Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2)
by Charles Bucke · English · Gutenberg #44449 · 977,688 chars · public domain (US)
The Project Gutenberg eBook of Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2)
This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and
most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms
of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online
at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States,
you will have to check the laws of the country where you are located
before using this eBook.
Title: Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2)
Author: Charles Bucke
Release date: December 16, 2013 [eBook #44449]
Most recently updated: October 23, 2024
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/44449
Credits: Produced by Adrian Mastronardi, Turgut Dincer and the
Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
(This file was produced from images generously made
available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK RUINS OF ANCIENT CITIES (VOL. 2 OF 2) ***
RUINS
OF
ANCIENT CITIES;
WITH
GENERAL AND PARTICULAR ACCOUNTS
OF
THEIR RISE, FALL, AND PRESENT CONDITION.
BY CHARLES BUCKE.
Fallen, fallen, a silent heap; their heroes all
Sunk in their urns:—Behold the pride of pomp,
The throne of nations fallen; obscured in dust
Even yet majestical.—The solemn scene
Elates the soul!
DYER.
IN TWO VOLS.—VOL. II.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR THOMAS TEGG, 73, CHEAPSIDE.
MDCCCXL.
LONDON:
BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS.
CONTENTS.
PAGE
I. MESSENE 1
II. MYCENÆ 5
III. MILETUS 10
IV. NAUPLIA 20
V. NEMEA 22
VI. NINEVEH 24
VII. NUMANTIA 42
VIII. OLYMPIA 44
IX. PUTEOLI 57
X. PALMYRA (TADMOR) 60
XI. PATRÆ 100
XII. PELLA 103
XIII. PERGAMUS 108
XIV. PERSEPOLIS 112
XV. PETRA (WADY MOUSA) 137
XVI. PHIGALIA 156
XVII. PLATÆA 161
XVIII. PÆSTUM 167
XIX. POMPEII 177
XX. RAMA 198
XXI. ROME 200
XXII. SAGUNTUM 304
XXIII. SAIS 308
XXIV. SAMARIA 312
XXV. SAPPHURA 315
XXVI. SARDIS 317
XXVII. SELEUCIA 327
XXVIII. SELINUS, OR SELINUNTUM 332
XXIX. SICYON 343
XXX. SIDON 348
XXXI. SMYRNA 357
XXXII. SPALATRO 365
XXXIII. STRATONICE 369
XXXIV. SUSA 372
XXXV. SYBARIS 381
XXXVI. SYENE 385
XXXVII. SYRACUSE 387
XXXVIII. THEBES 402
XXXIX. TROJA, AND OTHER CITIES OF THE TROAS 452
XL. TYRE 479
XLI. VEII 496
RUINS OF ANCIENT CITIES.
NO. I.—MESSENE.
Pausanias[1] appears to have had great interest in the history of the
Messenians; for his history of their wars is more minute and animated
than any other part of his narrative. His account of the city gives us a
grand idea of what it must once have been; and the present splendid
remains produce a conviction of his veracity.
The walls of Messene[2], built of hewn stone, crowned with battlements,
and flanked with towers, were stronger and higher than those of
Byzantium, Rhodes, and the other cities of Greece. They included within
their circuit Mount Ithome. It had a large public square or forum,
ornamented with temples, statues, and a splendid fountain. Beautiful
edifices were on every side.
The Messenians had several wars with the Lacedæmonians; and at one time
were so unfortunate as to be reduced to the condition of the Helots.
They were at length, however, reinstated by the Thebans, who took their
city from the Spartans, who had possessed it a long time, after having
expelled all its inhabitants. Those who were dispersed in different
regions of Greece, Italy, and Sicily, on the first notice given them,
returned with incredible joy: animated by the love of their country,
natural to all men, and almost as much by their hatred of the Spartans,
which length of time had only increased. They built themselves a city,
which, from the ancient name, was called Messene.
After their return they fell out with the Achaians, and having worsted
their celebrated general, Philopœmen, they had the meanness and atrocity
to put him to death. His history is thus related by Rollin:—
“Dinocrates, the Messenian, had drawn off Messene from the Achaian
league; and was meditating how he might best seize upon a considerable
post near that city. Philopœmen, then seventy years of age, and
generalissimo of the Achaians for the eighth time, lay sick. However,
the instant the news of this was brought him, he set out,
notwithstanding his indisposition, made a counter-march, and advanced
towards Messene with a small body of forces. Dinocrates, who had marched
out against him, was soon put to flight; but five hundred troopers, who
guarded the open country of Messene, happening to come up and reinforce
him, he faced about and routed Philopœmen. This general, who was
solicitous of nothing but to save the gallant youths who had followed
him in this expedition, performed the most extraordinary acts of
bravery; but happening to fall from his horse, and receiving a deep
wound in the head, he was taken prisoner by the enemy, who carried him
to Messene.
“Upon the arrival of the news that Philopœmen was taken prisoner, and on
his way to the city, the Messenians ran to the gates; not being able to
persuade themselves of the truth of what they heard, till they saw him
themselves; so greatly improbable did this relation appear to them. To
satisfy the violent curiosity of the inhabitants, many of whom had not
yet been able to get a sight of him, they were forced to show the
illustrious prisoner on the theatre. When they beheld Philopœmen,
dragged along in chains, most of the spectators were so moved to
compassion, that the tears trickled from their eyes. There even was
heard a murmur among the people, which resulted from humanity, and a
very laudable gratitude; “That the Messenians ought to call to mind the
great services done by Philopœmen, and his preserving the liberty of
Achaia, by the defeat of Nabis the tyrant.” But the magistrates did not
suffer him to be long exhibited in this manner, lest the pity of the
people should be attended with ill consequences. They therefore took him
away on a sudden; and, after consulting together, caused him to be
conveyed to a place called the Treasury. This was a subterraneous place,
whither neither light nor air entered from without, and had no door to
it, but was shut with a huge stone that was rolled over the entrance of
it. In this dungeon they imprisoned Philopœmen, and posted a guard round
every part of it.
“As soon as it was night, and all the people were withdrawn, Dinocrates
caused the stone to be rolled away, and the executioner to descend into
the dungeon with a dose of poison to Philopœmen, commanding him not to
stir till he had swallowed it. The moment the illustrious Megalopolitan
perceived the first glimmerings of light, and saw the man advance
towards him, with a lamp in one hand and a sword in the other, he raised
himself with the utmost difficulty, for he was very weak, sat down, and
then taking the cup, he inquired of the executioner, whether he could
tell what was become of the young Megalopolitans his followers,
particularly Lycortas? The executioner answering, that he heard almost
all had saved themselves by flight, Philopœmen thanked him by a nod, and
looking kindly on him,—“You bring me,” says he, “good news; and I find
we are not entirely unfortunate;” after which, without breathing the
least complaint, he swallowed the deadly dose, and laid himself again on
his cloak. The poison was very speedy in its effects; for Philopœmen,
being extremely weak and feeble, expired in a moment.
“When the news of his death spread among the Achaians, all their cities
were inexpressibly afflicted. Immediately all their young men who were
of age to bear arms, and all their magistrates, came to Megalopolis.
Here a grand council being summoned, it was unanimously resolved not to
delay a moment the revenge of so horrid a deed; and, accordingly, having
elected on the spot Lycortas for their general, they advanced with the
utmost fury into Messene, and filled every part of it with blood and
slaughter. The Messenians having now no refuge left, and being unable to
defend themselves by force of arms, sent a deputation to the Achaians,
to desire that an end might be put to the war, and to beg pardon for
their past faults. Lycortas, moved at their intreaties, did not think it
advisable to treat them as their furious and insolent revolt seemed to
deserve. He told them that there was no other way for them to expect a
peace, but by delivering up the authors of the revolt, and of the death
of Philopœmen; to submit all their affairs to the disposal of the
Achaians, and to receive a garrison into their citadel. These conditions
were accepted, and executed immediately. Dinocrates, to prevent the
ignominy of dying by an executioner, laid violent hands on himself, in
which he was imitated by all those who had advised the putting
Philopœmen to death.”
A mere village[3] now occupies the site of Messene, and this is situated
on its ruins, about three quarters of a mile from the great gate, which,
of its kind, is the most magnificent ruin in Greece.
A circular wall, composed of large regular blocks, incloses an area of
sixty-two feet diameter. In this wall are two gates, one facing
Cyparissaii, and the other looking towards Laconia. The architraves have
fallen; but that which belonged to the Laconian gate remains entire,
with one end on the ground, and the other leaning against the wall.
There are the remains, also, of a stadium, and of a theatre, one of the
smallest in Greece. Several other traces, masses of fine walls, and
heaps of stones, that are scattered about the place, are overgrown or
nearly concealed by large trees and luxuriant shrubs[4].
NO. II.—MYCENÆ.
This city was the capital of Agamemnon, who was the commander-in-chief
of the assembled Greeks, before the walls of Troy. This event took
place, B. C. 1184; and the present ruins are supposed to be the ruins of
the city before that event.
Perseus translated the seat of his kingdom from Argos to Mycenæ. The
kings who reigned at Mycenæ, after Perseus, were Erectryon, Sthenelus,
and Eurystheus. The last, after the death of Hercules, declared open war
against his descendants, apprehending they might some time or other
attempt to dethrone him; which, as it happened, was done by the
Heraclidæ; for, having killed Eurystheus in battle, they entered
victorious into Peloponnesus; and made themselves masters of the
country. But a plague obliged them to quit the country. Three years
after this, being deceived by the ambiguous expression of the oracle,
they made a second attempt, which likewise proved fruitless. This was
about twenty years before the taking of Troy.
Atreus, the son of Pelops, uncle by the mother’s side to Eurystheus, was
the latter’s successor. And in this manner the crown came to the
descendants of Pelops, from whom Peloponnesus, which before was called
Apia, derived its name. The bloody hatred of the two brothers, Atreus
and Thyestes, is known to all the world.
Plisthenes, the son of Atreus, succeeded his father in the kingdom of
Mycenæ, which he left to his son Agamemnon, who was succeeded by his son
Orestes.
The kingdom of Mycenæ was filled with enormous and horrible crimes, from
the time it came into the family of Pelops.
Tisamenes and Penthilus, sons of Orestes, reigned after their father,
and were at last driven out by the Heraclidæ.
The length of the Acropolis of Mycenæ, is about four hundred yards,[5]
and its breadth about two hundred. The whole circuit of this citadel can
still be made out; and, in some places, the walls remain to the height
of fifteen or twenty feet. They are constructed of huge stones, and
belong to that style of building commonly called Cyclopean. This
description of wall building is recognised by its massy materials, and
by a certain style of rudeness; in which, however, different epochs are
easily distinguished. The oldest part of the walls of Mycenæ, resembles
the Cyclopean walls of Tiryns, a place to the south, about seven miles
distant, which are apparently nothing more than huge masses of unwrought
stone, placed one above another, with the interstices filled up by
smaller materials.
The citadel of Mycenæ is of an irregular oblong form, and is now chiefly
an object of curiosity for the gate, or great entrance, to the north and
west angle. The approach to this gate is by a passage of fifty feet
long, and thirty wide, formed by two parallel and projecting walls,
which was a part of the fortification, and were obviously designed to
command the entrance, and annoy any enemy who might venture to attack
the place. The door is formed of three stones, two upright, and a
cross-stone, forming a soffit. This last is fifteen feet long, four
wide, and six feet seven inches thick in the middle, but diminishes
towards each end. On this stone stands another of a triangular shape,
which is twelve feet long, ten high, and two thick. Two lions are cut in
relief on the face of this stone, standing on their hind legs, on
opposite sides of a round pillar, on which their forepaws rest.
The kingdom of the Argives[6] was divided into two portions, by Acrisius
and his brother Prœtus. Argos and Mycenæ were their capitals. These, as
belonging to the same family, and distant only about six miles and a
quarter from each other, had one tutelary deity, Juno; and were,
jointly, proprietors of her temple, the Heræum. This renowned temple was
adorned with curious sculpture, and numerous statues. The image was very
large, made by Polycletus, of gold and ivory, sitting on a throne. Among
the offerings was a shield, taken by Menelaus, from Euphorbus, at Ilium;
an altar of silver, on which the marriage of Hebe with Hercules was
represented; a golden crown and purple robe, given by Nero; and a
peacock of gold, set with precious stones, dedicated by Hadrian.
Near it were the remains of a more ancient temple, which had been
burned; a taper setting some garlands on fire, while the priestess was
sleeping.
The cause of the destruction of Mycenæ is said to have been
this:—Eighty of its heroes accompanied the Spartans to the defile of
Thermopylæ, and shared with them the glory of their immortal deed. This
is said so to have excited the jealousy of their sister city, Argos,
that it was never afterwards forgiven. The Argives, stung by the
recollection of the opportunity they had thus lost of signalising
themselves, and unable to endure the superior fame of their neighbours,
made war against Mycenæ, and destroyed it. This event happened about
five centuries before Christ. We cannot, however, believe that the
Argives, who were an exceedingly mild and benevolent people, could have
done such an act of atrocity as this.
Strabo could not imagine where Mycenæ could have stood. He says, that
not a single vestige remained. Pausanias, however, who lived at a much
later period, found its colossal ruins, and described them as they are
seen at this very day.
“It is not,” says Dr. Clarke, “merely the circumstance of seeing the
architecture and the sculpture of the heroic ages, which renders a view
of Mycenæ one of the highest gratifications a literary traveller can
experience; the consideration of its remaining at this time, exactly as
Pausanias saw it in the second century, and in such a state of
preservation, that an alto-relievo, described by him, yet exists in the
identical position he has assigned for it, adds greatly to the interest
excited by these remarkable ruins: indeed, so singularly does the whole
scene correspond with his account of the place, that, in comparing them
together, it might be supposed, a single hour had not elapsed since he
was himself upon the spot.”
Everything[7] conspires to render these ruins pre-eminently interesting;
whether we consider their venerable age, the allusions made to them in
such distant periods, when they were visited by Sophocles, Euripides and
other poets and historians of Greece, as the classical antiquities of
their country; or the indisputable examples they afford of the
architecture, sculpture, mythology and customs of the heroic ages.
The walls consist of huge unhewn masses of stone, so fitted and adapted
to each other, as to have given rise to an opinion, that the power of
man was inadequate to the labour necessary in building them.
One of the first things that is noticed is a tumulus of an immense size.
This has been opened, and the entrance is no longer concealed. This
sepulchre has been erroneously called the “treasury of Atreus;” and the
“monument of Agamemnon.” “That this sepulchre,” says Clarke, “could not
have been the treasury of Atreus, is evident from Pausanias’s
description, because it was _without_ the walls of the Acropolis; and
that it cannot be the monument of Agamemnon, because it was _within_ the
citadel.”
In regard to the tomb of Agamemnon, the following account has been given
by Mr. Turner: “I entered by a subterraneous passage, opened by Lord
Elgin, and was surprised to find myself in an immense dome, about ninety
feet high, and fifty round the bottom. It had two doors, one into the
open air, and another into an interior chamber, which was thoroughly
dark, and, I was told, very small. It was built of immense stones, and
was in excellent preservation. The tomb being subterraneous, there are
no traces above-ground, and you might walk over it for years, without
suspecting that you were walking over so interesting a ruin.”
The other antiquities must remain for the more attentive examination of
future travellers; who, as it is hoped, will visit the ruins provided
with the necessary implements for making researches, where, with the
slightest precaution, they will be little liable[8] to interruption, the
place being as destitute of inhabitants, and almost as little known, as
it was in the time of Strabo; when it was believed that not a vestige
could be found[9].
NO. III.—MILETUS.
This celebrated city was the capital of Ionia, situated, in the time of
Pausanias, ten stadia from the mouth of the Mænder; but that river
accumulated its deposit, afterwards, so closely, that the town was
removed, in process of time, more than three miles within the land. Of
its origin there are two accounts: some ascribing it to a colony from
Crete, under the conduct of Miletus; some to Sarpedon; and others to
Neleus, the son of Codrus, king of Athens, who died there, and whose
tomb was in existence for many ages.
“Alyattes, king of Sardis, made war upon the Milesians in the following
manner,” says Herodotus. “As the time of harvest approached, he marched
an army into their country to the sound of the pastoral pipe, harp, and
flutes, played upon by women as well as men. On his arrival in their
territories, he neither hunted, nor in any respect injured their
edifices, which stood in the fields; but he totally destroyed the
produce of their lands, and then returned. As the Milesians were
securely situated near the sea, all attacks upon their city would
probably have proved ineffectual. His motive for not destroying their
buildings was, that they might be induced again to cultivate their
lands, and that on every repetition of his excursions, he might be
secure of plunder.”
In this manner the war was protracted during a period of eleven years;
the Milesians receiving no succour from any of their neighbours, except
the natives of Chios. In the twelfth year of the war the enemy again set
fire to the corn, and a sudden wind springing up, the flames caught the
temple of Minerva and burnt it to the ground. Alyattes, supposing that
the Milesians must be destitute of corn from these repeated
conflagrations, sent word that an ambassador would be at Miletus to make
a truce, until he had rebuilt the temple. When Thrasybulus, king of
Miletus, heard this, he directed all the corn that could be in any way
collected, to be brought into the public market-place; and at an
appointed time ordered the Milesians to commence a scene of feasting and
dances. When Alyattes heard of this festivity, convinced that he had
been mistaken as to the hope of starving the Milesians out, he not only
immediately offered peace, but entered into a strict alliance with them,
and forthwith erected two temples to Minerva instead of one.
The Ionians having been drawn into revolt through the intrigues and
ambitious views of two persons, Aristagoras and Hysteius, the Persians,
having routed the Ionians, laid siege to Miletus, both by sea and land.
They not only undermined the walls, but applied every species of
military machines against it. The oracle had declared:—
And thou, Miletus, versed in ill too long,
Shalt be the prey and plunder of the strong:
Your wives shall stoop to wash a long-hair’d train,
And others guard our Didymæan fane.
This prophecy was fulfilled. The city was taken and utterly destroyed.
The greater part of the Milesians were slain by the Persians, who at
that time wore long hair; and their wives and children were carried into
slavery. Those who survived, were sent to Susa; Darius treating them
with great humanity.
The Milesians, continues Herodotus, on suffering these calamities from
the Persians, did not meet with the return from the people of Sybaris,
which they might justly have expected. When Sybaris was taken by the
Crotoniati, the Milesians had shaved their heads, and discovered every
testimony of sorrow; for betwixt these two cities a strict hospitality
prevailed. And here we must give room for a beautiful instance of
sensibility on the part of the Athenians. When they heard of the
destruction of Miletus, they gave way to many indications of sorrow; and
some years after the capture of Miletus, a drama, written by Phrynicus,
being represented at Athens, the whole audience melted into tears. The
poet, for thus reminding them of so terrible a calamity, was fined a
thousand drachmæ, and the piece forbidden to be played in future.
A bloody battle was fought under the walls of the town, between the
Athenians and Argives on one side, and the Peloponnesians assisted by
the Persians and the revolted Milesians on the other. The fortune of the
day turned to the side of the Athenians; and they would have entered the
city and recovered their authority, had not a fleet of fifty-five sail,
belonging to the enemy, compelled them to draw off their forces and
retire.
B. C. 412[10]. In this year the inhabitants of Miletus joined the
Lacedæmonian party against Athens. When the Athenians heard of this,
they voted the expenditure of a thousand talents, which, in more
prosperous times, they had deposited in the citadel, under the sanction
of a decree of the senate and people, to reserve it for an occasion of
the utmost danger. This enabled them to recruit their fleet; and having
secured the fidelity of the Lesbians, they endeavoured to recover their
authority in Miletus.
Lysander of Lacedæmon acted a great atrocity at Miletus. Apprehending
that those who were then at the head of the people, would escape his
revenge, he swore that he would do them no harm. These chiefs, giving
credit to his oath, appeared therefore in public; but no sooner had they
done so, than the treacherous Lysander gave leave to the nobles of the
town to put them all to death, which they immediately did, although the
number amounted to no less than eight hundred! He caused, also, an
incredible number of persons, who were of the party opposed to him, to
be massacred; and this he did not only to gratify his own malice and
revenge, but to serve the enmity, malice, and avarice of his friends,
whom he took delight in supporting in the gratification of their
passions by the death of their enemies.
The Milesians, when free from a foreign yoke, were often reduced to a
state of vassalage by domestic tyrants, who governed them with absolute
sway, and made them feel all the evils of a foreign subjection. In the
time of Antiochus II., for instance, we read of one Timarchus, who,
reigning in Miletus, and practising all manner of cruelties, was driven
out by that prince, and rewarded by the citizens with the title of
Theos.
