Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2)

PREFACE

The reader is requested to observe, that, though the plan of this work is entirely his own, the compiler of it does not put it forth as in any way original in respect to language or description. It is, in fact, a much better book, than if it had been what is strictly called original, (which, indeed, must have involved an utter impossibility:) for it is a selection of some of the best materials the British Museum could furnish; sometimes worked up in his own language; and sometimes – and, indeed, very frequently – in that of others: the compiler having, at an humble distance and with unequal steps, followed the plan which M. Rollin proposed to himself, when he composed his celebrated history of ancient times. – "To adorn and enrich my own," says that celebrated writer, "I will be so ingenuous as to confess, that I do not scruple, nor am ashamed, to rifle whereever I come; and that I often do not cite the authors from whom I transcribe, because of the liberty I take to make some slight alterations. I have made the best use in my power of the solid reflections that occur in the Bishop of Meaux's Universal History, which is one of the most beautiful and most useful books in our language. I have also received great assistance from the learned Dean Prideaux's 'Connexion of the Old and New Testament,' in which he has traced and cleared up, in an admirable manner, the particulars relating to ancient history. I shall take the same liberty with whatever comes in my way, that may suit my design, and contribute to its perfection. I am very sensible, that it is not so much for a person's reputation to make use of other men's labours, and that it is in a manner renouncing the name and quality of author. But I am not over-fond of that title, and shall be extremely well pleased, and think myself very happy, if I can but deserve the name of a good compiler; and supply my readers with a tolerable history, who will not be over-solicitous to inquire what hand it comes from, provided they are but pleased with it."

Having followed this example, – the compiler wishes he could say with equal effect, – he will be fully satisfied, should judicious readers feel inclined to concede, that he has shown some judgment in selecting his materials, and some taste in binding "the beads of the chain," that connects them together. He disclaims, in fact, (as, in the present instance, he is bound to do), all the "divine honours" of authorship; satisfied with those of a selecter, adapter, and compiler; and happy in the hope that he has here, by means of the superior writers, whose labours he has used, furnished his readers with an useful, accurate, and amusing work.

London, January 1st, 1840.

NO. I. – ABYDOS

This city stood on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont, now called the Dardanelles, opposite to the city of Sestos, on the European side, the distance from each other being about two miles. Abydos was built by the Milesians, and became greatly celebrated from the circumstance that it was here that Xerxes built his bridge over the Hellespont; – also for the loves of Hero and Leander.

Philip, king of Macedon, laid siege to this city, and nothing of what is generally practised in the assaulting and defending of cities was omitted in the siege. No place, say the historians, was ever defended with greater obstinacy, which might be said at length, on the side of the besieged, to have risen to fury and brutality. Confiding in its own strength, they repulsed, with the greatest vigour, the approaches of the Macedonians. Finding, however, at last, that the outer wall of their city was sapped, and that the Macedonians carried their mines under the inner one, they sent deputies to Philip, offering to surrender the city on certain conditions, one of which was, that all the free citizens should retire whithersoever they pleased, with the clothes they then had on. These conditions were not approved by Philip, he therefore sent for answer, that the Abydonians had only to choose, whether they would surrender at discretion or continue to defend themselves gallantly as they had before done.

When the citizens heard this they assembled together, to consider what they should do in so great an emergency; and here we have to record, not in our own language but in that of others, for our pen would be unequal to the description, circumstances scarcely to be paralleled in all history! It is thus given by Rollin: —

