the state which, was fast becoming the leader of Greece, and many no doubt were brought together by the feast itself. There were the country people of Attica, come in, as it were, from the suburbs; and lastly, there were the regular inhabitants themselves. A busy, energetic people these were, living half their time at sea or in foreign cities; full of all a sailor's vivacity and vigour and enterprise, yet without the sailor's ignorance and rudeness—their hardihood tempered by the culture which was fast gaining ground, and which this festival did much to foster. We have lively descriptions given us of the hurry and the bustle and the clamour in the docks and marts of this most stirring city; and now all was at its height. The city itself was only just beginning to be beautified with the temples and groves and statues which were afterwards its glory; but at present, while the heroes of Marathon were still in its streets, it needed no better decoration, and the rough walls and narrow roads spoke still of the haste with which they were built up, after the Athenians had so nobly left their homes to destruction to fight at Salamis for the liberty of Greece. Never has there been a city of which its people might be more justly proud, whether they looked to its past or to its future, than Athens in the days of Æschylus.
But all are tending, early in the day, to the great theatre of Bacchus, under the Acropolis. This sacred citadel stands high above the rest of the city, crowned even now with temples of the gods, and especially of Minerva, the patron goddess. Its south side is a steep precipice of rock, from which the ground slopes