When Alexander left Ephesus, he marched to Miletus. But the city,
expecting succours from the Persians, closed its gates against him.
Memnon, one of the most valiant commanders of Darius, who had shut
himself up in the fortress, determined to make as stout a defence as
possible. The Macedonian, however, attacked him skilfully and
vigorously, sending fresh troops to supply the places of those that were
wearied; yet finding his troops still repulsed in all directions, the
garrison being well supplied with every thing necessary for a siege, he
planted all his machines against the walls, made a great number of
breaches, and attempted new scalados wherever they were attached. At
length the besieged, after many brave efforts, fearful of being taken by
storm, capitulated. When he had succeeded, Alexander acted in a manner
much more noble and generous than he had done before, or did after in
many cases;—he treated the Milesians with great humanity. The
foreigners, however, that had taken part with them, he sold as slaves.
Miletus is thus described in the pages of Barthelemy, whose Travels of
Anacharsis, as we have before observed, have all the authority of an
ancient author:—“When at Miletus, we surveyed with admiration its
temples, festivals, manufactures, harbours, and the innumerable
concourse of ships, mariners, and workmen, there perpetually in motion.
This city is an abode of opulence, learning, and pleasure;—it is the
Athens of Ionia. Within the walls the city is adorned by the productions
of art; and without, embellished by the riches of nature. How often have
we directed our steps to the banks of the Mæander, which, after having
received a multitude of rivers, and bathed the walls of various cities,
rolls its waters in innumerable windings through the plain which is
honoured by bearing its name, and proudly ornaments its course with the
plenty it creates! How often, seated on the turf, which borders its
flowery margin, surrounded on all sides with the most delightful
prospects, and unable to satiate our senses with the purity and serene
splendour of the air and sky, have we not felt a delicious languor
insinuate into our souls, and throw us, if I may so speak, into the
intoxication of happiness! Such is the influence of the climate of
Ionia: and as moral causes, far from correcting, have only tended to
increase it, the Ionians have become the most effeminate, but, at the
same time, are to be numbered among the most amiable people, of Asiatic
Greece. In their ideas, sentiments, and manners, a certain softness
prevails, which constitute the charm of society; and in their music and
dancing is a liberty, which at first offends, and then seduces. They
have added new charms to pleasure, and enriched their luxury by
inventions. Numerous festivals occupy them at home, or attract them to
the neighbouring cities, where the men appear in magnificent habits, and
the women in all the elegance of female ornament, and with all the
desire of pleasing.”
St. Paul, in his way from Corinth to Jerusalem, passed through Miletus;
and as he went by sea, and would not take Ephesus in his way, he caused
the priests and bishops of the church of Ephesus to come to Miletus[11].
Miletus fell under subjection to the Romans, and became a considerable
place under the Greek emperors. Then it fell under the scourge of the
Turks; one of the sultans of which (A. D. 1175) sent twenty thousand
men, with orders to lay waste the Roman imperial provinces, and bring
him sand, water, and an oar. All the cities on the Mæander were then
ruined: since which, little of the history of Miletus has been known.
The Milesians early applied themselves to navigation; in the spirit of
which they, in the process of time, planted not less than eighty
colonies, in different parts of the world; and as we are ourselves so
largely engaged in colonisation, perhaps an account of the colonies,
sent out by the Milesians, may not be deemed uninteresting.
COLONIES OF MILETUS.
Cyzicum }
Artace } Islands in the Propontis.
Proconnesus }
Miletopolis, in Mysia.
ON THE COAST AND IN THE ENVIRONS OF THE HELLESPONT.
Priapus. │ Pæsus. │ Arisba.
Coloniæ. │ Lampsacus. │ Limnæ.
Parium. │ Gargetta. │ Percote.
Zaleia, at the foot of Mount Ida.
Scepsis, on that mountain.
NEAR MILETUS.
Iasus. │ Latmos. │ Heraclea.
ISLES SPORADES.
Icaria. │ Leros.
ON THE COASTS OF THE EUXINE (BLACK SEA).
Heraclea. │ Sinope. │ Amisus.
Chersonesus. │ Cotyorus. │ Cerasus.
Tium. │ Sesamus. │ Trapezus.
Cromna.
IN COLCHIS.
Phasis and Dioscorias.
IN THRACE.
Anthia. │ Thynius. │ Pactyes.
Anchialus. │ Phinopolis. │ Cardia.
Apollonia. │ Andrica. │ Deultum.
Crithote.
IN SCYTHIA.
Odessus. │ Calatis. │ Tyras.
Cruni. │ Touri. │ Borythranis.
Istropolis.
IN CHERSONESUS TAURICA.
Theodosia. │ Panticapæum.
Nymphæa. │ Myrnecion.
ON THE CIMMERIAN BOSPHORUS.
Phanagoria. │ Hermonassa. │ Cephi.
Tanais in Sarmatia; Salamis in Cyprus; Naucratis, Chemis,
Paralia in Egypt; Ampe on the Tigris; Clauda, on the Euphrates.
From this list we may imagine to what a height of power and civilisation
this city must have once attained. Babylon stands in a wilderness and a
desert by its side.
Miletus was adorned with superb edifices; and was greatly celebrated for
its trade, sciences, and arts. It gave birth also to many eminent
persons; amongst whom may be particularly mentioned, Thales[12],
Anaximenes[13], Anaximander[14], Hecatæus[15], Timotheus[16], also the
celebrated Aspasia, the wife of Pericles. It was also famous for its
excellent wool, with which were made stuffs and garments, held in the
highest reputation both for softness, elegance, and beauty.
It had a temple dedicated to Apollo Didymæus, which was burnt by Xerxes.
The Milesians, however, soon after rebuilt it, and upon so large a
scale, that Strabo describes it as having been equal in extent to a
village; so large indeed was it, that it could never be covered. It
stood in a thick grove. With what magnificence and prodigious spirit
this edifice was designed, may in some measure be collected from the
present remains. Strabo called it the “greatest of all temples;” adding
that it continued without a roof on account of its bigness; Pausanias
mentions it as unfinished, but as one of the wonders peculiar to Ionia;
and Vitruvius mentions this among the four temples, which have raised
their architects to the summit of renown[17].
There was a magnificent theatre also built of stone, but cased with
marble, and greatly enriched with sculptures. There was also one temple
of Venus in this town, and another in the neighbourhood.
Miletus is now called Palatskia (the palaces). Notwithstanding its
title, and the splendour of its ancient condition, it is but a mean
place now. The principal relic of its former magnificence is a ruined
theatre, measuring in length four hundred and fifty-seven feet. The
external face of this vast fabric is marble. The front has been removed.
A few seats only remain, and those, as usual, ranged on the slope of a
hill. The vaults which supported the extremities, with the arches or
avenues of the two wings, are constructed with such solidity, that they
will not easily be demolished. The entrance of the vault is nearly
filled up with rubbish; but when Dr. Chandler crept into it, led by an
Armenian, with a candle in a long paper lantern, innumerable bats began
flitting about them; and the stench was intolerable.
The town was spread with rubbish and overgrown with thickets. The
vestiges of “the heathen city,” are pieces of wall, broken arches, and a
few scattered pedestals and inscriptions, a square marble urn, and many
wells. One of the pedestals has belonged to a statue of the Emperor
Hadrian, who was a friend to the Milesians, as appears from the titles
of Saviour and Benefactor, bestowed upon him. Another has supported the
Emperor Severus, and has a long inscription, with this preamble: “_The
senate and people of the city of the Milesians, the first settled in
Ionia, and the mother of many and great cities both in Pontus and Egypt,
and in various other parts of the world._” This lies among the bushes
behind the theatre.
Several piers of an aqueduct are standing. Near the ferry is a large
couchant lion, of white marble; and in a Turkish burying-ground another;
and traces remain of an old fortress. Besides these, there are a
considerable number of forsaken mosques; and among the ruins are several
fragments of ancient churches.
Wheler says, that in his time, there were many inscriptions, most of
them defaced by time and weather; some upon single stones, others upon
very large tombs. On one of them were carved two women hunting, with
three dogs; the foremost holding a hare in its mouth.
“Miletus,” says Dr. Chandler, from whom we have borrowed several
passages in this article, “was once powerful and illustrious. The early
navigators extended its commerce to remote regions; the whole Euxine
Sea, the Propontis, Egypt, and other countries, were frequented by its
ships, and settled by its colonies. It withstood Darius, and refused to
admit Alexander. It has been styled the metropolis and head of Ionia;
the bulwark of Asia; chief in war and peace; mighty by sea; the fertile
mother, which had poured forth her sons to every quarter. It afterwards
fell so low as to furnish a proverbial saying, ‘The Milesians were once
great;’ but if we compare its ancient glory, and its subsequent
humiliation, with its present state, we may justly exclaim, ‘Miletus,
how much lower art thou now fallen[18]!’”
NO. IV.—NAUPLIA.
This town, now called Napoli di Romania, is situate along the foot of
the rocky promontory, which projects into the sea, at the head of the
gulf of Napoli. Its walls were built by the Venetians.
Ancient Nauplia, which is said to have been built by Nauplius, absurdly
called the son of Neptune, became the chief naval arsenal of the
Argives. Even so early as the time of Pausanias, however, it had become
desolate; only a few remains of a temple, and of the walls, then
existing. Its modern history is rather interesting.
The Venetians obtained possession in 1460. In 1495 it surrendered to
Bajazet, but was again taken by the Venetians, under Morozini, in 1586,
after a month’s siege, and became the head-quarters of that nation, in
the Morea. In 1714, it was treacherously given up to Ali Coumourgi, and
was the seat of Turkish government, and residence of the Pasha of the
Morea; till Tripolizzi was selected as being more central; when it
became subject to the Bey of Argos. The crescent remained
uninterruptedly flying on this fortress, till the 12th of December 1822,
when it surrendered to the Greeks, after a long and tedious blockade;
the Turkish garrison having been reduced to such a state of starvation,
as to feed on the corpses of their companions. In 1825, Ibrahim Pasha
made a fruitless attempt to surprise the place; and it has been the
strong-hold of the Greeks in their struggle for liberty. In April, 1826,
the commission of government held their sittings here; but were obliged
to retire to Ægina, on account of civil dissentions, and two of the
revolted chiefs being in possession of the Palamadi. During the
presidency of Capo d’Istrias, who always resided, and was assassinated
in the town, it again became the seat of government; and on the 31st of
January, 1833, Otho, Prince of Bavaria, arrived here, as first king of
restored Greece.
The strength of Napoli is the citadel, which is called the Palamadi,
over whose turreted walls a few cypresses raise their sombre heads. It
stands on the easternmost and highest elevation of the promontory, and
completely overhangs and commands the town. To all appearance it is
impregnable, and, from its situation and aspect, has been termed the
Gibraltar of Greece. It is seven hundred and twenty feet above the sea;
and has only one assailable point, where a narrow isthmus connects it
with the main land; and this is overlooked by a rocky precipice.
Mr. Dodwell made fruitless inquiries in respect to the caves and
labyrinths near Nauplia, which are said to have been formed by the
Cyclops; but a minute examination is neither a safe nor easy
undertaking. “The remains that are yet unknown,” says he, “will be
brought to light, when the reciprocal jealousy of the European powers
permits the Greeks to break their chains,[19] and to chase from their
outraged territory that host of dull oppressors, who have spread the
shades of ignorance over the land that was once illuminated by science,
and who unconsciously trample on the venerable dust of the Pelopidæ and
the Atridæ.”
Nauplia is a miserable village; the houses have nothing peculiar about
them, but are built in the common form of the lowest habitations of the
villages of France and Savoy. The inhabitants are indolent. “The
indolence of the Neapolitans,” says M. La Martine, “is mild, serene, and
gay—the carelessness of happiness; while that of the Greek is heavy,
morose, and sombre; it is a vice, which punishes itself.”[20]
NO. V.—NEMEA.
A town of Argolis, greatly distinguished by the games once celebrated
there. These games (called the Nemean games) were originally instituted
by the Argives in honour of Archemorus, who died from the bite of a
serpent; and, afterwards, renewed in honour of Hercules, who in that
neighbourhood is said to have destroyed a lion by squeezing him to
death.
These games consisted of foot and horse races, and chariot races;
boxing, wrestling, and contests of every kind, both gymnastic and
equestrian. They were celebrated on the 12th of our August, on the 1st
and 3rd of every Olympiad; and continued long after those of Olympia
were abolished.
In the neighbouring mountains is still shown the den of the lion, said
to have been slain by Hercules; near which stand the remains of a
considerable temple, dedicated to Jupiter Nemeus and Cleomenes, formerly
surrounded by a grove of cypresses.
Of this temple three columns only are remaining. These columns, two of
which belonging to the space between antæ, support their architrave.
These columns are four feet six inches and a half in diameter, and
thirty-one feet ten inches and a half in height, exclusive of the
capitals. The single column is five feet three inches diameter, and
belongs to the peristyle. The temple was hexastyle and peripteral, and
is supposed to have had fourteen columns on the sides. The general
intercolumniation is seven feet and a half, and those at the angles five
feet eleven inches and a quarter. It stands upon three steps, each of
which is one foot two inches in height. The capital of the exterior
column has been shaken out of its place, and will probably ere long fall
to the ground. “I have not seen in Greece,” continues Mr. Dodwell, “any
Doric temple, the columns of which are of such slender proportions as
those of Nemea. The epistylia are thin and meagre, and the capitals too
small for the height of the columns. It is constructed of a soft
calcareous stone, which is an aggregate of sand and small petrified
shells, and the columns are coated with a fine stucco. Pausanias praises
the beauty of the temple; but, even in his time, the roof had fallen,
and not a single statue was left.”
No fragments of marble are found amongst the ruins, but an excavation
would probably be well repaid, as the temple was evidently thrown down
at one moment, and if it contained any sculptured marbles, they are
still concealed by the ruins.
Near the temple are several blocks of stones, some fluted Doric frusta,
and a capital of small dimensions. This is supposed to have formed part
of the sepulchre of Archemorus. Mr. Dodwell, however, found no traces of
the tumulus of Lycurgus, his father, king of Nemea, mentioned by
Pausanias, nor any traces of the theatre and stadium.
Beyond the temple is a remarkable summit, the top of which is flat, and
visible in the gulf of Corinth. On one side is a ruinous church, with
some rubbish; perhaps where Osspaltes and his father are said to have
been buried. Near it is a very large fig-tree. To this a goatherd
repaired daily before noon with his flock, which huddled together in the
shade until the extreme heat was over, and then proceeded orderly to
feed in the cool upon the mountain.
“Nemea,” continues Mr. Dodwell, “is more characterised by gloom than
most of the places I have seen. The splendour of religious pomp, and the
long animation of gymnastic and equestrian exercises, have been
succeeded by the dreary vacancy of a death-like solitude. We saw no
living creatures but a ploughman and his oxen, in a spot which was once
exhilarated by the gaiety of thousands, and resounded with the shouts of
a crowded population[21].”
NO. VI.—NINEVEH.
Of Nineveh, the mighty city of old,
How like a star she fell and pass’d away!
ATHERSTONE.
The Assyrian empire was founded by Ashur, the son of Shem, according to
some writers; but according to others, by Nimrod; and to others, by
Ninus.
Ninus, according to Diodorus Siculus, is to be esteemed the most ancient
of the Assyrian kings. Being of a warlike disposition, and ambitious of
that glory which results from courage, says he, he armed a considerable
number of young men, that were brave and vigorous like himself; trained
them up in laborious exercises and hardships, and by that means
accustomed them to bear the fatigues of war patiently, and to face
dangers with intrepidity. What Diodorus states of Ninus, however, is
much more applicable to his father, Nimrod, the son of Cush, grandson of
Cham, and great-grandson of Noah; he who is signalised in scripture as
having been “a mighty hunter before the Lord;” a distinction which he
gained from having delivered Assyria from the fury and dread of wild
animals; and from having, also, by this exercise of hunting, trained up
his followers to the use of arms, that he might make use of them for
other purposes more serious and extensive.
The next king of Assyria was NINUS, the son of Nimrod. This prince
prepared a large army, and in the course of seventeen years conquered a
vast extent of country; extending to Egypt on one side, and to India and
Bactriana on the other. On his return he resolved on building the
largest and noblest city in the world; so extensive and magnificent, as
to leave it in the power of none, that should come after him, to build
such another. It is probable, however, that Nimrod laid the foundations
of this city, and that Ninus completed it: for the ancient writers often
gave the name of founder to persons, who were only entitled to the
appellation of restorer or improver.
This city was called NINEVEH. Its form and extent are thus related by
Diodorus, who states that he took his account from Ctesias the
Gnidian:—“It was of a long form; for on both sides it ran out about
twenty-three miles. The two lesser angles, however, were only ninety
furlongs a-piece; so that the circumference of the whole was about
seventy-four miles. The walls were one hundred feet in height; and so
broad, that three chariots might be driven together upon it abreast; and
on these walls were fifteen hundred turrets, each of which was two
hundred feet high.”
When the improver had finished the city, he appointed it to be inhabited
by the richest Assyrians; but gave leave, at the same time, to people of
other nations (as many as would) to dwell there; and, moreover, allowed
to the citizens at large a considerable territory next adjoining them.
Having finished the city, Ninus marched into Bactria; his army
consisting of one million seven hundred thousand men, two hundred
thousand horse, and sixteen thousand chariots armed with scythes. This
number is, doubtless, greatly exaggerated. With so large a force, he
could do no otherwise than conquer a great number of cities. But
having, at last, laid siege to Bactria, the capital of the country, it
is said that he would probably have failed in his enterprise against
that city, had he not been assisted by the counsel of Semiramis, wife to
one of his officers, who directed him in what manner to attack the
citadel. By her means he entered the city, and becoming entire master of
it, he got possession of an immense treasure. He soon after married
Semiramis; her husband having destroyed himself, to prevent the effects
of some threats that Ninus had thrown out against him. By Semiramis,
Ninus had one son, whom he named Ninyas; and dying not long after,
Semiramis became queen: who, to honour his memory, erected a magnificent
monument, which is said to have remained a long time after the
destruction of the city.
The history of this queen is so well known,[22] that we shall not
enlarge upon it; we having already done so in our account of Babylon;
for she was one of the enlargers of that mighty city.
There is a very great difference of opinion, in regard to the time in
which Semiramis lived. According to
A. C.
Sanchoniathon, she lived 1200
Herodotus 500
Syncellus 2177
Petavius 2060
Helvicus 2248
Eusebius 1984
Archbishop Usher 1215
Alexander’s opinion of this celebrated woman may be gathered from the
following passage of his speech to his army:—“You wish to enjoy me
long; and even, if it were possible, for ever; but, as to myself, I
compute the length of my existence, not by years, but by glory. I might
have confined my ambition within the narrow limits of Macedonia; and,
contented with the kingdom my ancestors left me, have waited, in the
midst of pleasures and indolence, an inglorious old age. I own that if
my victories, not my years, are computed, I shall seem to have lived
long; but can you imagine, that after having made Europe and Asia but
one empire, after having conquered the two noblest parts of the world,
in the tenth year of my reign and the thirtieth of my age, that it will
become me to stop in the midst of so exalted a career, and discontinue
the pursuit of glory to which I have entirely devoted myself? Know, that
this glory ennobles all things, and gives a true and solid grandeur to
whatever appears insignificant. In what place soever I may fight, I
shall fancy myself upon the stage of the world, and in presence of all
mankind. I confess that I have achieved mighty things hitherto; but the
country we are now in reproaches me that a woman has done still greater.
It is Semiramis I mean. How many nations did she conquer! How many
cities were built by her! What magnificent and stupendous works did she
finish! How shameful is it, that I should not yet have attained to so
high a pitch of glory! Do but second my ardour, and I will soon surpass
her. Defend me only from secret cabals and domestic treasons, by which
most princes lose their lives; I take the rest upon myself, and will be
answerable to you for all the events of the war.”
“This speech,” says Rollin, “gives us a perfect idea of Alexander’s
character. He had no notion of true glory. He did not know either the
principle, the rule, or end of it. He certainly placed it where it was
not. He was strongly prejudiced in vulgar error, and cherished it. He
fancied himself born merely for glory; and that none could be acquired
but by unbounded, unjust, and irregular conduct. In his impetuous
sallies after a mistaken glory, he followed neither reason, virtue, nor
humanity; and as if his ambitious caprice ought to have been a rule and
standard to all other men, he was surprised that neither his officers
nor soldiers would enter into his views, and that they lent themselves
very unwillingly to support his ridiculous enterprises.” These remarks
are well worthy the distinguished historian who makes them.
