Chapter XI

IT will be remembered that while the _Assurance_ was with us, seven blacks, sent by Mr. Aquilina, arrived from Benghazi, and assisted in the transport of the statues. With these men we recommenced work on the 9th of June, by beginning the excavation of the large temple in the eastern part of the city, near the Stadium. The site seemed very promising, both on account of the extent and the apparently undisturbed state of the remains of the building. In fact, we had been prevented solely by want of workmen from digging here long before, as the temple was by far the largest, if not the most important, in Cyrene. We began as usual at the western end of the building, where we soon came to a large pedestal, 20 feet square, and 10 feet in height above the pavement. The total length of the temple, which consisted of _Pronaos_, _Cella_, and _Posticum_, was 169½ feet, by 58 feet in breadth. The interior of the _Cella_, 108 feet in length, was ornamented on each side with a marble colonnade of the Corinthian order. The bases of most of the columns were found _in situ_ on square pedestals, projecting from the lateral walls. They were two feet in diameter, with an intercolumniation of seven feet. The wall of the _Cella_ was built of stones of immense size, the surface of some of them measuring upwards of 40 square feet. Enough of the wall was left to show the manner in which it was built. The courses were alternately of long blocks of stone, about a foot deep, and equal in breadth to the thickness of the wall, and of large slabs laid on edge, back to back; care being taken to have the work well bonded. The marble _peribolus_ wall of the Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was built in an exactly similar manner, strength being, in both cases, sacrificed to appearance.

The exterior colonnade consisted altogether of forty-six columns; viz. seventeen on the sides and eight on the ends or fronts of the building. As in all the temples of Cyrene, the entrance was in the eastern front. The order was Doric, and the stone was the same as that of the temples of Bacchus and Apollo. As nearly as we could make out, the columns, which were fluted, were six feet in diameter at the base; but as they were much worn away, it was impossible to measure them very exactly. They had all fallen outwards, and many of the capitals, measuring nine feet in diameter, were to be seen cropping out above the surface of the ground. The architraves and beams must have been of great size, as the columns were 14 feet apart centre from centre, and 18 feet from the face of the wall of the _Cella_. The building stood within two degrees of due east and west.

In the course of our excavations we came upon innumerable fragments of sculpture, evidently of excellent style; but nothing was found in the least degree perfect. Amongst them we found, in the middle of the _Cella_, between the pillars, a male head in white marble, much mutilated, being nearly cracked in two and the nose broken off. It had been well executed, and the lips still retained a bright light-red colour. This head is rather larger than life. Even the marble columns of the interior of the _Cella_ were broken in small pieces, which could not have been the result of natural causes. Although the appearance of the remains clearly showed that the temple had been wantonly destroyed by the hand of man, the discovery of fragments of good style induced us to continue the excavation of the building.

In the _Pronaos_, and close to the entrance, we found a block of marble measuring 4′ 6″ × 2′ 1″ × 1′, with the inscription given in Plates 78, 79, No. 6, and on the opposite side of the _Pronaos_, a smaller slab, measuring 1′ 4″ × 1′ 3″ × 3″, with the inscription in two columns given in Plate 79, No 7. Both these contain lists of names, probably of persons contributing to some public subscription.

We also found fragments of an inscribed architrave of sandstone, and some pieces of copper and iron; among which may be mentioned a circular piece of iron, half an inch in thickness, with two handles like a small tub without a bottom. It was 8½ inches in diameter, and 6½ inches in height.

As there was no hope of finding anything undestroyed, we abandoned the building, after spending seven weeks in its excavation, the only part left unfinished being the centre of the _Cella_, which was covered with enormous blocks from the side walls. Outside the _Cella_, we only dug sufficiently far to discover the exact positions of the columns of the peristyle.

On the 17th of June, only nine days after the departure of the _Assurance_, we were most agreeably surprised by the unexpected appearance at our tomb of a large party of naval officers, consisting of Captain Jones and some of the officers of H.M.S. _Scourge_. They were the bearers of a telegram and a letter from Mr. Panizzi, by which we were informed that the trustees of the British Museum had voted us a further sum of £500, and had sent out a carpenter, Mr. Wm. Dennison, to assist in packing the statues, &c. He arrived in the _Scourge_, and remained with us till our departure from the country. Although there was little carpenter’s work to be done till near the close of the expedition, he was of great service in superintending the workmen.

The _Scourge_ had anchored off Marsa Sousah early in the morning, when Captain Jones and the rest of the party immediately started for Cyrene, guided by the directions given them by the officers of the _Assurance_. They lost their way, however, in climbing the Augubah, and did not reach Cyrene till nearly sunset, much fatigued by their long day’s wandering under a burning sun.

