VII. General Appearance of the City, Houses, Streets, Water, &c. The first appearance of Athens was not pleasing to a stranger. Dicaearchus, who visited the city in the fourth century before the Christian era, describes it "as dusty and not well supplied with water; badly laid out on account of its antiquity; the majority of the houses mean, and only a few good." He adds that "a stranger, at the first view, might doubt if this is Athens; but after a short time he would find that it was." (Dicaearch. Βίος τής Έλλάδος, init., p. 140, ed. Fuhr.) The streets were narrow and crooked; and the meanness of the private houses formed a striking contrast to the magnificence of the public buildings. None of the houses appear to have been of any great height, and the upper stories often projected over the streets. Themistocles and Aristeides, though authorised by the Areiopagus, could hardly prevent people from building over the streets. The houses were, for the most part, constructed either of a frame-work of wood, or of unburnt bricks dried in the open air. (Xen. Mem. iii. 1. § 7 ; Plut. Dem. 11; Hirt, Baukunst der Alten, p. 143.) The front towards the street rarely had any windows, and was usually nothing but a curtain wall, covered with a coating of plaster (κονίαμα: Dem. de Ord. Rep. p. 175; Plut. Comp. Arist. et Cat. 4); though occasionally this outer wall was relieved by some ornament, as in the case of Phocion's house, of which the front was adorned with copper filings. (Plut. Phoc. 18; Becker, Charikles. vol. i. p. 198.) What Horace said of the primitive worthies of his own country, will apply with still greater justice to the Athenians daring their most flourishing period: —
(Mure, vol. ii. p. 98). It was not till the Macedonian period, when public spirit had decayed, that the Athenians, no longer satisfied with participating in the grandeur of the state, began to erect handsome private houses. "Formerly," says Demosthenes, "the republic had abundant wealth, but no individual raised himself above the multitude. If any one of us could now see the houses of Themistocles, Aristeides, Cimon, or the famous men of those days, he would perceive that they were not more magnificent than the houses of ordinary persons; while the buildings of the state are of such number and magnitude that they cannot be surpassed;" and afterwards he complains that the statesmen of his time constructed houses, which exceeded the public buildings in magnitude. (Dem. c. Aristocr. p. 689, Olynth. iii. pp. S5, 36; Böckh, Publ. Econ. of Athens p. 64, seq., 2nd ed.; Becker, Charikles, vol. i. p. 188.) The insignificance of the Athenian houses is shown by the small prices which they fetched. Böckh (Ibid. p. 66) has collected numerous instances from the orators. Their prices vary from the low sum of 3 or 5 minas (12l. 3s. 9d. and 20l. 6s. 3d.) to 120 minas (487l. 10s.); and 50 minas (203l. 2s. 6d.) seem to have been regarded as a considerable sum for the purchase of a house. Athens was inferior to Rome in the pavement of its streets, its sewers, and its supply of water. "The Greeks," says Strabo (v. p. 235), "in building their cities, attended chiefly to beauty and fortification, harbours, and a fertile soil. The Romans, on the other hand, provided, what the others neglected, the pavement of the streets, a supply of water, and com- |
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Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume I Part 1.djvu/280
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