Semiramis was succeeded by her son Ninyas; a weak and effeminate prince,
who shut himself up in the city, and, seldom engaging in affairs,
naturally became an object of contempt to all the inhabitants. His
successors are said to have followed his example; and some of them even
went beyond him in luxury and indolence. Of their history no trace
remains.
At length we come to Pull, supposed to be the father of Sardanapalus; in
whose reign Jonah is believed to have lived. “The word of the Lord,”
says the Hebrew scripture, “came unto Jonah, the son of Amittai, saying,
Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it; for their
wickedness is come up before me.” Jonah, instead of acting as he was
commanded, went to Joppa, and thence to Tarshish. He was overtaken by a
storm, swallowed by a whale, and thrown up again. Being commanded again,
he arose and went to Nineveh, “_an exceedingly great city of three days’
journey_;” where, having warned the inhabitants, that in forty days
their city should be overthrown, the people put on sackcloth, “from the
greatest of them even to the least.” The king sat in ashes, and
proclaimed a fast. “Let neither man nor beast,” said the edict, “herd
nor flock, taste any thing; let them not feed, nor drink water; but let
man and beast be covered with sackcloth; and cry mightily unto God; yea,
let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that
is in their hands. Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn
away from his fierce anger, that we perish not?”
On the king’s issuing this edict, the people did as they were commanded,
and the ruin was delayed. On finding this, the prophet acted in a very
unworthy manner. To have failed as a prophet gave him great concern;
insomuch, that he desired death. “Take, I beseech thee, O Lord, my life
from me; for it is better for me to die than to live.” “Shall I not
spare Nineveh,” answered the Lord, “that great city, wherein are more
than six-score thousand persons, that cannot discern between their right
hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”
Sardanapalus was, beyond all other sovereigns recorded in history, the
most effeminate and voluptuous; the most perfect specimen of sloth,
luxury, cowardice, crime, and elaborate folly, that was, perhaps, ever
before exhibited to the detestation of mankind. He clothed himself in
women’s attire, and spun fine wool and purple amongst throngs of
concubines. He painted likewise his face, and decked his whole body with
other allurements. He imitated, also, a woman’s voice; and in a thousand
respects disgraced his nature by the most unbounded licentiousness and
depravity. He even wished to immortalise his impurities; selecting for
his epitaph the following lines:—
Hæc habeo quæ edi, quæque exsaturata libido
Hausit; at illa jacent multa et præclara relicta.
“This epitaph,” says Aristotle, “is only fit for a hog.”[23]
Through all the city sounds the voice of joy,
And tipsy merriment. On the spacious walls,
That, like huge sea-cliffs, gird the city in,
Myriads of wanton feet go to and fro;
Gay garments rustle in the scented breeze;
Crimson and azure, purple, green, and gold;
Laugh, jest, and passing whisper are heard there;
Timbrel and lute, and dulcimer and song;
And many feet that tread the dance are seen,
And arms unflung, and swaying head-plumes crown’d:
So is that city steep’d in revelry[24].
In this dishonourable state Sardanapalus lived several years. At length
the governor of Media, having gained admittance into his palace, and
seen with his own eyes a king guilty of such criminal excesses; enraged
at the spectacle, and not able to endure that so many brave men should
be subject to a prince more soft and effeminate than the women
themselves, immediately resolved to put an end to his dominion. He
therefore formed a conspiracy against him; and in this he was joined by
Belesis, governor of Babylon, and several others. Supporting each other
for the same end, the one stirred up the Medes and Persians; the other
inflamed the inhabitants of Babylon. They gained over, also, the king
of Arabia. Several battles, however, were fought, in all of which the
rebels were repulsed and defeated. They became, therefore, so greatly
disheartened, that at length the commanders resolved every one to return
to their respective countries; and they had done so, had not Belesis
entertained great faith in an astrological prediction. He was
continually consulting the stars; and at length solemnly assured the
confederated troops, that in five days they would be aided by a support,
they were at present unable to imagine or anticipate;—the gods having
given to him a decided intimation of so desirable an interference. Just
as he had predicted, so it happened; for before the time he mentioned
had expired, news came that the Bactrians, breaking the fetters of
servitude, had sprung into the field, and were hastening to their
assistance.
Sardanapalus, not knowing any thing of the revolt of the Bactrians, and
puffed up by former successes, was still indulging in sloth and
idleness, and preparing beasts for sacrifice, plenty of wine, and other
things necessary wherewith to feast and entertain his soldiers. While
the army was thus indulging itself, Arbaces, receiving intelligence, by
some deserters, of the security and intemperance of the enemy, fell in
upon them in the night on a sudden; and being in due order and
discipline, and setting upon such as were in confusion, he being before
prepared, and the other altogether unprovided, they easily broke into
their camp, and made a great slaughter of some, forcing the rest into
the city. Upon this, Sardanapalus committed the charge of his whole army
to his wife’s brother, (Salamenes,) and took upon himself the defence of
the city. But the rebels twice defeated the king’s forces; once in the
open field, and the second time before the walls of the city; in which
last engagement Salamenes was killed, and almost all his army lost;
some being cut off in the pursuit, and the rest (save a very few) being
interrupted, and prevented from entering into the city, were driven
headlong into the Euphrates; and so great was the number destroyed, that
the river became dyed with the blood, and retained that colour for a
great distance and a long course together.
Sardanapalus, now perceiving that his kingdom was like to be lost, sent
away his three sons and his three daughters, with a great deal of
treasure, into Paphlagonia, to Cotta, the governor there, his most
entire friend; and sent posts into all the provinces of the kingdom, in
order to raise soldiers, and to make all other preparations necessary to
endure a siege; being greatly encouraged to do this from an acquaintance
with an ancient prophecy; viz.—that Nineveh could never be taken by
force, till the river should become a foe to the city.
The enemy, on the other hand, grown more courageous by their successes,
eagerly urged on the siege. They made, nevertheless, but little
impression on the besieged, by reason of the strength of the walls; for
balistæ to cast stones, testudos to cast up mounts, and battering-rams,
were not known in those ages. The city was also well supplied with every
thing needful. The siege, therefore, lasted two years: during which time
nothing to any purpose was done, save that the walls were sometimes
assaulted, and the besieged penned up in the city. At length, in the
third year, an unfortunate circumstance took place. This was no other
than the overflowing of the Euphrates, and from continual rains, coming
up into a part of the city, and tearing down thirty furlongs of the
walls in length.
When the king found this—conceiving it to be no other than a fulfilment
of the prophecy, on the improbability of which he had so strongly
relied—he gave himself up to despair; caused a large pile of wood to be
made in one of the courts of his palace; heaped together all his gold,
silver, and wearing apparel; and inclosing his eunuchs and concubines in
an apartment within the pile, caused it to be set on fire; when all
perished in the flames in common with himself.
When the revolters heard of this, they entered through several breaches
made in the walls, and took the city. They clothed Arbaces with a royal
robe, proclaimed him king, and invested him with despotic authority: in
gratitude for which Arbaces rewarded every one according to his deserts.
He showed great clemency, also, to the inhabitants of Nineveh; for
though he dispersed them into several villages, he restored every one to
his estate. He, nevertheless, razed the city to the ground. The sum,
found in the palace and elsewhere, appears to be incredible: for it is
stated to have been no less than equivalent to 25,000,000,000 of pounds
sterling. The fire lasted more than fifteen days. Thus, after a
continuance of thirty generations, the Assyrian empire was overturned,
in the year of the world, 3080; and before Christ 868. Thus far
Diodorus; but Usher, and many other historians, amongst whom may be
mentioned Herodotus, state, that the Assyrian empire, from Ninus, lasted
only 520 years.
Several kings reigned after this, under what is called the second
Assyrian empire. For on the fall of the former, three considerable
kingdoms were generated, viz:—that of the Medes, which Arbaces, on the
fall of Nineveh, restored to its liberty; that of the Assyrians of
Babylon, which was given to Belesis, governor of that city; and that of
the Assyrians of Nineveh.
The first king that reigned in Nineveh, after the death of
Sardanapalus, is called in Scripture Tiglath-Pileser[25]; the second
Salmanaser, in whose reign, Tobit, with Anna his wife, and his son
Tobias, was carried captive into Assyria, where he became one of
Salmanaser’s principal officers. That king having died after a reign of
fourteen years, he was succeeded by his son Sennacherib; he, whose army
was cut off in one night before the walls of Jerusalem. He had laid
siege to that city some time before, but had marched against Egypt,
which country having subdued, he once more sat down before the sacred
city: “And it came to pass, that the angel of the Lord went out, and
smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and four score and five
thousand; and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were
all dead corpses[26].” After so terrible a blow, the pretended king of
kings, as he presumed to call himself, “this triumpher over nations, and
conqueror of gods,” returned to his own country, where “it came to pass,
as he was worshipping in the house of Nisroch, his god, that he was
struck by his two sons[27], who smote him with the sword: and
Esarhaddon, his youngest son, reigned in his stead[28].” The destruction
that fell upon his army, has been thus described by a celebrated poet of
modern times.
THE DESTRUCTION OF SENNACHERIB.
I.
“The Assyrian came down like a wolf on the fold,
And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold;
And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea,
When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
II.
“Like the leaves of the forest when summer is green,
That host with their banners at sunset were seen;
Like the leaves of the forest when autumn hath blown,
That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
III.
“For the angel of death spread his wings on the blast,
And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed;
And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill,
And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still.
IV.
“And there lay the steed, with his nostril all wide,
But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride;
And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf,
And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
V.
“And there lay the rider distorted and pale,
With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail;
And the tents were all silent, the banners alone,
The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
VI.
“And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail;
And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal;
And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword,
Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord.”
Esarhaddon was succeeded by Nebuchadnezzar the First, in whose reign
Tobit died[29]. Perceiving his end approaching, that good old man called
his children to him, and advised them to lose no time, after they had
buried him and their mother, but to quit the city, before its ruin came
on. “The ruin of Nineveh,” said he, “is at hand; the wickedness of the
city will occasion its ruin.”
Nahum represents the wickedness of this city, too, in terms exceedingly
vivid[30]: “Woe to the bloody city! It is all full of lies and robbery.”
“It shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee
from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste; who will bemoan her?” “The
gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies; the fire
shall devour thy bars.” “The sword shall cut thee off; it shall eat thee
up like the canker-worm.” “Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust; thy
people be scattered upon the mountains, and no man shall gather them.”
Zephaniah, also, issued similar denunciations[31]. “The Lord will make
Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness: and flocks shall lie
down in the midst of her; both the cormorant and the bittern shall lodge
in it; their voice shall sing in the windows; desolation shall be in the
thresholds.” “This is the rejoicing city, that dwelt carelessly, that
said in her heart, ‘_I am_, and there is none beside me.’ How shall she
become a desolation; a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that
passes by shall hiss and wag his hand.”
The ruin, predicted, came in the reign of Saracus. Cyaxares, king of the
Medes, entering into an alliance with the king of Babylon, they joined
their forces together, laid siege to the city, took it, slew their king,
and utterly destroyed it.
“God,” says the historian, “had foretold by his prophets, that he would
bring vengeance upon that impious city, for the blood of his servants,
wherewith the kings thereof had gorged themselves, like ravenous lions;
that he himself would march at the head of the troops that should come
to besiege it; that he would cause consternation and terror to go before
him; that he would deliver the old men, the mothers, and their children,
into the merciless hands of the soldiers; and that all the treasures of
the city should fall into the hands of rapacious and insatiable
plunderers; and that the city itself should be so totally destroyed,
that not so much as a footstep of it should be left; and that the people
should ask hereafter, Where did the proud city of Nineveh stand?”[32]
This prophecy has been fulfilled only in part; the absolute completion
of it remains still to be fulfilled. In the time of Hadrian, the ruins
of it still existed; and at a subsequent period a great battle was
fought on the space left among the ruins, between Heraclius, Emperor of
Constantinople, and Rhazates, general to Chosroes, king of Persia. On
that memorable day, Heraclius, on his horse Phallas, surpassed the
bravest of his warriors; his hip was wounded with a spear; the steed was
wounded in the thigh; but he carried his master safe and victorious
through the triple phalanx of the enemy. In the heat of the action,
three valiant chiefs were successively slain by the sword and lance of
the emperor; amongst whom was Rhazates himself. He fell like a soldier:
but the sight of his head scattered grief and despair through the
fainting ranks of the Persians. In this battle, which was fiercely
fought from day-break to the eleventh hour, twenty-eight standards,
besides those which might be torn or broken, were taken from the
Persians; the greatest part of their army was cut to pieces, and the
victors, concealing their own loss, passed the night on the field. They
acknowledged that on this occasion it was less difficult to kill than to
discomfit the soldiers of Chosroes. The conquerors recovered three
hundred Roman standards, as well as a great number of captives, of
Edessa and Alexandria. Soon after this battle, Chosroes felt compelled
to fly: he was afterwards deposed, thrown into a dungeon, where he was
insulted, famished, tortured, and at length murdered by one of his own
sons.
We have given an account of its ancient size and splendour: we must now
give some account of the ruins which still remain: for though some
writers insist, that even the dust of this vast city has disappeared, it
is certain that some of its walls still subsist, beside the city of
Mosul.
Mosul was visited by Captain Kinneir, in the years 1813-14. “About a
mile before we entered Mosul,” says he, “we passed two artificial
tumuli, and extensive ramparts, supposed to be the ruins of the ancient
Nineveh. The first tumulus is about three quarters of a mile in
circumference. It has the same appearance, and is of about the same
height, as those we saw at Susa. The circumference of the other is not
so considerable; but its elevation is greater, and on the top stands the
tomb of Jonah, the prophet, round which has been erected a village,
called Nunia.”
Captain Kinneir proceeds to state, that the Jews go in pilgrimage to
this tomb; which is a small and insignificant building, crowned with a
cupola. The rampart is esteemed, by some, to have been thrown up by
Nadir Shah, when he besieged Mosul. Captain Kinneir, however, had no
doubt that this opinion is founded in error, since they in no way
resembled the field-works which an army, such as that of Nadir Shah, was
likely to erect. “I cannot doubt, therefore,” says he, “that they are
the vestiges of some ancient city, probably Nineveh; or that Larissa,
described by Xenophon.” In regard to Mosul, he describes it as a
sombre-looking town, fast dwindling into insignificance.
These ruins were subsequently visited by Mr. Rich, the East India
Company’s resident at Bagdat. They lie on the eastern banks of the
Tigris[33]. To the north are the Gara mountains, on the chain of which
snow is said to lie in clefts and sheltered situations from one year to
another. The Tigris is here about four hundred feet broad, its depth,
for the most part, about two fathoms; and near the bridge was fought the
celebrated battle between Chosroes’ troops and those of Heraclius, to
which we have just now alluded. On the eastern side of this bridge many
remains of antiquity have been found, consisting, for the most part, of
bricks, some of which are whole and some in fragments, and pieces of
gypsum, some of which are covered with inscriptions, in cruciform
character[34]. There are also narrow ancient passages, with apertures or
doors, opening one into the other, dark, narrow, and vaulted, appearing
as if designed as vaults for the reception of dead bodies.
Mr. Rich afterwards rode through the area of Nineveh to the first wall
of the inclosure. He found it a line of earth and gravel, out of which
large hewn stones are frequently dug, as out of all the walls of the
area. Beyond was a ditch still very regular; beyond which was a wall,
and beyond that another wall larger than any. “The area of Nineveh,”
says Mr. Rich, “is, on a rough guess, about one and a half to two miles
broad, and four miles long. On the river on the west side there are only
remains of one wall; and I observed the same at the north and south
extremities; but on the east side there are the remains of three walls.
The west one appears to have run a little in front of Nebbi Yunus.
Between it and the river the ground is subject to frequent inundations
and changes; but it has not interfered with the area.”
Mr. Rich did not observe at the angles of the walls any traces of
towers, bastions, or any works of that kind. These walls are not more
than from ten to fifteen feet high. Large masses of hewn stone are
frequently dug up, and bricks are ploughed up perpetually. There is also
a piece of grey stone, shaped like the capital of a column, such as at
this day surmounts the wooden pillars or posts of Turkish, or rather
Persian, verandahs; but there was no carving on it. Pottery, too, is
often found, and other Babylonian fragments; also bits of brick adhering
to them. These are found near a mound, called the Mount of Koyunjuk, the
height of which is about forty-three feet, and its circumference 7691
feet. Its sides are very steep, and its top nearly flat.
Some years ago, a very large bas-relief was dug up among the ruins,
representing men and animals, covering a grey stone about ten or eleven
feet in height. All the town of Mosul left their houses to go and see
this remarkable specimen of antiquity; but not one had the taste to
endeavour to preserve it. It was in a few days, therefore, cut up or
broken to pieces.
One day, as Mr. Rich was riding along on the outside of the walls, his
attention was directed to an object of great antiquity. “Some people had
been digging for stones,” says he, “and had dug a hole in the ground,
from which they had turned up many large hewn stones with bitumen
adhering to them. I examined the excavation, which was about ten feet
deep, and found it consisted of huge stones, laid in layers of bitumen
and lime-mortar. I brought away some specimens of them sticking
together. I also saw some layers of red clay, which were very thick, and
had become as indurated as burnt brick; but there was not the least
appearance of reeds or straw having been used. This mass appeared to
have been a foundation or superstructure. We found among the rubbish
some pieces of coarse unglazed pottery. It would not have been possible
to tell, from the appearance of the surface of the ground, that there
had been building beneath—a watercourse full of pebbles had even passed
over it. It is, therefore, very difficult to say to what extent vestiges
of building may exist outside the inclosures, the area of which may have
been the royal quarter; but certainly was never sufficient for the city
of Nineveh.”
“Except the ruins of some large and lofty turrets,” says Mr. Morier,
“like that of Babel or Belus, the cities of Babylon and Nineveh are so
completely crumbled into dust, as to be wholly undistinguishable, but by
a few inequalities of the surface on which they once stood. The humble
tent of the Arab now occupies the spot formerly adorned with the palaces
of kings; and his flocks procure but a scanty pittance of food, amidst
fallen fragments of ancient magnificence. The banks of the Euphrates and
Tigris, once so prolific, are now, for the most part, covered with
impenetrable brush-wood; and the interior of the province, which was
traversed and fertilised with innumerable canals, is destitute of either
inhabitants or vegetation.”
Among the ruins is a wall, and on the borders of that the peasants of
the neighbourhood assemble every year, and sacrifice a sheep, with music
and other festivities; a superstition far anterior to the religion they
now possess. “One thing is sufficiently obvious,” says Mr. Rich, “to the
most careless observer, and that is, the equality of age of all the
vestiges discovered here. Whether they belonged to Nineveh or some other
city, is another question; but that they are all of the same age and
character does not admit of a doubt.”
Mr. Rich took measurements of the mounds, that still exist among these
ruins, and did not neglect to cut her name on the wall of what is called
Thisbe’s Well. “Some traveller in after times,” says he, with an
agreeable enthusiasm, “when her remembrance has long been swept away by
the torrent of time, may wonder, on reading the name of Mary Rich[35],
who the adventurous female was, who had visited the ruins of Nineveh. He
will not be aware, that had her name been inscribed at every spot she
had visited in the course of her weary pilgrimage, it would be found in
places, compared with which, Mousul is the centre of civilisation.”
From the circumstance that from all the mounds large stones, sometimes
with bitumen adhering to them, are frequently dug out, Mr. Rich was
inclined to believe, that but few bricks were used in the building of
this once vast city. There is, however, not much certainty as to this,
or in regard to what kind of architecture it was, for the most, or,
indeed, any part constructed; for though its walls may be traced in a
multitude of directions, nothing now remains beside a few mounds, some
bricks, and large stones, hewn into a shape which evidently prove, that
they once formed the houses or the temples of a city[36].
NO. VII.—NUMANTIA.
This city stood near the river Douro; out of the ruins of which has
arisen the town of Soria. According to Strabo, it was the capital of
Celtiberia.
