Read Online Atlantis Pyramids Floods by Dennis Brooks - Free Book Online

some of the mountains now only afford sustenance to
bees, not so very long ago there were still to be seen roofs of
timber cut from trees growing there, which were of a size
sufficient to cover the largest houses; and there were many other
high trees, cultivated by man and bearing abundance of food for
cattle.
    Moreover, the land reaped the benefit
of the annual rainfall, not as now losing the water which flows off
the bare earth into the sea, but, having an abundant supply in all
places, and receiving it into herself and treasuring it up in the
close clay soil, it let off into the hollows the streams which it
absorbed from the heights, providing everywhere abundant fountains
and rivers, of which there may still be observed sacred memorials
in places where fountains once existed; and this proves the truth
of what I am saying.
    Such was the natural state of the
country, which was cultivated, as we may well believe, by true
husbandmen, who made husbandry their business, and were lovers of
honor, and of a noble nature, and had a soil the best in the world,
and abundance of water, and in the heaven above an excellently
tempered climate. Now the city in those days was arranged on this
wise. In the first place the Acropolis was not as now. For the fact
is that a single night of excessive rain washed away the earth and
laid bare the rock; at the same time there were earthquakes, and
then occurred the extraordinary inundation, which was the third
before the great destruction of Deucalion.
    Note : Could
the above passage be referring to the Carolina Event?
    But in primitive times the hill of the
Acropolis extended to the Eridanus and Ilissus, and included the
Pnyx on one side, and the Lycabettus as a boundary on the opposite
side to the Pnyx, and was all well covered with soil, and level at
the top, except in one or two places.
    Outside the Acropolis and under the
sides of the hill there dwelt artisans, and such of the husbandmen
as were tilling the ground near; the warrior class dwelt by
themselves around the temples of Athene and Hephaestus at the
summit, which moreover they had enclosed with a single fence like
the garden of a single house.
    On the north side they had dwellings
in common and had erected halls for dining in winter, and had all
the buildings which they needed for their common life, besides
temples, but there was no adorning of them with gold and silver,
for they made no use of these for any purpose; they took a middle
course between meanness and ostentation, and built modest houses in
which they and their children’s children grew old, and they handed
them down to others who were like themselves, always the
same.
    But, in summertime they left their
gardens and gymnasia and dining halls, and then the southern side
of the hill was made use of by them for the same
purpose.
    Where the Acropolis now is there was a
fountain, which was choked by the earthquake, and has left only the
few small streams, which still exist in the vicinity, but in those
days the fountain gave an abundant supply of water for all and of
suitable temperature in summer and in winter.
    This is how they dwelt, being the
guardians of their own citizens and the leaders of the Hellenes,
who were their willing followers. And they took care to preserve
the same number of men and women through all time, being so many as
were required for warlike purposes, then as now—that is to say,
about twenty thousand.
    Such were the ancient Athenians, and
after this manner they righteously administered their own land and
the rest of Hellas; they were renowned all over Europe and Asia for
the beauty of their persons and for the many virtues of their
souls, and of all men who lived in those days they were the most
illustrious. And next, if I have not forgotten what I heard when I
was a child, I will impart to you the character and origin of their
adversaries. For friends should not keep their stories to
themselves, but have them in common.
    Yet, before proceeding