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ATTICA

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Originally appearing in Volume V02, Page 884 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ATTICA , a See also:

district of See also:ancient See also:Greece, triangular in shape, projecting in a See also:south-easterly direction into the See also:Aegean See also:Sea, the See also:base See also:line being formed by the continuous See also:chain of Mounts See also:Cithaeron and Parnes, the See also:apex by the promontory of See also:Sunium. It was washed on two sides by the sea, and the See also:coast is broken up into numerous small bays and harbours, which, however, are with few exceptions exposed to the south See also:wind. The See also:surface of Attica, as of the See also:rest of Greece, is very mountainous, and between the See also:mountain chains See also:lie several plains of no See also:great See also:size, open on one See also:side to the sea. On the See also:west its natural boundary is the Corinthian Gulf, so that it would include Megaris; indeed, before the Dorian invasion, which resulted in the See also:foundation of See also:Megara, the whole See also:country was politically one, in the hands of the Ionian See also:race. This is proved by the See also:column which, as we learn from See also:Strabo, once stood on the See also:Isthmus of See also:Corinth, bearingon one side in See also:Greek the inscription, " This See also:land is See also:Peloponnesus, not See also:Ionia," and on the other, " This land is not Peloponnesus, but Ionia." The position of Attica was one See also:main cause of its See also:historical importance. Hence in See also:part arose the maritime See also:character of its inhabitants; and when they had once taken to the sea, the See also:string of neighbouring islands, See also:Ceos, Cythnos and others, some of which See also:lay within sight of their coasts, and from one to another of which it was possible to See also:sail without losing sight of land, served to tempt them on to further enterprises. Similarly on land, the See also:post it occupied between See also:northern Greece and the Peloponnese materially influenced its relation to other states, both in respect of its alliances, such as that with See also:Thessaly, towards which it was See also:drawn by mutual hostility to See also:Boeotia, which lay between them; and also in respect of offensive combinations of other See also:powers, as that between See also:Thebes and See also:Sparta, which throughout an important part of Greek See also:history were See also:close'y associated in their politics, through mutual dread of their powerful See also:neighbour. The mountains of Attica, which See also:form its most characteristic feature, are a continuation of that chain which, starting from Tymphrestus at the See also:southern extremity of See also:Pindus, passes through See also:Phocis and Boeotia under the names, ttaaiins r of See also:Parnassus and See also:Helicon; from this proceeds the range which, as Cithaeron in its western and Parnes in its eastern portion, separates Attica from Boeotia, throwing off spurs southward towards the Saronic Gulf in Aegaleos and See also:Hymettus, which See also:bound the See also:plain of See also:Athens. Again, the eastern extremity of Parnes is joined by another line of hills, which, separating from See also:Mount See also:Oeta, skirts the Euboic Gulf, and, after entering Attica, throws up the lofty See also:pyramid of See also:Pentelicus, overlooking the plain of See also:Marathon, and then sinks towards the sea at Sunium to rise once more in the outlying islands. Finally, at the extreme west of the whole district, Cithaeron is See also:bent See also:round at right angles in the direction of: the isthmus, at the northern approach to which it abuts against the mighty See also:mass of Mount Geraneia, which is interposed between the Corinthian and the Saronic Gulf. Both Cithaeron and Parnes are about 4600 ft. high, Pentelicus 3635, and Hymettus 3370, while Aegaleos does not rise higher than 1534 ft. At the See also:present See also:day they are extremely See also:bare, and in this respect almost repellent; but the lack of See also:colour is compensated by the delicacy of the outlines, the See also:minute See also:articulation of the See also:minor ridges and valleys, and the symmetrical grouping of the several mountains.

