C H A P . V.
We arrive in the Piraus— O f the forts o f Athens— Phaler um
and Munychia— Remark on Phalerum— Piraus—'‘ The town
-— The long walls— Other fortifications— Their Jlate under the
Romans— Prefent fa te o f Phalerum and Munychia— O f the
Piraus — Iffc r ift ions.
T H E vicinity o f ASgina made Pericles ftyle it the eye-fore
o f the Piraeus. It was diftant only twenty miles. We failed
in the afternoon with a fair wind, and in the evening anchored
in this renowned haven. We were hailed from the cuftom-
houfe, and the captain went on Chore. On,his return, we had
the fatisfa&ion to hear that the plague had hot reached Athens*
W e intrufted our recommendatory letters to a perfon departing
for the city. Some Greeks, to whom the captain had notified
his arrival, came on board early in the morning. The wine
circulated brifkly, and their meeting was celebrated, as ufual
among this lively people, with finging, fiddling, and dancing.
We left them, and were landed "by the cuftom-houffe, exceedingly
ftruck with the folemn filence and folitude o f this once
crouded emporium.
A t h e n s had three ports near each, other, the Pirasus,
Munychia, and Phalerum, O f thefe the Piraeus is formed by a
recefs o f the fhore, which winds, and by a finall rocky Penin-
fula fpreading toward the fea. A craggy brow, called Munychia,
feparates it from the Phalerian and Munychian ports, which
indent the narrow ifthmus, on the oppofite or eaftern fide. It was
an antient tradition that this whole peninfula had been an ifland
lying before the coaft. The city was not more than twenty
ftadia or two miles and a half from the fea by Phalerum ; but
the diftance is perhaps increafed. From the port it was thirty
five ftadia, or four miles a quarter and a half; and more frofn
Munychiai
19
Munychia, which*is beyond. From the Piræus it was forty ftadia
or five miles, and, it is related, the city-port was; once as far.
Phalerum was faid to have been named from Phalerus, a
companion o f Jafon in the Argonautic expedition. Thefeus
failed from it for Crete; and Meneftheus, his fucceffor, for
Troy ; and it continued to be the haven o f Athens to the time
of Themiftocles. It is a final! port, of a circular form, the
entrance narrow, the bottom a clean* fine fan ci, vifible through
the tranfparent water. The farm o f Ariftides and his monument,
which was eretfted at the public expenfe, were by this
pert, ^Tunychia is o f a different form or oval, and more
corifîderabîe ; the mouth alfo narrow.
T h ï traveller accuftomed to deep ports and bulky fhipping
may view Phalerum with feme furprize ; but Argo is faid to
have “been carried on the fhoulders o f the crew s the veffels at
the fiegé o f Troy were drawn up on the Shore-, as a bullwark,
before the camp ; and the mighty fleet o f Xerxes confifted
chiefly o f light barks and gallies. Phalerum, though a bafin,
{hallow and not large, may perhaps even now be capable o f
receiving an armament like that of Meneftheus, though it confided
o f fifty fhips.
T h e capital port was thatcîffled Piræus. . T h e entrance o f
this is narrow, and formed by two rocky points ; one belonging
to the promontory of Eetion ; the other, to that o f A lcimos,
Within were three ftation's for fhipping j Kantharus, fo named
froma hero; Aphrodifium, from a temple ofVenus; and Zea, the
refort o f veflels laden with grain. By it was a demos or borough-
town of the fame name before the time o f Themiftocles, who
recommended the exchanging its triple harbour for the Single
one o f Phalerum, both as more capacious, and as better fituated
for navigators. The wall was begun by him, when Airchon, in
the fécond year o f the feventy-fifth Olympiad, four hundred and
feventy fcven years before Chrift ; and afterwards he urged the
D z Athenians