Strong by nature and art, and by the number of its inhabitants, it was
built upon a hill, difficult of access, and on three sides surrounded
by mountains. Its extent was, also, so great, that it had within its
circuit pasture for cattle. It was unprotected by walls or towers; yet
it bravely maintained itself, for a considerable time, against the power
of the Romans. The cruelty and injustice of the Romans during this war
is justly stigmatised, as being altogether unworthy a great and powerful
people. The inhabitants at first gained some advantages over the Roman
forces, till Scipio Africanus was commanded to finish the war, and to
destroy Numantia altogether. With an army of sixty thousand men he began
the siege. He was opposed by the inhabitants with great skill and
courage, though their force did not exceed four thousand men. Finding
themselves, however, greatly pressed, the Numantians gave themselves
up,—first to despair, and then to fury. Their provisions, too, at
length began to fail; and they were constrained to feed upon the flesh
of horses; then on that of their slain companions; and, lastly, they
drew lots to kill and devour each other. After a multitude of
misfortunes, they signified a desire to capitulate; but Scipio having
demanded, that they should surrender unconditionally on the next day,
the Numantians refused; and when they obtained a longer time, instead of
surrendering, they retired and set fire to their houses, and destroyed
themselves; so that not even one remained to grace the triumph of the
conqueror. This, however, has been denied by some writers, who insist,
that a number of Numantines delivered themselves into the hands of
Scipio, and that fifty of them were drawn in triumph at Rome, and that
the rest were sold as slaves. This occurred in the year of Rome 629.
Not a vestige remains, but a few traces at a place called Puente Gavay,
a spot difficult of access[37].
NO. VIII.—OLYMPIA.
This city, known likewise by the name of Pisa, was situated on the right
bank of the Alpheus, at the foot of an eminence called the Mount of
Saturn. It is peculiarly worthy of attention; since it was near its
walls that the most celebrated games, from the institution of which all
occurrences were dated in Greece[38], were held.
For nearly the whole of what follows, in regard to the games, we are
indebted to Rollin; ours being an abstract.
There were four kinds of games solemnised in Greece. The _Olympic_, so
called from _Olympia_, near which they were celebrated after the
expiration of every four years, in honour of Jupiter Olympicus. The
_Pythic_, sacred to Apollo Pythius, also celebrated every four years.
The _Nemean_, which took their name from Nemea, a city and forest of
Peleponnesus, instituted by Hercules, solemnised every two years. And
lastly, the _Isthmian_; celebrated upon the isthmus of Corinth, from
four years to four years, in honour of Neptune. That persons might be
present at these public sports with greater quiet and security, there
was a general suspension of arms and cessation of hostilities,
throughout all Greece, during the time of their celebration.
The Greeks thought nothing comparable to a victory in these games. They
looked upon it as the perfection of glory, and did not believe it
permitted to mortals to desire any thing beyond it. Cicero assures us,
that with them it was no less honourable than the consular dignity, in
its original splendour with the ancient Romans.
We shall confine ourselves to the Olympic games, which continued five
days.
The combats, which had the greatest share in the solemnity of the public
games, were boxing, wrestling, the pancratium, the discus or quoit, and
racing. To these may be added the exercises of leaping, throwing the
dart, and that of the trochus or wheel; but as these were neither
important, nor of any great reputation, we shall content ourselves with
having only mentioned them.
OF THE ATHLETÆ, OR COMBATANTS.—The term athletæ was given to those who
exercised themselves with design to dispute the prizes in the public
games. The art, by which they formed themselves for these encounters,
was called gymnastic, from the athletæ’s practising naked.
Those who were designed for this profession frequented, from their most
tender age, the gymnasia or palæstræ, which were a kind of academies
maintained for that purpose at the public expense. In these places, such
young people were under the direction of different masters, who employed
the most effectual methods to inure their bodies for the fatigues of the
public games, and to form them for the combats. The regimen they were
under was very severe. At first they had no other nourishment but dried
figs, nuts, soft cheese, and a gross heavy sort of bread. They were
absolutely forbid the use of wine, and enjoined continence.
Who, in the Olympic race, the prize would gain,
Has borne from early youth fatigue and pain,
Excess of heat and cold has often tried,
Love’s softness banish’d, and the glass denied.
The athletæ, before their exercises, were rubbed with oils and
ointments, to make their bodies more supple and vigorous. At first they
made use of a belt, with an apron or scarf fastened to it, for their
more decent appearance in the combats; but one of the combatants
happening to lose the victory by this covering’s falling off, that
accident was the occasion of sacrificing modesty to convenience, and
retrenching the apron for the future. The athletæ were only naked in
some exercises, as wrestling, boxing, the pancratium, and the foot-race.
It was necessary that their morals should be unexceptionable, and their
condition free. No stranger was admitted to combat in the Olympic games;
and when Alexander, the son of Amyntas, king of Macedon, presented
himself to dispute the prize, his competitors, without any regard to the
royal dignity, opposed his reception as a Macedonian, and consequently a
barbarian and a stranger; nor could the judge be prevailed upon to admit
him till he had proved, in due form, that his family was originally
descended from the Argives.
They were made to take an oath, that they would religiously observe the
several laws prescribed in each kind of combat, and do nothing contrary
to the established orders and regulations of the games. Fraud, artifice,
and excessive violence, were absolutely prohibited; and the maxim so
generally received elsewhere, that it is indifferent whether an enemy is
conquered by deceit or valour, was banished from these combats.
It is time to bring our champions to blows, and to run over the
different kinds of combats in which they exercised themselves.
WRESTLING is one of the most ancient exercises of which we have any
knowledge, having been practised in the time of the patriarchs, as the
wrestling of the angel with Jacob proves[39].
Wrestling among the Greeks, as well as other nations, was practised at
first with simplicity, little art, and in a natural manner; the weight
of the body, and the strength of the muscles, having more share of it,
than address or skill.
The wrestlers, before they began their combats, were rubbed all over in
a rough manner, and afterwards anointed with oils, which added to the
strength and flexibility of their limbs. But as this unction, in making
the skin too slippery, rendered it difficult for them to take hold of
each other, they remedied that inconvenience, sometimes by rolling
themselves in the dust of the palæstræ, sometimes by throwing a fine
sand upon each other, kept for that purpose in the porticoes of the
gymnasia.
Thus prepared, the wrestlers began their combat. They were matched two
against two, and sometimes several couples contended at the same time.
OF BOXING, OR THE CESTUS.—The combatants covered their fists with a
kind of offensive arms called _cestus_, and their heads with a sort of
leather cap, to defend their temples and ears, which were most exposed
to blows, and to deaden their violence. The cestus was a kind of
gauntlet or glove, made of straps of leather, and plated with brass,
lead, or iron, inside. Their use was to strengthen the hands of the
combatants, and to add violence to their blows.
Boxing was one of the rudest and most dangerous of the gymnastic
combats; because, besides the danger of being crippled, the combatants
ran the hazard of losing their lives. They sometimes fell down dead, or
dying, upon the sand; though that seldom happened, except the vanquished
person persisted too long in not acknowledging his defeat: yet it was
common for them to quit the fight with a countenance so disfigured, that
it was not easy to know them afterwards.
OF THE PANCRATIUM.—The Pancratium was so called from two Greek
words[40] which signify that the whole force of the body was necessary
for succeeding in it. It united boxing and wrestling in the same fight,
borrowing from one its manner of struggling and throwing, and from the
other, the art of dealing blows, and of avoiding them with success.
OF THE DISCUS, OR QUOIT.—The discus was a kind of quoit of a round
form, made sometimes of wood, but more frequently of stone, lead, or
other metal, as iron or brass. Those who used this exercise were called
Discoboli; that is, flingers of the discus.
The athletæ, in hurling the discus, put themselves into the best posture
they could, to add force to their cast. He that flung the discus
farthest was the victor.
The most famous painters and sculptors of antiquity, in their endeavours
to represent naturally the attitudes of the discoboli, have left
posterity many masterpieces in their several arts. Quintilian
exceedingly extols a statue of this kind, which had been finished with
infinite care and application by the celebrated Myron[41].
OF THE PENTATHLUM.—The Greeks gave this name to an exercise composed of
five others:—wrestling, running, leaping, throwing the dart, and the
discus. It is believed that this sort of combat was decided in one day,
and sometimes the same morning; and that the prize, which was single,
could not be given but to the victor in all those exercises.
OF RACES.—Of all the exercises which the athletæ cultivated with so
much pains and industry, for their appearance in the public games,
running was in the highest estimation, and held the foremost rank.
The place where the athletæ exercised themselves in running, was
generally called the _Stadium_ by the Greeks; as was that wherein they
disputed in earnest for the prize. Under that denomination was included
not only the space in which the athletæ ran, but also that which
contained the spectators of the gymnastic games.
The middle of the Stadium was remarkable only by the circumstance of
having the prizes allotted to the victors set up there. St. Chrysostom
draws a fine comparison from this custom. “As the judges,” says he, “in
the races and other games, expose in the midst of the Stadium, to the
view of the champions, the crowns which they are to receive; in like
manner the Lord, by the mouth of his prophets, has placed the prizes in
the midst of the course, which he designs for those who have the courage
to contend for them.”
There were three kinds of races, the chariot, the horse, and the
foot-race.
1. OF THE FOOT-RACE.—The runners, of whatever number they were, ranged
themselves in a line, after having drawn lots for their places. Whilst
they waited the signal to start, they practised, by way of prelude,
various motions to awaken their activity, and to keep their limbs
pliable and in a right temper. They kept themselves breathing by small
leaps, and making little excursions, which were a kind of trial of their
speed and agility. Upon the signal’s being given, they flew towards the
goal, with a rapidity scarcely to be followed by the eye, which was
solely to decide the victory; for the Agnostic laws prohibited, upon the
penalty of infamy, the attaining it by any foul method.
2. OF THE HORSE-RACES.—The race of a single horse with a rider was less
celebrated by the ancients; yet it had its favourers amongst the most
considerable persons, even kings themselves, and was attended with
uncommon glory to the victor.
3. OF THE CHARIOT-RACES.—This kind of race was the most renowned of all
the exercises used in the games of the ancients, and that from whence
most honour redounded to the victors. It is plain they were derived from
the constant custom of princes, heroes and great men, of fighting in
battle upon chariots. Homer has an infinity of examples of this kind.
All those, who presented themselves in the Olympic games to dispute the
prize in the chariot races, were persons considerable either for their
riches, their birth, their employments, or great actions. Kings
themselves aspired passionately to this glory, from the belief that the
title of victor in these games was scarcely inferior to that of
conqueror, and that the Olympic palm added new dignity to the splendours
of a throne.
The chariots were generally drawn by two or four horses. Sometimes mules
supplied the place of horses. These chariots, upon a signal given,
started together. Their places were regulated by lot, which was not an
indifferent circumstance as to the victory; for being to turn round a
boundary, the chariot on the left was nearer than those on the right,
which in consequence had a greater compass to take. They ran twelve
times round the Stadium. He that came in first the twelfth round was
victor. The chief art consisted in taking the best ground at the turning
of the boundary; for if the charioteer drove too near it, he was in
danger of dashing the chariot to pieces; and if he kept too wide of it,
his nearest antagonist might get foremost.
To avoid such danger, Nestor gave the following directions to his son
Antilochus, who was going to dispute the prize in the chariot races. “My
son,” says he, “drive your horses as near as possible to the turning;
for which reason, always inclining your body over your chariot, get the
left of your competitors; and encouraging the horse on the right, give
him the rein, whilst the near-horse, hard held, turns the boundary so
close to it, that the nave of the wheel seems to graze upon it; but have
a care of running against the stone, lest you wound your horses, and
dash the chariot in pieces.”
It was not required, that those who disputed the victory should enter
the lists, and drive their chariots in person. Their being spectators of
the games, or sending their horses thither, was sufficient.
No one ever carried the ambition of making a great figure in the public
games of Greece so far as Alcibiades, in which he distinguished himself
in the most splendid manner, by the great number of horses and chariots,
which he kept only for the races. It is not easy to comprehend, how the
wealth of a private person should suffice to so enormous an expense: but
Antisthenes, the scholar of Socrates, who relates what he saw, informs
us, that many cities of the allies, in a kind of emulation with each
other, supplied Alcibiades with all things necessary for the support of
such magnificence. Equipages, horses, tents, sacrifices, the most
exquisite provisions, the most delicate wines; in a word, all that was
necessary to the support of his table or train.
We must not omit, in speaking of the Olympic games, to notice that
ladies were admitted to dispute the prize in them as well as the men,
which many of them obtained. Cynisca, sister of Agesilaus, king of
Sparta, first opened this new path of glory to her sex, and was
proclaimed victrix in the race of chariots with four horses. This
victory, which till then had no example, did not fail of being
celebrated with all possible splendour.—A magnificent monument was
erected in Sparta in honour of Cynisca; and the Lacedæmonians, though
otherwise very little sensible to the charms of poetry, appointed a
poet to transmit this new triumph to posterity, and to immortalize its
memory by an inscription in verse.
OF THE HONOURS AND REWARDS GRANTED TO THE VICTORS.—These honours and
rewards were of several kinds. The spectators’ acclamations in honour of
the victors were only a prelude to the rewards designed them. These
rewards were different wreaths of wild olive, pine, parsley, or laurel,
according to the different places where the games were celebrated. Those
crowns were always attended with branches of palm, that the victors
carried in their right hands. As he might be victor more than once in
the same games, and sometimes on the same day, he might also receive
several crowns and palms.
When the victor had received the crown and palm, a herald, preceded by a
trumpeter, conducted him through the Stadium, and proclaimed aloud his
name and country.
When he returned to his own country, the people came out in a body to
meet him, and conducted him into the city, adorned with all the marks of
his victory, and riding upon a chariot drawn by four horses. He made his
entry not through the gates, but through a breach purposely made in the
walls. Lighted torches were carried before him, and a numerous train
followed, to do honour to the procession.
One of the most honourable privileges granted to the athletic victors,
was the right of taking place at the public games. At Sparta it was a
custom for the king to take them with him in military expeditions, to
fight near his person, and to be his guard; which, with reason, was
judged very honourable. Another privilege, in which the useful united
with the honourable, was that of being maintained for the rest of their
lives at the expense of their country. They were also exempted from all
civil offices and employments.
The praises of the victorious athlete were, amongst the Greeks, one of
the principal subjects of their lyric poetry. We find, that all the odes
of the four books of Pindar turn upon it, each of which takes its title
from the games, in which the combatants signalised themselves, whose
victories those poems celebrate.
Sculpture united with poetry to perpetuate the fame of the champions.
Statues were erected to the victors, in the very place where they had
been crowned, and sometimes in that of their birth also, which was
commonly done at the expense of their country. Amongst the statues which
adorned Olympia, were those of several children of ten or twelve years
old, who had obtained the prize at that age in the Olympic games. They
did not only raise such monuments to the champions, but to the very
horses to whose swiftness they were indebted for the Agonistic crown:
and Pausanias mentions one, which was erected in honour of a mare,
called Aura, whose history is worth repeating. Phidolas, her rider,
having fallen off in the beginning of the race, the mare continued to
run in the same manner as if he had been upon her back. She outstripped
all the rest, and upon the sound of the trumpets, which was usual toward
the end of the race to animate the competitors, she redoubled her vigour
and courage, turned round the goal, and, as if she had been sensible of
the victory, presented herself before the judges of the games.
Nor did the entertainments finish here. There was another kind of
competition; and that, too, which does not at all depend upon the
strength, activity, and address of the body, and may be called, with
reason, the combat of the mind; wherein the orators, historians, and
poets, made trial of their capacities, and submitted their productions
to the judgment of the public.
It was a great honour, and, at the same time, a most sensible pleasure
for writers, who are generally fond of fame and applause, to have known
how to reconcile the voices in their favour of so numerous and select an
assembly as that of the Olympic games, in which were present all the
finest geniuses of Greece, and all the best judges of the excellence of
a work. This theatre was equally open to history, eloquence, and poetry.
Herodotus read his history in the Olympic games to all Greece, assembled
at them, and was heard with such applause, that the names of the nine
Muses were given to the nine books which compose his work, and the
people cried out wherever he passed, “That is he, who has written our
history, and celebrated our glorious successes against the Barbarians.”
Anciently, Olympia was surrounded by walls; it had two temples,—one
dedicated to Jupiter, and another to Juno; a senate-house, a theatre,
and many other beautiful edifices, and also an innumerable multitude of
statues.
The temple of Jupiter was built with the spoils, taken from certain
states which had revolted; it was of the Doric order; sixty-eight feet
high, two hundred and thirty long, and ninety-five broad. This edifice
was built by an able architect, named Libon; and it was adorned by two
sculptors of equal skill, who enriched the pediments of the principal
front with elaborate and elegant ornaments. The statue of the god, the
work of Phidias, was of gold and ivory, fifty cubits high. On the one
pediment, Œnomaus and Peleus were disputing the prize of the race in
the presence of Jupiter; on the other was the battle of the Centaurs and
the Lapithæ. On the summit of each pediment was a Victory, of gilt
brass; and at each angle a large vase of the same metal.
This statue was the finest the world ever saw. “Indeed,” says Mr.
Dodwell; and he is borne out by the authorities of all those ancient
writers who have written of it, “it appears to have united all the
beauty of form, and all the splendour of effect, that are produced by
the highest excellence of the statuary and the painter.”
The altar in this temple[42] was composed of ashes from the thighs of
the victims, which were carried up and consumed on the top with wood of
the white poplar-tree. The ashes, also, of the Prytanæum, in which a
perpetual fire was kept on a hearth, were removed annually, on a fixed
day, and spread on it, being first mingled with water from the Alpheus.
The people of Elis sacrificed daily, and private persons as often as
they chose.
Olympia[43] preserved, much longer than Delphi, and with less
diminution, the sacred property, of which it was a similar repository.
Some images were removed by Tiberius Nero. His successor, Caius
Caligula, who honoured Jupiter with the familiar appellation of brother,
commanded that his image should be transported to Rome; but the
architects declared it was impossible, without destroying the work.
The god, in the time of Pausanias, retained his original splendour. The
native offerings of crowns and chariots, and of charioteers, and horses,
and oxen, in brass, the precious images of gold, ivory, or amber, and
the curiosities consecrated in the temples, the treasuries, and other
edifices, could not be viewed without astonishment. The number of
statues within the grove, was itself an amazing spectacle. Many were the
works of Myron, Lysippus, and the prime artists of Greece. Here kings
and emperors were assembled; and Jupiter towered in brass from twelve to
thirty feet high! Let the reader peruse the detail given by Pausanias,
and imagine, if he can, the entertainment which Olympia must then have
afforded to the antiquary, the connoisseur, and historian.
Of all splendour, the temple of Juno alone can be ascertained with any
degree of certainty. The soil, which has been considerably elevated,
covers the greater part of the ruin. The walls of the cella rise only
two feet from the ground. “We employed,” says Mr. Dodwell, “some Turks
to excavate; and we discovered some frusta of the Doric order, of which
the flutings were thirteen inches wide, and the diameter of the whole
column seven feet three inches. We found, also, part of a small column
of Parian marble, which the intervals of the flutings show to have been
of the Ionic or the Corinthian order. The work of ruin, however, is
constantly going on; and lately the people of Lalla (a town in the
neighbourhood) have even rooted up some of the foundations of this once
celebrated sanctuary, in order to use the materials in the construction
of their houses[44]”.
NO. IX.—PUTEOLI.
A maritime city of Campania, between Baiæ and Naples. It was founded by
a colony from Cumæ. It was, in the first instance, called Dicæarchia,
(“Just Power[45],”) and afterwards Puteoli, from the great number of
wells that were in the neighbourhood.
It was delightfully situated on a point projecting into the sea, nearly
in the centre of the bay of Puzzuoli. It was the sea-port of the
inhabitants of Cannæ; and a rendezvous for merchants from Greece,
Sicily, and all parts of Italy. The attractions of the town, also, on
account of its hot baths and mineral waters, allured the more opulent
citizens of Rome to its vicinity.
In the square of the town stands a beautiful marble pedestal, covered
with bas-reliefs, representing the fourteen towns of Asia Minor,
destroyed by an earthquake, and rebuilt by Tiberius. It supported a
statue of that emperor, erected by the same cities as a monument of
gratitude. The cathedral stands on the ruins of a temple, and is built
chiefly of ancient materials.
A temple of Serapis offers many subjects of observation. Half of its
buildings, however, are still buried under the earth thrown upon it by
volcanic commotions, or accumulated by the windings of the hill. The
inclosure is square, environed by buildings for priests, and baths for
votaries; in the centre remains a circular platform, with four flights
of steps up to it; vases for fire, a central altar, rings for victims,
and other appendages of sacrifice, entire and not displaced; but the
columns that held its roof have been removed to the new palace of
Caserta. The temple itself was not discovered till A. D. 1750, on the
removal of some rubbish and bushes, which had, till then, partly
concealed it from observation.
Behind this place of worship, stand three pillars without capitals, part
of the pronaos of a large temple. These are of Cipoline marble, and at
the middle of their height, are full of holes eaten in them by the
file-fish[46].