The following day, the 18th of June, being the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet, there was a great gathering of the Arabs on the upper plateau near Cyrene to celebrate the festival of the _Melood_, which we attended as spectators by the invitation of the sheikhs. When the men were all assembled, they dismounted and ranged themselves in a line of two ranks, with their horses picketed in the rear. A long prayer was then repeated aloud by the whole line, who made the usual prostrations together, like a regiment at drill. Prayers over, they remounted their horses, and the tournament began. An open level space being chosen, those about to engage in the games placed themselves in two irregular lines, facing each other, about 150 yards apart, the mere spectators like ourselves remaining at the sides. The object of the game, or rather exercise, is to show the skill of the rider in handling his weapons and directing his horse when at full gallop. A man, for instance, breaks out from one of the lines, and canters carelessly toward the other. Presently another horseman dashes after him in pursuit, and they tear along, _ventre à terre_, till they come close up to the opposite line, when they unsling their guns, aim, and fire at each other, at the same moment wheeling sharply to the right-about to avoid running into the line in front. At other times a number of men gallop straight up to the opposite line, deliver their fire, and wheel when at full speed, within a yard or two of the stationary line. Sometimes two horsemen engage in a sort of running duel, each man riding at full speed, and using pistols, blunderbuss, gun, and bayonet. Collisions at the wheeling-point were not unfrequent; and as the horses were always going at a great pace, it was wonderful that no one was killed. Some of the men were bruised and their horses lamed, and one man had several ribs broken. In consequence of the general introduction of firearms, this kind of amusement has taken the place of the older lance exercise and the throwing of the jereed.

The _Scourge_ being about to proceed to Alexandria to assist in laying the Malta telegraph cable, Captain Jones kindly offered to give us a passage to Derna if we wished to revisit that place. As we were in want of a number of things, we were glad to avail ourselves of the opportunity of going. We accordingly left Cyrene with Captain Jones and the other officers on the afternoon of the 18th, and got on board the same night. We started the following morning at daybreak, and anchored off Derna late in the afternoon, when we went ashore, and occupied our old quarters at Mr. De Fremeaux’s house, the _Scourge_ leaving soon after for Alexandria. Captain Jones had previously most kindly allowed us to take from the ship everything likely to prove useful to us. We remained at Derna two days, buying articles in the bazaar, and waiting for our horses and camels, which we had sent by land from Cyrene. When these had been somewhat rested after their arrival, we started on our return journey, and by travelling all night, with only an hour or two’s halt, reached Cyrene within twenty hours. Among other things which we brought from Derna were some thin deals, with which we furnished our tomb with a table, shelves, &c.

By this time our money was beginning to run short, and we hardly knew how we were to get a fresh supply. The trustees of the British Museum having given us authority to draw bills on them to the amount of £500, we were anxious, if possible, to get more workmen, and carry on our excavations on a larger scale during the remaining months of summer. As writing was apt to cause delay, I determined to go to Benghazi myself for the purpose of getting both money and men. I started on the afternoon of the 6th of July, accompanied by a single mounted Arab; and as time was now an object of great importance, I took no camels, and consequently had neither water nor baggage of any kind. By halting only a few hours each night, I reached Merdj at mid-day on the 8th, and left the same evening for Benghazi. Travelling all night and all next day, we arrived at Benghazi shortly after sunset on the 9th; thus accomplishing the whole journey of 160 miles in three days, and without water after leaving Merdj on the evening of the 8th. It was, of course, most fatiguing work both for man and horse, especially during the day, when the heat of the sun and the want of water were together almost intolerable.

As it would have been unsafe to carry a sum of money with me, Mr. Aquilina gave me two orders, one on Mr. De Fremeaux, at Derna, and the other on our friend Mohammed El Adouly, from both of whom we were to draw the amount in instalments as we required it. This proved, as was to be expected, a most convenient arrangement, although a Bedouin camp seemed an odd place for negotiating bills and keeping a banker’s account.

I had no difficulty in getting as many workmen as I wanted. The morning after my arrival Mr. Aquilina sent for the Sheikh Il Abid, or chief of the negroes, and told him that I wanted twenty good strong blacks to go to Cyrene, on the terms of five Turkish piastres (10_d._) a day and food for each man. These wages were very high for the country; but we had found it impossible to keep men at Cyrene, at such a distance from their wives and families, except by paying them so highly that they did not like to give up the work; and it was always difficult to get workmen to supply the places of those who left, as the blacks were afraid to come to Cyrene by themselves, on account of the danger of being seized and re-enslaved by the Arabs on the way. It was therefore advisable to pay such wages as would not only induce the workmen to remain with us after they came, but, by making dismissal from our service a severe punishment, would give us the means of enforcing obedience.

