Immediately to the left, on entering the gate, I brought to light a small chamber, undoubtedly the ancient doorkeeper's habitation, the ceiling of which is formed by one huge slab. The chamber is only 4½ feet high, and it would not be to the taste of our present doorkeepers; but in the heroic age comfort was unknown, particularly to slaves, and being unknown it was unmissed. No ancient writer mentions the fact that Mycenæ was reinhabited after its capture by the Argives and the expulsion of its inhabitants. On the contrary, Diodorus Siculus, who lived at the time of Julius Cæsar and Augustus, after having described the tragic fate of Mycenæ, adds: "This city, which was in ancient times blessed with wealth and power, which produced such great men and accomplished such important actions, was thus destroyed and _remained uninhabited till the present time_."[177] That Mycenæ was uninhabited at the time of Strabo (that is, under Augustus), we must conclude from his remark, "So that _of the city of the Myceneans not even a vestige can now be found_."[178] It was certainly also uninhabited at the time of Pausanias (A.D. 170), who describes its ruins. [Sidenote: REOCCUPATION OF MYCENÆ.] But I have brought to light most positive proofs that it had been again inhabited, and that the new town must have existed for a long period, probably for more than two centuries; because there is at the surface of the Acropolis a layer of _débris_ of the Hellenic time, which goes to an average depth of three feet. Though I cannot fix by the fragments of pottery the precise period of the re-occupation of the town, yet as painted pottery of the best Hellenic period is missing, and as the numerous terra-cotta figures and fluted vases which I find are evidently of the Macedonian age down to the second century B.C., I presume that the new colony may have been founded in the beginning of the fourth, and may have been abandoned in the beginning of the second century B.C. These two limits seem to be confirmed by the bronze medals found, nearly all of which show on one side a Hera head with a crown, on the other a column, having to its left a helmet and to its right a [Illustration]. This character is generally thought to be a [Illustration], and thus the coin is attributed to the Argolic city of Thyrea. But, in the opinion of my worthy friends A. Postolaccas and P. Lampros, which I accept, the [Illustration] is the _spiritus asper_, and belongs to the still unknown word which records the value of the coin. This coin belongs to the city of Argos, and is of the Macedonian age, which makes it utterly impossible that the sign should be a [Illustration], the [Illustration] with this meaning having only come into use at the time of the Roman conquest. There was an entire absence of Roman or Byzantine coins. I may here remark that Mycenæ proper appears to have struck no coins; at least none has ever been found. [Illustration: No. 25. Terra-cotta Vase. (3 M.) Size, 3:4, about.]