A. D. 1460. A. D 1463. Guillet. Laced. anc. et mod. A. D. 1464. Chandl. Trav. A. D. 1555: Hist. Oth 1 3. de la Mor. A. D. 1688. governor, by a bribe, to surrender the citadel. This unfortunate man had no sooner put himself in the hands of the sultan, than he ordered him to be sawed through the middle. Demetrius was exiled to Adrianople, and his daughter became Mahomet's wife. The conqueror esteemed and feared this young princess too much not to make her the partner of his bed. Three years after this event, Sigismond Malatesta, prince of Rimini, laid siege to Misitra. He took the town, but being unable to reduce the castle, he returned to Italy. The Venetians made a descent at Piræus, in 1464, surprised Athens, plundered the city, and retreated with their booty to Euboea. During the reign of Solyman I., they ravaged the Morea, and took Coron, but were soon afterwards driven out by the Turks. They once more conquered Athens, and all the Auct. sup cit. Morea, in 1688; the former they again lost almost immediately, but the latter they retained till 1715, when it returned under the dominion of the Mussulmen. At the instigation of Catherine II. the wretched inhabitants Choiseul Voy of the Peloponnese were induced to make a last and unavailing effort in favour of liberty. A. D. 1770. de la Grèce. I have abstained from intermixing the dates of travels in Greece with the historical events. I have mentioned only those of Benjamin of Tudela; his account is of such high antiquity, and gives us so little information, that it may be comprised without inconvenience in the series of facts and annals. We now proceed to the chronology of travels and geographical works. No sooner had Athens, the slave of the Mussulmen, disappeared in modern history, than she began to receive a new kind of illustration, more worthy of her ancient renown. When she ceased to be the patrimony of obscure princes, she resumed, as it were, her ancient empire, and summoned all the arts to her venerable ruins. As early as 1465, Francesco Giam Franc. betti made drawings of some of the monuments of A. D. 1465. Athens. The manuscript of this architect was on vel- Giambetti. lum, and was preserved in the Barberini library at Rome. It contained, among other curious things, a view of the Tower of the Winds at Athens, and another of the ruins of Lacedæmon, four or five miles from Misitra. On this subject Spon observes, that Misitra does not stand on the site of Sparta, as had been asserted by Guillet, after Sophianus, Niger, and Ortellius; and he adds, "I consider the manuscript of Giambetti as the more curious, because the drawings were taken before the Turks had made themselves masters of Greece, and laid in ruins several fine monuments, which were then entire. The observation is just respecting the monuments, but false in regard to the dates: the Turks were masters of Greece in 1465In 1550, Nicholas Gerbel published, at Basle, his A. D. 1550. work, intituled, Pro Declaratione Picturæ sive Descriptionis Græciæ Sophiani libri septem. This description, excellent for the time, is clear, concise, and yet substantial. Gerbel says very little concerning ancient Greece; of modern Athens, he observes: Æneas Sylvius Athenas hodiè parvi oppiduli speciem gerere dicit, cujus munitissimam adhuc arcem Florentinus quidam Mahometi tradiderit, ut nimis vere Ovidius dixerit : Quid Pandioniæ restat, nisi nomen Athenæ ? O rerum humanarum miserabiles vices! O tragicam humanæ protentiæ permutationem; Civitas olim muris, navalibus, ædificiis, armis, opibus, viris, prudentiâ atque omni sapientiâ florentissima, in oppidulum seu potius vicum redacta est. Olim libera et suis legibus vivens; nunc immanissimis belluis servitutis jugo obstricta. Proficiscere Athenas, et pro magnificentissimis operibus videto rudera et lamenta. biles ruinas. Noli, noli nimium fidere viribus tuis; 1 Gerbel. A.D. 1550. A. D. 1554. A. D. 1557. sed in cum confidito qui dicit: Ego Dominus Deus vester."* This apostrophe, of an aged and respectable scholar, to the ruins of Athens, is highly impressive. We cannot cherish too much gratitude towards those who opened the way for us to the beauties of antiquity. Dupinet asserted, that Athens, in his time, was but an insignificant village, exposed to the ravages of foxes and of wolves. Laurenberg, in his description of Athens, emphatiLaurenberg. cally exclaims: Fuit quondam Græcia, fuerunt Athenæ : nunc neque in Græciâ Athenæ, neque in ipsa Græcia Græcia est." There was a time when Greece, when Athens existed: now, neither is there an Athens in Greece, nor is Greece itself any longer to be found." Ortellius, surnamed the Ptolemy of his time, furnished some new information respecting Greece, in his Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, and in his Synonima Geographica, reprinted with the title of Thesaurus Geographicus: but he erroneously confounds Sparta and Misitra. He also believed that nothing was left of Athens but a castle and a few cottages: nunc casulæ tantum supersunt quædam. A. D. 