They came to these resolutions; first, that the slaves should be set at liberty, to animate them to defend the city with the utmost vigour; secondly, that all the women should be shut up in the temple of Diana, and all the children with their nurses in the Gymnasium; that this being done, they then should bring into the great square all the gold and silver in the city, and carry all the rest of the valuable effects into the quadrireme of the Rhodians and the trireme of the Cyzicenians. This resolution having passed unanimously, another assembly was called, in which they chose fifty of the wisest and most ancient of the citizens, but who at the same time had vigour enough left to execute what should have been determined; and they were made to take an oath, in presence of all the inhabitants, that the instant they saw the enemy master of the inner wall they should kill the women and children, set fire to the galleys laden with their effects, and throw into the sea all the gold and silver which they had heaped together. Then, sending for their priests, they took an oath either to conquer or die, sword in hand; and after having sacrificed the victims, they obliged the priests and priestesses to pronounce before the altar the greatest curses on those who should break their oath. This being done, they left off countermining, and resolved, the instant the wall should fall, to fly to the breach and fight to the last. Accordingly, the inward wall tumbling, the besieged, true to the oath they had taken, fought in the breach with such unparalleled bravery, that though Philip had perpetually sustained with fresh soldiers those who had mounted to the assault, yet, when night separated the combatants, he was still doubtful with regard to the success of the siege. Such Abydonians as marched first to the breach, over the heaps of slain, fought with fury, and not only made use of their swords and javelins, but after their arms were broken to pieces or forced from their hands, they rushed furiously upon the Macedonians, knocked down some, broke the long spears of others, and with the pieces struck their faces and such parts of their bodies as were uncovered, till they made them entirely despair of the event. When night had put an end to the slaughter, the breach was quite covered with the dead bodies of the Abydonians, and those who had escaped were so prodigiously fatigued, and had received so many wounds, that they could scarce support themselves. Things being brought to this dreadful extremity, two of the principal citizens, unable to execute the dreadful resolution that had been taken, and which at that time displayed itself to their imaginations in all its horror, agreed that, to save their wives and children, they should send to Philip by day-break all their priests and priestesses, clothed in pontifical habits, to implore his mercy and open their gates to him. Accordingly the next morning the city, as had been agreed, was surrendered to Philip, during which the greatest part of the Abydonians, who survived, vented millions of imprecations against their fellow-citizens, and especially against the priests and priestesses, for delivering up to the enemy those whom they themselves had devoted to death with the most dreadful oaths. Philip marched into the city and seized, without the least opposition, all the rich effects which the Abydonians had heaped together in one place. But now he was greatly terrified with the spectacle he saw. Among these ill-fated citizens, whom despair had made furious and distracted, some were strangling their wives and children; and others cutting them with swords to pieces; some were running to murder them; some were plunging them into wells; whilst others were precipitating them from the tops of the houses; in a word, death appeared in a variety of horrors. Philip, pierced with grief, and seized with horror at the spectacle, stopped the soldiers who were greedy of plunder, and published a declaration, importing that he would allow three days to all, who were resolved to lay violent hands on themselves. He was in hopes that during this interval they would change their resolution, but they had made their choice before. They thought it would be degenerating from those, who had lost their lives in fighting for their country, should they survive them. The individuals of every family killed one another, and none escaped this murderous expedition but those whose hands were tied, or were otherwise kept from destroying themselves.

Nothing now remains of the ancient town, but a few insignificant ruins in the neighbourhood of the modern one1.

NO. II. – ABYDUS

Abydus, in Egypt, is now called Madfuneh, or the Buried City. According to Pliny and Strabo it was a colony of Milesians. It is said once to have nearly equalled Thebes in grandeur and magnificence; but it was reduced to a village in the reign of Augustus, and is now only a heap of uninhabited ruins.

