Timaeus — Plato

Criiias. Critias.

The men and women had miHtary pursuits in common.

Castes,

Common property among the warriors.

Boundaries of antediluvian Attica.

The productiveness of the .soil still equal to

p. 532

The fertility of ancient Attica.

Critias. Critias. that of any country;

although the land is a mere skeleton from which the richer and softer parts have been washed away.

pastures to every sort of animal, which proves what I am saying ; but in those days the country was fair as now and yielded far more abundant produce. How shall I establish my words? and what part of it can be truly called a remnant of the land that then was?

The whole country is only a long promontory extending far into the sea away from the rest of the continent, while the surrounding basin of the sea is everywhere deep in the neighbourhood of the shore.

Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years, for that is the number of years which have elapsed since the time of which I am speaking ; and during all this time and through so many changes, there has never been any considerable accumulation of the soil coming down from the mountains, as in other places, but the earth has fallen away all round and sunk out of sight.

The consequence is, that in comparison of what then was, there are remaining only the bones of the wasted body, as they may be called, as in the case of small islands, all the richer and softer parts of the soil having fallen away, and the mere skeleton of the land being left.

But in the primitive state of the country, its mountains were high hills covered with soil, and the plains, as they are termed by us, of Phelleus were full of rich earth, and there was abundance of wood in the mountains.

Of this last the traces still remain, for although some of the mountains now only afford sustenance to bees, not so very long ago there were still to be seen roofs of timber cut from trees growing there, which were of a size sufficient to cover the largest houses ; and there were many other high trees, cultivated by man and bearing abundance of food for cattle.

Moreover, the land reaped the benefit of the annual rainfall, not as now losing the water which flows off the bare earth into the sea, but, having an abundant supply in all places, and receiving it into herself and treasuring it up in the close clay soil, it let off into the hollows the streams which it absorbed from the heights, providing everywhere abundant fountains and rivers, of which there may still be observed sacred memorials in places where fountains once existed ; and this proves the truth of what I am saying. Such was the natural state of the country, which was cul-

The arrangement of the Acropolis. 533 tivated, as we may well believe, by true husbandmen, who Crituis. made husbandry their business, and were lovers of honour, critias. and of a noble nature, and had a soil the best in the world, and abundance of water, and in the heaven above an excellently attempered climate. Now the city in those days was arranged on this wise. In the first place the Acropolis was The extent of 1 1 2 not as now.

For the fact is that a single night of excessive '^*^ Acropohs. rain washed away the earth and laid bare the rock ; at the same time there were earthquakes, and then occurred the extraordinary inundation, which was the third before the great destruction of Deucalion.

But in primitive times the hill of the Acropolis extended to the Eridanus and Ilissus, and included the Pnyx on one side, and the Lycabettus as a boundary on the opposite side to the Pnyx, and was all well covered with soil, and level at the top, except in one or two places.

Outside the Acropolis and under the sides of the On its slopes hill there dwelt artisans, and such of the husbandmen as "^^I^'^k'^'T ' and husbandwere tilling the ground near ; the warrior class dwelt by men : on its themselves around the temples of Athene and Hephaestus at w^TorcUss. the summit, which moreover they had enclosed with a single fence like the garden of a single house.

On the north side Their winter they had dwellings in common and had erected halls for ^"J.s'""'"«^ -' *^ habitations. dining in winter, and had all the buildings which they needed for their common life, besides temples, but there was no adorning of them with gold and silver, for they made no use of these for any purpose ; they took a middle course between meanness and ostentation, and built modest houses in which they and their children's children grew old, and they handed them down to others who were like themselves, always the same.

But in summer-time they left their gardens and gymnasia and dining halls, and then the southern side of the hill was made use of by them for the same purpose.

Where the Acropolis now is there was a fountain, which was The fountain choked by the earthquake, and has left only the few small Acropolis. streams which still exist in the vicinity, but in those days the fountain gave an abundant supply of water for all and of suitable temperature in summer and in winter. This is how they dwelt, being the guardians of their own citizens and the leaders of the Hellenes, who were their willing followers. And they took care to preserve the same number of men and The number