Athens - Monument of Philopappos (Filopapou Hill)

From Dionysíou Areopagítou Street, at the point where it joins Apostólou Pávlou Street, a road branches off and goes up to a parking place on the far side of the hill. From here a path runs east along the rocky hill to the prominent monument of Philopappos, a prince of Commagene (southeast Anatolia) who was banished to Athens by the Romans and died there in A.D. 116. In gratitude for his munificence the Athenians allowed his ostentatious tomb to be erected on this exceptional site - an honor, it has been remarked, that was not granted even to a man like Pericles in the great days of Athens.

On the frieze around the base Philopappos is shown in the guise of a Roman consul, mounted in a chariot and accompanied by lictors. Above this are seated figures of the dead man and (to the left) Antiochos IV, his grandfather. On the way to (or from) this monument of the personality cult under the Roman Empire, there can be seen some remains of the diateichisma, the intermediate wall built in 337 B.C. to shorten the defensive lines between the Long Walls. Here too are various cisterns and rock-cut chambers, one of them traditionally misnamed the Prison of Socrates (now identified to the southwest of the Agora).