In its neighbourhood, however, the celebrated tomb of Ismandes is still found; he who built the temple of Osiris, into which no singers or dancers were ever allowed to enter. Besides numerous tombs and sepulchral monuments, that are continually found here, the remains of two grand edifices, and other ruins, evince its former extent, and justify the assertion of Strabo, that Abydus formerly held the first rank after Thebes itself. One of those edifices was called the Palace of Memnon; but it was, in reality, commenced by Osirei, and completed by his son Remesis II., and from the peculiar nature of its plan, and the structure of its roof, it is particularly interesting to the antiquary. This last is formed of large blocks of stone placed from one architrave to the other; not, as usual in Egyptian buildings, on their faces, but on their sides; so that considerable thickness having been given to the roof, a vault was afterwards cut in them, without endangering its stability. The other building is the famous temple of Osiris, who was reported to have been buried in Abydus, and who was worshipped there in his most sacred character. There are many other places, says Plutarch, where his corpse is said to have been deposited; but Abydus and Memphis are mentioned in particular as having the true body; and for this reason the rich and powerful of the Egyptians were desirous of being buried in the former of these two cities, in order to lie, as it were, in the same grave with Osiris himself. The fact, that the natives of other towns also were buried at Abydus, is fully confirmed by modern discoveries; and inscriptions, purporting that the deceased were from some distant part of the country, are frequently found in the tombs of its extensive cemetery. The temple of Osiris was completed by Remesis II., who enriched it with a splendid sanctuary, rendered unusually conspicuous from the materials used in its construction, being entirely lined with oriental alabaster. He also added to the numerous chambers and courts many elegant and highly-finished sculptures. One of these lateral apartments contains the famous tablet of kings, discovered by Mr. Bankes, and which, in an historical point of view, is one of the most precious monuments hitherto met with among the ruins of Egypt. In the cemetery to the northward are some other stone remains, among which is one of the time of Remesis the Second, and another bearing the name of Sabaco.

The reservoir mentioned by Strabo, which was cased with stone, may be traced on the east side of the ancient town; and in the mountain, to the north-west, are some limestone quarries, and an inclined road leading to a narrow grotto, in an unfinished state, and without sculpture.

The Arabs, in searching for treasure, have heaped up piles of earth and rubbish; but there are no inhabitants2.

NO. III. – ÆGESTA

The sterile country between Trapani and Alcamo (in Sicily) may render the stranger better prepared to contemplate one of the finest of ancient monuments – all that remains of Ægesta, celebrated for the temple of the Erycinian Venus. This town, situated on a height at the base of Mount Eryx, was deserted and almost in ruins at so early a period as the time of Strabo.

All travellers, who have examined the temple, are unanimous in its commendation. "The effect it produced at a distance," says Mons. Simon, "increased as I approached. Such is the magic of its proportions, and the beauty of its forms, that, at whatever side it may be viewed, it is equally admirable. It has braved the influence of time – the edifice stands entire, columns, entablature, pediment – all except the cella and roof, which have disappeared. The columns, of the Ionic order, are about seven feet in diameter at the base, tapering towards the top, and only four diameters in height; but they form, with the front, a total height of fifty-eight feet. The dimensions of the interior are about one hundred and seventy-four feet by seventy-two."

This city was destroyed by Agathocles. At a subsequent time it was the residence of the tyrant Æmilius Censorinus, who offered rewards to such artists as were the most ingenious in the invention of instruments of torture!3

NO. IV. – ÆGINA

"We seated ourselves on a fallen column," says Mr. Williams, "and could not but admire the scene before us: Attica, Peloponnesus, and the gulf of Ægina, with their many points of attraction, addressing both the eye and the mind! While we were enjoying the splendid view, two shepherds stepped from the ruins, and passing their crooks from their right hand to their left, pressed their hearts and foreheads, and kissed their hands in a manner than which nothing could be more graceful. Their eyes bespoke their curiosity to know what brought us there; and when we looked across the gulf, they both exclaimed, 'Athenæ! Athenæ!' as if we were desirous to know the name of the distant spot, that marked the site of Athens."

Servius Sulpitius mentions Ægina in a very agreeable manner to Cicero, who was then grieving for the loss of his daughter Tullia: – "Once," said he, "when I was in distress, I received a sensible alleviation of my sorrow from a circumstance, which, in the hope of its having the same influence upon you, I will take this opportunity of relating. I was returning from Asia; and as I was steering my course, I began to contemplate the surrounding country. Behind me was Ægina; Megara in the front; the Piræus occupied my right hand, and Corinth my left. These cities, once flourishing, were now reduced to irretrievable ruin. 'Alas!' said I, somewhat indignantly, 'shall man presume to complain of the shortness and the ills of life, whose being in this world is necessarily short, when I see so many cities, at one view, totally destroyed?' This reflection, my friend, relieved my sorrow."

