making it, as it is now made, the National Museum of Athens.

The destinies of the Parthenon were less happy. About 420 A.D. it became a Christian church, but it suffered severely at the hands of Alaric the Goth, was afterwards converted into a Turkish mosque, and in 1687, during the siege of Athens by the Venetians, reduced to a heap of ruins. The Temple of Theseus, on the contrary, is in a state of tolerable preservation.

THE CHORAGIC MONUMENT OF LYSICRATES.

This graceful memorial of the genius of the Greek was originally known as the "Lantern of Demosthenes;" a curious misnomer, whose origin it is difficult to ascertain, for, assuredly, it was neither inhabited by the great orator nor by any of his contemporaries. The true meaning of the monument is this: The Chorus, who played so important a part in Attic tragedy, was organized by a person publicly appointed for the purpose, called the Choragus. He was necessarily a man of wealth, as he had to defray all the expenses incurred in effectively training the members of his dramatic battalion. He had to provide for their board and lodging, and to supply them with masks and dresses. The Chorus who, in competition with other tribes, exhibited a marked

superiority, received a tripod for a prize; but the choragus had to consecrate it, and build the monument on which it was placed at his own expense. At Athens there was a whole street formed by these monuments, and named The Street of Tripods,"—so great was the honour paid to Art by the ancient Greeks, and so extreme the care they devoted to its cultivation.

The only one of these art-memorials which has come down to us in a state of decent preservation, is that built by Lysicrates of Cicyna, son of Lysithides. From an inscription remaining on its architrave we gather these particulars; and also, that it commemorates the triumph in the great musical and dramatic rivalry of the tribe of the Acamantides. "Theon was the fluteplayer; Lysiades, the Athenian, was the poet; Evanætes, the architect." What a significant commentary on the value of fame! Who now knows aught of the musical genius of Theon, or remembers the dramatic poetry of Lysiades! Yet, in their generation they did their work well, nor did it wholly perish with them. The civilized world is the better for the high artistic cultivation of Greece, to which these forgotten worthies, each in his degree, contributed.

The Choragic Monument is circular, and the entablature which crowns it is sustained by six

The Choragic Monument of Lysicrates. 37

fluted columns, which spring from a rectangular pedestal, 12.654 feet high, of which each side is 9.541 feet long. The whole building measures 7 feet diameter on the exterior, and 11.25 feet in height. The columns are of the same height as the building, including the bases and capitals. They belong to the Corinthian order, and their capitals are finely sculptured with graceful foliage.

The architrave is divided horizontally into three parts, and the frieze is wrought with wellexecuted figures in representation of the old myth of Bacchus and the Tyrrhenian pirates. Each is formed of one block of marble, cut in the form of a ring. There is no entrance to the building, nor any aperture to afford light to the interior.

It is conjectured that the Choragic Monument was erected about 330 years before the Christian era, or in the glorious days of Apelles, Lysippus, Demosthenes, and Alexander the Great. All architectural critics agree in eulogizing its admirable execution.

AUTHORITIES.-Leake, The Topography of Athens; Quatremère de Quincy, Dictionnaire d'Architecture; Stuart and Revelt, The Antiquities of Athens; Hobhouse, A Journey in Greece; Smith, Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities; Donaldson, Ancient and Modern Architecture (from the French of Gailhabaud).

T

II.

Ancient Rome.

HE student's thoughts are naturally carried downwards by the stream of time, and the force of association, from Athens, "the eye of Greece and mother of the arts," to Rome, which owed so much—in literature, in science, in philosophy, in religion-to the great and illustrious Greek city. Without Athens, could Rome have ever been? Yes; as the conqueror, but not as the civilizer of the world. She might have extended her sway from the Indus to Ultima Thule, and welded the most diverse nations into her singularly compact empire; but she could not have taught them arts and letters-she could never have founded the civilization of Europe. That she was not only imperator but lawgiver; that she not only subdued but instructed the hostile races whom she called "barbarian;" that she left upon the thought and character of Europe an impress which is still fresh, vigorous, and permanent; is due to the influence of Athens. Her orators modelled