In the neighbourhood of Puteoli are many relics of ancient grandeur, of
which none deserves more attention than the Campanian Way, paved with
lava, and lined on each side with venerable tombs, the repositories of
the dead, which are richly adorned with stucco in the inside. This road
was made in the most solid, expensive manner, by order of Domitian, and
is frequently the subject of encomium in the poems of Statius.
One of the most striking monuments of the city is the remains of the
mole that formed the ancient part. Several of its piers still stand
unbroken; they are sunk in the water, and once supported arches (to the
number of twenty-five,) part of which remain above the water.
At the end of this mole began the bridge of Caligula, which extended
across part of the bay to Baiæ, no less than half a mile in length in a
straight line. This structure has long since been swept away.
On the hill behind the town are the remains of an amphitheatre, called,
after that at Rome, the Coliseum. It was of considerable magnitude. The
gates, and a large portion of the vault and under apartments, remain.
One of these apartments, or rather dungeons, in which St. Januarius, the
patron saint of Naples, was confined, is now turned into a damp and
gloomy chapel; the arena is a garden; vines, fig-trees, and
pomegranates, have gradually crept up the circumference, and now cover
the slope, and run over the ruin[47].
It is easy to guess what the animation and splendour of Puteoli must
have been, at the time when the riches of the East were poured into its
bosom; and when its climate, wit, and beauty, allured the most opulent
Romans to its vicinity.
Cicero had a marine villa here, called Puteolanum. Pliny relates that it
was on the shore, and adorned with a portico, which seems to have been
remarkable for its beauty. He adds that Cicero erected here a monument,
and that, shortly after his death, a fountain of warm water, very
wholesome for the eyes, burst forth, and gave occasion to an epigram,
which the philosopher quotes with applause[48]. The portico is fallen,
the groves are withered, the fountain dried up, and not a vestige of the
retreat left behind to mark its situation. The verses remain, and
perpetuate the glory of the orator, the fame of the fountain, the beauty
of the villa, and what is more honourable than all united, the gratitude
of Cicero’s freedman, Tullius.
St. Paul landed here in his way from Rhegium to Rome; and found
Christians even in that early age. In the museum of Portici is a picture
presenting a view of ancient Puteoli, supposed to have been painted
before St. Paul landed there. “The picture,” says Mr. Williams, “is of
course very different from the present state of the city; but still a
likeness may be traced, if we keep in view the site of the various
temples, and other objects, the foundations of which are still visible.”
On the sea shore, near Puzzuoli, are also found seals, coins,
cornelians, and agates; bearing impressions of corn, grapes, and
vine-branches, ants, eagles, and other animals. These are thrown up by
the waves, after violent storms; and commemorate the magnificence of a
city, now forming part of the Mediterranean bed[49].
NO. X.—PALMYRA. (TADMOR.)
“As patience is the greatest of friends to the unfortunate, so is
time the greatest of friends to the lovers of landscape. It resolves
the noblest works of art into the most affecting ornaments of created
things. The fall of empires, with which the death of great characters
is so immediately associated, possesses a prescriptive title, as it
were, to all our sympathy; forming at once a magnificent, yet
melancholy spectacle; and awakening in the mind all the grandeur of
solitude. Who would not be delighted to make a pilgrimage to the East
to see the columns of Persepolis, and the still more magnificent
ruins of Palmyra? Where awe springs, as it were, personified from the
fragments, and proclaims instructive lessons from the vicissitudes of
fortune. Palmyra, once a paradise in the centre of inhospitable
deserts, the pride of Solomon, the capital of Zenobia, and the wonder
and admiration of all the East, now lies ‘majestic though in ruins!’
Its glory withered, time has cast over it a sacred grandeur, softened
into grace. History, by its silence, mourns its melancholy destiny;
while immense masses and stupendous columns denote the spot, where
once the splendid city of the desert reared her proud and matchless
towers. Ruins are the only legacy the destroyer left to
posterity.”—HARMONIES OF NATURE.
This city was the capital of Palmyrene, a country on the eastern
boundaries of Syria. Its origin is uncertain; but a portion of its
history is exceedingly interesting; and its vast assemblage of ruins are
beheld with astonishment and rapture by the curious, the learned, and
the elegant.
[Illustration: PALMYRA.]
It was situated in the midst of a large plain, surrounded on three sides
by a long chain of mountains. It stands in a desert, in the pachalic of
Damascus, about forty-eight leagues from Aleppo, and about the same
distance from Damascus, eighty-five miles west from the Euphrates, and
about one hundred and seventeen from the shores of the Mediterranean.
History is, for the most part, silent in regard to the early history of
this city. It is said to have been built by Solomon, after he had
conquered the king of Hamathzoba, within whose dominion the country lay,
in which the city was afterwards erected. He called it Tadmor[50], which
some have construed as the place of Palms[51]; and sometimes “Tadmor in
the Wilderness.”
We are assured by Josephus, that this was the city which the Greeks and
Romans afterwards called Palmyra. His words are:—“Now, Solomon went in
the desert above Syria, and possessed himself of it; and built there a
very great city, which was distant two days’ journey from the upper
Syria, and one day’s journey from the Euphrates, and six long days’
journey from Babylon the great. Now the reason why this city lay so
remote from those parts of Syria, that are inhabited, is this: that
below there is no water to be had; and that it is in that place only
that there are springs and pits of water. When, therefore, he had built
that city, and encompassed it with very strong walls, he gave it the
name of Tadmor; and that is the name it is still called by at this day
among the Syrians[52]: but the Greeks name it Palmyra.”
That the city was built by Solomon is most probable; but that the
present ruins have any relation to buildings of his erection is very
improbable: indeed we must assume it as certain that they are not; they
being entirely those of the Greek orders. With the exception of four
Ionic half-columns in the Temple of the Sun, and two in one of the
mausoleums, the whole architecture of Palmyra is Corinthian. Neither
history nor even tradition, moreover, speaks of any other architect than
Solomon.
Some have been disposed to give it an earlier existence[53]. The Arabic
translator of Chronicles makes Palmyra older than Solomon; John of
Antioch, surnamed Melala, says, that he built it on the spot where David
slew Goliah, in memory of that action; and Abul-Farai mentions in what
year, with the particulars. These and other accounts of the early state
of Palmyra, which might be collected from the Arabic authors, bear such
evident marks of fable and wild conjecture, that we shall pass them
over.
Notwithstanding this, we assume the city to have been founded by the
celebrated king to whom the honour is given: who built the temples is
totally unknown.
The motives which tempted Solomon to build a city in a plain, now
altogether a desert, we copy from Mr. Addison’s Travels to
Damascus:—“The astonishment that takes hold of the mind at the strange
position of this magnificent city, at one time the capital of the East,
on the edge of the great desert, and surrounded for several days’
journey on all sides by naked solitary wilds, is removed by marking well
the peculiarity of its geographical position. The great caravans coming
to Europe, laden with the rich merchandise of India, would naturally
come along the Persian gulf, through the south of Persia, to the
Euphrates, the direct line; their object then would be to strike across
the great Syrian desert as early as possible, to reach the large markets
and ports of Syria. With more than 600 miles of desert without water,
between the mouth of the Euphrates and Syria, they would naturally be
obliged to keep along the banks of that river, until the extent of
desert country became diminished. They would then find the copious
springs of Tadmor the nearest and most convenient to make for; and in
their direct route from the north of India along the Euphrates. These
springs would then immediately become most important, and would
naturally attract the attention of a wise prince like Solomon, who would
‘fence them with strong walls.’ Here the caravans would rest and take in
water; here would congregate the merchants from adjacent countries and
Europe; and from hence the great caravan would be divided into numerous
branches, to the north, south, and west[54]. A large mart for the
exchange of commodities would be established, and an important city
would quickly arise. The choice of this spot by Solomon, we may
naturally consider founded on a policy of enriching himself by drawing
the commerce of India through his dominions, from which commerce,
probably, he derived the wealth for which he is so celebrated. In the
chapter, succeeding that in which Solomon is mentioned to have built
Tadmor in the wilderness, we read that ‘the weight of gold that came to
Solomon in one year, was six hundred three score and six talents of
gold[55]; besides that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffic of
the spice-merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the
governors of the country.’”
The city which Solomon built was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar; but who
rebuilt it is entirely unknown. It is not mentioned by Xenophon, in his
history of the expedition of Cyrus the younger, though he gives a very
accurate account of the desert, and must have left this place not a
great way to the right in his march towards Babylon. Nor is it once
alluded to by Diodorus, nor Plutarch, nor Arrian, nor Quintus Curtius,
nor, indeed, by any of the biographers or historians of Alexander;
although he marched through this desert to Thapsacus.
Nor is it taken any notice of as being in existence even in the time of
Seleucus Nicator, he who built so many cities in Syria; nor is it once
mentioned in the history of his successor. It is not even mentioned so
lately as the time in which Pompey the Great conquered the country in
which it is situated. No notice is taken in Roman history of its being
in any way existing, till the time of Mark Antony; who, after the battle
at Philippi, marched against it, as we are told by Appian, with a view
of plundering it; but the inhabitants escaped with their effects over
the Euphrates. This very circumstance proves it to have been at that
time no very large place; added to which, it seems to be certain, that
none of these temples, &c., could have been in existence; for the Romans
had, for some time, been alive to the benefits of works of art;
especially paintings, sculpture, and architecture. His sole object, in
going thither, was to plunder the Palmyrene merchants, who were supposed
to have acquired considerable wealth, by selling the commodities of
India and Arabia.
Added to all this, Strabo, the best and most accurate geographer of
ancient times, does not once speak of its name. The first description of
this now celebrated place is by Pliny; and it runs thus:—“Palmyra is
remarkable for situation, a rich soil, and pleasant streams. It is
surrounded on all sides by a vast sandy desert, which totally separates
it from the rest of the world, and has preserved its independence
between the two great empires of Rome and Parthia, whose first care,
when at war, is to engage it in their interest. It is distant from
Seleucia three hundred and thirty-seven miles; from the Mediterranean
two hundred and three; and from Damascus one hundred and seventy-six.”
These distances are not quite accurate, being too great. Palmyra is also
mentioned by Ptolemy, who makes it the capital of sixteen cities in
Syria Palmyrena. Trajan and Hadrian made expeditions into the East, and
must have passed through this city, or near it. Nothing, however, is
said of it. Had the temples been there at that time, Hadrian, who was so
great a patron of the elegant arts, would, there can be no doubt, have
valued them. Some, indeed, insist that he repaired the city; and that it
was thence called Hadrianopolis.
The Palmyrenes submitted to that emperor about the year 130. Hadrian,
then, making a tour through Syria into Egypt, delighted with the
situation and native strength of the place, is said to have determined
on furnishing it with various splendid edifices and ornaments; and it is
probable, that he then conferred upon it the privileges of “Colonia
Juris Italici,” which, as we learn from Ulpian, it actually enjoyed, and
the inhabitants were thence induced by gratitude to call themselves
“Hadrianopolitæ.” It is supposed that many of its marble pillars,
particularly those of the long porticoes, were the gift of this emperor.
It must, nevertheless, be borne in mind, that all this is little better
than conjecture. Mr. Halifax, however, says, “that as the most ancient
inscription, he met with at Palmyra, was dated the three hundred and
fourteenth year from the death of Alexander, that is, ten years before
Christ, and another, dated between twenty and thirty years before
Hadrian, consequently before the Romans got footing there, he concluded,
that the sumptuous structures he saw there were not raised by the
Romans.”
From an inscription on the shaft of a column in the long portico, where
all the inscriptions seem to have been under statues, it appears that,
in the reign of Alexander Severus, they joined that emperor in his
expedition against the Persians.
From this time to the reign of Gallienus, no mention is made of this
city: but then it became so conspicuous, that its history will be a
subject of interest to all succeeding times.
The following is an abstract of the history of this period, presented to
us in the pages of Gibbon, Mr. Wood, and other writers. A place
possessed of such singular advantages, and situated at a convenient
distance from the gulf of Persia, and the Mediterranean, was soon
frequented by the caravans, which conveyed to the nations of Europe a
considerable part of the rich commodities of India. Palmyra insensibly
increased into an opulent and independent city; and, connecting the
Roman and Parthian empire by the mutual benefits of commerce, was
suffered to observe an humble neutrality; till at length, after the
victories of Trajan, the little republic sank into the bosom of Rome,
and flourished more than one hundred and fifty years in the subordinate
yet honourable rank of a colony; and it is during this period of peace,
Mr. Gibbon is disposed to believe, that the wealthy Palmyrians
constructed those temples, palaces and porticoes of Grecian
architecture, the ruins of which in modern times have excited so much
admiration and wonder.
The Roman affairs in the East had been for some time in a very
deplorable condition, when Odenatus, a Palmyrene, but of what family or
rank originally in the state is not agreed[56], made so judicious a use
of his situation between the two rival powers of Rome and Persia, as to
succeed in getting the balance of power into his hands. It appears, that
he declared in favour of different interests, as alterations of affairs
rendered necessary. At length he joined the shattered remains of the
Roman army in Syria, routed Sapor, the Persian king, and advanced as far
as Ctesiphon, the capital of his empire. He returned from this
expedition in great glory; and hence Gallienus, emperor of Rome, was
induced to declare him Augustus and co-partner of his empire.
This elevation,—which he enjoyed jointly with his celebrated consort,
Zenobia,—appeared to reflect a new splendour on their country, and
Palmyra for a while stood upon an equality with Rome. The competition,
however, was fatal; and ages of prosperity were sacrificed to a moment
of glory.
The last public action of Odenatus was his relieving Asia from the
Goths, who had over-run several of its provinces, committing great
ravages; but retired upon his approach: in pursuing them, however,
Odenatus was assassinated by an officer of his own guard, named Mæonius,
who was also his kinsman; and who, having taken the son off also, became
for a short time sovereign. He, too, shared the fate of those he had
betrayed, and Zenobia became sovereign queen in his stead.
All that is known of Zenobia’s extraction is, that she claimed a descent
from the Ptolemies of Egypt[57]; and that she boasted of having
Cleopatra for an ancestress. She was a woman of very great beauty[58];
and of very extraordinary enterprise. We cannot enter into her history
so fully as we could wish. She conquered Syria and Mesopotamia; she
subdued Egypt; and added the greater part of Asia Minor to her
dominions. Thus a small territory in the desert, under the government of
a woman, made the great kingdoms of the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ part
of the dominions of a single city, whose name we look in vain for in
their history; and Zenobia, lately confined to the barren plain of
Palmyra, ruled from the south of Egypt to the Bosphorus and the Black
Sea.
At length Aurelian, the Roman emperor, entered the field against her;
and the loss of two great battles, the former near Antioch, the latter
at Emesa, reduced her to the necessity of taking shelter within the
walls of her own capital. Aurelian besieged her there; but the
enterprise was exceedingly difficult. “The Roman people,” said Aurelian,
“speak with contempt of the war, which I am waging against a woman. They
are ignorant both of the character and power of Zenobia. It is
impossible to enumerate her warlike preparations, of stones, of arrows,
and of every species of missile weapons. Every part of the walls is
provided with two or three balistæ[59], and artificial fires are thrown
from her military engines. The fear of punishment has armed her with a
desperate courage. Yet I still trust to the protecting deities of Rome,
who have hitherto been favourable to all my undertakings.”
In another letter he writes to the senate in the following terms:—“I
hear, Conscript Fathers, that it hath been urged against me, that I have
not accomplished a manly task, in not triumphing over Zenobia. But my
very blamers themselves would not know how to praise me enough, if they
knew that woman; her firmness of purpose; the dignity she preserves
towards her army; her munificence when circumstances require it; her
severity, when to be severe is to be just. I may say, that the victory
of Odenatus over the Persians, and his putting Sapor to flight, and his
reaching Ctesiphon, were due to her. I can assert that such was the
dread entertained of this woman among the nations of the East and of
Egypt, that she kept in check the Arabians, the Saracens, and the
Armenians; nor would I have preserved her life, if I had not thought she
would much benefit the Roman state.” This was written after her defeat.
Tired of making unsuccessful attempts, Aurelian determined to try the
effects of negotiation, and accordingly wrote to Zenobia. The style he
adopted, however, rather commanded terms than proposed them:—
“_Aurelian, emperor of the Roman world, to Zenobia, and the others
united together in hostile alliance._
“You ought to do that of your own accord, which is commanded by my
letters. I charge you to surrender, on your lives being spared; and you,
Zenobia, may pass your life in some spot where I shall place you, in
pursuance of the distinguished sentence of the senate; your gems,
silver, gold, silk, horses, and camels, being given up to the Roman
treasury. The laws and institutions of the Palmyrenes shall be
respected.”
To this letter Zenobia returned the following answer:—
“_Zenobia, Queen of the East, to the Roman Emperor, Aurelian._
“Never was such an unreasonable demand proposed, or such rigorous terms
offered, by any but yourself! Remember, Aurelian, that in war, whatever
is done should be done by valour. You imperiously command me to
surrender: but can you forget, that Cleopatra chose rather to die with
the title of queen, than to live in any inferior dignity? We expect
succours from Persia; the Saracens are arming in our cause; even the
Syrian banditti have already defeated your army. Judge what you are to
expect from the junction of these forces. You shall be compelled to
abate that pride with which, as if you were absolute lord of the
universe, you command me to become your captive.”
When Aurelian read this letter, says Vopiscus, he blushed; not so much
with shame, as with indignation.
Her answer inflamed the emperor to the highest pitch. He pressed the
siege, therefore, with redoubled vigour; and the city was reduced to
such extremities, that her council advised her to send for succour to
the Persians. Thus counselled, she determined on going to the king of
Persia in person. She set out, therefore, on the fleetest of her
dromedaries, and had already reached the banks of the Euphrates (about
sixty miles from Palmyra), when she was overtaken by Aurelian’s light
horse, and brought back, captive, to the feet of Aurelian. We are told,
that the sight of the queen gave the Roman emperor infinite pleasure;
but that his ambition suffered some humiliation, when he considered that
posterity would always look upon this only as the conquest of a
woman[60]. The city surrendered soon after, and was treated with great
lenity.
Aurelian now went to Emesa; on arriving at which place, he questioned
the queen as to her motives, and the persons who had advised her to make
so obstinate a defence. He sternly asked her, how she had presumed to
rise in arms against the emperors of Rome? “Because,” answered Zenobia,
“I disdained to consider as Roman emperors an Aureolus or a Gallienus.
You alone I acknowledge as my conqueror and my sovereign; and this I do,
because you know how to conquer.”
When, however, the soldiers demanded her immediate execution, her
fortitude forsook her. She confessed by whose counsel she had been
guided. She purchased a dishonourable life at the expense of her
friends. They were immediately led to execution; herself was reserved to
grace the conqueror’s triumph.
Among those of her friends, whose names she had betrayed, was the
illustrious Longinus, author of that noble Treatise on the Sublime,
which is so well known and appreciated by every scholar. He it was, she
confessed, who had drawn up the letter. “Her councillors,” she said,
“were to be blamed, and not herself. What could a weak, short-sighted,
woman do? especially when beset by artful and ambitious men, who made
her subservient to all their schemes? She never had aimed at empire, had
they not placed it before her eyes in all its allurements. The letter
which affronted Aurelian was not her own—Longinus wrote it; the
insolence was his.”
When Aurelian heard this, he directed all his fury against the
unfortunate Longinus. That illustrious person was immediately led to
execution. Far from lamenting his fate, however, he condoled with his
friends, pitied Zenobia, and expressed his joy; looking upon death as a
blessing, since it would rescue his body from slavery, and give his soul
to that freedom he the most desired. “This world,” said he, with his
expiring breath, “is nothing but a prison; happy, therefore, is he who
gets soonest out of it, and gains his liberty.”
A modern poet has very finely alluded to this in his poem on Palmyra.
On the hushed plain, where sullen horror broods,
And darkest frown the Syrian solitudes;
Where morn’s soft steps no balmy fragrance leave,
And parched and dewless is the couch of eve;
Thy form, pale city of the waste, appears
Like some faint vision of departed years;
In massy clusters still a giant train,
Thy sculptured fabrics whiten on the plain.
Still stretch thy columned vistas far away,
The shadowed dimness of their long array.
But where the stirring crowd, the voice of strife,
The glow of action and the thrill of life?
Hear the loud crash of yon huge fragments fall,
The pealing answer of each desert hall;
The night-bird shrieking from her secret cell,
The hollow winds, the tale of ruin tell.
See, fondly lingering, Mithra’s parting rays
Gild the proud towers, once vocal with his praise:
But the cold altars clasping weeds entwine,
And Moslems worship at the godless shrine.
