Note (return) — THE TEMPLE ON THE ACROPOLIS BURNT BY THE PERSIANS.

When the Athenians built the great western room of the Parthenon, they certainly did not intend it to serve merely as a store-room for the objects described in the transmission-lists as εν τω Παρθενωνι or εκ του Παρθενωνος, these being mostly of little value or broken. 22 Now the treasury of Athens was the opisthodomos, and the western room of the Parthenon was, from the moment of the completion of the building, the greatest opisthodomos in Athens. It is natural to regard this (with Lolling) as the opisthodomos where the treasure was kept. This room was doubtless divided into three parts by two partitions of some sort, probably of metal, 23 running from the eastern and western wall to the nearest columns and connecting the columns. This arrangement agrees with the provision (CIA, I, 32) that the monies of Athena be cared for έv τω έπι δεξια του όπισθοδόμου, those of the other gods έv τω eπ' άριοτερά. Until the completion of the Parthenon, the opisthodomos of the pre-Persian temple might properly be the opisthodomos κατ' εξοχήν, but so soon as the Parthenon was finished, the new treasure-house would naturally usurp the name as well as the functions of its predecessor.