C H A P . XXXIII.
'Towns on the eaßern coafi o f A ttica— O f Thoricus---Of fotQpus
O f Prafia—~O f the port o f Profite or fort Raphti--- The rood
. to it from Athens -— ExtraSlfrpm Wheler continued.
A T T I C A has the ifegsean fea on the eaft.. The courfej
coafting from Sunium, is to the north, inclining to tne
weft, The.t^jynsjpii this ftde .were T tffi icqs»., Potatnus, Pjafiae,
Stiria, Brauron, Älae o f Äraphen, Myrthihus, Ptobalinthns?
Marathon, .Tricorythus, Rhamnus,, and, on the confines of
Attica and ftaeotia, Propus. The land at firft lips bet weep Jy?o.
feas, and is narrow. Farther on, it widens. The coaA, toward
Oropus, was gibbous or rounded like a. moon,.
a P ^ e, ■ ^ wa?
fied i n ; t h e n i n e t y third Olympiad *, Xenophon
was ' o f opinion, that the workmen might continue their employment
at .die filvpr-pfine.s in time o f war, as this fortrefs
was near,them by the. fea on. the north, and Anaphlyftus on the
fouth j each diftant from the Other only abotó fixty ftadia o|
feven miles and a half j |ljut recommended the emmefice 'oF
Befa, which was mid-way between them, as a .proper fpot for a
third fortrefs, where all might 'affithbleonan aiarmj though
he did not apprehend.the mines would be attacked, becaufe thé
enemy, advancing either from ^Megara, which city was much
above five hundred ftadia or fixty two miles and a half diftant,
or from Thebes,, which exceeded fix hundred ftadia or fevenTp
five miles, mjuft oafs lÄthens and leave their own country ex-
pofed.; The. of the mines was probably followed by the
ruin . both of. Thpricus apd Anaphlyftus. Paufanias is filen’t
<""1 In the yew eefötö Öinft," 40& ®
concerning
concerning them j and Mela, who wrote under Claudius Caffar,
mentions the former as then but a name j which, however, is
not yet difufed. The ftiip, in which Mr. Le Roy faded m
1754, was forced into the port by contrary wmds. He defcribes
it as oppofiteto Longlfand, fix miles north-weft o f Sunium,
and n ea ra large plain furrounde^ with hills, which on the
fomh are overtopped by a mountain ftretching_ toward the
entrance of the gulf. This, he fuppofes, was Launum. Among
the thickets he’difcovered Tome rdins of a very antient temple.
Helene or Long Ijland extended along the coaft from Thoricus
aS far is Sunium.
A t Potamut was the monument o f Ion, front whom die
Ionians were named. T 1k Athenians, whe^theyjovided a
hufcand for a grandaughter of Ariltogtwn, who had lived m
poverty and oblcurity at Lemnos, gave a farm there as her
dowry.
A T Praftae was a temple o f Apollo. The fliip named
Theoris failed from thence annually to Delos with an unknown
offering packed in wheat-ftraw and traftfmitted from the Hyper-
horeanf, a remote people. The monument o f Eryfichthon
who died on that voyage, wis fhown there. Some rums o f the
tdwn were feen by Sir George Wheler, upon the ftiore near the
haven, now called port Raphti.
T He port of Prafiae or port Raphti IsTeftrribed as a moft fafe,
•commodious, and delightful harbour, almoft encompaffed with
charming vales rifing gradually and terminating in lofty mountains
j, the dopes covered with pine-trees and verdure. A marp
point o f landi running out into the middle, divides the b a y j
and'toward the mouth are two little iflands or rocks. ^One ot
thefe, on the right hand failing in, is high and flfeep, the^ftiape
exactly conical, the bale about a mile in circumference. On the
iummit is a white marble col'offal fta.tue, the poiture feqent, e
head and arms broken off. It is fuppofcd to have been twelve