Mr. Dodwell, when he was in Ægina, lodged at the house of the principal Greek, who was acquainted with the leading particulars of its history; and when he talked of its former grandeur, and compared it with its present abject condition, the tears came into his eyes, and he exclaimed – "Alas! where is Ægina now?"

The island of Ægina lies between Attica and Argolis, eighteen miles distant from the coast of Athens and fourteen from Epidaurus. It does not exceed nine miles in its greatest length, nor six miles in its greatest breadth; its interior is rough and mountainous, and the valleys, though they are made to bear corn, cotton, olive, and fruit trees, are stony and narrow. Notwithstanding this, in ancient days, through the blessings of commerce, this spot in the seas of Greece was the residence of a numerous and most thriving population, who created upon it such works as are still the admiration of the civilised world, though they are now in ruins; the place, however, of those who built them, is scantily occupied by an impoverished and degraded race of men.

The people of Ægina were the first who coined money to be subservient to the uses of life, agreeably to the advice of Phidon, who considered that a maritime commerce would best be promoted, where exchange and accommodation became easy and familiar between the vendor and purchaser.

The place, too, had the advantage of security; an important point in the earlier ages of Greece, when piracy was a common and honourable profession. It lay deep within a gulf; nature had made access to its shores difficult, by nearly encircling them with rocks and sand-banks; and its industrious population added artificial defences. Its port also was commodious, and well protected against the attacks of man. Here, therefore, the goods procured, far and near, by the enterprising inhabitants, could be lodged without fear of pillage, and the Greeks would resort hither as to a general mart, where whatever they wanted might be purchased. Wealth would thus flow into the island, and its inhabitants, with their exquisite feeling for all that was beautiful, would employ their wealth in cultivating the fine arts, and in covering their barren rocks with grand and graceful edifices; and this was shown by the ancient inhabitants of Ægina having had the honour of introducing a style in sculpture superior to all that preceded, though inferior to the ultimate perfection of the Athenian school.

Ægina was, originally, subject to kings; but it afterwards adopted the republican form of government. It was at length reduced by the Athenians, and continued subject to them, till, at the end of the Macedonian war, it was declared free by the Romans. In the reign of Vespasian, however, it underwent the same fortune as the other states of Greece.

A. D. 1536, it was subdued by the Turks, after an obstinate resistance; the capital was plundered and burned; and, after a great slaughter of the inhabitants, the rest were carried into slavery – not an unworthy fate, had it occurred in ancient times, for a people, who were possessed of 420,000 slaves!

The site of Ægina, the capital of the island, has long been forsaken. Instead of the temples, mentioned by Pausanias, there are thirteen lonely churches, all very mean, and two Doric columns supporting their architrave. These stand by the sea-side toward the low cape; and, it has been supposed, are a remnant of a temple of Venus, which was situated by the port principally frequented. The theatre, which is recorded as greatly worth seeing, resembled that of the Epidaurians, both in size and workmanship. It was not far from the private port; the stadium, which like that at Priene, was constructed with only one side, being joined to it behind, and each structure mutually sustaining and propping the other.

The most celebrated of its edifices was the temple of Jupiter Panhellenius. "This temple," says Colonel Leake, "was erected upon a large paved platform, and must, when complete, have been one of the most remarkable examples in Greece of the majesty and beauty of its sacred edifices, as well as of the admirable taste with which the Greeks enhanced those qualities by an attention to local situation and surrounding scenery. It is not only in itself one of the finest specimens of Grecian architecture, but is the more curious as being, in all probability, the most ancient example of the Doric order in Greece, with the exception of the columns at Corinth." This temple is far from any habitation, and is surrounded with shrubs and small pine-trees. No ruin in Greece is more rich in the picturesque, as every point of view has some peculiar charm: – "When I was at Ægina," says Mr. Dodwell, "the interior of the temple was covered with large blocks of stone, and overgrown with bushes. This circumstance produced a sort of confusion, which, while it intermingled the trees and the architecture, made a great addition to the picturesque effect of the interesting scene. The place has since been cleared, the stones have been taken away, and the trees cut down to facilitate the removal of the statues which were found among the ruins. Though these changes may have made some deduction from the pleasure with which the painter would have viewed the spot, yet they have added greatly to the gratification of the classical traveller, by whom all the architectural details may now be readily examined and accurately discriminated."