The See also:

soil is See also:light and thin, and requires very careful See also:agriculture not only on the rocky mountain sides but to some extent also in the maritime plains. This fact had consider SOIL able See also:influence on the inhabitants, both by enforcing industrious habits and by leading them at an See also:early See also:period to take to the sea. Still, the level ground was sufficiently fertile to form a marked contrast to the rest of the district. See also:Thucydides attributes to the nature of the soil (i. 2 'ro Xeirroyewv), which presented no attraction to invaders, the permanence of the same inhabitants in the country, whence arose the claim to indigenousness on which the Athenians so greatly prided themselves; while at the same See also:time the richer ground fostered that fondness for country See also:life, which is proved by the enthusiastic terms in which it is always spoken of by See also:Aristophanes. That we are not justified in judging of the ancient See also:condition of the soil by, the aridity which prevails at the present day, is shown by the fact that out of the 182 demes (see See also:CLEISTHENES) into which Attica was divided, one-tenth were named from trees or See also:plants. The See also:climate of Attica has always been celebrated. In approaching Attica from Boeotia a See also:change of temperature is See also:felt as soon as a See also:person descends from Cithaeron or Parnes, climate. and the sea See also:breeze, which in See also:modern times is called 6 Warns, or that which sets towards See also:shore, moderates the See also:heat in summer. The See also:Attic comedians and See also:Plato speak with See also:enthusiasm of their native climate, and the fineness of the Athenian See also:intellect was attributed to the clearness of the Attic See also:atmosphere. It was in the neighbourhood of Athens itself that the See also:air was thought to be purest. So See also:Euripides describes the inhabitants as " ever walking gracefully through the most luminous See also:ether " (Med. 829); and See also:Milton ;' Where, on the Aegean shore, a See also:city stands, Built nobly, pure the air, and light the soil—Athens, the See also:eye of Greece." Or again See also:Xenophon says " one would not err in thinking that this city is placed near the centre of Greece—nay, of the civilized world—because, the farther removed persons are from it, the severer is the See also:cold or heat they meet with " (Vectigal. r.

6). The air is so clear that one can see from the See also:

Acropolis the lines of See also:white See also:marble that streak the sides of Pentelicus. The brilliant colouring which is so conspicuous in an Athenian sunset is due to the same cause. The epithet " See also:violet-crowned," used of Athens by See also:Pindar, is due, either to the See also:blue haze on the surrounding hills, or to the use of violets (or irises) for festal wreaths. This otherwise perfect climate is slightly marred by the prevalence of the See also:north wind. This is expressed on the Horologium of Andronicus Cyrrhestes, called the See also:Temple or See also:Tower of the Winds, at Athens, where See also:Boreas is represented as a bearded See also:man of stern aspect, thickly clad, and wearing strong buskins; he blows into a See also:conch See also:shell, which he holds in his See also:hand as a sign of his tempestuous character. Of the See also:flora of Attica, the See also:olive is the most important. This See also:tree, we learn from See also:Herodotus (v. 82), was thought at one time to have been found in that country only; and the enthusiastic praises of See also:Sophocles (Oed. See also:Col. 700) See also:teach us that it was the land in which it flourished best. So great was the esteem in which it was held, that in the early See also:legend of the struggle between the gods of sea and land, See also:Poseidon and See also:Athena, for the patronage of the country, the sea-See also:god is represented as having to retire vanquished before the giver of the olive; and at a later period the evidences of this contention were found in an ancient olive tree in the Acropolis, together with three holes in the See also:rock, said to have been made by the See also:trident of Poseidon, and to be connected with a See also:salt well hard by.

