THE PARTHENON AND ITS SCULPTURES. 85 and the like. Thus by the exercise of their different trades was plenty diffused amongst persons of every condition. The Propylaea, whose architect was Mnesicles, was begun directly after the practical completion of the Parthenon, about 437, and was probably completed about 432 together with the temple of Nike. The Erechtheum was begun about 421, and was still in progress in 408, when an inquiry was held in regard to the works necessary for its completion. The results of the inquiry are recorded on an inscription in the British Museum. These itCm^ Fig. 71. — Frieze : Horsemen. building accounts show that there was a commission appointed for carrying on the works, and that an architect Philocles was, in 408, a member of it. In the erection of public buildings in Greece it was usual to have such a board to supervise the progress and arrange contracts. That there was a board of this kind for the works at the Parthenon appears likely from a frag- ment of papyrus at Strassburg.* It seems very much like the mediaeval custom as to building.
- Murray's " Parthenon," p. 8.
