the Turks into the citadel, they established a strict blockade of the fortress, which was continued until the advance of the Pasha at the head of 4000 men induced them to abandon their enterprise, and fly, with the Athenians, to Salamis and Ægina. Two months afterwards, the Pasha having left Athens to the defence of 1500 men, the Greeks again ventured to attack the town, and succeeded in obliging the Turks to seek refuge in the citadel, which they forthwith determined to besiege; but, from ignorance and want of means, no progress whatever was made in the operation until they obtained possession of the well which supplied the garrison with water, when the Turks agreed to capitulate upon condition of being immediately embarked with their families and sent to Asia Minor. On various pretences, however, embarkation was delayed from time to time; and when intelligence at length arrived that a large Turkish force was advancing upon Athens, the Palicari, instead of manning the walls and preparing for a vigorous defence, rushed in a body to the houses where the prisoners were confined, and commenced an indiscriminate massacre. For this atrocity it is no palliation to remember that the Greek character had morally suffered from centuries of servitude, and that they had terrible arrears of vengeance to exact. The third siege was laid by the Turks in 1826. The Greeks had left a strong garrison in the Acropolis, with provisions for several months; and a spring of water having been discovered in the cave of Pan, and enclosed by Odysseus within the defences of the citadel, there was no danger of its being starved into a surrender. But the Turks having established batteries near the Pnyx and on the hill of the Museium, and having drawn a line of trenches round the citadel, with the view of intercepting all communication between the besieged and the Greek army, the garrison was hard pressed; and although Colonel Fabvier succeeded in forcing his way through the Turkish lines with 500 men and a supply of ammunition, and thus affording immediate relief, yet the total defeat of the Greek army under General Church at the battle of Athens, fought in the hope of raising the siege, led soon afterwards to the surrender of the Acropolis, which remained in the hands of the Turks until the termination of the revolutionary war.
In 1812 Athens could boast of a population of 12,000 souls, but during the war the greater part of the city was laid in ruins, and most of the inhabitants were dispersed. In 1834 it was declared the capital of the new kingdom of Greece. Great exertions have been made since then to restore the city; streets have been opened, levelled, widened; the ancient sewers have been cleared and repaired, and the marshes of Cephisus drained. Excavations of ancient sites and buildings have been carried out,—chiefly through the efforts of the Archæological Society of Athens, but the antiquaries and scholars of all Europe have anxiously watched their endeavours, and France and Prussia have vied with Great Britain in the prosecution of Athenian discovery. The Theseium has become a treasury of ancient sculpture, and a new archæological museum has been also erected to contain the ever-increasing stores of ancient inscriptions and sculptures. The royal palace is a large building of Pentelic marble, situated in the eastern quarter of the city, on the highest part of the gentle eminence which rises from the level of the Ilissus and Cephisus towards Lycabettus. The University (τανεπιστήμιον) was founded in 1837, and numbers over 1200 students, while its staff of 52 professors includes the names of some of the most learned Greek archæologists in Europe. In fact, the schools and other educational institutions of Athens are very numerous, and thoroughly efficient. The archæological journals of Athens are full of information concerning the progress of excavations, and publish the texts of newly-discovered inscriptions. The population in 1871 was over 48,000, exclusive of the population of the Piræeus, which would bring the total up to about 60,000. The harbour is visited by ships of all nations. A railway connects the Piræeus with the city, and enters the ancient town about half-way between the site of the Dipylum and Pirsean gates. The terminus stands in the midst of what once was the Agora in Cerameicus. The principal street is Hermes Street, running from west to east, a little north of the terminus, until it reaches the royal palace. Two other good streets, Athena Street and Æolus Street, traverse this at right angles. The other streets, with the exception of Stadium Street on the N.E., between the chamber of deputies and the University, are generally narrow and winding. Altogether, Athens, like the rest of Greece, is in a condition of increasing prosperity, and reaps the blessings of freedom. It is true that in our own country the ardent philhellenism of forty years ago has cooled down, and Greece is no longer an object of popular and sentimental admiration. Yet never did the scholars of Europe turn with keener zest to the study of her ancient monuments; and if Attica were cleared for ever of brigands, and furnished with satisfactory roads, then in numbers tenfold greater than now would reverent travellers from the west of Europe delight to make their pilgrimage to the birthplace of philosophy, literature, and art.
The following are some of the most important works on the subject:—Leake's Topography of Athens; Wordsworth's Athens and Attica; Bursian's Geographie von Griechenland, and article "Athenæ" in Pauly's Real-Encyclopädie, 2d ed.; E. Curtius's Attische Studien; Dyer's Ancient Athens; Wachsmuth's Die Stadt Athen in Allerthum. (e. l. h.)
ATHENS, the name of several towns in the United States of America, the chief of which are the following:—(1.) The capital of a county of the same name in the S.E. of the state of Ohio, finely situated on the Hocking River. It is the seat of the Ohio university, which was founded in 1804. Population of county, 23,768. (2.) The capital of Clarke county, Georgia, on the W. bank of the Oconee River. It is the seat of the Georgia university, which was founded in 1801, and the central town of a large cotton-growing district. Population in 1870, 4251, of whom 1967 were coloured.
ATHERTON, or Chowbent, a township in the parish of Leigh and hundred of West Derby, in Lancashire, 200 miles from London. It is one of those places which have grown to wealth and populousness through the extension of the cotton trade. Besides its factories, it has collieries and ironworks. Population in 1871, 7531.
ATHIAS, Joseph, a celebrated rabbi and printer at Amsterdam, whose editions of the Hebrew Bible are noted for the general correctness of the text. Although he was a learned Hebraist, there are occasional errors in the points, especially in the edition of 1661, but many of these were corrected in that of 1667. He also printed several editions of the Bible in the corrupted Hebrew spoken by the Jews of Spain, Germany, Poland, and England. He died in 1700.