At an appointed hour, the Sheikh appeared at the Consulate with fifty or sixty men, all eager to be engaged; but as it would have been difficult to feed such a number, and as we had only a very limited supply of tools, I at first selected only twenty. Before leaving Benghazi, however, I was induced to take eight more, which, with the seven we already had at Cyrene, made up our number to thirty-five.

Soon after my arrival at Benghazi, I was visited by the Kaimacam in state, attended by the “heads of departments;” viz. the Colonel commanding the troops, the Cadi or Judge, the Collector of customs, and the Sheikh El Beléd, or chief of the town. Suliman Captan and some of the principal Arab inhabitants also called; so that I was obliged to devote an entire day to returning the visits. I found that the arrival and stay of the _Assurance_ had become magnified by report into a much more formidable affair than it was. The Kaimacam told me that he had been officially informed that an English fleet had come to Marsa Sousah and disembarked several thousand soldiers, who were to be employed in occupying the country; and that the laying of the telegraph was only a part of a general scheme of conquest. I had some difficulty in disabusing his mind of the impression that we had some ulterior object in view in the works we were carrying on at Cyrene. Our statues and waggons, according to the general belief, were artillery; our road to the coast, a military one for the use of the army of occupation; and our excavations, forts and batteries.

There was, of course, considerable delay in getting fairly started on the journey from Benghazi with such a number of blacks. By Mr. Aquilina’s advice I gave every man a small advance of pay, to enable him to get his own provisions for the journey; thereby saving me the trouble of providing for such a number. As there were no water-skins for sale in the bazaar, I had to send all over the town to get a sufficient number, and the endless debates with camel-drivers had to be undergone as usual.

At last, everything being ready and the men collected, we started on the afternoon of the 12th, and after filling the water-skins at the Garden of Osman, halted for the night near the foot of the Augubah, about six hours’ distance from Benghazi. Although the blacks knew there was no more water to be got till we reached Merdj, it required the greatest vigilance to keep them from drinking the whole of the contents of the girbehs before the morning. About mid-day on the 14th we arrived at Merdj, where I was very sorry to find our good friend Hadji Achmet Bin ’l Agha suffering from a violent attack of fever. Long before our arrival, the blacks, with their usual improvidence, had eaten all the food they had provided for the whole journey, and I was obliged to look out for a fresh supply. There was no bread to be had; but I fortunately got a sufficient quantity of dates to serve for the remainder of the distance.

After halting a day at Merdj, we resumed our journey at daybreak on the 16th. Shortly after passing the Libiar Il Gharib in the afternoon, I happened to be riding by myself through a wood about a mile ahead of the caravan, when my attention was attracted by about a dozen Arabs seated under a tree near the path, with their horses standing beside them. They looked rather suspicious, and commenced talking rapidly to each other as I came up; but as this was nothing unusual, I rode on, thinking that they were probably a travelling party halted for a rest. In a few minutes, however, I heard a loud shouting and screaming in the rear, and on hastening back to see what was the matter, I saw the negroes running in all directions, and in such a state of terror that it was some time before I could make out what had happened. I finally learned that the Arabs whom I had passed in the wood, had charged into the straggling caravan, and seized one of the negroes. While some of them were binding him on the back of a horse, the others formed a circle round him with their bayonets at the “charge,” and threatened to shoot any one that interfered. When their prisoner was secured, they rode off with him into the wood, and before I came up they had all disappeared. In the course of the evening I found out with some difficulty who the perpetrators of the outrage were; but although I at once wrote to Benghazi, nothing was ever done in the matter, the Kaimacam being unwilling, or more probably unable, to apprehend the offenders.

Next day we passed Gusr Biligadem, and leaving the caravan, halted near the Zauyah El Beidah: I rode on the same night to Cyrene. The blacks arrived the following day, and told me that the Achwani of the Zauyah had refused to give them even a drop of water, because they were in the service of “Christian dogs.”