This ruin Dr. Chandler considers as scarcely to be paralleled in its claim to remote antiquity. The situation on a lonely mountain at a distance from the sea has preserved it from total demolition, and all the changes and accidents of numerous centuries4.

Lusieri classes the architecture of the temple of the Panhellenian Jupiter at Ægina with that of Pæstum in Lucania: – "In their buildings," says he, "the Doric order attained a pre-eminence which it never passed; not a stone has been there placed without some evident and important design; every part of the structure bespeaks its own essential utility. Of such a nature were works in architecture, when the whole aim of the architect was to unite grandeur with utility; the former being founded on the latter. All then was truth, strength, and sublimity."

In 1811, several statues of Parian marble were discovered by two English gentlemen and two Germans5, the rivals in the style of which are said nowhere to be found. They were excavated from the two extremities of the temple below the tympana, from which they had fallen at some unknown period. Mr. Dodwell has given the following account of them: – "I shall not attempt," says he, "a minute description of these precious remains of the Æginetic school; the discovery of which, in its importance, has not been surpassed by any of the kind in modern times. They are supposed by some to represent the principal heroes of the Iliad contending with the Trojans for the body of Patroclus. Minerva, armed with her helmet, is the principal figure; and from its superior size, is conjectured to have stood in the centre of the tympanum, below which it was found. The other figures are combatants in various costumes and attitudes; their shields are circular, and their helmets crowned with the lophos. The bodies of some are naked, while others are covered with armour or leather; their attitudes are judiciously adapted to the four tympana, and the places which they occupied. They were evidently made prior to the introduction of the beautiful ideal in Grecian sculpture. The muscles and the veins, which are anatomically correct, exhibit the soft flexibility of life, and every motion of the body is in scientific harmony with that of nature. The limbs are strong, though not Herculean, and elegant without effeminacy; no preposterous muscular protuberance, no unnatural feminine delicacy offends the eye. They are noble without being harsh or rigid, and are composed with Doric severity mingled with the airy grace of youthful forms; the perfection of the finish is quite wonderful; every part being in a style worthy of the most beautiful cameo. The extremities of the hands and feet merit more particular admiration. Indeed, the ancients thought that elegant fingers and nails were essential ingredients in the composition of the beautiful. The most extraordinary circumstance, however, in these statues, is the want of expression, and the sameness of countenance, which is to be observed in all the heads. This approximation to identity is certainly not fortuitous; for the artists, who were able to throw so much varied beauty into the forms of the bodies, were, no doubt, fully able to infuse a similar diversity of expression into the features. Their talent was probably confined to one style of countenance by some religious prejudice. Perhaps some ancient and much venerated statue served as a model, from which it might not have been consistent with the feeling of reverence, or with the state of opinion, to deviate. The formation and posture of the bodies afforded a greater scope and a wider field for the talent of the sculptor; for while the Doric severity of the early Æginetic school is evidently diffused through the whole, yet a correctness of muscular knowledge; and a strict adherence to natural beauty, are conspicuously blended in every statue. An unmeaning and inanimate smile is prevalent in all the faces; every one of the heroes, who is mortally wounded, is supporting himself in the most beautiful attitude, and smiling upon death! In short, the conquerors and the conquered, the dying and dead, have all one expression, or rather none at all. The high finish of the hair is particularly worthy of notice. Some in curls, which hang down in short ringlets, are of lead, and still remain. The helmets were ornamented with metallic accessories, and the offensive weapons were probably of bronze; but they have not been found. All the figures have been painted; the colour is still visible, though nearly effaced. The colour on the ægis of Minerva is very distinguishable; but the white marble, of which the statues are composed, has assumed a yellow dye from the soil in which they were buried."