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ACROPOLIS

Volume 1 · 137 words · 1797 Edition

(anc. geog.), the citadel, and one of the divisions of Athens; called Pslis, because constituting the first and original city; and the Upper Polis, to distinguish it from the Lower, which was afterwards built round it in a large open plain, the Acropolis standing on a rock or eminence in the heart of this plain; and hence its name: To the north it had a Acropolis wall, built by the Pelasgi, and therefore called Pelagia; and to the south a wall, by Cymon the son of Miltiades, out of the Persian spoils, many ages after the building of the north wall. It had nine gates, and was therefore called Enneapylon; yet but one principal gate or entrance, the ascent to which was by a flight of steps of white marble, built by Pericles with great magnificence, (Plutarch).