By the time I reached Cyrene, the excavation of the large temple near the Stadium was almost finished, and the smaller temple near it had just been commenced. Before we had dug far, we found unmistakeable proofs that the latter building, like the former, had been purposely destroyed. It was built on a small rocky eminence which commands one of the finest views to be had within the walls of the city. The _Ædes_, consisting of _Cella_ and _Pronaos_, occupied the summit, the surrounding rock being cut in terraces, so that the peristyle was on a lower level than the _Ædes_. Like other temples, it stood nearly east and west. In the western end of the _Cella_ were two courses of a pedestal measuring 26 feet by 15, a little to the east of which the floor of the _Cella_ sank two feet. The eastern front had so entirely disappeared, that a satisfactory plan of the entrance could not be made, and the positions of the columns marked on the Plan are partly conjectural. The columns themselves, many fragments of which were lying around the temple, were deeply fluted, and of the Doric order, and measured 4 feet 5 inches in diameter. In the eastern or lower part of the _Cella_ we discovered a few fragments of sculpture of very fine style, but so small and so few in number, as to make us only sorry that there were no more. The most perfect of these fragments were two small marble statuettes, probably of Venus and the nymph Cyrene, which have been photographed together (Plate 67); and perhaps the most remarkable were three or four parts of a colossal male head now put together in the British Museum. As it measures 1 foot 8 inches in height, the statue to which it belonged must have been 11 or 12 feet high; but not another fragment of it was to be seen.

CYRENE. PLAN OF THE SMALLER TEMPLE NEAR THE STADIUM. BY COMMANDER E. A. PORCHER R.N.

_Day & Son, Lithrs. to the Queen_]

Shortly before this time, we had discovered a statue of Minerva, and another female dressed statue, rather larger than life, at the place marked on the Plan “Statue of Minerva.” Both statues were but little injured, so that we hoped, by digging some distance round the place, to find the heads. We therefore employed more than half our force in excavating at this place and at the other points near it marked on the Plan; but we discovered nothing. The removal of the two statues to our tomb was the first occasion on which we made use of the stone-trucks brought by the _Assurance_. In the course of the excavations, we found several _frusta_ of fluted marble columns, which no doubt formed part of the building to which the statues belonged. The small building between the statue of Minerva and the wall of the citadel was probably a monument.

On the 31st of July we returned with our whole force to the Temple of Apollo and its immediate neighbourhood. As already mentioned, it was only now that we were able to complete the excavation of that building. Besides the sculptures found in the Temple itself, we discovered on its northern and eastern sides altogether four statues, four statuettes, fourteen heads of different sizes, and seven inscriptions. A seated figure, rather larger than life, which was lying on the surface, was noticed by Beechey, who thought it was Diana; but which we made out to be Archippe, of the family of the Ptolemaic dynasty, from the following inscription on the base:—

ΑΡΧΙΠΠΑΝΠΤΟΛΕΜΑΙΟΥ

ΕΥΙΝΙΕΡΙΤΕΥΟΥΣΑΝΠΤΟΛΕ.

It was in a very imperfect state of preservation, owing to its long exposure on the surface of the ground.

Near it we found what appeared to be a copy of itself on a small scale, so much alike in every respect were the two figures. The girdle encircling the waist was distinctly striped on both edges with bright vermilion. The most remarkable of the large statues found at this place was a colossal female figure, seven feet in height, in very good condition; most probably a portrait of one of the queens of Egypt (Photograph Plate 68). The head was separate, and the body broken in two, the lower half of which was found in an upright position, and the upper half lying across it, with the head on the top. Another statue, life-size, discovered here, was a draped figure, the portrait of an old man; and among the smaller statues may be mentioned a nude figure of Bacchus, 3 feet 7 inches in height.

At the western end of the platform, near the large theatre, we excavated the small building marked on the Plan, in which we found a statuette and some small marble heads. We also examined the ruins toward the eastern end of the platform, but found no traces of sculpture in any of them.

We finished the above excavations near the Temple of Apollo on the 14th of August, after which we tried nine separate buildings in different parts of the city without success. On the 23rd we commenced the excavation of the building to the westward of the Temple of Bacchus, marked “Palace” on the Map. Our attention was attracted to this place by the torso of a Roman emperor in armour, which had been seen forty years before by Beechey, who was of opinion that it was the statue of one of the Ptolemies. Considering the number of years it must have lain exposed on the surface of the ground, the marble was in a wonderfully good state of preservation. After removing it to our tomb, we commenced digging in the immediate neighbourhood of the spot in which it was found. In the course of our excavations we found traces of a large building consisting of several rooms, some of which had their walls and floors veneered with thin slabs of marble. The division of the building into separate rooms, its central and prominent position in the city, and the nature of the sculpture we discovered in it, led us to believe that it had most probably been the palace of the Roman governor. Lying on the floor about four feet below the surface, we found a large female draped statue in very good condition, measuring 5 feet 11 inches in height, but without the head, which we failed to discover. We also found busts, life-size, of Antoninus Pius and another Roman emperor, quite uninjured (Photograph Plates 69 and 70); a female bust well preserved, three heads, and three inscriptions. These sculptures, as they were found, were all thickly coated with an incrustation of sand and lime, which has been most successfully removed in the British Museum by frequently steeping them in warm water.