Yet here slow pausing memory loves to pour
Her magic influence o’er this pensive hour:
And yet, as yon recesses deep prolong
The echoed sweetness of the Arab song,
Recalls that scene, when wisdom’s sceptred child,
First broke the stillness of the lonely wild.
From air, from ocean, from earth’s utmost clime,
The summoned genii heard the muttered rhyme;
The tasking spell their airy hands obeyed,
And Tadmor glittered in the palmy shade.
So to her feet the tide of ages brings
The wealth of nations and the pomp of kings,
And for her warrior queen, from Parthia’s plain
To the dark Ethiop, spreads her ample reign:
Vain boast, ev’n she who winds the field along,
Waked fiercer frenzy in the patriot throng;
And sternly beauteous in the meteor’s light,
Shot through the tempest of Emesa’s fight.
While trembling captives round the victor wait,
Hang on his eye, and catch the word of fate,
Zenobia’s self must quail beneath his nod,
A kneeling suppliant to the mimic god.
But one there stood amid that abject throng,
In truth triumphant, and in virtue strong;
Beamed on his brow the soul which, undismayed.
Smiled at the rod, and scorned the uplifted blade.
O’er thee, Palmyra, darkness seems to lower
The boding terrors of that fearful hour;
Far from thy glade indignant freedom fled,
And hope too withered as Longinus bled[61].
Palmyra, having become subject to a foreign yoke, bore the burthen with
impatience. The inhabitants cut off the Roman garrison. On which
Aurelian instantly returned, took the town, destroyed it, and put to
death most of its population, without distinction of age or sex. The
slaughter was so extensive, that none were left to plough the adjacent
lands.
Aurelian soon repented of his severity. He wrote to Bassus:—“You must
now sheathe the sword; the Palmyrenes have been sufficiently
slaughtered. We have not spared women; we have slain children; we have
strangled old men; we have destroyed the husbandmen. To whom, then,
shall we leave the land? To whom shall we leave the city? We must spare
those who remain; for we think, that the few there are now existing,
will take warning from the punishment of the many who have been
destroyed.”
The emperor then goes on to desire his lieutenant to rebuild the Temple
of the Sun as magnificently as it had been in times past; to expend 300
pounds weight of gold, which he had found in the coffers of Zenobia,
beside 1800 pounds weight of silver, which was raised from the sale of
the people’s goods; together with the crown jewels, all which he ordered
to be sold, to make money to beautify the temple; while he himself
promises to write to the Senate, to send a priest from Rome to dedicate
it. But, in the language of Gibbon, it is easier to destroy than it is
to restore.
Zenobia was now to be led to the conqueror’s triumph. This triumph was
celebrated with extraordinary magnificence. It was opened by twenty
elephants, four royal tigers, and above two hundred of the most curious
animals from every climate of the known world. Ambassadors from
Æthiopia, Arabia, Persia, Bactriana, India, and China, attended the
triumph; and a long train of captives,—Goths, Vandals, Sarmatians,
Alemanni, Franks, Gauls, Syrians, and Egyptians. Amongst these, Zenobia.
She was confined in fetters of gold; a slave supported the gold chain
which encircled her neck, and she almost fainted under the weight of her
jewels. She did not ride, but walk! preceded by the chariot in which she
had once indulged the vain hope of entering Rome as empress[62].
The Palmyrenes[63], says Zosimus, had several declarations from the
gods, which portended the overthrow of their empire; and, among others,
having consulted the temple of Apollo, at Seleucia in Cilicia, to know
if they should ever obtain the empire of the East, they got the
following unceremonious answer:
Avoid my temple, cursed, treacherous nation!
You even put the gods themselves in passion.
The religion of the Palmyrenes, it is evident, was pagan; their
government, for the most part, republican; but their laws are entirely
lost; nor can anything be known in respect to their polity, but what may
be gathered from the inscriptions. Their chief deity was the Sun.
In regard to their knowledge of art, they have left the finest specimens
in the ruins that now remain; and, doubtless, Longinus’ work on the
Sublime was written within its walls. “From these hints we may see,”
says Mr. Wood, “that this people copied after great models in their
manners, their vices, and their virtues. Their funeral customs were from
Egypt, their luxury was Persian, and their letters and arts were from
the Greeks. Their situation in the midst of these three great nations
makes it reasonable to suppose, that they adopted most of their customs
and manners. But to say more on that head from such scanty materials,
would be to indulge too much in mere conjecture, which seems rather the
privilege of the reader than of the writer.”
Some years after this, we find Diocletian erecting several buildings
here; but what they were is not stated. Justinian, also, repaired
Palmyra, which, according to Procopius, had been almost entirely
deserted. These repairs, however, are supposed to have reference rather
to strength than to ornament; and this is the last mention of Palmyra in
Roman history.
The various fortunes of Palmyra, to and from the time of Mahomet’s
appearance, are scarcely known, except that it was considered as a place
of great strength; and that in the twelfth century, A. D. 1171, there
were, according to Benjamin of Tudela, who visited the spot in that
year, two thousand Jews in it.
Palmyra, according to the Arabs, once occupied an area nearly ten miles
in circumference, and is supposed to have been reduced to its present
confined and ruined state by the quantities of sand[64] driven on it by
whirlwinds.
The walls of the city were flanked by square towers. They were three
miles in circumference, and it is imagined that they included the great
temple. What remains there are of the wall, do not look, according to
Mr. Wood, unlike the work of Justinian; and may be part of the repairs
mentioned by Procopius; and the highest antiquity anything else can
claim is the time of the Mamelukes.
A SHORT CHRONICLE OF PALMYRA.
(_From Sellerus_).
ANNO PERS. Palmyra, built by Solomon after he had finished
Jul. 3720. the temple of Jerusalem.
Mund. 3010.
P. J. 4125. Destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, before he laid
M. 3415. siege to Jerusalem.
P. J. 4673. Pillaged by Mark Antony.
M. 3963.
V. C. Varr.
713, ante
Christ 41.
Anno Christi Hadrian, Imp. 6, went into the East, and is supposed
122. to have rebuilt Palmyra; in consequence
of which it assumed the name of Hadrianople.
At this period Malenthon was a second time
secretary of the city.
264. Odenathus, having roused the Persians, is declared
Augustus by Gallienus.
267. Odenathus, with his son Herodianus, slain by
Mæonius, who assumes the sovereignty of
Palmyra; but is himself slain a few days
after. Then Zenobia assumes the empire in
her own name, and those of her sons.
Circa 216. Palmyra made a Roman colony by Caracalla, in
his expedition into Parthia.
227. The republic assisted Alexander Severus against
Artaxerxes, king of Persia; Zenobia being
their general.
242/3. The republic assisted Gordian against the Persians.
260. Valerian taken prisoner by Sapor, king of
Persia.
A. D. 267/8. Zenobia routed Gallienus’s general, Herodianus.
Vabellathus assumes the empire.
263. Claudius chosen emperor of Rome.
270. Zenobia conquers Egypt by her general Zabdas.
272. Palmyra taken by Aurelian.
273. Zenobia follows in the triumph of Aurelian at
Rome.
298. Hierocles, governor of Palmyra, under Dioclesian.
527/8. Justinian repairs and fortifies Palmyra.
634/9. Palmyra subjected by the Mahometans; Jabala,
the son of Al Ilum, being then lord of Tadmor,
and king of Gassan.
659. The battle of Tadmor, between Datracus and
Adis.
746. Solyman, the pseudo-caliph, beaten by Merwan,
fled to Tadmor.
1172. Palmyra visited by Benjamin of Tudela.
1678. Palmyra visited by some English merchants,
attended by forty servants and muleteers, who
first informed Europe, that such splendid ruins
as those of Tadmor were in existence. At this
time Melbam was Emir.
1691. The English merchants visit Palmyra a second
time; the Emir being Hassine.
1693. Dôr, Emir of Palmyra[65].
We shall now give place to accounts in respect to the first impressions,
made by these ruins on the minds of different travellers.
Mr. Halifax says[66], “the city itself appears to have been of a large
extent by the space now taken up by the ruins;” but that there are no
footsteps of any walls remaining, nor is it possible to judge of the
ancient figure of the place. The present inhabitants, as they are poor,
miserable, dirty people, so they have shut themselves up, to the number
of about thirty or forty families, in little huts made of dirt, within
the walls of a spacious court, which inclosed a most magnificent heathen
temple: thereinto also Mr. Halifax’s party entered, the whole village
being gathered together at the door; whether to stand upon their defence
in case the strangers proved enemies (for some of them had guns in their
hands), or out of mere curiosity to gaze, he knew not. However the
guide, who was an Arab whom Assyne their king had sent to conduct them
through the village, being a man known among them, they had an easy
admittance; and, with a great many welcomes in their language, were led
to the sheik’s house, with whom they took up their abode. “And to
mention here what the place at first view represented, certainly the
world itself could not afford the like mixture of remains of greatest
state and magnificence, together with the extremity of poverty and
wretchedness.” The nearest parallel Mr. Halifax could think of, was that
of the temple of Baal, destroyed by Jehu, and converted into a
draught-house.
“We had scarce passed the sepulchres,” says Mr. Wood, “when the hills
opening discovered to us all at once the greatest quantity of ruins we
had ever seen, all of white marble; and beyond them, towards the
Euphrates, a flat waste as far as the eye could reach, without any
object that showed either life or motion.”
When Mr. Wood’s party arrived, they were conducted to one of the huts,
of which there were about thirty, in the court of the great temple. The
inhabitants of both sexes were well-shaped, and the women, though very
swarthy, had good features. They were veiled; but did not so
scrupulously conceal their faces as the Eastern women generally do. They
paint the ends of their fingers red, their lips blue, and their eyebrows
and eyelashes black[67].
They had large rings of gold or brass in their ears and nostrils, and
appeared to be healthy and robust.
The ruins were next visited by Mr. Bruce:—“When we arrived at the top
of the hill,” says he, “there opened before us, the most astonishing,
stupendous, sight, that perhaps ever appeared to mortal sight. The whole
plain below, which was very extensive, was covered so thick with
magnificent ruins, as the one seemed to touch the other, all of fine
proportions, all of agreeable forms, all composed of white stone, which,
at that distance, appeared like marble. At the end of it stood the
Palace of the Sun, a building worthy so magnificent a scene.”
The effect on the imagination of Mr. Addison appears to have been
equally lively:—“At the end of the sandy plain,” says he, “the eye
rests upon the lofty columns of the Temple of the Sun, encompassed by a
dark elevated mass of ruined buildings; and beyond, all around, and
right and left towards the Euphrates, as far as the eye can reach,
extends the vast level naked flat of the great desert, over which the
eye runs in every direction, piercing the boundless horizon, without
discovering a human being or a trace of man. Naked, solitary, unlimited
space extends around, where man never breathes under the shade, or rests
his limbs under the cover of a dwelling. A deep blue tint spreads along
its surface, here and there shaded with a cast of brown; the distant
outline of the horizon is clear and sharply defined; not an eminence
rises to break the monotonous flat, and along the edge extends a large
district covered with salt, distinguished from the rest by its peculiar
colour.
“There is something grand and awe-inspiring in its boundless immensity.
Like the first view of the ocean, it inspires emotions, never before
experienced, unearthly in appearance, and out of character with the
general fair face of nature. The eye shrinks from contemplating the
empty, cheerless solitude, and we turn away in quest of some object to
remove the scenes of utter loneliness, that its gloomy aspect is
calculated to inspire.”
From these pages we turn with satisfaction to those of an American:—“I
have stood before the Parthenon, and have almost worshipped that divine
achievement of the immortal Phidias. I have been at Milan, at Ephesus,
at Alexandria, at Antioch; but in none of these renowned cities I have
beheld any thing, that I can allow to approach in united extent,
grandeur, and most consummate beauty, this almost more than work of man.
On each side of this, the central point, there rose upward slender
pyramids—pointed obelisks—domes of the most graceful proportions,
columns, arches, and lofty towers, for number and for form, beyond my
power to describe. These buildings, as well as the walls of the city,
being all either of white marble, or of some stone as white, and being
everywhere in their whole extent interspersed, as I have already said,
with multitudes of overshadowing palm trees, perfectly filled and
satisfied my sense of beauty, and made me feel, for the moment, as if in
such a scene I should love to dwell, and there end my days.”
Burckhardt speaks thus of Palmyra and Balbec:—“Having seen the ruins of
Tadmor, a comparison between these two renowned remains of antiquity
naturally offered itself to my mind. The temple of the Sun at Tadmor, is
upon a grander scale than that of Balbec, but it is choked with Arab
houses, which admit only a view of the building in detail. The
architecture of Balbec is richer than that of Tadmor.”
In respect to the ruins, we must content ourselves with giving a very
general account, as it would be impossible to render a minute
description intelligible without the aid of plates.[68] Our account will
be a compilation from those given by Mr. Halifax, Mr. Wood, Mr. Bruce,
Mr. Addison, and other writers, who have been there.
The entire number of distinct buildings, which may still be traced, are
from forty to fifty. To the northward of the valley of the tombs, on the
highest eminence in the immediate vicinity, towers the ruined Turkish or
Saracenic castle. It is seated on the very summit of the mountain, and
surrounded by a deep ditch, cut out of the solid rock. It is said by the
Arabs to have been built by Man Ogle, a prince of the Druses; its
deserted chambers and passages partake of the universal solitude and
silence; there is not a living thing about it; it seems to be deserted
even by the bats.
From this castle is seen an extensive view round about: you see Tadmor
under you, inclosed on three sides with long ridges of mountains, which
open towards the east gradually, to the distance of about an hour’s
riding; but to the east stretches a vast plain beyond the reach of the
eye. In this plain you see a large valley of salt, lying about an hour’s
distance from the city[69].
It is imagined by the Persians that this castle, as well as the
edifices at Balbec, were built by genii, for the purposes of hiding in
their subterranean caverns immense treasures, which still remain
there[70]. “All these things,” said one of the Arabs to Mr. Wood, “were
done by Solyman ebn Doud, (Solomon, the son of David,) by the assistance
of spirits.”
But of all the monuments of art and magnificence, the most considerable
is the Temple of the Sun.
This temple, says Bruce, is very much ruined; of its peristyle there
only remains[70] a few columns entire, Corinthian, fluted and very
elegant, though apparently of slenderer proportions than ten diameters.
Their capitals are quite destroyed. The ornament of the outer gate are,
some of them, of great beauty, both as to execution and design.
Within the court are the remains of two rows of very noble marble
pillars, thirty-seven feet high. The temple was encompassed with another
row of pillars, fifty feet high; but the temple itself was only
thirty-three yards in length, and thirteen or fourteen in breadth. This
is now converted into a mosque, and ornamented after the Turkish manner.
North of this place is an OBELISK, consisting of seven large stones,
besides its capital, and the wreathed work above it, about fifty feet
high, and just above the pedestal twelve in circumference. Upon this was
probably a statue, which the Turks have destroyed.
On the west side is a most magnificent arch, on the remains of which
are some vines and clusters of grapes, carved in the boldest imitation
of nature that can be conceived.
Just over the door are discerned a pair of wings, which extend its whole
breadth; the body to which they belong is totally destroyed, and it
cannot now certainly be known, whether it was that of an eagle or of a
cherub, several representations of both being visible on other fragments
of the building.
The north end of the building is adorned with a curious fret-work and
bas-relief; and in the middle there is a dome or cupola, about ten feet
in diameter, which appears to have been either hewn out of the rock, or
moulded of some composition, which, by time, is grown equally hard.
At about the distance of a mile from the OBELISK are two others, besides
the fragment of a third; hence it has been reasonably suggested, that
they were a continued row.
Every spot of ground intervening between the walls and columns, is laid
out in plantations of corn and olives, inclosed by mud walls.
In the direction of the mountains lie fragments of stone, here and there
columns stand erect, and clumps of broken pillars are met with at
intervals. All this space seems to have been covered with small temples
and ornamental buildings, approached by colonnades.
Next to the temple, the most remarkable structure is the long portico,
which commences about two thousand two hundred feet to the north-west of
the temple, and extends for nearly four thousand feet further in the
same direction. “It is a remark worthy the observation of historians,”
says Volney, “that the front of the portico has twelve pillars like that
at Balbec; but what artists will esteem still more curious is that these
two fronts resemble the gallery of the house built by Perrault, long
before the existence of the drawing which made us acquainted with them.
The only difference is, that the columns of the Louvre are double,
whereas those of Palmyra are detached.”
About one hundred paces from the middle obelisk, straight forward, is a
magnificent entry to a piazza, which is forty feet broad and more than
half a mile in length, inclosed with two rows of marble pillars,
twenty-six feet high, and eight or nine feet in compass. Of these there
still remain one hundred and twenty-nine; and, by a moderate
computation, there could not, originally, have been less than five
hundred and sixty. The upper end of the piazza was shut in by a row of
pillars, standing somewhat closer than those on each side.
A little to the left are the ruins of a stately building, which appears
to have been a _banqueting-house_. It is built of better marble, and is
finished with greater elegance, than the piazza. The pillars which
supported it were one entire stone, which is so strong that one of them,
which has fallen down, has received no injury. It measures twenty-two
feet in length, and in compass eight feet nine inches.
In the west side of the piazza are several apertures for gates, into the
court of the palace. Each of these is adorned with four porphyry
pillars; not standing in a line with those of the wall, but placed by
couples in the front of the gate facing the palace, on each side. Two of
these only remain, and but one standing in its place. These are thirty
feet long, and nine in circumference.
“We sometimes find a palace,” says Volney, “of which nothing remains but
the courts and walls; sometimes a temple, whose peristyle is half thrown
down; and now a portico, a gallery, or a triumphant arch. Here stand
groups of columns, whose symmetry is destroyed by the fall of many of
them; these we see ranged in rows of such length, that, similar to rows
of trees, they deceive the sight, and assume the appearance of continued
walls. On which side soever we look, the earth is strewed with vast
stones, half buried, with broken entablatures, damaged capitals,
mutilated friezes, disfigured reliefs, effaced sculptures, violated
tombs, and altars defiled with mud.”
“In their ruined courts,” says another traveller, “and amid the
crumbling walls of their cottages, may be seen, here and there, portions
of the ancient pavement of the area; while all around the inclosure
extend groups of columns, with pedestals for statues, and walls
ornamented with handsome architectural decorations, the ruins of the
majestic portico and double colonnade, which once inclosed the whole of
the vast area. Portions of a frieze, or the fragments of a cornice, upon
whose decoration was expended the labour of years, are now used by the
poor villagers to bake their bread upon, or are hollowed out as
hand-mills, in which to grind their corn.”
Among the walls and rubbish are a vast number of lizards and serpents;
and that circumstance led to the celebrated poetic picture painted by
Darwin.
Lo! where PALMYRA, ’mid her wasted plains,
Her shattered aqueducts, and prostrate fanes,
As the bright orb of breezy midnight pours
Long threads of silver through her gaping towers,
O’er mouldering tombs, and tottering columns gleams,
And frosts her deserts with diffusive beams,
Sad o’er the mighty wreck in silence bends,
Lifts her wet eyes, her tremulous hands extends.
If from lone cliffs a bursting rill expands
Its transient course, and sinks into the sands;
O’er the moist rock the fell hyena prowls,
The serpent hisses, and the panther growls;
On quivering wings the famished vulture screams,
Dips his dry beak, and sweeps the gushing streams.
With foaming jaws beneath, and sanguine tongue,
Laps the lean wolf, and pants, and runs along;
Stern stalks the lion, on the rustling brinks
Hears the dread snake, and trembles as he drinks.
Quick darts the scaly monster o’er the plain,
Fold after fold his undulating train;
And, bending o’er the lake his crested brow,
Starts at the crocodile that gapes below.—DARWIN.
On the eastern side of the area of the Temple of the Sun, there is a
curious doorway of one solid block of stone, which commands a fine view
of the desert. “As we looked out of this narrow gateway,” says Mr.
Addison, “we fancied, that Zenobia herself might have often stood at the
same spot, anxiously surveying the operations of Aurelian and his
blockading army. From hence the eye wanders over the level waste, across
which the unfortunate queen fled on her swift dromedary to the
Euphrates; and here, the morning after her departure, doubtless
congregated her anxious friends, to see if she was pursued in her
flight; and from hence she was probably first descried, being brought
back a captive and a prisoner in the hands of the Roman horsemen.”
On the east side of the Piazza, stands a great number of marble pillars:
some perfect, but the greater part mutilated. In one place eleven are
ranged together in a square; the space, which they inclose, is paved
with broad flat stones; but there are no remains of a roof.
