PIRAEUS PORTUS, (anc. geogr.), a celebrated port to the west of Athens, consisting naturally of three harbours or basins, (Thucydides); which lay neglected, till Themistocles put the Athenians on making it a commodious port, (Nepos); the Phalerum, a small port, and not far from the city, being what they used before that time, (Paufanias, Nepos). Piraeus was originally a village of Attica, (Paufanias); an island, (Strabo); and though distant 40 stadia from Athens, was joined to it by two long walls, (Thucydides), and itself locked or walled round, (Nepos): A very commodious and safe harbour. The whole of its compass was 60 stadia, including the Munychia. Not far from the Piraeus stood the sepulchre of Themistocles; whither his friends conveyed his bones from Magnesia, into the Hither Asia, (Cicero, Plutarch, Paufanias). The entrance of the Piraeus is narrow, and formed by two rocky points, one belonging to the promontory of Eetion, the other to that of Alcinus, Greece. Within were three stations for shipping; Kantharus, so named from a hero; Aphrodisium, from a temple of Venus; and Zea, the refort of vessels laden with grain. By it was a demos or borough town of the same name before the time of Themistocles, who recommended the exchanging its triple harbour for the single one of Phalerum, both as more capacious and as better situated for navigators. The wall was begun by him when archon, in the second year of the 75th Olympiad, 477 years before Christ; and afterwards he urged the Athenians to complete it as the importance of the place deserved. This whole fortification was of hewn stone, without cement or other material, except lead and iron, which were used to hold together the exterior ranges or facings. It was so wide that the loaded carts could pass on it in different directions, and it was 40 cubits high, which was about half what he had designed.

The Piraeus, as Athens flourished, became the common emporium of all Greece. Hippodamus an architect, celebrated, besides other monuments of his genius, as the inventor of many improvements in house building, was employed to lay out the ground. Five poricoes, which uniting formed the Long Portico, were erected by the ports. Here was an agora or market-place, and, farther from the sea, another called Hippodamia. By the vessels were dwellings for the mariners. A theatre was opened, temples were raised, and the Piraeus, which surpassed the city in utility, began to equal it in dignity. The cavities and windings of Munychia, natural and artificial, were filled with houses; and the whole settlement, comprehending Phalerum and the ports of the Piraeus, with the arsenals, the storehouses, the famous armory of which Philo was the architect, and the sheds for 300, and afterwards 400, triremes, resembled the city of Rhodes, which had been planned by the same Hippodamus. The ports, on the commencement of the Peloponnesian war, were secured with chains. Centinela were stationed, and the Piraeus was carefully guarded.

The Piraeus was reduced with great difficulty by Sylla, who demolished the walls, and set fire to the armory and arsenals. In the civil war it was in a defenceless condition. Calenus, lieutenant to Caesar, feized Piraeus, seized it, invested Athens, and ravaged the territory. Strabo, who lived under the emperors Augustus and Tiberius, observes, that the many wars had destroyed the long walls, with the fortress of Munychia, and had contracted the Piraeus into a small settlement by the ports and the temple of Jupiter Saviour. This fabric was then adorned with wonderful pictures, the works of illustrious artists, and on the outside with statues. In the second century, besides houses for triremes, the temple of Jupiter and Minerva remained, with their images in brafs, and a temple of Venus, a portico, and the tomb of Themistocles.

The port of the Piraeus has been named Porto Liona, from the marble lion seen in the chart, and also Porto Draco. The lion has been described as a piece of admirable sculpture, 10 feet high, and as reposing on its hinder parts. It was pierced, and, as some have conjectured, had belonged to a fountain. Near Athens, in the way to Eleusis, was another, the posture couchant; probably its companion. Both these were removed to Venice by the famous general Morosini, and are to be seen there before the arsenal. At the mouth of the port are two ruined piers. A few vessels, mostly small craft, frequent it. Some low land at the head seems an incroachment on the water. The buildings are a mean customhouse, with a few sheds; and by the shore on the east side, a warehouse belonging to the French; and a Greek monastery dedicated to St Spiridion. On the opposite side is a rocky ridge, on which are remnants of the ancient wall, and of a gateway towards Athens. By the water-edge are vestiges of building; and going from the customhouse to the city on the right hand, traces of a small theatre in the side of the hill of Munychia.