The fig also found its favourite See also:

home in this country, for See also:Demeter was said to have bestowed it as a See also:gift on the Eleu- sinian Phytalus, i.e. " the gardener." Both Cithaeron and Parnes must have been wooded in former times; for on the former are laid the picturesque silvan scenes in the Bacchae of Euripides, and it was from the latter that the See also:wood came which caused the neighbouring deme of Acharnae to be famous for its charcoal—the avOpaies Ilapvioaot of the Acharnians of Aristophanes (348). From the thymy slopes of Hymettus Minerals. came the famous Hymettian See also:honey. Among the other products we must See also:notice the marble—both that of Pentelicus, which afforded a material of unrivalled purity and whiteness for See also:building the Athenian temples, and the blue marble of Hymettus—the trabes Hymettiae of Horace—which used to be transported to See also:Rome for the construction of palaces. But the richest of all the See also:sources of See also:wealth in Attica was the See also:silver mines of See also:Laurium, the yield of which was so considerable as to render silver the See also:principal See also:medium of See also:exchange in Greece, so that " a silver piece " (apyvp.ov) was the Greek See also:equivalent See also:term for See also:money. Hence See also:Aeschylus speaks of the Athenians as possessing a " See also:fountain of silver " (Pers. 235), and Aristophanes makes his See also:chorus of birds promise the See also:audience that, if they show him favour, owls from Laurium (i.e. silver pieces with the See also:emblem of Athens) shall never fail them (Birds, 11o6). The reputation of these coins for purity of See also:metal and accuracy of See also:weight was so great that they had a very wide circulation, and in consequence it was thought undesirable to make any alteration in the types lest their genuineness should be doubted. This accounts for the somewhat inartistic character which the Athenian coins maintained to the last (see further See also:NUMISMATICS: Greek, § Athens). In Strabo's time, though the mines had almost ceased to yield, silver was obtained in considerable quantities from the scoriae; and at the present day a large amount of See also:lead is got in the same way, the See also:work being chiefly carried on by two companies, one of which is See also:French and the other Greek. In the ancient workings, many of which are in the same condition as they were See also:left 'Soo years ago, there are in all 2000 shafts and galleries. It has been already mentioned that the base line of Attica is formed by the chain of Cithaeron and Parnes, See also:running from west to See also:east; and that from this transverse chains run plain of southward, dividing Attica into a See also:succession of plains.

Phoenix-squares

Megara. The westernmost of these, which is separated from the innermost See also:

bay of the Corinthian Gulf, called the See also:Mare Alcyonium, by an offshoot. of Cithaeron, and is bounded on the east by a See also:ridge which ends towards the Saronic Gulf in a striking two-horned See also:peak called Kerata, is the plain of Megara. It is only for See also:geographical purposes that we include this district under Attica, for both the Dorian race of the inhabitants, and its dangerous proximity to Athens, caused it to be at perpetual See also:feud with that city; but its position as an outpost for the Peloponnesians, together with the fact of its having once been Ionian soil, sufficiently explains the See also:bitter hostility of the Athenians towards the Megarians. The great importance of Megara arose from its commanding all the passes into the Peloponnese. These were three in number: one along the shores of the Corinthian Gulf, which, owing to the nature of the ground, makes a See also:long detour;. the other two starting from Megara, and passing, the one by a lofty though See also:gradual route over the ridge of Geraneia, the other along the Saronic Gulf, under the dangerous precipices of the Scironian rocks. To the east of the plain of Megara lies that of See also:Eleusis, bounded on the one side by the chain of Kerata, and on the other by that of Aegaleos, through a depression in which was the plain of line of the sacred way, where the torchlight processions EJeysis. from Athens used to descend to the coast, the" brightly gleaming shores " (Xaµa&Ses aKTai) of Sophocles (Oed. Col. 1049). The deep bay which here runs into the land is bounded on its southern side by the rocky See also:island of See also:Salamis, which was at all times an important See also:possession to the Athenians on See also:account of its proximity to their city; and the winding channel which separates that island from the mainland in the direction of the See also:Peiraeus was the See also:scene of the See also:battle of Salamis, while on the last declivities of Mt. Aegaleos, which here descends to the sea, was the spot where, as See also:Byron wrote " A See also:king sate on the rocky brow Which looks o'er sea-See also:born Salamis." The eastern portion of the plain of Eleusis was called the Thriasian plain, and the city itself was situated in the recesses of the bay just mentioned. Next in See also:order to the plain of Eleusis came that of Athens, which is the most extensive of all, reaching from the See also:foot of Parnes to the sea, and bounded on the west by plain of Aegaleos, and on the east by Hymettus. Its most Athens, conspicuous feature is the broad line of dark See also:green along its western side, formed by the olive-groves of Colonus and the gardens of the See also:Academy, which owe their fertility to the See also:waters of the Cephisus.

