Dio The Athenian - Or From Olympus To Calvary (1880) (Hardcover)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: D CHAPTER III. DEAR OLD NURSE. IO rose late the next morning. Standing with uplifted hands before the busts of Jupiter, Minerva, and Apollo, he thanked them for his safe return; prayed for the safety and speedy coming of his parents; invoked all blessings on them, on Athens, and, with some hesitation, on all Greece. It was not usual for Athenians to go so far?no farther than Attica. Just as he was closing his devotions he seemed to recollect something. Turning slightly away from the statues, he raised his hands and eyes heavenward saying, "And thou, Great Spirit, unborn, knowing all things, making all things, ruling all things, righteous altogether, if indeed thou art, reveal thyself to me and guide me." A prayer which subsequent events lead us to suppose was fully answered. Opening a door, he went up by a narrow flight of steps to the flat roof of the house, and thence into a slender tower that rose from the junction of two broad marble parapets. The sun was high and shining brightly. The two quadrangles of the immense mansion lay exposed at his feet. Away, hecould see almost the whole city spread out like a map?its historic hills of various elevations; the chief public edifices; the wall of Themistocles winding about in an irregular oval and hidden at intervals by the hills within; without, scattered cottages embosomed in gardens, vineyards, olive and fig plantations; and, in the distance, the richly wooded uplands and mountains opening on the south to the sea. On the north, and very near, the Great Virgin of the Acropolis, clad in flashing armor, looked down upon him from above the glorious Parthenon and other temples that crowned the summit or nestled warmly at the base. Just a little to the left lay the hill of Areopagus, with its famous tribunal and sanctuari...