This earth entombs those victims to the state, Who fell a glorious sacrifice to zeal. Greece, on the point of wearing tyrant-chains, Did, by their deaths alone, escape the yoke. This Jupiter decreed: no effort, mortals, Can save you from the mighty will of fate. To gods alone belongs the attribute Of being free from crimes with never-ending joy. According to Procopius, Chæronea and other places in Boeotia (also of Achaia and Thessaly) were destroyed by an earthquake in the sixth century. The Acropolis[192] is situated on a steep rock, difficult of access; the walls and square towers are, in some places, well preserved; and their style, which is nearly regular, renders it probable, that they were constructed not long before the invasion of the Macedonians. The ancient Necropolis is on the east side of the Acropolis, behind the village: the remains of several tombs have been uncovered by the rains. The church of the Holy Virgin contains an ancient chair of white marble, curiously ornamented. It is called by the villagers the throne of Plutarch[193]. There are two ancient circular altars with fluted intervals, in the manner of an Ionic or Corinthian column. Altars of this kind were placed on the road side. They were unstained with fire and blood, being set apart for exclusive oblations of honey, cakes, and fruit. These altars are common in Greece, and generally formed of coarse black stone; those of Chæronea, however, are of white marble. They are frequently found in Italy, and are at present used as pedestals for large vases, their height being in general about three feet. They are never inscribed, and sometimes not fluted; and are frequently represented on painted terra-cotta vases. Some Ionic fragments of small proportions are scattered among the ruins. On the rock there was anciently a statue of Jupiter; but Pausanias mentions no temple. The theatre stands at the foot of the Acropolis, and faces the plain. It is the smallest in Greece, except one at Mesaloggion; but it is well preserved. Indeed, nothing is better calculated to resist the devastations of time than the Grecian theatres, when they are cut in the rock, as they generally are. "The sole remains of this town," says Sir John Hobhouse, "are some large stones six feet in length, and the ruins of a wall on the hill, and part of a shaft of a column, with its capital; the seats of a small amphitheatre, cut out of the rock, on the side of the same hill; in the flat below, a fountain, partly constructed of marble fragments, containing a few letters, not decipherable; some bits of marble pillars, just appearing above ground, and the ruins of a building of Roman brick." Two inscriptions have, we understand, lately been discovered at this place; one relative to Apollo, the other to Diana. Several tombs have been also discovered and opened.