This See also:

river is fed by copious sources on the side of Mt. Parnes, and thus, unlike the other See also:rivers of Attica, has a See also:constant See also:supply of See also:water, which was diverted in classical times, as it still is, into the neighbouring plantations (cf. Sophocles, Oed. Col. 685). The position of Colonus itself is marked by two bare knolls of light-coloured See also:earth, which caused the poet in the same chorus tc apply the epithet " white " (ap'y ra) to that See also:place. On the opposite side of the plain runs the other river, the Ilissus, which rises from two sources on the side of Mt. Hymettus, and skirts the eastern extremity of the city of Athens; but this, notwithstanding its celebrity, is a See also:mere See also:brook, which stands in pools a great part of the See also:year, and in summer is completely dry. The situation of Athens relatively to the surrounding See also:objects is singularly harmonious; for, while it forms a central point, so as to be the eye of the plain, and while the See also:altar-rock of the Acropolis and the hills by which it is surrounded are conspicuous from every point of view, there is no such exactness in its position as to give formality, since it is nearer to the sea than to Parnes, and nearer to Hymettus than to Aegaleos. The most striking See also:summit in the neighbourhood of the city is that of Lycabettus, Vegetation. 884 on the north-eastern side; and the variety is still further in-creased by the continuation of the ridge which it forms for some distance northwards through the plain. Three roads lead to Athens from the Boeotian frontier over the intervening mountain barrier—the easternmost over Parnes, from Delium and See also:Oropus by See also:Decelea, which was the usual route of the invading Lacedaemonians during the Peloponnesian See also:War; the westernmost over Cithaeron, by the pass of Dryoscephalae, or the "Oakheads," leading from Thebes by See also:Plataea to Eleusis, and so to Athens, which we hear of in connexion with the battle of Plataea, and with the See also:escape of the Plataeans at the time of the See also:siege of that city in the Peloponnesian War; the third, midway between the two, by the pass of See also:Phyle, near the summit of which, on a rugged height overlooking the Athenian plain, is the fort occupied by See also:Thrasybulus in the days of the See also:Thirty Tyrants.

On the sea-coast to the south-west of Athens rises the See also:

hill of Munychia, a mass of rocky ground, forming the acropolis of the See also:town of Peiraeus. It was probably at one time an island; this was Strabo's See also:opinion, and at the present day the ground which joins it to the mainland is See also:low and swampy, and seems to have been formed by alluvial soil brought down by the Cephisus. On one side of this, towards Hymettus, lay the open roadstead of Phalerum, on the other the See also:harbour of Peiraeus, a completely land-locked inlet, safe, deep and spacious, the approach to which was still further narrowed by moles. The eastern side of the hill was further indented by two small but commodious havens, which were respectively called Zea and Munychia. The north-eastern boundary of the plain of Athens is formed by the graceful pyramid of Pentelicus, which received its name from the deme of Pentele at its foot, but was far more Eastern att>ca. commonly known as Brilessus in ancient times. This mountain did not form a continous chain with Hymettus, for between them intervenes a level space of ground 2 M. in width, which formed the entrance to the Mesogaea, an elevated undulating plain in the midst of the mountains, reaching nearly to Sunium. At the extremity of Hymettus, where it projects into the Saronic Gulf, was the promontory of Zoster (" the See also:Girdle "), which was so called because it girdles and protects the neighbouring harbour; but in consequence of the name, a legend was attached to it, to the effect that See also:Latona had loosed her girdle there. From this promontory to Sunium there runs a See also:lower line of mountains, and between these and the sea a fertile See also:strip of land intervenes, which was called the Paralia. Beyond Sunium, on the eastern coast, were two safe ports, that of Thoricus, which is defended by the island of Helene, forming a natural See also:breakwater in front of it, and that of Prasiae, now called See also:Porto Raphti (" the Tailor "), from a statue at the entrance to which the natives have given that name. In the north-east corner is the little plain of Marathon (q.v.), the scene of the battle against the Persians (490 B.C.). It lies between Parnes, Pentelicus and the sea. The bay in front is sheltered by See also:Euboea, and on the north by a projecting See also:tongue of land, called Cynosura.

