in the tradt beneath Cephifia, or Cevrifha, as that village is now
called. It was finifhed .by his fon and fucceffar Antoninus Pius
in Ms third confulate. The water was partly conveyed by a
dudt running along the fide;of the adjacent hill, and diftributed
to the town from a refervoir or ciftern cut .in the'rock, and
fronted with an arcade of marble, of the Ionic order. One
half Of this remains, confiding of; two columns and the fpring
o f the arch. The foil is riien fome feet round about the fhafts.
Over the columns.is half the infcription', which , was copied
entire by Span from a manufcript then two hundred years old,
and was as follows:
| T h e part remaining. ,
I M f . t ' A E S A R T . A fiLL I V S 1
A V G . P IV S C p S . I l l T R IB . PO,T. f l^P. B. AQV A E D V C T VM tK t f d y iS
CONSVMMAVIT -
The part fupplied.
H A t ) l U A N T S A N T O N I N V 8
A t II EN I a c .o E-P T V J N t A D I V O H A D R I A N© P A T.RRS.V©
DJEIHCAVITQ.
The date o f this rpm was. the. fame in i6y6 as .how. It ftands
beneath the mountain of St, George, antiently, it is fuppofed,
Anehefmus j and is af>out a mile from the gate o f Hadrian.
The Ipace. between, where once , was new Athens,js now
ploughed and fowl'd.
O n the left hand, returning from theaquaeduft, Is the bed
o f the Iliffus} add higher up, the junction of' it and o f the
Eridanus. The water o f this river was fo bad that the cattle
* In the Mo&arn Univerfal Hiftoiy it is made to refertoiNew Athens in Debs.
See volume of Oironology, p. 1031.
would
Would fcarcely drink of it. The Iliffus is now, as it ever'was,
an occafional torrent/ In fummer it is quite dry. During our
refidence at Athens, I feyeral times vifited the bed, after fnow
h$è fallen on- the mountains, or heavy rain,/hoping to fee it
filled to the margin, and rulhing along with majeftic violence >
but never found -even the furface covered ; the water lodging in.
the rocky cavities, and trickling from one to another.
AND "here i t may be remarked, that the poets who celebrate
the Iliffus as a ftream laving the fields, cool, lucid,' and the like,
have both conceived and conveyed a falfe idea of dais renowned
-water-courfe. They may ibeftow a willow fringe on its naked
banks, amber waves on fhe muddy Maaader, and hanging «
woods on the bare deep o f Delphi, i f they pieafe; but the
foundationin natare wi# be wanting y nor indeed is it eafy far
•a defciiptive writer,. when he essceeds she fphere of his own
observation* to avoid falling into local abfairdities and untruths.
G oing on by the bed of the Ilifihs, as before, toward the town,
you oome to a >ruda©us bridge of three arches, ithe hones maffive,
•and without oemmt. A piece erf ordinary wall, Handing ©n it,
is part o f ;a moaaftery, which was abandoned after the Turks
took Athens. The ingenious Frenchman *, wh o, in a view o f
this fpot, bas exhibited the bridge Handing in a full .dream,
■ may jtiftly plead, that the fame liberties have been indulged to
th e painter as to the poet.
* ,Ree Le Ray
C II A P.