Chapter XVI (2)

The cella is not placed opposite to the entrance of the tomb, as is usual in other examples, but on the right hand side of it in entering; and this arrangement has been made in conformity with the position of the rock in which it is excavated, and not from any caprice on the part of the architect. The date of this tomb would appear, from its architectural details, to be posterior to the time of the Ptolemies; but no degeneracy of style is observable in the paintings, which would not disgrace the best periods of Grecian art. We must at the same time recollect, that the architecture employed in the decoration of excavated tombs is not to be judged by so severe a standard as that which is applicable to the exteriors of _buildings_; the details in the first case are purely ornamental, and may be placed in the same scale with those of interiors, in which the fancy of the architect is always left more at liberty than it can be allowed to be in external decoration: and what would therefore be bad taste in one of these instances is not necessarily such in the other. Neither does it appear to have been the practice of the ancients to give an air of gloom or sadness to the abodes which they allotted to the service of the dead, and on which they have bestowed, at all periods, so much labour and expense. We find historic, allegorical, and pastoral subjects represented on such occasions in the gayest colours; as if it had been their wish to disarm death of its terrors, and to moderate the intensity of affliction by diverting the mind from the loss of the deceased to the honours which are paid to their memory. The shades of the departed were also supposed to take delight in the attention bestowed upon their mortal remains; and to wander with complacency over the gay and costly chambers which piety and affection had consecrated to their use. A departure from the established practice of the ancients in the exterior decorations of their temples and public buildings, ought not then perhaps to be received, in the instances mentioned, as a mark of vitiated taste, or of the recent date of the fabric in which such anomaly may be observed: and in applying this remark to the excavated tombs at Cyrene (scarcely any two of which are alike in their proportions) we have the more reason to regret the almost total absence of inscriptions, by which the dates of the several fabrics might be clearly ascertained. It is probable that many of these might be found on tablets, once let into, or placed over, some part of each tomb; and now buried beneath the soil and the wrecks of the exterior façades, which incumber the chambers and the approaches to them. In many instances busts have been placed over the pediments of the outer porticoes, and we often found fragments of statues in the chambers and cellæ within. So many of the tombs are however filled up to a considerable height above the level of their pavement with an accumulation of soil from without, that it is scarcely possible to say what they contain; while the entrances are usually incumbered with the fragments of the fallen porticoes which once formed the ornaments of the exteriors. On the day of our arrival at Cyrene we perceived the marble bust of a female figure, from which the head had been recently broken, lying in front of one of the excavated tombs; and on inquiring of some straggling Arabs, who had preceded us, what was become of the remainder, they at first pleaded ignorance on the point altogether; but on our proving to them, from the whiteness of the fractured parts, that we were certain the head must have been very lately broken off, they asked us what we would give them if they should find it. A bargain was now made that if the head were at all perfect, so as to be worth our taking it away, they should have a Spanish dollar for bringing it; but if we left it in their possession they were only to have the head for their pains. The words were no sooner uttered than one of the fellows scrambled into a tomb close at hand, and brought out with him the relic in question; which was, however, so much defaced by the process which had been employed in severing it from the body, as to be wholly unworthy of removal, and it was left by the side of the trunk with the full and free consent of both parties. We are sorry to say that the practice of breaking heads from the figures has been very general at Cyrene; and has been occasioned in many instances by the inability of the Arabs to carry off a whole statue to Bengazi or Tripoly (where they might have a chance of disposing of it to advantage) and their eagerness to secure the profits which might result to them from the transport and sale of a part of it. We took care to make it generally understood, after this discovery, that we would never purchase anything that had been recently mutilated; and that we should certainly complain to Bey Mahommed at Derna whenever we heard that any injury of the kind had been committed on his Highness’s property.

If the excavated tombs of Cyrene have been pointed out as objects of no trivial interest, those, also, which have been _built_ in every part of its neighbourhood are no less entitled to our attention and admiration. Several months might be employed in making drawings and plans of the most conspicuous of these elegant structures; and the few examples which our short stay allowed us to secure them (as given in the plate, page 464) will give but an imperfect idea of the variety observable in their forms and details. Many of these are built in imitation of temples, although there are scarcely two of them exactly alike; and their effect on the high ground on which they mostly stand, as seen from different parts of the city and suburbs, is more beautiful than we can pretend to describe. A judicious observer might select from these monuments, as well as from the excavated tombs above mentioned, examples of Grecian and Roman architecture through a long succession of interesting periods; and the progress of the art might thus be traced satisfactorily, from its early state among the first inhabitants of Cyrene, to its degeneracy and final decay under Roman colonists in the decline of the empire.

