Since my book on Athens was published Dr Frazer's great commentary on Pausanias has appeared, and for scholars has made a second edition, so far as my book was a commentary on Pausanias, super?uous. The need for a popular handbook has been met by Professor Ernest Gardner's Ancient Athens. It happens however that, on a question cardinal for the understanding of the early history of Athens, I hold views diametrically opposed to both these writers. These views I have felt bound to state.