At a little distance are the remains of a small temple, which is also
without a roof; and the walls are much defaced; but from the door is
enjoyed the magnificent coup-d’œil of all the ruins, and of the vast
desert beyond. Before the entry, which looks to the south, is a piazza,
supported by six pillars, two on each side of the door, and one at each
end. The pedestals of those in front have been filled with inscriptions
in the Greek and Palmyrene languages, which are become totally
illegible.
Among these ruins there are many SEPULCHRES. They are ranged on each
side of a hollow way, towards the north part of the city, and extend
more than a mile. They are all square towers, four or five stories high.
But though they are alike in form, they differ greatly in magnificence.
The outside is of common stone; but the floors and partitions of each
story are marble. There is a walk across the whole building, just in the
middle; and the space on each hand is subdivided into six partitions by
thick walls. The space between the partitions is wide enough to receive
the largest corpse; and in these niches there are six or seven piled one
upon another.
“As great a curiosity as any,” says Mr. Halifax, “were these sepulchres,
being square towers four or five stories high, and standing on both
sides of a hollow way, towards the north part of the city. They
stretched out in length the space of a mile, and perhaps formerly might
extend a great way further. At our first view of them, some thought them
the steeples of ruined churches, and were in hopes we should have found
some steps of churches here; others took them to have been bastions, and
part of the old fortifications, though there is not so much as any
foundation of a wall to be seen. But when we came, a day or two after,
more curiously to inquire into them, we quickly found their use. They
were all of the same form, but of different splendour and greatness,
according to the circumstances of their founders. The first we viewed
was entirely marble, but is now wholly in ruins; and we found nothing
but a heap of stones, amongst which we found two statues; one of a man;
another of a woman, cut in sitting, or rather leaning, posture, and the
heads and part of the arms being broken off; but their bodies remaining
pretty entire; so that we had the advantage of seeing their habits,
which appeared very noble; but more approaching the European fashion,
than what is now in use in the East, which inclined me to think they
might be Roman. Upon broken pieces of stone, tumbled here and there, we
found some broken inscriptions, but, not affording any perfect sense,
they are not worth the transcribing.”
These are the most interesting of all the ruins. As you wind up a narrow
valley between the mountain range, you have them on your right and left,
topping the hills, or descending to the border of the valley: some
presenting heaps of rubbish, and some half fallen, expose their
shattered chambers, and one or two still exist in almost an entire state
of preservation. They are seen from a great distance, and have a
striking effect in this desert solitude.
The ruins of Palmyra and Balbec are very different. “No comparison can
be instituted between them,” says Mr. Addison. “The ruins of Balbec
consist merely of two magnificent temples, inclosed in a sort of
citadel; while here, over an immense area, we wander through the ruins
of long porticoes leading up to ruined temples and unknown buildings.
Now we see a circular colonnade sweeping round with its ruined gateway,
at either end; now we come to the prostrate walls, or ruined chambers of
a temple or palace; anon we explore the recesses of a bath, or the ruins
of an aqueduct; then we mount the solitary staircase, and wander through
the silent chambers of the tombs, ornamented with busts, inscriptions,
and niches for the coffins, stored with mouldering bones; and from the
summits of funereal towers, five stories in height, we look down upon
this mysterious assemblage of past magnificence; and beyond them, upon
the vast level surface of the desert, silent and solitary; stretching
away like the vast ocean, till it is lost in the distance, far as the
eye can reach. The dwelling of man is not visible. The vastness and
immensity of space strikes us with awe, and the mouldering monuments of
human pride, that extend around, teach us a sad lesson of the
instability of all human greatness.”
Though antiquity has left nothing either in Greece or Italy, in any way
to be compared with the magnificence of the ruins of Palmyra, Mr. Wood
observes, that there is a greater sameness in the architecture of
Palmyra than at Rome, Athens, and other great cities, whose ruins
evidently point out different ages of decay. But, except four
half-columns in the Temple of the Sun, and two in one of the mausoleums,
the whole architecture is Corinthian, richly ornamented with some very
striking beauties and some as visible faults.
Through the valley of the tombs may be traced remnants of a ruined
aqueduct, which formerly conducted water to the town from, at present,
an unknown source; it consists of a vaulted passage running underground,
covered with a fine hard stucco. In regard to the present supply, there
are two rivers, the waters of which, when judiciously distributed, must
have conduced greatly to the subsistence and comfort of the ancient
inhabitants; but these are now allowed to lose themselves in the sand.
Mr. Wood says that all the inscriptions he saw were in Greek or
Palmyrene, except one, which was in Latin. Many attempts have been made
to explain the Palmyrene inscriptions. They were generally supposed to
be Syriac. Gruter, having seen an inscription at Rome, gave it as his
opinion that the characters were Arabic. Scaliger, speaking of the same
inscription, gave the subject up in despair. Some have thought they were
Greek, translated from the Palmyrene. Upon this hint M. Barthelemy
examined the inscriptions copied into Mr. Wood’s work, and came to the
conclusion, that Syriac was the living language of the inhabitants of
Palmyra, at the time those monuments were erected; and that the
greatest part, if not all the characters, are the same as those made use
of in writing Hebrew at this day, although they have a different
appearance.
We shall now give a few specimens:—“_This splendid and durable
monument, Jamblichus, the son of Mocimus, the son of Acaleises, the son
of Malichus, erected for himself, his children, and his posterity, in
the month of April, year 314._”
There is another to the same purport, erected in the same month, one
hundred years after:—“_This monument, Elabælus Manæus Cocchæus
Malachus, the son of Waballathus, the son of Manæus, the son of
Elabælus, built for himself and family in the month of April, year
414._”
Another inscription implies that “_Septimius Odenathus, the most
excellent senator, had erected this monument for himself and his
posterity, to preserve their name for ever_.”
Another contains an epitaph erected by Soræchus, to his wife Martha, in
the reign of Marcus Antoninus, A. D. 178.
A third is of the same nature; appropriated by Malchus, to himself and
his children, though built by his ancestors.
Besides sepulchral monuments there are others, erected by order of the
senate and people of the commonwealth of Tadmor, to the honour of those
citizens who had deserved well of the republic. Among these is one in
honour of Alilamenes; another in honour of Julius Aurelius Zenobius;
another in honour of Jarisbolus; and others in honour of Septimius
Orodes. The last of these was a great benefactor to the public and
private institutions of Palmyra. He had been an officer in his younger
days, and had greatly distinguished himself under his prince, Odenathus,
against the Parthians; during the year in which this monument was
erected, he exercised the office of symposiarch, in the festival
dedicated to their Patron God, Jupiter Belus. That in honour of
Alilamenes runs thus:—“The senate and the people have placed this in
honour of Alilamenes, the son of Panas, the son of Mocimus, the son of
Æranes, devoted lovers of their country, and in every respect deserving
well of their country, and of the immortal Gods, in the year 450, and
the 30th day of the month of April.”
There are, also, monuments erected by private persons to the memory of
their friends. The finest of these contains the grateful remembrance
which the Palmyrene merchants, trading to Vologesias[71], retained of
the great services which Julius Zobeidas did them in that expedition.
Another inscription commemorates the virtues of a person named
Malenthon, secretary to the republic of Palmyra, when “the God Hadrian”
arrived in the city (A. D. 122). He is remembered for having contributed
to the adornment of the temple of Belus, and for having given a largess
to the public baths, of oil for the use, not only of the citizens, but
of strangers.
The monument erected to Jamblichus seems to be the oldest, and the work
of Domitian the latest; taking in about three hundred years between
them. The other rich and extensive buildings were, Mr. Wood supposes,
erected _before_ the _last_ of these dates, and probably _after_ the
_first_; perhaps about the time ELABÆLUS built his monument.
It is rather remarkable, that there is no monument in memory of, nor any
inscription in honour of Zenobia; for which Dr. Halley accounts on the
supposition, that the Romans were so much irritated and ashamed, that
they destroyed and defaced everything that might be erected in honour of
her.
The decay of Palmyra has been accounted for from its peculiar situation.
A country without land, if the expression may be allowed, could only
exist by commerce: their industry had no other channel to operate in;
and when loss of their liberty was followed by that of trade, they were
reduced to live idly on as much of their capital as had been spared by
Aurelian. When that was spent, necessity compelled them to desert the
town.
Time has partially preserved the peristyles, the intercolumniations, and
entablatures; the elegance of the designs of which equal throughout the
richness of the materials. These being, in many respects, the greatest
and most entire, is attributed to there having been, for so long a time,
few inhabitants to deface them, to a dry climate, and their distance
from any city which might apply the materials to other uses. These ruins
present a sad contrast with the hovels of the wild Arabs, now the only
inhabitants of a city which, in former times, emulated Rome. “Of all the
contrasts of past magnificence with present meanness,” says Mr. Addison,
“of the wealth and genius of by-gone times with the poverty and
ignorance of the present day, no more striking instance, perhaps, can be
found than is presented in the present poor Arab village of Tadmor. You
there see a few poverty-stricken inhabitants living in square hovels of
mud mixed with chopped straw, roofed with earth, leaves, and dry sticks,
congregated round the magnificent Temple of the Sun of yore; despoiled
of its ornaments by one of the haughtiest and most powerful of the Roman
emperors, who came with his victorious troops from the distant provinces
of Gaul and of Britain, to rend asunder the dominion of which this spot,
in the midst of desert solitudes, had rendered itself the head.” Mr.
Addison then goes on to state that the “_village of Tadmor_ consists,
altogether, of about a dozen or fifteen families, and there can be
hardly more than twenty able-bodied males in the whole place. This
little community possesses a few herds of goats and dromedaries, which,
together with the poultry, form the chief wealth of the villagers. These
poor people are not, however, sufficiently advanced in the desert to be
without the reach of the Syrian government; they all pay a capitation
tax to Ibrahim Pasha. The portion of cultivated land on this spot is
very small; there are merely a few scanty gardens, which produce roots,
vegetables, and a miserable supply of corn. There are one or two
palm-trees along the banks of the stream, and a few shrubs of the thorny
acacia.”
These ruins were, some years ago, visited by a lady who has made a great
noise in Syria—Lady Hester Stanhope. During her residence there she
gave a kind of fête to the Bedouins. “The great sheikh,” says Mr. Carne,
in his letters from the East, “and some of his officers constantly
reside at the ruins. Their habitations are fixed near the great temple;
they are all well-disposed and civil in their manners, and their young
women are remarkable above all the other tribes for their beauty. It was
a lovely day, and the youth of both sexes, dressed in their gayest
habiliments, were seated in rows on the fragments of the pillars,
friezes, and other ruins with which the ground was covered. Her
ladyship, in her Eastern dress, walked among them, addressed them with
the utmost affability, and ordered a dollar to be given to each. As she
stood with all that Arab array amidst the columns of the great Temple of
the Sun, the sight was picturesque and imposing, and the Bedouins hailed
her with the utmost enthusiasm ‘queen of Palmyra,’ ‘queen of the
desert;’ and, in their enthusiasm, would have proceeded to confer more
decided marks of sovereignty; but they were declined.”
This fête was afterwards described to Mr. Buckingham by an Arab, who had
been present, in the following hyperbolical style:—“As soon as it was
known in the desert that the princess intended to journey to Tadmor, all
the tribes were in motion; war was changed to universal peace, and every
sheik, or chief, was eager to have the honour of leading the escort.
Councils and assemblies were held at Horis and at Hamak, at Sham, and at
Thaleb, Damascus, and Aleppo; messengers were sent in every direction,
and nothing was neglected that might serve to make the way full of
pleasure. When money was talked of, every one rejected it with
indignation, and exclaimed, ‘Shall we not serve the princess for
honour?’ Every thing being settled, the party set out, preceded by
horsemen in front, dromedaries of observation on the right and the left,
and camels laden with provisions in the rear. As they passed along, the
parched sands of the desert became verdant plains; the burning wells
became crystal streams; rich carpets of grass welcomed them at every
place where they stopped for repose, and the trees under which they
pitched their tents, expanded to twice their size to cover them with
shade. When they reached the broken city (the ruins), the princess was
taken to the greatest of all the palaces (the Temple of the Sun), and
there gold and jewels were bound round her temples, and all the people
did homage to her as a queen, by bowing their heads to the dust. On that
day Tadmor was richer than Damascus, and more peopled than
Constantinople; and if the princess had only remained, it would soon
have become the greatest of all the cities of the earth: for men were
pouring into it from all quarters; horsemen and chiefs, merchants and
munugemein (astrologers and learned men who consult the stars); the fame
of her beauty and benevolence having reached to Bagdad and Isfahan, to
Bokhara and Samarcand; the greatest men of the East being desirous of
beholding it for themselves.” The Arab, who firmly believed all this,
narrated the return from Palmyra in the same romantic strains; and ended
by repeating his regret at the misfortune of not having been one of the
happy multitude, assembled on that occasion; he having been then on some
business with another tribe to the south of the Dead Sea[72].
Lady Hester is now dead. The following account is taken from a paper
published originally at Smyrna: “We announced in our last number the
death of Lady Hester Stanhope. Our readers will no doubt be glad to have
a brief sketch of the principal circumstances of that extraordinary
woman’s life. It was at Djouni, in Syria, that Lady Hester died, after a
long illness, at the age of sixty-four. That reader must be indifferent,
who reverts not with interest to his recollections of a woman, who has
expired on the borders of the desert, amidst the Druses and Turkomans,
over whom that noble daughter of the Infidels once exercised so strange
and so marvellous a sway. The destiny of Lady Stanhope presents one of
those features of which not another instance could, perhaps, be found in
the annals of the East. Only imagine forty thousand Arabs suddenly
assembled upon the ruins of Palmyra, and these wandering, savage, and
indomitable tribes surrounding, in silent astonishment and admiration, a
foreign woman, and proclaiming her Sovereign of the Desert and Queen of
Palmyra! Convey yourself in thought to the scene of this incredible
triumph, and you will then conceive what woman that must have been, who
imposed silence on Mussulman fanaticism, and created for herself, as it
were, by magic, a sovereignty in the domains of Mohammed. ‘Lady Hester
Stanhope,’ says M. de Lamartine, in his admirable work, ‘was a niece of
Mr. Pitt. On the death of her uncle, she left England, and visited
various parts of Europe. Young, handsome, and rich, she was everywhere
received with the attention and interest due to her rank, fortune, mind,
and beauty; but she constantly refused to unite her fate to that of her
worthiest admirers; and, after spending some years in the principal
capitals of Europe, embarked with a numerous suite for Constantinople.
The real cause of this expatriation has never been known. Some have
ascribed it to the death of a young English officer, who was killed at
that period in Spain, and whom an eternal regret rendered for ever
present in Lady Hester’s heart: others have imputed her voluntary
banishment to a mere love of adventure in a young person of an
enterprising and courageous character. However this might be, she
departed, spent some years at Constantinople, and then sailed for Syria
in an English vessel, which carried also the larger part of her fortune,
as well as jewellery, trinkets, and presents of all sorts, of very
considerable value.’ The vessel encountered a storm in the gulf of
Macri, on the road to Caramania; the ship was wrecked, Lady Hester
Stanhope’s property was all lost, and it was as much as she could do to
save her own life. Nothing, however, could shake her resolution. She
returned to England, gathered the remainder of her fortune, sailed again
for Syria, and landed at Latakia, the ancient Laodicea. She had at first
thought of fixing her abode at Broussa, at the foot of the Olympus; but
Broussa is a commercial city, situate on the avenues to the Ottoman
capital, and reckoning not less than sixty thousand inhabitants; and
Lady Hester sought the independence and solitude of the desert. She
therefore selected the wilderness of Mount Lebanon, whose extreme
ramifications lose themselves in the sands. Ruined Palmyra—Zenobia’s
ancient capital—suited her fancy. The noble exile took up her residence
at Djouni, prepared for every vicissitude. ‘Europe,’ said she, ‘is a
monotonous residence; its nations are unworthy of freedom, and endless
revolution are their only prospects.’ She applied herself to the study
of the Arabic language, and strove to obtain a thorough acquaintance
with the character and manners of the Syrian people. One day, dressed in
the costume of the Osmanlis, she set out for Jerusalem, Damascus,
Aleppo, and the desert; she advanced amidst a caravan loaded with
wealth, tents, and presents for the Scheiks, and was soon surrounded by
all the tribes, who knelt to her, and submitted to her supremacy. It was
not solely by her magnificence, that Lady Hester had excited the
admiration of the Arabs: her courage had been proved on more than one
occasion; and she had always faced peril with a boldness and energy
which the tribes well remembered. Lady Hester Stanhope knew also how to
flatter the Mahomedan prejudices. She held no intercourse with
Christians and Jews; she spent whole days in the grotto of a santon, who
explained the Koran to her; and never appeared in public without that
mien of majestic and grave inspiration, which was always unto oriental
nations the characteristic of prophets. With her, however, this conduct
was not so much the result of design, as of a decided proneness to every
species of excitement and originality. Lady Hester Stanhope’s first
abode was but a monastery. It was soon transformed into an oriental
palace, with pavilions, orange-gardens and myrtles, over which spread
the foliage of the cedar, such as it grows in the mountains of Lebanon.
The traveller, to whom Lady Hester opened this sanctuary, would behold
her clad in oriental garments. Her head was covered with a turban made
of red and white cashmere. She wore a long tunic, with open loose
sleeves; large Turkish trousers, the folds of which hung over yellow
morocco boots, embroidered with silk. Her shoulders were covered with a
sort of burnous, and a yataghan hung to her waist. Lady Hester Stanhope
had a serious and imposing countenance; her noble and mild features had
a majestic expression, which her high stature and the dignity of her
movements enhanced. The day came when all this _préstige_, so
expensively kept up, suddenly vanished. Lady Hester’s fortune rapidly
declined; her income yearly decreased; in short, the substantial
resources, which had, at one time, sustained the magic of her
extraordinary domination, were daily forsaking her. The Queen of Palmyra
then fell back into the rank of mere mortals, and she who had signed
absolute firmans, enabling the traveller to visit in security the
regions of Palmyra—she, whose authority the Sublime Porte had tacitly
acknowledged—soon saw her people disown her omnipotency. She was left
the title of queen, but it was but an empty name, a mere recollection;
and again the monastery’s silence ruled over the solitude of Djouni. A
queen, stripped of her glory of a day, Lady Hester Stanhope has expired,
the sport of fate, at the moment the East is convulsed. She has expired
in obscurity and loneliness, without even mingling her name with the
great events of which it is now the theatre.”
All this, if no exaggeration had been employed, might have served to the
excitation of a smile: but the matter did not rest there. Lady Hester,
or the Princess, as she was styled, having given to the Sheik an absurd
paper of authority, no one is permitted to visit Palmyra without paying
a thousand piastres! “The consequence of which is,” says Mr. Carne,
“several travellers have left Syria without seeing the finest ruins in
the world[73].”
NO. XI.—PATRÆ.
“Night overtook us,” says Mr. Williams, “before we reached Patras,
anciently called Patræ. But such a night! the moon was in full
splendour; and while we travelled among the mysterious scenes, we were
often tempted to pause and ask what could be those shadowy towers, that
were perpetually arresting our attention? Nothing could be more pleasing
or more romantic, than the winding of our cavalry among the projecting
rocks and dismal hollows, when first a gleam of light prevailed, and
then a solemn darkness veiled and softened all in sweet composure. The
glow-worms, peeping from the bushes, seemed like fairies’ eyes;
fireflies glanced in thousands, like the sun’s bright rays stealing on
rippling waters in ebon shade; and how divine the evening star appeared,
tipping the dark chain of Mount Olonos! The blackbird, too, with its
train of dear associations, awakened our peculiar interest. All seemed,
by their look of delight to say, ‘Sing on, sweet bird! and tell us of
our absent friends and beloved country!’”
Patræ was a town of Peloponnesus, anciently called AROE.
Diana had a temple there, and a statue formed of ivory and gold, which
was considered a masterpiece. Apollo also had a temple, in which was a
statue of the god, raised by Icadius.
In the time of Pausanias, Patræ was also adorned with porticoes, a
theatre, and an odéum; the last of which was superior to any in Greece,
with one exception, viz. that of Herodes Atticus at Athens. In the lower
part of the city was a temple of Bacchus, in which was an image
preserved in a chest. There was also one of Ceres, with a pleasant grove
and a prophetic fountain, which determined the events of illness. After
supplicating the goddess with incense, the sick person is said to have
appeared, living or dead, in a mirror suspended so as to touch the
surface of the water[74].
