previous next


Ἀλωπεκῆσι. The modern Ampelokipi (‘vineyards’), some eleven stadia from the gate along the Cephisian road, is held to be a perversion of this name. In that case the Cynosarges, a walled τέμενος, which contained a shrine of Heracles (vi. 116) and a gymnasium for the νόθοι of citizens, must be north-east of Athens at the foot of Mount Lycabettus. The position assigned suits the narrative in vi. 115 f., since the Persians in the bay could see the victors of Marathon encamped on the hill, and so would naturally put about and sail away (Frazer, Paus. ii, p. 193 f.). Recently, however, Dr. Dörpfeld has argued that Alopece and Cynosarges must have lain south of the Ilissus towards Phalerum, near the church of S. Marina, and Sir C. Smith has excavated a building south of the Olympieum on the bank of the river, which, on rather slight grounds, he holds to be Cynosarges (Frazer, Paus. v. 493 f.). This would suit the present passage, as its natural meaning is that the Spartans were ridden down in the plain between Phalerum and Athens and driven back to their ships. Their fallen leader would probably be buried near the spot at which he fell; hence, if Alopece be Ampelokipi, we have to suppose that the Spartans had marched past Athens, which is unlikely.

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.

An XML version of this text is available for download, with the additional restriction that you offer Perseus any modifications you make. Perseus provides credit for all accepted changes, storing new additions in a versioning system.

hide Display Preferences
Greek Display:
Arabic Display:
View by Default:
Browse Bar: