The structures that occupied the summit of the Acropolis appear to have been neither numerous nor magnificent. The central pile, around which all the others were grouped, was the temple of Athena Chalciœcos,[300] flanked on the north and south by the fanes of Zeus Cosmetas and the Muses. Behind it rose the temple of Aphrodite Areia, with that of Artemis Cnagia, and in front various other edifices and statues, dedicated to Euryleonis, Pausanias, Athena Ophthalmitis, and Ammon. Somewhere in the neighbourhood of the temenos of Athena stood two edifices, one called Skenoma and the other Alpion. The relative position of all these it is now extremely difficult, if not impossible, to determine. Let us therefore descend into the agora, and having briefly described the objects which there offered themselves to the eye of the stranger, endeavour to thread our way through the various streets of Sparta, pointing out as we go along the most remarkable monuments it contained. Footnote 300: Plut. Apophtheg. Lacon. Archid. 6. Lycurg. 7. In all Greek cities the point of greatest importance, next to the citadel, was the market-place, where the body of the citizens assembled not only to buy and sell, but to transact public business, and perform many ceremonies of their religion. Thus, in the agora of Sparta, in the centre of which probably stood an altar, surrounded by the statues of Apollo, Artemis, Leto, and the soothsayer Hagias who foretold the victory of Lysander at Ægospotamos, sacred chorusses and processions were exhibited during the Gymnopædia in honour of Phœbos Apollo, in consequence of which, a part at least of the place obtained the name of Choros: here, likewise, was a colossal statue, erected in honour of the Spartan Demos, with a group representing Hermes bearing the infant Dionysos in his arms, and a statue of King Polydoros, doubtless set up in the neighbourhood of his house, Boonetos, lying between the street Aphetæ and the steep road leading up to the citadel. The edifices by which the agora was encircled, though in most cases, perhaps, far from magnificent, when separately considered, presented a grand _coup-d’œil_. This will be made evident if, placing ourselves near the central altar, we enumerate and briefly describe them in the order in which they followed each other in the great circle of the agora. First, beginning on the right-hand corner of the street Aphetæ we behold the palace of the Bidiæi, the five magistrates who watched over the education of the youth; next succeeds that of the Nomophylaces, or guardians of the laws; then that of the Ephori; and, lastly, the senate-house, standing at the corner of the street leading to Therapne. Crossing over to the south-eastern side of the Agora we behold a spacious and stately portico called the Persian, because erected from the spoils of the Persians. Its columns of white marble were adorned with bassi relievi representing