Patræ was selected by Augustus as a place in which to settle some of
those, who had fought with him at Actium. Some of the cities of Achaia
were made tributary to the Patrenses, and they continued long to
flourish after the decay of the neighbouring states.
They were rich in the monuments of art. Pausanias enumerates nineteen or
twenty temples, besides statues, altars, and marble sepulchres, existing
in his time in the city, the port, and the sacred groves.
Patras, though it has now recovered the destruction, was wholly
destroyed by the Turks in 1770. We must, however, first state, that in
1447 it made the best defence against the Turks of any place in the
Peloponnesus. In 1532 it was taken and ransacked by Doria. But of all
its distresses the last was the most terrible; this was in 1770. It had
lately been freed by the temporary success of Greek insurgents from the
yoke of the Turks; but the appearance of the Athenians, who rushed
through the passes of the isthmus to the assistance of the Mahometans,
soon decided the fate of the place. An army of ten thousand, both horse
and foot, entered the town through every avenue. It was not a contest,
but a carnage: not a Greek capable of bearing arms was spared, and the
houses were all burned to the ground[75].
In forty years, Patras recovered this calamity, and is now said to be a
flourishing place; but Mr. Dodwell describes it as being composed, like
all other Turkish cities, of dirty and narrow streets; with houses built
of earth, baked in the sun; with eaves overhanging the streets.
The few remains, which are in Patras, are of Roman construction; and
those neither grand, interesting, nor well preserved. In the castle,
however, there are said to be several beautiful forms of female statues:
and here we have to state an instance of barbarism, strikingly
illustrative of the character of the more ignorant portion of the Turks.
Some marble columns and mutilated statues having been found, a few years
ago, in the garden of a Turk, he immediately broke them to pieces!
There are several large fissures in the walls of the castle, occasioned
by an earthquake, about forty years ago; in which forty persons were
killed in the town, and thirteen crushed by the falling of one of the
turrets.
“Nothing can be,” says Mr. Hobhouse, “more pleasant than the immediate
vicinity of this town; which is one blooming garden of orange and lemon
plantations, of olive groves, and currant grounds. The temple and the
statues, the theatre, the columns and the marble porch, have
disappeared: but the valleys and the mountains, and some, not frequent,
fragments, of more value than all the costly monuments of barbaric
labour,—these still remain, and remind the traveller, that he treads
the ground once trod by the heroes and sages of antiquity. To traverse
the native country of those, whose deeds and whose wisdom have been
proposed to all the polished nations of every succeeding age, as the
models which they should endeavour to imitate, but must never hope to
equal, with no other emotions than would arise in passing through
regions never civilised, is unnatural; is impossible! No one would roam
with the same indifference through the sad solitudes of Greece, and the
savage wilds of America; nor is the expression of feelings, which it is
the object and end of all liberal education to instil and encourage, to
be derided as the unprofitable effusion of folly and affectation.”[76]
NO. XII.—PELLA.
It was a long time before the Greeks had any regard to Macedonia. The
kings, living retired in woods and mountains, it seemed not to be
considered as a part of Greece.
Pella was the capital of the kings of Macedon. There Philip lived and
reigned, and here Alexander was born. After his death the kingdom of
Macedon frequently changed masters. Philip Aridæus was succeeded by
Cassander, who left three sons. Philip, the eldest, died presently after
his father. The other two contended for the crown, without enjoying it;
both dying soon after without issue.
Demetrius Poliorcetes, Pyrrhus, and Lysimachus, made themselves masters
of all, or the greatest part of Macedonia, sometimes in conjunction, and
at other times separately.
After the death of Lysimachus, Seleucus possessed himself of Macedonia,
but did not long enjoy it.
Ptolemy Ceraunus having slain the preceding prince, seized the kingdom,
and possessed it alone but a very short time; having lost his life in a
battle with the Gauls, who had made an irruption into that country.
Sosthenes, who defeated the Gauls, reigned also but a short time.
Antigonus Gonatus, the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, obtained peaceable
possession of the kingdom of Macedonia, and transmitted these dominions
to his descendants, after he had reigned thirty-four years.
He was succeeded by his son, Demetrius, who reigned ten years, and then
died; leaving a son, named Philip, who was but two years old.
Antigonus Doson, reigned twelve years, in the quality of guardian to the
young prince.
Philip, after the death of Antigonus, ascended the throne, at the age of
fourteen years. After him, Perseus; who was defeated and taken prisoner
by Paulus Æmilius; and Macedonia, in consequence of that victory, was
added to the provinces of the Roman empire, B. C. 160.
For this success Paulus Æmilius was honoured with a triumph; and as a
description of that ceremony will serve to diversify our pages in a very
agreeable manner, we adopt the account afforded us by Plutarch. “The
people erected scaffolds in the Forum and Circus, and all other parts of
the city where they could best behold the pomp. The spectators were clad
in white garments; all the temples were open and full of garlands and
perfumes; the ways cleared and cleansed by a great many officers and
tipstaffs, that drove away such as thronged the passage, or straggled up
and down. This triumph lasted three days. On the first, which was scarce
long enough for the sight, were to be seen the statues, pictures, and
images, of an extraordinary bigness, which were taken from the enemy,
drawn upon seven hundred and fifty chariots. On the second, was carried,
in a great many wains, the fairest and the richest armour of the
Macedonians, both of brass and steel, all newly furbished and
glittering; which, although piled up with the greatest art and order,
yet seemed to be tumbled on heaps carelessly and by chance; helmets were
thrown on shields, coats of mail upon greaves, Cretan targets, and
Thracian bucklers and quivers of arrows lay huddled among the horses’
bits; and through these appeared the points of naked swords, intermixed
with long spears. All these arms were tied together in a way, that they
knocked against one another as they were drawn along, and made a harsh
and terrible noise; so that the very spoils of the conquered could not
be beheld without dread. After these waggons loaden with armour, there
followed three thousand men, who carried the silver that was coined, in
seven hundred and fifty vessels, each of which weighed three talents,
and was carried by four men. Others brought silver bowls, and goblets,
and cups, all disposed in such order as to make the best show, and all
valuable, as well for their bigness, as the thickness of their engraved
work. On the third day, early in the morning, first came the trumpeters,
who did not sound as they were wont in a procession or solemn entry; but
such a charge as the Romans use when they encourage their soldiers to
fight. Next followed young men, girt about with girdles curiously
wrought, which led to the sacrifice of hundred and twenty stalled oxen,
with their horns gilded, and their heads adorned with ribands and
garlands; and with these were boys that carried platters of silver and
gold. After this was brought the gold coin, which was divided into
vessels that weighed three talents, like to those that contained the
silver; they were in number fourscore wanting three. These were followed
by those that brought the consecrated bowl, which Æmilius caused to be
made, that weighed ten talents, and was all beset with precious stones.
Then were exposed to view the cups of Antigonus and Seleucus, and such
as were made after the fashion invented by Thericles, and all the gold
plate that was used at Perseus’s table. Next to these came Perseus’s
chariot, in which his armour was placed, and on that his diadem. And
after a little intermission, the king’s children were led captives, and
with them a train of nurses, masters, and governors, who all wept, and
stretched forth their hands to the spectators, and taught the little
infants to beg and entreat their compassion. There were two sons and a
daughter, who, by reason of their tender age, were altogether insensible
of the greatness of their misery; which insensibility of their condition
rendered it much more deplorable; insomuch, that Perseus himself was
scarce regarded as he went along, whilst pity had fixed the eyes of the
Romans upon the infants, and many of them could not forbear tears; all
beheld the sight with a mixture of sorrow and joy, until the children
were past. After his children and their attendants, came Perseus
himself, clad all in black, and wearing slippers, after the fashion of
his country. He looked like one altogether astonished and deprived of
reason, through the greatness of his misfortunes. Next followed a great
company of his friends and familiars, whose countenances were disfigured
with grief, and who testified to all that beheld them by their tears,
and their continual looking upon Perseus, that it was his hard fortune
they so much lamented, that they were regardless of their own. After
these were carried four hundred crowns all made of gold, and sent from
the cities by their respective ambassadors to Æmilius, as a reward due
to his valour. Then he himself came seated on a chariot magnificently
adorned (a man worthy to be beheld, even without these ensigns of
power): he was clad in a garment of purple interwoven with gold, and
held out a laurel branch in his right hand. All the army, in like
manner, with boughs of laurel in their hands, and divided into bands and
companies, followed the chariot of their commander; some singing odes
(according to the usual custom) mingled with raillery; others, songs of
triumph, and the praises of Æmilius’s deeds, who was admired and
accounted happy by all men; yet unenvied by every one that was good.”
“The ancient capital of the kings of Macedon,” says Monsieur de
Pouqueville, “does not announce itself in its desolation to the eye of
the stranger, as at Athens and Corinth, by the display of the remains of
its ancient splendour. Its vestiges are found on an eminence sloping to
the south-west, and surrounded by marshes. In vain, however, does the
traveller look for the walls of the city, for the citadel, for the dykes
constructed to defend from inundation the temples, buildings, and the
monuments of its grandeur. The barbarians from the North, the Romans,
and the succession of ages, have destroyed even the ruins. The once
powerful city of Pella is now sunk down into fragments of tombs, masses
of brick and tile, and about threescore huts, inhabited by Bulgarians,
with a tower garrisoned by about a dozen Albanians. Such are the present
edifices, population, and military establishment of Pella, once the
powerful capital of Alexander and Perseus! A low Mahommedan now
commands, whip in hand, in the city where Alexander first saw the light;
and the paternal seat of that monarch, whose dominions extended from the
Adriatic to the Indus, was, some years ago, the property of Achmet, son
of Ismael, Bey of Serres[77].”
NO. XIII.—PERGAMUS.
This was a city of Great Mysia, in Asia Minor, the capital of the
kingdom of Pergamus, which was founded by a eunuch, named Philatera, who
had been a servant to Docima, a commander of the troops of Antigonus.
Pergamus was assaulted by Philip, king of Macedon, in his war against
Attalus the First, who had taken part with the Romans. All his efforts,
however, being unavailing, he turned his rage and fury against the gods;
and, not satisfied with burning their temples, he demolished statues,
broke to pieces their altars, and even pulled up the stones from their
foundations, that not the least footsteps of them might remain.
At the death of Attalus, his son Eumenes the Second succeeded; and it
was during his reign and under his inspiration,—if such an expression
may be allowed—that the celebrated library was collected[78], which
makes such a figure in literary history.
The kingdom ceased to exist at the death of Attalus the Third; since
that prince left it to the Roman people.
As this event was very important to the city as well as kingdom of
Pergamus, we may, with propriety, enter a little into the character of
the prince, who made so extraordinary a bequeathment. Historians relate,
that he was scarcely on the throne before he stained it with the blood
of his nearest relatives. He caused almost all those, who had served his
father and his uncle with extreme fidelity, to have their throats cut;
under pretence that some of them had killed his mother, who died of a
disease in a very advanced age, and others his wife, who died of an
incurable distemper. He caused the destruction also of wives, children,
and whole families. Having committed all these enormities, he appeared
no more in the city, and ate no longer in public. He put on old clothes,
let his beard grow, and did every thing which persons, accused of
capital crimes, used to do in those days; as if he intended thereby to
acknowledge the extent of his own atrocity. From hence he proceeded to
other species of folly and iniquity. He renounced the cares of state,
and retired into his garden, and applied to digging the ground himself,
and sowing all sorts of poisonous as well as wholesome herbs; then
poisoning the good with the juice of the bad, he sent them in that
manner as presents to his friends. At length he took it into his head to
practise the trade of a brass-founder; and formed the model of a
monument of brass to be erected to his mother. As he was casting the
metal for this purpose, one hot summer’s day, he was seized with a
fever, which in a few days carried him off. The principal clause in his
will was expressed in these terms:—“Let the people of Rome inherit all
my fortunes.” This will having been carried to Rome, the city and
kingdom of Pergamus, as we have already stated, passed into a Roman
province.
Pergamus gave birth to Apollodorus, the preceptor of Augustus; and
Galen, next to Hippocrates the greatest physician that ever adorned the
annals of medical science. It is also remarkable for having been alluded
to by Tiberius, in one of his hypocritical speeches to the Roman senate,
as reported in Tacitus. “I know very well,” said he, “that many men will
condemn me for suffering Asia to build me a temple, as Spain at present
would do: but I will give you a reason for what I have done, and declare
my resolution for the future. The divine Augustus, whose actions and
words are so many inviolable laws to me, having consented that the
people of _Pergamus_ should dedicate a temple to him and the city of
Rome, I thought I might follow so great an example; so much the rather,
since the honour, intended me, was joined with the veneration paid to
the senate. But as on the one hand it might have been too great a piece
of severity to have denied it for once; so on the other, doubtless, it
would be too great a vanity and folly, to suffer one’s self to be adored
as a God, through all the provinces of the empire. Besides, it cannot
but be a great diminution to the glory of Augustus, to communicate it
indifferently to all the world. For my own part, I am mortal, and
subject to human infirmities; I am contented with being a prince here,
without being raised to the throne of a God. I protest to you, I desire
this testimony may be given of me to posterity. It will be glory enough
for me to be thought worthy of my ancestors; a vigilant prince, one who
is insensible of fear, when the commonwealth is in danger. These are the
temples and monuments which I desire to erect in your breasts: for works
of marble and brass, raised to the glory of princes, are contemned by
posterity as so many naked sepulchres, when their memory is condemned. I
entreat heaven to give me a serenity of mind, and a spirit to discern
and judge uprightly of the laws of God and man; and after my decease, I
confide, my fellow-citizens and allies will preserve my memory with
their blessings and praises.”
Mr. Turner found several ancient inscriptions at Pergamus. He ascended
the ancient Acropolis, which is built on a mount of about two hundred
feet height, overhanging the town: on the top are extensive remains of
the walls both of the Roman and Venetian city. Part of the walls are
built with large fluted columns, laid length-ways. Among the Roman ruins
are several immense arched caves under ground, about sixty feet deep. At
the top of the hill lay a large Corinthian capital, and half way down
the hill a small marble column, on which is a Greek inscription, now
illegible.
In a valley west of the Acropolis are considerable remains of a large
Roman amphitheatre; near which is a gate with part of a wall. The arch
of the gate is curiously inclined, being unequal; the only instance of
such an irregularity Mr. Turner ever saw in an ancient building. There
are also ruins of several Roman baths; in one of which was found a vase,
which has excited a great deal of admiration. Mr. Turner thus describes
it:—“It is of fine marble, and in good preservation, being only a
little broken round the rim. The shape of it is a flattened globe; on
the outside round the circumference of the centre are fifteen equestrian
figures in high-relief; nine of these have their heads much broken, nine
have their arms extended; the horses are all at full speed, and a race
is probably the subject represented, as none of the figures bear arms.
Five of the figures are clinging to their horses, and one appears to be
falling. Nothing,” continues Mr. Turner, “can exceed the spirit of the
execution; the very horses seem to breathe; above and below the figures
a band, on which is engraved the pattern of a laurel leaf, surrounds the
vase: a very correct engraving of which is given in the work of
Choiseul-Gouffier. There are said to have been seven of these vases at
Pergamus; six of which were taken to Constantinople.”
There are also in the neighbourhood of Bergamo, the present ruins of
this city, six tumuli; three large and three small[79].
NO. XIV.—PERSEPOLIS.
“——I know
The wealth,” she cries, “of every urn,
In which unnumbered rubies burn,
Beneath the pillars of CHILMINAR.”
MOORE;—_Lalla Rookh_.
This city is supposed to have been founded by the famous Jemsheed, from
whom it is to this day called Tuklit-e-Jemsheed;—the throne of
Jemsheed; a prince, to whom Persian authors attribute the invention of
many useful arts[80]; and to whom they refer the first great reform in
the manners and usages of their countrymen. He, also, introduced the
solar year; and ordered the first day of it, when the sun entered Aries,
to be celebrated as a festival[81].
An old Persian author has left the following description of
Persepolis:—“Jemsheed built a fortified palace at the foot of a hill,
which bounds the fine plain of Murdasht to the north-west. The platform,
on which it was built, has three faces to the plain, and one to the
mountain. It is formed of hard, black granite. The elevation from the
plain is ninety feet; and every stone, used in this building, is from
nine to twelve feet long, and broad in proportion. There are two great
flights of stairs to this palace, so easy of ascent, that a man can ride
up on horseback; and on the platform a palace has been erected, part of
which still remains in its original state, and part is in ruins. The
palace of Jemsheed is that, now called the Chesel-Setoon, or Forty
Pillars. Each pillar is formed of a carved stone, is sixty feet high,
and is ornamented in a manner so delicate, that it would seem to rival
upon hard granite the sculpture of a carving upon the softest wood.
There is no granite like that, of which these pillars are made, to be
now found in Persia: and it is unknown from whence it is brought. Some
most beautiful and extraordinary figures ornament this palace; and all
the pillars, which once supported the roof (for that has fallen) are
composed of three pieces of stone, joined in so exquisite a manner, as
to make the beholder believe, that the whole shaft is one piece. There
are several figures of Jemsheed in the sculpture; in one he has an urn
in his hand, in which he burns benjamin, while he stands adoring the
sun; in another, he is represented as seizing the mane of a lion with
one hand, while he stabs him with another.”
The remains of this city stands in one of the finest plains of Persia;
being eighteen or nineteen leagues in length, and in some places two, in
some four, and in others six leagues in breadth. It is watered by the
great river Araxes, and by a multitude of rivers beside. Within the
compass of this plain there are between one thousand and one thousand
five hundred villages, without reckoning those in the mountains, all
adorned with pleasant gardens, and planted with trees. The entrance of
this plain, on the west side, has received as much grandeur from nature,
as the city it covered could do from industry or art.
Some authors say, that to attempt any guess of the period when the city
first rose from the plain, would be useless, and that the only means,
now remaining, of forming any satisfactory conjectures, in regard to its
origin, can only reach to the probable era of the different remaining
ruins. When in Persia, however, Mr. Francklin met with a short account
of the building this palace, in MS., being part of a work, called Rouzut
al Sefa, or the Garden of Purity; of which he gives this as a
translation:—“It is related by historians, that King Jemsheed removed
the seat of government, which was formerly in the province of Sejestaun,
to Fars; and that in the neighbourhood of Shirauz, having taken in a
spot of ground, of twelve furlongs in length (forty-eight English
miles), he there erected such a palace, that in the seven kingdoms of
the world there was nothing that could equal it. The remains of that
palace, and many of the pillars of it, are visible to this day; and he
caused the palace to be called Chehul Minar, or Forty Pillars. Moreover,
when the sun, quitting the sign Pisces in the heavens, had entered
Aries, Jemsheed, having assembled all the princes, nobles, and great men
of his empire, at the foot of his imperial throne, did on that day
institute a grand and solemn festival; and this day was henceforth
called Noo Roze, or first day of the new year (when the foundation of
Persepolis was laid), at which period he commanded, from all parts of
the empire, the attendance of the peasants, husbandmen, soldiers, and
others, in order to prosecute the design; requesting that all, with
joyful hearts and willing hands, should lend their assistance in
completing the work. This numerous assembly obeyed the command of their
monarch, and the building was finished with all signs of mirth and
festivity.”
To this account the Persians add, that Queen Homaie, who flourished
about eight hundred years after Jemsheed, added a thousand columns.
Diodorus gives some account of the workmen, that were employed in
building this palace. “Cambyses, the son of Cyrus,” says he, “conquered
Egypt in the third year of the seventy-third olympiad, when he pillaged
the country and burnt the temples, the treasures of which the Persians
carried off into Asia; and they, also, led away with them the workmen
and architects of Egypt, whom they caused to build the famous palace of
Persepolis, and of several other cities.” This account appears the more
probable, since, as M. le Comte de Caylus is justly of opinion, they
cannot be attributed to the Persians before Cyrus; since Herodotus
describes the Persians of that age as a people of great simplicity;
having neither temples nor altars, but worshipping Jupiter on the
summits of mountains. The account, here given, is sufficient to account
for the Egyptian appearance of Persepolis. There are appearances of five
different buildings united in one; and each, apparently, of a different
age, after the manner of the Egyptians.
Though there are doubts as to the origin of Persepolis, there are none
as to the circumstance of its being destroyed by Alexander.
As the conqueror drew near the city[82], he perceived a large body of
men, who presented a most lamentable picture. These were about four
thousand Greeks, greatly advanced in years, who, having been taken
prisoners of war, had suffered all the torments which Persian tyranny
could invent. The hands of some had been cut off, the feet of others;
and others again had lost t
Showing first 200,000 characters. Full text: gutenberg.org/ebooks/44449