The larger tombs were usually divided in the centre by a wall along the whole length of the building (which is the case in one of those represented in the plate, p. 464), and several bodies were disposed one over the other in each of the compartments thus obtained. Every place containing a body was covered with a slab of marble or stone, in the manner of those described in the excavated tombs; and there were sometimes two of these places abreast of each other, and the same number at their head or feet, according to the size of the tomb. Innumerable busts and statues originally adorned the constructed tombs (as we have already observed to be the case in those which have been excavated in the mountain), and many of these are still seen half buried beneath heaps of rubbish and soil, at the foot of the buildings they once surmounted. Those entirely above ground we usually found broken in several pieces, or mutilated so as to be much disfigured; but we have not the least doubt that there are many of them still existing in a perfect state, within a few feet, and often a few inches, of the surface, which might easily be obtained by excavation.

Two Arabs of the place, who had one day observed us looking at some of the statues here alluded to, came the next morning to our tent, and gave us to understand that they knew of one, in a perfect condition, which they could point out to us for an adequate reward. We made the only bargain with them which it would have been safe to conclude, among so many mutilated pieces, lying round us in all directions, which was simply, that if it proved to be worth taking away we would give them a certain number of dollars for the information which they had afforded us. On our accompanying them to the place where the figure lay, they soon cleared the earth from a female statue, in very good style, and tolerable preservation, excepting that the surface of the face and upper part of the body had entirely lost its polish and become extremely rough. As the statue was of larger dimensions than life, and consequently very heavy, it would not, under these circumstances, have been worth our while to remove it from the place where it was; and we accordingly gave the Arabs a _bakhshees_ for their trouble, and told them that we did not think it good enough to remove; but that if we should ultimately take it away we would give them the reward before specified. With this arrangement, however, (though a perfectly just one,) they proved to be so little satisfied, that on the following morning in passing by the place, we found that the statue had been placed upright, and pelted with stones for their own or their children’s amusement. The lips were knocked off, and the face and body otherwise mutilated; though not to the degree which we expected when we first observed the figure placed up as a mark for every idle passenger to amuse himself with throwing at. We were not a little concerned to see the mischief which we ourselves (however innocently) had in fact been the cause of, and gave out that we intended to write to Mahommed Bey that he might discover and punish the delinquents! adding, that if any similar outrage should be practised in future, the severest retaliation might be expected.

After this we were careful, when we discovered a good statue, to bury it an inch or two in the soil which surrounded it, effacing at the same time all traces of our work; and never indulged ourselves in looking at any object of importance when we thought ourselves observed by the Arabs. For such is the inconsistency of Arab character, that the very same statue which they would walk over continually without ever honouring it with more than a glance en passant, would in all probability be broken in pieces the moment it became an object of particular notice. The style of architecture in which the monumental tombs have been constructed varies according to the dates of the building, and apparently, also, to the consequence of the persons interred in them; the order employed is almost always Doric, particularly in the earlier examples. It seems probable that the custom of burying the entire body obtained very generally in Cyrene and other cities of the Pentapolis; and this is one of the few instances in which we perceive any analogy between the customs of the Cyreneans and those of the Egyptians. It is certain, however, that the practice of burning the bodies, and of preserving the ashes in urns, prevailed also among the inhabitants of the Cyrenaica as it did in other Grecian states[15]. At the present day there are no remains either of bodies or of cinereal urns in any of the tombs with which we are acquainted, one of them only excepted: in which a leg and foot, which appeared to have been rather dried than embalmed, was found in a very perfect state. There are places formed in the wall, at the extremity of one of the cellæ in an excavated tomb, for the reception, apparently, of cinereal urns, as will be seen in the elevation we have given of it; but this is the only example of the kind we have met with, and we are left to determine, in other cases, from the dimensions of the cellæ, whether they contained bodies or ashes. The reason of this is that (from whatever cause) all the tombs, whether excavated or constructed, have been opened and rifled of their contents; and we never saw a single instance in which this had not been the case. In the constructed tombs, when the cover was too heavy to remove without a great deal of labour, a hole was always found knocked in the side of the sarcophagus; and the tablets or slabs of stone or marble which closed the cellæ and the places for the bodies, in those which were excavated, were in no instance found in their places entire by any individual of our party. The tombs of persons of distinction, at Cyrene, appear to have been erected in conspicuous positions without any regard to order or arrangement; at the will, perhaps, of the deceased themselves, or of those at whose expense they were interred: but the sarcophagi of those of inferior consideration were ranged in line, whenever the ground would allow of it, so as to take up as little space as possible, and to present an appearance of regularity; the sizes of the latter very seldom varied materially, and their forms were usually alike. The arrangement of the sarcophagi was not always the same; but they were almost invariably placed at right angles, in the manner represented (page 464) in the ground-plan and elevation which we have given of them. The sarcophagus itself was generally composed of a single block of stone, hollowed out roughly for the reception of the body; and its cover consisted of another single stone shaped into the form represented in the plate, without any great attention to finish, but always with considerable regularity.

