The  outward  aspect  of  this  scene  is  now  what  it  ever  was.  The  lights
and  shadows  on  the  rocks  of  ^gina  and  Salamis,  the  gleams  on  the  dis-
tant mountains,  the  clouds  or  the  snow  on  Parnes,  the  gloom  in  the  deep
dells  of  Hymettus,  the  temple-crowned  rock  and  the  plain  beneath  it,  —
are  natural  features,  which  only  vary  with  the  alternations  of  morning  and
evening,  and  summer  and  winter.^  Some  changes  indeed  have  taken
place  :  but  they  are  connected  with  the  history  of  man.  The  vegetation
is  less  abundant,^  the  population  is  more  scanty.  In  Greek  and  Roman
times,  bright  villages  enlivened  the  promontories  of  Sunium  and  ^gina,
and  all  the  inner  reaches  of  the  bay.  Some  readers  will  indeed  remem-
ber a  dreary  picture  which  Sulpicius  gave  his  friend  Atticus  of  the  deso-
lation of  these  coasts  when  Greece  had  ceased  to  be  free  ;  *  but  we  must
make  some  allowances  for  the  exaggerations  of  a  poetical  regret,  and
must  recollect  that  the  writer  had  been  accustomed  to  the  gay  and  busy
life  of  the  Campanian  shore.  After  the  renovation  of  Corinth,^  and  in
the  reign  of  Claudius,  there  is  no  doubt  that  all  the  signs  of  a  far  more
numerous  population  than  at  present  were  evident  around  the  Saronic
Gulf,  and  that  more  white  sails  were  to  be  seen  in  fine  weather  plying
across  its  waters  to  the  harbors  of  Cenchrea  ®  or  Piraeus.
Now  there   is  indeed  a  certain   desolation  over  this  beautiful  bay :

'  See  the  passage   from    the     Clouds    of  now.    Plato  complains   that  in  his  day  the

Aristophanes    quoted    by   Dr.    Wordsworth.  wood  was  diminishing.
AtJiens  and  Attica,  p.  58.  *  Cic.  Ep.  Fam.  iv.  5.