The mountains in the neighbourhood were the home of the Diacrii or Hyperacrii, who, being poor mountaineers, and having nothing to lose, were the principal See also:

advocates of See also:political reform; while, on the other hand, the Pedieis, or in-habitants of the plains, being wealthy landholders, formed the strong conservative See also:element, and the Parali, or occupants of the sea-coast, representing the See also:mercantile See also:interest, held an inter-mediate position between the two (see CLEISTHENES). Finally, there was one district of Attica, the territory of Oropus, which properly belonged to Boeotia, as it was situated to the north of Parnes; but on this the Athenians always endeavoured to retain a See also:firm hold, because it facilitated their communications with Euboea. The command of that island was of the utmost importance to them; for, if See also:Aegina could rightly be called " the eyesore of the Peiraeus," Euboea was quite as truly a See also:thorn in the side of Attica; for we learn from See also:Demosthenes (De See also:Coe. p. 307) that at one period the pirates that made it their headquarters so infested the neighbouring sea as to prevent all See also:navigation. The place in Attica which has been the See also:chief scene of excava-tions (independently of Athens and its vicinty) is Eleusis (q.v.), where the remains of the See also:sanctuary of Demeter, the Exoavahome of the Eleusinian Mysteries, together with other boas. buildings in its neighbourhood, were cleared by the Greek Archaeological Society in 1882–1887 and 1895–1896. Of the other classical ruins in Attica the best-known is the temple of Athena at Sunium, which forms a conspicuous See also:object on the headland, to which it gave the name of Cape Colonnae, still used by the peasants. It is in the Doric See also:style, of white marble, and eleven columns of the See also:peristyle and one of the pronaos are now See also:standing. At Thoricus there is a See also:theatre, which was cleared of earth by the archaeologists of the See also:American School in 1886. In the neighbourhood of Rhamnus are the remains of two temples that stood side by side, the larger of which was dedicated to See also:Nemesis, the smaller probably to See also:Themis, of which goddess a See also:fine statue was discovered in its ruins in the course of the excavations of the Greek Archaeological Society in 1890. The same Society, in 1884, 1886 and 1887, excavated the sanctuary of See also:Amphiaraus, 4 M. from Oropus; in ancient times this was the resort of numerous invalids, who came thither to. consult the healing ' divinity. Within it were found a temple of Amphiaraus, a large altar, and a long See also:colonnade, which may have been the See also:dormitory where the patients slept in See also:hope of obtaining counsel in dreams. There were also See also:baths and a small theatre, and numerous See also:inscriptions See also:relating to the arrangement and observances of the sanctuary and See also:oracle.

The walls and towers also of the city of Eleutherae and the fortress of Phyle are fine specimens of Hellenic fortifications. Of the condition of Attica in See also:

medieval and modern times little need be said, for it has followed for the most part the fortunes of Athens. The See also:population, however, has undergone a great change, independently of the large admixture of See also:Slavonic See also:blood that has affected the Greeks of the mainland generally, by the See also:immigration of Albanian colonists, who now occupy a great part of the country. The district formed part of the See also:nome (administrative See also:division) of Boeotia and Attica until 1899, when it became a See also:separate nome.

End of Article: ATTICA

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