XXX. Remarks on the Fortresses of ancient Greece. By William Hamilton, Esq. Junior, F.A.S. in a Letter to the Rev. John Brand, Secretary

Extract

I have the honour of submitting through your channel to the Society of Antiquaries the accompanying account of the ancient fortresses of Greece. In drawing up this paper, it has not been my object to collect from the writings of the ancients, all that has been said by them on this interesting subject, but to lay before the Society the result of my own observations upon it, during the course of my late tour in that country. A comparison of these remains with what the cotemporaries, or descendants of those who raised them, have transmitted to us in their writings, may form the subject of a future memoir. I have here confined myself to a few remarks on the origin of the fortified cities of ancient Greece, the characteristics of the different æra's in which they were built, and of the situations which were chosen for them. Far from pretending to exhaust the subject, I have merely endeavoured to point out an object, deserving, as I conceive it, the labours of the antiquary and the historian. I beg the indulgence of the Society, for the inadequacy of the performance to the task.