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The Stoa of Eumenes in Athens
Article originally published in 1888 in Communications of the German Imperial Archaeological Institute, Athenian Section, vol.XII, pp.100-102.
Fig.1: The Stoa of Eumenes.
There
is a difference of opinion as to which of the two halls at the southern
foot of the Acropolis is the Stoa of Eumenes, whether the one whose
remains are uncovered between the theater of Herodus Atticus and that of
Lycurgus, or that which is behind the Skene building of the latter in
the sacred precinct of Dionysus. In Volume III of the Communications,
U. Kohler advocated the latter view by trying to prove that the great
Stoa between the two theaters had first been ordered by Herodus Atticus
at the same time as his theater. Others have joined this view, e.g. B.
Milchhöfer in his Topography of Athens in Baumeister. However, I
consider it incorrect, and believe I can prove that the hall between
the two theaters is the work of Eumenes.
First of all, it is
certain that the columned hall in the Dionysus district was erected at
the same time as the adjoining Skene or stage building; for both are
made of the same building material and, most importantly, the
foundations of the rear wall of the hall are incorporated into the
foundations of the skenen building. The latter comes from the time of
Lycurgus, as I shall shortly show in a special publication of the
Theater of Dionysos. Consequently, the portico attached to it cannot
have been built by Eumenes II.
It can also be proven that the
large portico between the two theaters does not come from Herodus
Atticus. It is true that the theater of Herodus shows many walls made
of ashlars of small Piraeus limestone; but these stones often form only
an outer covering of the masonry. The core of the walls, which exceed a
certain width, consists (p.101) regularly of opus incertum, i.e. of small stones and lime mortar, a sure sign of their Roman origin. Such an opus incertum
does not occur in the columned hall in the east of this theatre, the
walls of which consist exclusively of ashlars of Breccia, Piraeus stone
and hymettic marble, i.e. of those materials which were used in Athens
for the buildings of the pre-Roman period, and have been applied, especially in the Hellenistic buildings
Fig.2: plan of Acropolis, showing area of the Stoa of Eumenes to the south.
This
difference in material is most evident in the double wall separating
the two buildings. The eastern part, contemporaneous with the hall,
contains only porous and marble ashlars, while the western, which
belongs to the theatre, consists of porous ashlars with a core of opus
incertum. You can also clearly see that the western half was added to
the already existing eastern half later. The two doors of this wall
were probably first laid out when the Herodus Theater was built; at
least their current frame belongs to this period. According to the
building material and technology, we must therefore separate the large
columned hall from the theater of Herodus Atticus and place it in the
Hellenistic period. So nothing stands in the way of recognizing it as
the Stoa of Eumenes.
A hall complex built by Eumenes II has
become known through the excavations in Pergamon. In plan it
corresponds to the Athenian stoa next to the the theater of Herodus. In
both halls we find a front narrow column position with stone
entablature, a closed rear wall and between the two a stool position
with wooden entablature that is twice as wide. However, this agreement
does not prove much. Unfortunately we do not know the pillars and the
upper parts of the Athenian hall and therefore cannot compare them with
those known from the Pergamene hall. Its members all seem to have
disappeared; it is possible, however, that some of the capitals and
entablature gaps that were built into the Serpenteen Wall (p.102) and
are now in the Asklepieion belong to it. Among these are interesting
foliate capitals, which agree perfectly with the capitals of the inner
columns in the Eumenestoa at Pergamum and in the Attalos stoa at Athens.
The
best proof of the correctness of our position in the Hall of Eumenes is
provided by Vitruvius, who after describing the theater says:
(V,
9,1) Post scaenam porticus sunt constituendae,......uti sunt porticus
Pompeianae itemque Athenis porticus Eumeniae, Patrisque Liberi fanum,
et exeuntibus e theatro sinistra parte odeum, quod Themistocles
[Perikles!] columnis lapideis dispositis, navium malis et antemnis e
spoliis Persicis pertexit.
["Behind the stage there are to be
set up galleries, ... like the Pompeian galleries, and also in Athens
the galleries of Eumenia, and the fanum of Patris Liberus, and as they
leave the theater on the left side of the odeum, which Themistocles
[Perikles!] placed on stone columns, He covered them with the ships and
antemen from the spoils of the Persians."]
I give the passage according to the identical wording of the manuscripts; the addition ad theatrum
between Eumeniae and Patrisque, which appears in several editions (also
in Rose and Müller - Strübing), is not in a handwritten ms., but comes
from Marini. Hence Vitruvius reports that porticos had to be built
behind the skene building so that the public could find shelter in the
event of sudden rain. As an example of such halls he names three
complexes from Athens: 1) the hall of Eumenes, 2) the sanctuary of
Dionysos (i.e. the columned hall and the vestibules of the two temples
located in it) and 3) the Odeion of Pericles. Since, according to
Pausanias, the latter building must have been located to the east of
the theater, and since Vitruvius also mentions it on the left, i.e. at
the eastern exit of the theatre, the location of the Eumenestoa can no
longer be in doubt. The Odeon lay to the east, the Sanctuary of
Dionysus to the south, and the Hall of Eumenes to the west of the
theatre. The latter hall must therefore absolutely be identical to the
large hall complex between the two theaters.
WILH. DÖRPFELD.
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