Athens, The Capital Of The Former State Of Attica, Is Said To Have Been Founded In The Year 1300, Fourteen Hundred Years Before Christ, By Cecrops, From Whom It Then Took The Name Of Cecropia, Which In After-Times Was Retained Only By The Castle:

Under Eriktonius the town was named "Athens." The original town stood upon a rock in the centre of a

Plain, which was afterwards covered with buildings; the upper part was called the "Acropolis," the lower the "Katopolis;" only a part of the fortress, the famous Acropolis, remains on the mountain, where the principal works of art of Athens stand. The principal feature was the temple of Minerva, or the Parthenon; even its ruins excite the astonishment of the world. The building is said to have been 215 feet long, ninety-seven feet broad, and seventy feet high; here stood the statue of Minerva, by Phidias. This masterly work was executed in gold and ivory; its height was forty-six feet, and it is said to have weighed more than 2000 pounds. Fifty-five columns of the entrance to the temple still remain, as well as parts of enormous blocks of marble which rest upon them, and belonged to the arches and roof.

This temple was destroyed by the Persians, and was again restored with greater beauty by Pericles, about 440 years after the birth of Christ.

There are some fine remains of the temples of Minerva and Neptune, and the extent of the amphitheatre can still be seen; there is but little of the theatre of Bacchus remaining.

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