This form of sarcophagus was common among the ancients in other parts of the world, and continued in very general use to a late period of the Roman empire. In the plain below the city (to the northward) there is a considerable number of handsome tombs, both excavated and constructed (those of the latter sort naturally preponderating); and among these there must be many (we are sorry to say) which we never had an opportunity of examining: our route over this tract of country having chiefly been confined to the road from Cyrene to Apollonia (now Marsa Susa) its port; situated at the foot of the range of high land the summit of which forms the plain in question: and as the ground in this part is thickly wooded, and crossed by ravines in different directions, the buildings which might still exist upon it would not be seen by passengers unless they lay immediately in their track. There are also many to the southward of the town which we had no leisure to examine; our researches among the tombs having for the most part been limited to the more immediate neighbourhood of the city, where there is still a very ample field for inquiry, without trespassing on the ground we have just mentioned.

The summit of the mountain on which Cyrene is built has been cleared of the wood which no doubt once incumbered it, and we easily found a convenient place for our tents, which were pitched, on our arrival near the centre of the town. The whole of this tract, as far as the eye could reach, was thickly covered with the most luxuriant vegetation, to the height of four and five feet; and as the place had not been visited since the rainy season, we found none of the grass trodden down, and were obliged to commence the operation of levelling it before we could make ourselves comfortable in our abodes.

The heavy dews which fell immediately after the sun was down made our passage through this obstruction rather inconvenient from five or six in the evening till nearly mid-day, and there was no part of Cyrene which we could pass to between those hours without being completely wet through. In a few days, however, we had formed several footpaths to the principal points of attraction, and many of these led over fallen columns and statues which wholly escaped notice till our feet struck against them. Indeed so much was the whole town encumbered with vegetable matter that very few objects were presented to the eye when first we arrived at the place: and we almost despaired of finding any matter of interest unconnected with the fountain and the tombs. Every wetting that we got, however, added to our satisfaction, by augmenting the list of the remains; and we soon perceived that we had established ourselves in the neighbourhood of two theatres and of several other objects well worth attention. The road to the fountain was (it may be imagined) one of the first which was made; and the passage of our servants and horses along it, as they went to fetch water for the consumption of the party, soon rendered it the most practicable of any. It led also to the galleries which we have already mentioned along the northern face of the mountain; and became very shortly such a favourite path to every individual of our number, that each of us, in first coming out of the tent, turned as naturally into it as if there were no other. About midway between our tents and the fountain, the track which had been made through the high grass about us passed close along the scene of one of the theatres, the largest of the two just alluded to; but before we proceed to the description of this building, and of others which engrossed our attention at Cyrene, we shall turn from the subject and lay before our readers the contents of the following chapter.

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 1:

]

[Footnote 2: In speaking of the fountain to which the Libyans conducted the founders of Cyrene, Herodotus says, αγαγοντες δε σφεας επι κρηνην λεγομενην ειναι Απολλωνος, ειπαν—“Ανδρες Ελληνες, ενταυτα υμιν επιτηδεον οικεειν· ενταυτα γαρ ὁ ουρανος τετρηται.”—(Melp. ρνηʹ).

And as the stream here alluded to is the principal fountain of the place we may suppose it with probability to have been that of Apollo.]

[Footnote 3: There are, however, many exceptions to this rule, which does not appear to have been by any means generally adopted by the Greeks. The number of columns on the flanks of temples seem to have been usually (at the same time) _more_ than double the number in front, and seldom _less_ by more than one, the proportion given by Vitruvius.]

[Footnote 4: The pycnostyle is the least intercolumniation allowed by Vitruvius, and is one diameter and a half of the column at the bottom of the shaft; but neither this proportion, nor that of the systyle, which is equal to two diameters of the column, are recommended by him for general adoption: since “the matrons (he adds) who go to their supplications, mutually supporting each other, cannot pass through the intercolumniations (those of the pycnostyle and systyle dimensions are intended) unless they separate and walk in ranks. The view of the entrance, and of the statues themselves, is also obstructed when the columns are placed so little apart; and the ambulatory, whose width is governed by the interval between the columns, is inconvenient from its being so narrow.”—Wilkins’s Vitruvius, vol. i. p. 11, 12.]

