3? T R A V E L S i n v G R E E C E ,
Synefius, a writer o f that age, compares the city to a vi-dim, of
which the body had been confumed, and the hide only re mained.
A f t e r this event, Athens became an unimportant place,
and as obfcure as it once had been famous. We read that the
cities o f Hellas were put -into a ftate of defence by Juftinian,
who repaired the walls, which atiCorinth had been fubverted by
an earthquake, and at Athens and in Boeotia were impaired; by
age j and here we take a long fareWel'iof this city. Achafm b f
neir feven hundred years enfues in its hiftory, exfcept that; abodt
the year 1130* it furniiftied Rogerthefirft, kin^ o f :Sicdy, #ith
a number o f artificers, whom he fettled at Palermo,, where
they introduced the culture of filk', which' then palled into
Italy. The worms had been brought fftmi Lidia to .Conftanti-
nople in the reign" o f Juftinian.
A t i i e n s , as it were,. re-emerges from oblivion in the
-thirteenth, century, 1 ander Baldwin; but befiegei by a general of
Theodoras Lafcaris, the Greek emperor. It was taken in 1427
by Saltan Morat. Boniface, marquis o f Montferrat, pbfiefTed
it, with a garrifon ; after whom it was governed toy Delves^ d f
the houfe -of Arragon. ^On his death,- it wSas feisted with
Macedonia, Theffaly, Boeotia, - Phocis, and the Peloponneius,
byBajazet; and then, with the ifland Zante, by the Spaniards
Of Catalonia in the reign o f the Greek emperor Andronlcus
Palaecdogus ithe elder.r Thefe Were difpoflefled by . Reinerius
Acciaioli, a Florentine; who, leaving no legitimate male iftil’e,
bequeathed.it to the ftate o f Venice. His naturalfon, Antony,
to whom he had given Thebes with Boeotia, expelled-.the
Venetians. He was fucceeded in the dukedom by his kinfman
Nerius, who was difplaced by bis own brother named Antony,
but recovered the goVernnafent, when he died* Neriusf,.leaving
only an infant Ton, was: fucceeded by hirwifei.» sShefwafc ejd&eid
by- Mahomet r on a Ctsnplaint from Francus fon of the fecoftd
Antony, who confined her at Megara; and made away with her;
‘but
T R A V E L S i n G R E E C E . 33
but,;liei? Ton jacoufing him /to- Mahomet the Tecond, the Tuifeifh
army mnder Omar advanced, nand heTurrendered the citadel in
1453.; Ta-tins xfifufing to fqcbour him, unlefe the Athenians
would embrace their religious tenets. Mahomet, it is related,
when he had finiftied the war with the defpot of the Mofea,.
four years after, Purveyed-the city and Acropolis with udmira-.
jtipn. The JanispyFifp,,informed: him ofv>a fQnfpijracy,1 and
Franpua AcciaiqU, n?ho remained lord of Boeotia, was -put to
d^ath. 1 In 1464 the Venetians landed at thejPir^sr Twprized
thejeity, and carried qftthek plunder and captives to Euboea.. •
I t is, remarkable that after thefe events Athena was again in
a manner forgotten. .So lately as about the middle o f the
ii^teenth^entury, the city was fpmrhqnijf believed to have been
utterly, defrayed,-and not to exift, „ except a few huts, of poor
fiftiermen. Crufius, a learned and inquifitive Germany procured
WPfe,authentic information from his Greek^ojrrefpondents re-
fiding'in Turkey, which he publifhed in. 1584; -to .awaken
mirioftty and .to promote farther difcovoness : One of thefe
-letters is from a native o f Nauplia, a town near Argos in the
-Morea. The- waiter fays, that he- had; been, often at Athens,
and that it .ftill contained things worthy, to toe feen, feme o f
which he enumerates, and then futojdnis^- tout why .do I dwell
;on this, place? It is as the ikin o f an animal, which has been
** long dead.”
T h e -wallsidf. Athens, when the city was in its pro^erity,
with the Piraeus, were one hundred and rtinety-Mfive-ftadia», dr
.twonty^par miles, a-quarter, and a half; in circumference^ the
calculation -being made as. follows.-
Wal1 e^®mP£®«g the Piraeus with Munyebia, fixty
ftadia^ or fev^ü miles and ahjdf.
-The.long ^/&>joinjbg-. the Piraeus to the city, nortb-fide,
forty*, ftadia, on five; mle s j feuth-fide, - thirty ftadia/ or'four
•miles, à «quarter, ,and a half