Before we pass to the question of the agora it may be worth while to notice that the well-house, Enneakrounos, Nine-Spouts, was known as late as the seventeenth century to have been on the West slope of the Acropolis. In the curious old plan, then drawn by Guillet and Coronelli[278], a portion of which is reproduced in Fig. 44, we have on the West slope not only a well against which in the key to the plan is marked ‘Enneakrounos,’ but also close to it the ruins of a small theatre, which may well stand for the Odeion as seen by Pausanias. In another plan of the seventeenth century, usually known as the plan of the Capucins, both theatre and Enneakrounos are missing, and in their place stands the so-called ‘Theseion.’ On close examination it may be seen that on the Capucin plan, the theatre, the Enneakrounos, and some other buildings have been obliterated and other monuments drawn in over them. It may be taken therefore as certain[279] that, in the seventeenth century, remains of an ‘Enneakrounos,’ and of a theatre-like building near it, existed. [Illustration: FIG. 44.] * * * * * We have had to reconstruct the _Nine-Spouts_ as best we might from the analogy of well-houses on vase-paintings, from the remains of the well-house at Megara, and from a few scattered, though significant stones. We have also _inferred_ its importance from the vast system of water-works of which it was the manifest goal. But there is another witness to its past greatness. It is the place where all ways meet. The irregular square in front of the well-house Nine-Spouts and in part occupied by it was manifestly a great centre of the city life. The complex of ancient roads is best seen in Fig. 46. The great Panathenaic way passes along its Eastern side, but that is not all. The branch roads from the Areopagos converge thither. Most important of all for us, straight down from the Acropolis gate, skirting the Amyneion, there descends a narrow footway. By this we may be sure the King’s daughters descended to fetch water from Kallirrhoë. * * * * *