasture was abundant on the upland slopes, and there large flocks of sheep and goats used to feed. Higher still on the mountains the bear and wild boar were sometimes hunted.

Athens was situated four or five miles from the sea. Her plain is shut in on every side by mountains, except on the south, where it is open to the coast, laved by the waters of the Saronic Gulf, in which were the harbours of Athens. In the plain arose abruptly the square, craggy rock of the Acropolis, with its broad, flat summit. About a mile southward was Mount Lycabettus, with its conical peak, now called the Hill of St. George. This is the most striking natural feature of the neighbourhood of Athens. "It is to Athens what Vesuvius is to Naples, or Arthur's Seat to Edinburgh." There are three other hills of moderate elevation to the south-west of Lycabettus, all of which subsequently formed part of the city, and which are known as the Areopagus, the Pnyx, and the Museum. Our poet Milton has, with the utmost accuracy, described Athens in the famous passage commencing

"On the Ægean Sea a city stands

Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil."

The purity and freshness of the Athenian atmosphere have been celebrated with every epithet of praise. Travellers speak of the transparent clearness and brilliant colouring of the sky. One of these writers thus speaks

of the soil: "The buildings of the city possessed a property produced immediately by the Athenian soil. Athens stands on a bed of hard limestone rock, in most places thinly covered by a meagre surface of soil. From this surface the rock itself frequently projects, and almost always is visible. Athenian ingenuity suggested, and Athenian dexterity has realized, the adaptation of such a soil to architectural purposes. Of this there remains the fullest evidence. In the rocky soil itself walls have been hewn, pavements levelled, steps and seats chiselled, cisterns excavated, and niches scooped; almost every object that in a simple state of society would be necessary, either for public or private fabrics, was thus, as it were, quarried in the soil of the city itself." 1

In the earliest period the city of Athens was doubtless confined to its rock of the Acropolis, and gradually the Athenians extended themselves over the neighbouring hills and the plain. From its isolated position, and from the thinness of the soil, which offered no powerful inducement to immigrating races, the inhabitants were allowed to hold their lands undisturbed. The Athenians have, consequently, little that approaches to that stirring cycle of legend associated with the Dorian race of the Peloponnesus. They boasted of themselves that they were Autochthones, that is, children of the soil, and this was always their favourite title. It is said that the original city on the Acropolis was built by Cecrops, and called Cecropia, and the inhabitants were called Cecropidæ. These inhabitants were originally Pelasgians.

The Pelasgians fortified the whole of their craggy rock, and a portion of the walls was afterwards called the Pelasgium; and more especially a space of ground under the north side was so called, and was left uninhabited. Cecrops is said to have divided Attica into twelve cities, each of which had its own magistrate and its own townhall, called the Prytaneum; these cities acknowledged the supremacy of Athens, but acted with perfect independence, and even made war upon each other.

Among the successors of Cecrops the name of Erectheus I., or Ericthonius, has been preserved. He is said 1 Bishop Wordsworth's Athens and Attica.'

to have dedicated a temple to Athene on the Acropolis, and from the prominence which he gave to the worship of Athene the people were henceforth called Athenians. In this temple he set up the image of the goddess, made of olive wood, which was considered the most sacred object in Athens. He was buried in the temple which was afterwards known as the Erectheum.

But of all the early kings of Athens, Theseus was by far the most famous. Theseus is the darling character of Athenian legend. It is impossible for us, at the present day, to separate what is merely fictitious in his story from that which may have had an historical substratum. He was to the Athenians much what King Arthur is in legendary British history. The Athenians were long accustomed to associate with the name of Theseus various political institutions, which we know, on positive evidence, to have belonged to a later date. Thucydides speaks of Theseus as a man who combined sagacity with political power. He united into one political body the different communities of which Attica had consisted. The functions of government which the different states used to enjoy were now concentrated in the metropolitan city. Thus much at least may be accepted as historical, although the personal history of Theseus is wrapt up in myths, and it has been thought that his political reforms may also be mythical. The legends about Theseus are among the most interesting in Greek mythology, and, like those of King Arthur, probably point in the direction of the fact that he redressed the wrongs of the suffering and punished violent evildoers. We give some of these stories. There was a robber called Simmis, the Pine-bender, who used to fasten travellers between the heads of two pines, after being drawn together, which being suddenly released, by their springing back, tore the poor victims to pieces. Him Theseus slew, and alsoanother robber called the Club-bearer. He also put to death Procrustes, who seized upon strangers and tortured their bodies until they exactly fitted his bed. He slew the Minotaur of Crete, the fabulous monster-half man and half bull-with the help of Ariadne, whom he had saved from a dragon. The story ran that, before this Cretan expedition, he had arranged with his father,