1578. A. D. 1578. A. D. 1584. Martin Crusius, professor of Greek and Latin at the University of Tübingen, towards the conclusion ⚫ Æneas Sylvius says, that Athens, whose very strong citadel was delivered by a certain Florentine to Mahomet, now exhibits the appearance of a very small town, so that Ovid might but too truly exclaim: What, beside the name, is left of Pandionian Athens! "O, the deplorable vicissitudes of human things! O, the tragic change of human power! A city once renowned for its walls, harbours, buildings; pre-eminent in arms, wealth, citizens, wisdom, and every species of learning, is now reduced to a petty town, or rather a village. Formerly free, and living under its own laws, now oppressed by the most cruel monsters, and bowed down by the yoke of slavery: Go to Athens, and instead of the most magnificent works, behold heaps of rubbish, and lamentable ruins. Beware, beware of confiding too much in thine own strength, but put thy trust in Him who says, I am the Lord your God." of the sixteenth century, made diligent inquiries concerning the state of the Peloponnese and Attica. His eight books, intituled, Turco-Græcia, give an account of Greece from the year 1444 to the time in which he wrote. The first book contains the political, and the second the ecclesiastical history of that interesting country. The six others are composed of letters sent to different persons by modern Greeks. Two of these letters, containing some particulars relative to Athens, deserve to be known. The first is addressed, in 1575, by Theodore Zygomalas, who styles himself protho- Zygomalas. notary of the great church of Constantinople, to the learned Marti:: Crusius, professor of Greek and Latin Literature at the University of Tübingen, and very dear in Jesus Christ. "Being a native of Nauplia, a town of the Peloponnese, not far from Athens, I have often been at that city. I have examined with care the objects which it contains, the Areopagus, the Antique Academy, the Lyceum of Aristotle, lastly, the Pantheon. This edi fice is the most lofty, and surpasses all the others in beauty. The exterior all round exhibits in sculpture the history of the Greeks and of the gods. Over the principal entrance, in particular, you observe horses. which appear absolutely alive, so that you may fancy you hear them neigh.* They are said to be the work of Praxiteles; the soul and genius of the man have A. D. 1584. been transferred to the stone. There are, in this place, several other things worthy of notice. I say nothing of the opposite hill, on which grow all kinds of herbs useful in medicine;† a hill which I call the garden of Adonis. Neither do I say any thing concerning the Φρυασσομένες ανδρομέων σαρκα. This expression I do not understand.. The Latin version has: tanquam frementes in carnem humanam. Spon, who translates part of this passage, has adhered to the Latin version, which is just as obscure to me as the original. He renders it: "which seem to long for a repast of human flesh." I cannot admit this signification, which, to me, appears absurd, unless Zygomalas means here to allude to the horses of Diomed. † Probably Mount Hymettus. A. D. 1584. Cabasilas. serenity of the air, the excellence of the water, and other advantages enjoyed by Athens; whence it happens that its inhabitants, now fallen into barbarism, still retain some remembrance of what they have been. They may be known by the purity of their language: like syrens, they charm all who hear them by the variety of their accents. But why need I say more of Athens! The animal, indeed, has perished, but the skin remains." This letter abounds with errors, but it is valuable on account of its ancient date. Zygomalas made known the existence of the temple of Minerva, which was supposed to be destroyed, and which he wrongly denominates the Pantheon. The second letter, written to Crusius, by Simeon Cabasilas, a native of Acarnania, furnishes some addition to the information given by the prothonotary. "Athens was formerly composed of three parts, all equally populous. At present, the first part, situated on an eminence, contains the citadel, and a temple dedicated to the Unknown God; and is inhabited by Turks. Between this and the third is situated the second part, where the Christians live together. After this second part comes the third, over which is the following inscription: THIS IS ATHENS, THE ANCIENT CITY OF THESEUS. In this last portion is seen a palace, covered with large marbles, and supported by pillars. Here you still find inhabited houses. The whole city may be six or seven miles in circumference, and contains about twelve thousand inhabitants." Four important things are to be remarked in this description. 1. The Parthenon had been dedicated, by the Christians, to the Unknown God, mentioned by St. Paul. Spon unseasonably cavils with Guillet on the subject of this dedication: Deshayes has mentioned it in his travels. 2. The temple of Jupiter Olympus, (the palace covered with marble,) or, at least, great |