66 ATHENS ATHIAS An "American female school " founded by Rev. J. H. Hill, is also maintained in the city ; it was for a long time under the direct patronage of the government. The grammar and pri- mary schools are excellent, and instruction is generally sought and widely ditfused. Among the institutions of art is an association for the promotion of the study of the fine arts, and there are several museums in which the scattered relics of the old splendor of the city have been brought together and care- fully arranged. Under the head of public charities fall un asylum for the blind and a hospital, both of considerable size. Among the public buildings are the palace, a fine building of three stories, near Mount Lycabet- tus, the chamber of deputies, the barracks, mint, theatre, and extensive structures intend- ed for the assemblies of the national academy, and for the museum and polytechnic school. There are also about 100 churches, some of them admirable specimens of architecture. The largest is that of St. Nicodemus, built during the middle ages, in the Byzantine style. Like, most of the others, it is not of great size, and depends for its effect on the beauty of its construction. The general appearance of the modern city is not especially attractive on near approach, though the magnificent height of the Acropolis, crowned with the ruins we have noticed above, and the pleasant situation of the town itself, give it a picturesque aspect when one views it from some distant point. Parts of the city have the dirt and squalor peculiar to nearly all towns of southeastern Europe ; but its con- dition has been gradually improved since it became the royal residence, and now there are several broad streets and squares, well kept and clean. The hotels, shops, cafes, &c., are among the indications of the improvement of the city, and the local trade is active, though there is comparatively little commerce with foreign ports. See Forchhammer's Topogra- phie von Athen (in the Kieler philologisclie Studien for 1841, Kiel), and his essay in de- fence of his views in the Zeitschrift f&r Alter- thumswissenschaft (1843, Nos. 69, 70) ; Leake's " Researches in Greece " (London, 1814), and especially his "Topography of Athens" (1821); also his work "On some Disputed Questions of Ancient Geography" (1857); Wordsworth's "Athens and Attica" (London, 1836); Stuart and Revett's "Antiquities of Athens" (London, 1825-'7); Mure's "Journal of a Tour in Greece" (Edinburgh, 1842); Kruse's Hellas (Leipsic, 1826); K. O. Muller's Attika (in Ersch and Gruber's Encyklopa- dif, English translation by Lockhart, London, 1842) ; Prokesch's Denlcwurdigkeiten (Stutt- gart, 1836); the article "Athenee" in Smith's " Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography " (London, 1854); Bockh's "Public Economy of the Athenians" (translated by Lamb, Bos- ton, 1857); Wessenberg's "Life in Athens in the Time of Pericles" (London, no date); Prof. Felton's "Greece, Ancient and Modern" (Boston, 1867) ; Tuckerman's " Greeks of To- day" (New York, 1873). ATHENS, a S. E. county of Ohio, on the Ohio river; area, 430 sq. m. ; pop. in 1870, 23,768. It has railroad communication with Marietta, Columbus, and Cincinnati. The surface is well wooded and extremely fertile, and abounds in iron ore and coal ; and large quantities of salt are manufactured throughout the county. The Hocking river intersects the county, and the Hocking canal extends from its centre to the Ohio canal. In 1870 the county produced 133,745 bushels of wheat, 96,012 of oats, 619,- 447 of Indian corn, 78,721 of potatoes, 23,239 tons of hay, 207,839 Ibs. of tobacco, 513,864 of butter, and 201,593 of wool. There were 57,399 sheep and 15,097 hogs. Capital, Ath- ens, on Hocking river and the Marietta and Cincinnati and Hocking Valley railroads, 70 m. S. E. of Columbus. ATHENS, a city, capital of Clarke county, Ga.. on the Oconee river, at the end of the Athens branch of the Georgia railroad; pop. in 1860, 3,848, of whom 1,893 were colored; in 1870, 4,251, of whom 1,967 were colored. It is the centre of a large cotton-growing region, and has several cotton factories. The university of Georgia, a state institution founded in 1801, is situated here. In 1868 it had 5 instructors, 76 students, 256 alumni, and a library of 7,500 volumes. The law department had 4 profes- sors and 14 students. The city has three weekly newspapers, besides two periodicals. ATHERTON, Charles G., an American senator, born at Amherst, N. H., July 4, 1804, died Nov. 15, 1853. He was elected a member of congress in 1837, and on Dec. 11, 1838, intro- duced under a suspension of the rules a series of resolutions, declaring that "congress has no jurisdiction over the institution of slavery in the several states of the confederacy;" and that "every petition, memorial, resolution, proposition, or paper, touching or relating in any way or to any extent whatever to slavery, or to the abolition thereof, shall, on the pres- entation thereof, without any further action thereon, be laid on the table without being debated, printed, or referred." These resolu- tions were passed, under the previous question, by a vote of 126 to 78, and formed the basis of the 21st rule of the next congress, by which all such petitions, upon presentation, were considered as objected to, and the question of their reception laid on the table. Mr. Ather- ton continued in the house of representatives till 1843, when he was elected to the senate, where he remained till 1849. He was again elected in 1852. ATHIAS, Joseph, a learned Jewish printer in Amsterdam, died about 1700. He is princi- pally noted for having published two editions of the Old Testament in Hebrew in 1661 and 1667, on which, on account of their correct- ness, most of the modern editions are founded. They are remarkable for being the first in which the verses were marked with Arabic
