This accounts for the magnitude of the city, so disproportionate to the _usual_ number of inhabitants in time of peace, when they did not amount to a hundred thousand persons. Athens was governed by kings for the space of 460 years: by magistrates, chosen for life, during about 300 years more: after that time, their rulers were allowed to hold their offices for ten years only; and, at last, for no longer than one. The citadel, or upper city, which was called the Ἀκρόπολις, was ornamented with the most magnificent temples, monuments, and statues. It contained the temples of Minerva, Neptune, Aglauros, Venus, and Jupiter. Dicearchus tells us, that the enormous disproportion in the size of the temples which were magnificent, and of the houses which were low and small, considerably diminished the beauty of the city. Athens was sometimes called the academy of the Roman empire, and the fountain of learning: learned men, and philosophers of different countries, resorted to this celebrated city in great numbers. The Romans scarcely considered a liberal education as completed, without the student received his final polish at Athens. (_Vide Horace Sat._, B. 2. S. 7. L. 13., _Pliny_, 7. E. 56.) After a career of glory, which must render the name of Athens immortal, that city sunk beneath the all-conquering power of the Romans, B. C. 85; and the Athenians never regained their importance in the scale of nations. Athens is now called Setines; Dr. Chandler gives it the name of Athini. It contains 15,000 inhabitants, and is the see of a Greek archbishop. NOTE 194. _There is a grave severity in his countenance; and he speaks with boldness._ _Tristis severitas_ inest in voltu. Gravity, among the ancient philosophers, was recommended as one of the greatest ornaments of old age. “Lætitia juvenem, _frons_ decet _tristis senem_.” SENECA. _Hip._, A. II. S. II. Graceful is gaiety in youth: in age Gravity most becomes us. Old men, among the Greeks, sometimes affected the manners and exercises of youth: a species of weakness which the literary men of their age reprobated with very poignant ridicule. Theophrastus admirably exposes people of this sort in his portraiture of those who begin to learn in old age. (_Vide Theoph. Moral Characters._) NOTE 195. _Simo.――Seize this rascal directly, and take him away._ ――――_Sublimem_ hunc intrò rape quantum potes. There is a sort of pun here upon the word _sublimem_. Terence alludes to the prisons where slaves were confined, which, in Athens, were usually in the loftiest part of the house: so that Simo says, take him _up_, and also take him _up to the top of the house_: this is the force of the word _sublimem_ in this passage.