A Day In Old Athens

A Day In Old Athens

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by William Stearns Davis (#1 in our series by William Stearns Davis)
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Title: A Day In Old Athens
Author: William Stearns Davis
Release Date: December, 2003 [EBook #4716] [Yes, we are more than
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A Day in Old Athens
By William Stearns Davis Professor of Ancient History in the
University of Minnesota

Preface

This little book tries to describe what an intelligent person would see
and hear in ancient Athens, if by some legerdemain he were translated
to the fourth century B.C. and conducted about the city under
competent guidance. Rare happenings have been omitted and
sometimes, to avoid long explanations, PROBABLE matters have been
stated as if they were ascertained facts; but these instances are few, and
it is hoped no reader will be led into serious error.
The year 360 B.C. has been selected for the hypothetical time of this
visit, not because of any special virtue in that date, but because Athens
was then architecturally almost perfect, her civic and her social life
seemed at their best, the democratic constitution held its vigor, and
there were few outward signs of the general decadence which was to
set in after the triumph of Macedon.
I have endeavored to state no facts and to make no allusions, that will
not be fairly obvious to a reader who has merely an elementary
knowledge of Greek annals, such information, for instance, as may be
gained through a good secondary school history of ancient times. This
naturally has led to comments and descriptions which more advanced
students may find superfluous.
The writer has been under a heavy debt to the numerous and excellent
works on Greek "Private Antiquities" and "Public Life" written in
English, French, or German, as well as to the various great Classical

Encyclopædias and Dictionaries, and to many treatises and monographs
upon the topography of Athens and upon the numerous phases of Attic
culture. It is proper to say, however, that the material from such
secondary sources has been merely supplementary to a careful
examination of the ancient Greek writers, with the objects of this book
kept especially in view. A sojourn in modern Athens, also, has given
me an impression of the influence of the Attic landscape upon the
conditions of old Athenian life, an impression that I have tried to
convey in this small volume.
I am deeply grateful to my sister, Mrs. Fannie Davis Gifford, for
helpful criticism of this book while in manuscript; to my wife, for
preparing the drawings from Greek vase-paintings which appear as
illustrations; and to my friend and colleague, Professor Charles A.
Savage, for a kind and careful reading of the proofs. Thanks also are
due to Henry Holt and Company for permission to quote material from
their edition of Von Falke's "Greece and Rome."
W. S. D.
University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota. May, 1914.

Contents.

Page Maps, Plans, and Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xii

Chapter I.
The Physical Setting of Athens.
Section 1. The Importance of Athens in Greek History . . . . . . . . . . . 1 2.
Why the Social Life of Athens is so Significant . . . . . . . . 1 3. The
Small Size and Sterility of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 4. The Physical
Beauty of Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 5. The Mountains of
Attica . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .