Modern Description:
A rubble enclosure lying on the western foothills of Mt. Kotroni, where the path leads between the valley of Avlona and that of Oinoe, bears the local name of Mandra tis Grias, sheepfold of the old woman. The wall, about 3300 m. long, follows a roughly circular course, and runs along the slopes of the hills enclosing the valley below. The course of the wall is very erratic, and it was apparently not dictated by the contours of the land. The wall itself is built of field stones, with two relatively vertical faces of moderate sized stones and a packing of smaller stones. It is preserved in places to a height of about one meter, and its thickness varies from 1.40 m. to 1.80 m. On the southern side of the enclosure are the remains of a monumental gateway [now at Marathon museum], and it is these remains that attracted the attention of the early travellers. On one side of the arch of the gate was inscribed: Ὁμονοίας ἀθανάτ[ου]. πύλη. Ἡρώδου ὁ χῶρος εἰς ὃν εἰσέρχε[ι]. (Gate of deathless concord. Of Herodes the place you enter) It has more recently been discovered that the other side bears an identical inscription, save that Ἡρώδου is replaced by Ρηγiλλης. Remains of two or three statues of seated figures found in the area have been taken as adornments of the gateway, though their identification is not sure. Whether the gateway belongs with the rubble enclosure is not entirely sure. The wall is now destroyed in the immediate vicinity of the gateway, and earlier opinions have varied. Two things are, however, sure. The gate and the enclosure were connected before the first recorded opinion, and the enclosure was never a fortification. ... On the west and east, where it is built on rising hillsides, it would have been open to attack from above, and even on the north, where it could have been built in a commanding position just north of the crest of the ridge, it was not invariably so built. ... That the enclosed area once contained buildings is still evident. To the east of the path between Avlona and Oinoe, not far within the northern limit of the enclosure, are the remains of several buildings. These are all now very ruined and hardly more than piles of stones, but the ground around them is littered with sherds and fragments of roof tiles as well as baked bricks of Roman date. Nothing there would be inconsistent with a date in the second century after Christ. The most natural solution is that both the wall and the gate were built by Herodes. Not only is the gate proof that Herodes's land was near by, but there is no evidence that might argue for a different date for the wall. Moreover, though the wall has no distinctive character and is not so elegant as are most of Herodes's projects, still it is one of the longest rubble walls in Attica... (MCCREDIE, FORTIFIED MILITARY CAMPS IN ATTICA) A gate stone had an inscription in couplets reading: Ah, blessed is he who has built a new city, calling it
by Regilla’s name; he lives in exultation.
But I live in grief because my dwelling has been built
without my beloved wife, and my home is half-complete.
For the gods, in truth, when they have mixed the cup of human life,
pour out joys and griefs as neighbors side by side. [Geagan 1964/Gleason 2008]
Trismegistos Geo: 37768
Info: McCredie, Fortified Military Camps 
James R. McCredie, Fortified Military Camps in Attica, Hesperia Supplement 11, 1966,
