thus acquired its peculiar excellence.

In Byzantine times five columns, of various diameters, with no two bases
of the same size, bearing Corinthian capitals, were set up about 6 ft.
in front of the facade. Blocks of marble which had seen use elsewhere
ran from them back into the facade, which was hacked away in rough
fashion to receive them. Probably these blocks formed the floor of a
balcony, a tawdry marble addition.

Pirene was at all times the heart of the city. Here it was that Athena
helped Bellerophon to bridle Pegasus; and hence she received the epithet
of "the Bridler," Chalinitis. The importance of the fountain is attested
by the fact that the Greek poets and the Delphic oracle instead of
saying Corinth said, "the city of Pirene." That it was a place of common
resort is shown by Euripides (_Medea_, 68 f.), where it is said that the
elders were to be found "near the august waters of Pirene, playing
draughts ([Greek: pessoi])." The quadrangle, with its walls 20 ft. high,
and its three apses probably covered with half domes, provided
considerable shade. There is reason for supposing that the marble
coating of the facade, and perhaps the erection of the quadrangle, also
covered with marble, were the work of Herodes Atticus, and therefore
just completed when Pausanias saw them. A base on which stood a statue
of Herodes' wife, Regilla, was found close to the facade, inscribed with
fulsome praise, stating that the statue was "set up by order of the
Sisyphaean Senate at the outpouring of the streams." Two inscriptions of
Roman times make the identity of Pirene certain, if there could be any
doubt in the face of the exact agreement of Pausanias's description with
the structure.

Of the surviving monuments of the Greek city the most important is the
temple of Apollo. While it was probably badly wrecked by the Romans at
the sack of the city, its massive columns with the entablature survived.
That it was restored and was in use in Roman time is shown by the fact
that both the seven columns still standing and two fallen columns
discovered in the excavations, to say nothing of several fragments of
others, have a thick coating of Roman stucco laid over the finer Greek.
The style of the temple points to 600 B.C., when Periander was at the
height of his power. According to Herodotus he made his doubtful
adherents deposit pledges of faithfulness in the temple of Apollo. Quite
near the W. end of the temple is the fountain