From the 3rd of September little excavation was done for a fortnight, most of our workmen being employed in improving and repairing the road to Marsa Sousah, preparatory to the removal of the statues when a vessel should arrive. The point that particularly required our attention was the Augubah, near the shore, which had caused so much trouble and delay when the _Assurance_ was with us. On that occasion, we had discovered the track of the ancient road winding round the faces of the hills at a comparatively easy slope; and we now resolved to make it, if possible, practicable for the waggons. In many parts it was almost quite hidden with brushwood, and in others it had totally disappeared, owing to the slip of its embankment or retaining-wall, caused by the rush of water down the steep face of the hill during the heavy rains in winter. By clearing away the brushwood, restoring cuttings and embankments, and in some places making an entirely new section, we succeeded in forming a road by which it was possible to take the waggons up and down the mountain without resorting to the laborious and tedious expedients which we had formerly been obliged to adopt. We also cleared and improved our old road the whole way from Cyrene.

Meantime, a few men had been employed digging at the site marked “Temple of Venus,” a little to the south-west of the Temple of Bacchus. When the road to Marsa Sousah was finished, we employed all the workmen at this building, the excavation of which we had barely finished when H.M.S. _Melpomene_ arrived on the 26th of September. Of the temple itself nothing but the foundations remained, although it yielded a large amount of sculpture.

The _Ædes_, which consisted of _Cella_ and _Pronaos_, was 84 feet in length by 35 feet in breadth. No trace of a peristyle could be found. The floor of the western half of the _Cella_ was on a higher level than that of the rest of the building, access being had to it by flights of steps in front and at the sides, as shown in the Plan and Section. At the corners of the steps were two circular pedestals, on the northern of which faint traces of an inscription could be seen, although it was too much worn away to be deciphered. In the eastern part of the _Cella_ were six large pedestals of sandstone _in situ_, on which, in all probability, stood the statues which we found near them. As the floor of the Temple was covered with only three or four feet of soil, we completed the excavation of the whole building in little more than a week. We found statues and other pieces of sculpture in every part of it, but did not discover either the principal statue or any inscription by which the Temple could certainly be identified. Our reason for calling it the “Temple of Venus,” was that we found in it altogether statues or statuettes of that goddess. One of these, a small nude figure of Venus Euploia, is remarkably graceful (Photograph Plate 71). In some of the other figures she is represented half-draped, with Cupid by her side, seated on a dolphin (Photograph Plate 72). Three of the statues discovered in this temple were life-size, or rather larger. One of them is the figure of a female, perhaps a queen, with a very peculiar head- dress (Photograph Plate 73), and the two others, which may be called a _pair_ of statues, represent hunters equipped for the chase. The smaller statues, besides those of Venus, were, one of Pan, 3 feet 11 inches in height, and a draped one, 4 feet 8 inches in height, of Apollo or Aristæus resting on a rod encircled by the coils of a serpent. Both of these figures were all but perfect, and that of Pan still retained much of its original colouring. We also discovered three female busts in very perfect condition, two of which, of life-size, had curious high head- dresses, somewhat Elizabethan in appearance (Photograph Plate 74). The other, which is considerably smaller, is of a peculiarly transparent marble resembling alabaster. Some heads were also found besides those belonging to the statues and statuettes; among which may be mentioned a perfect one of Minerva, smaller than the similar head found in the Temple of Apollo, and a small marble head of Perseus (Photograph Plate 75). A slab of marble was also found, containing in relief a representation of Libya crowning with laurel the nymph Cyrene, who is in the act of strangling a lion (Photograph Plate 76). Beneath the group, and on the same slab, are four lines of inscription which explain the allegorical myth which forms the subject of the sculpture.

CYRENE. PLAN OF A TEMPLE TO THE S.W. OF THE TEMPLE OF BACCHUS. BY COMMANDER E. A. PORCHER R.N.

Day & Son, Lith. to the Queen]

In the Temple of Venus we discovered altogether six statues of various sizes, twenty-nine small statuettes, three busts, twenty-six separate heads, including those which belonged to the statues and statuettes, one bas-relief, and three inscriptions. About ten yards to the eastward of the Temple we saw the two pedestals containing the inscriptions copied by Beechey.