* * * * * So far our only topographical clues have been two. (1) Thucydides has told us that the sanctuary in the Marshes with the other sanctuaries he mentions was ‘_towards_’ the ancient city; we have fixed the Pythion at the North-West corner of the Acropolis, and as his account seems to be moving westwards, we expect the Dionysiac sanctuary to be West of that point. (2) We know also (p. 87) that the ancient orchestra was near the Areopagus. We look for a site for the Dionysia which shall combine these two directions. If that site is also a possible Marsh, so much the better; and here indeed, in the hollow between the Pnyx, Areopagus, and Acropolis, water is caught and confined; but for artificial drainage, here marsh-land must be. This, by practical experience, the excavators soon had reason to know. [Illustration: FIG. 24.] A portion of the results of the excavations begun by the German Archaeological Institute in 1887[209] and lasting for upwards of ten years is to be seen on the plans in Figs. 24 and 35. The enlarged plan of a portion of the excavations (Fig. 24) for the moment alone concerns us. The first substantial discovery that rewarded the excavators was the finding of the ancient road. It followed, as Professor Dörpfeld had always predicted it would, the lie of the modern road. Roads being strictly conditioned by the law of least resistance do not lightly alter their course. The present carriage road to the Acropolis is a little less devious in its windings than the ancient one, that is all (Fig. 35). [Illustration: FIG. 25.] Just below where the ancient road passes down from the West shoulder of the Acropolis, and at a level much higher than that of the road itself, the excavators came on a building of Roman date and indifferent masonry, which proved to be a large hall, with two rows of columns dividing it into a central nave and two aisles. To the East the hall was furnished with a quadrangular apse. Within this apse was found an altar[210] decorated with scenes from the worship of Dionysos, a goat being dragged to the altar, a Satyr, a Maenad, and the like. This altar would in itself rouse the suspicion that we are in a sanctuary dedicated to Dionysos, but fortunately we are not left to evidence so precarious.