Morris tribune. [volume] (Morris, Minn.) 1880-2000, 1897-03-03
OLD AND NEsy ATHENS.
The City Is Nearly as Populous Now as
Ever In It's History.


Ehe City Is Nearly as Populous Now 8
Ever In It's History.
Ancient Athens spread round thu
Acropolis, especially on the hills
facing the south, which are now un
inhabited. The new town lies to the
north of the antique citadel an ex
tension of the cluster of houses al
ready existing at the foot of the rock
when the war was ended. Two main
intersecting streets were laid out
Eolus street, starting from below
the Acropolis and running north
ward, and Hermes street, leading
from the royal palace toward the
Pirmus. The capital was thus de-
signed to lie in the valley between
the Acropolis on one side and Mount
Lycabettus on the other. No ambi-
ton of future development is trace
able in the original plan. The ground
chosen and the width of the main
streets tend to show that the found
ers of the new city little dreamed OF
its rapid extension Squeezing her
self out of her narrow confines, the
city has gradually scaled the foot
of Lycabettus and spread beyond
the valley on both sides, principally
in a,southwesterly direction. If the
extension had been in straight
line toward the sea, Athens would
now be nearing a junction with the
PirBus. But both towns, as if avoid
ing each other, extend in parallel
lines. and one must look to prob
ably distant future for the day when
they shall be connected by rows of
houses instead of the long walls of
ancient days.
The fashionable quarters of the
capital are to be found in the new
additions to the primitive plan-th
Neapolis, as it is called. Large thor
oughfares have there been opened,
fine buildings erected, both public
and private, and Athens, already
the finest city in the east of Europe,
bids fair to become, if no stop be put
to her progress, one of the hand
soonest cities on the Mediterranean.
Under King Otho's reign progress
was comparatively slow. At the &C
cession of King George, in the year
1868, the population did not exceed
Al, 900. The advance has been more
rapid stree then, especially during
the last 20 years Of material pros
perity, which has lately been inter
rupted, let us hope temporarily, by
the financial entanglements of the
Greek government. During that
period the immigration of well to do
Greeks from abroad has not been
one of the least causes of this devel-
opment. In 1879 the census showed
a population of nearly $4,000; in
1889, ia, 900, and today, Judging by
the vital and building statistics, the
number of inhabitants, if it does not
exceed, cannot fall short of 140, 600.
The progress of the newly created
town of Pir8us is not less remark
able. From 5000 to 5000 souls,
which had already gathered there
some 80 years ago, its population had
grown to "a, 900 in 1885, and is now
estimated at more than 40, 00O To
gether the two towns number as
many inhabitants as they probably
possessed i'll the fourth century B. G. |
The sources of information as to
the population of ancient Athens
are, indeed, vague But from a pas
sage of Xenophen giving the num-
Der of families as 10, 900, and from a
passage of Athenaus indicating the
proportion of slaves to freemen at |
the time of Demetrius Phalereus, it
may be calculated that at that epoch
the population of Athens, including
that of the Piraus, was about $780,
900. The area included within the
walls OF both towns seems rather to
confirll this estimate. The surround
ing country was thickly populated |
more SO than at any sue
ceedir period. But it is more than
probable that the inhabitants of |
proper and of her seaport
never exceeded 300, 000.-D. Bikelas
In Century
Some New England Nomenclature.
The nomenclature of some of the |