[Footnote 5: “The temples of the gods ought to be so placed that the statue, which has its station in the cella, should, if there be nothing to interfere with such a disposition, face the west; in order that those who come to make oblations and offer sacrifices may face the east, when their view is directed towards the statue: and those who come to impose upon themselves the performance of vows, may have the temple and the east immediately before them. Thus the statues they regard will appear as if rising from the east and looking down upon the suppliants.”—(Wilkins’s Vitruvius, vol. i. p. 79.)]

[Footnote 6: The most ancient position of temples appears to have been east and west, with the entrance, or frontispiece, towards the west; and the statue of the deity looking towards the same point; so that they who worshipped should have their faces turned towards the rising sun. The contrary aspect was, however, adopted at an early period, and appears to have been universal in later ages whenever local causes did not interfere with such an arrangement.]

[Footnote 7: The closely-drawn girdle of the ladies of antiquity, like the snood of the Scottish maidens, was symbolical of an unmarried state; and to loosen it was part of the nuptial ceremony.]

[Footnote 8: The height of the upper range from the level of the sea, as obtained by Captain Smyth from a sea base, was 1575 feet.—The dip of the visible sea horizon, repeatedly measured by us with a theodolite from the summit, was 42′ 00″, which, adding ¹⁄₁₄ for terrestrial refraction, gives 2003 feet for the height—the mean of these, which we have adopted, is 1805 feet.]

[Footnote 9: We may add, that the circumstance of being obliged to reduce our drawing (which is a large one) to the size of a quarto plate, has, at the same time, operated to its disadvantage, as might naturally indeed have been expected.]

[Footnote 10: It must be recollected that these façades were merely representations of porticoes, and that the columns did not project farther from the surface than half their own diameter.]

[Footnote 11: All the excavated tombs were not provided with antechambers, and the cellæ in such cases commenced from the surface of the external façade.]

[Footnote 12: The metopes are often far from being square, and the mutules are placed at different distances from the triglyphs according to the fancy of the architect. The capital of the triglyphs is very rarely continued, in the same line, across the metopes; but is almost always deeper in the last-mentioned division, forming a moulding in the space between the triglyphs, which gives an air of finish to this part of the entablature. Above the capital of the triglyphs, between it and the cymatium below the corona, there is usually a band or fillet, of the same depth, for the most part, with the capital, and on the same plane with it; and the capital itself sometimes projects a little beyond the femora of the triglyph, and sometimes is on the same level with it. The cymatium below the corona is for the most part much deeper than the usual proportion of that member; which appears to have been done in order to show the ornament upon it, which would not otherwise, from the projection of the corona and the depth of the mutules, be conspicuous. The proportion of the corona itself also varies, and the scotia beneath it is sometimes introduced, and sometimes omitted altogether. Much difference exists in the depth of the cyma, as well as in that of its fastigium; and the lions’ heads, which are often sculptured upon it, are sometimes introduced and sometimes omitted. Whenever these are placed, as they usually are, over the axes of the columns, an ornament representing the end of a tile is often found to accompany them, placed on the fastigium, exactly over the centre of the metopes. There is also a difference in the depth of the regulæ and mutules, as well as in the thickness and depth of the guttæ, the form of the latter being sometimes conical and sometimes cylindrical, and on some occasions almost square. The upper part of the two outer channels of the triglyphs are sometimes cut parallel with the line of the capital; but more frequently inclined a little downwards, so as to meet the bottom of the moulding above the metopes, which we have already stated is not often in a line with that of the capitals of the triglyphs. The depth of the tænia, also, and that of the epistylium (or architrave) varies in different instances; as well as the proportions of the columns themselves, and those of their abaci, or plinths: the latter are generally surmounted with an elegantly proportioned cymatium, which is itself almost always crowned with a fillet. We may add that the curve of the echinus also varies, but is usually of a light and elegant proportion; and the annulets sometimes follow the line of the curve, and sometimes range with that of the hypotrachelium: the number of these occasionally two, but more frequently three; and the upper and lower ones (in the last-mentioned instance) are frequently cut square, while the central one forms an angle, the apex of which projects beyond the two others. This, however, only occurs when the annulets range with the shafts of the columns, for when they range with the line of the echinus they are generally cut like the teeth of a saw, as the central one is in the instance just mentioned. We observed that for the most part when annulets were adopted there were no channels, or grooves, hollowed in the hypotrachelium, and this equally obtained whether the annulets followed the line of the echinus or that of the shaft. There was commonly a fillet dividing the channels, or fluting of the shaft, the proportion of which was not always the same, and we rarely saw any fluting where these were not adopted, and very seldom any columns where the shafts were left plain. The difficulty of preserving the edges of the fluting with nicety, and of keeping them from being chipped and broken, appears to have been the reason for adopting the fillet; for as the proportions of the façades, particularly those of the interior ones, were necessarily on a small scale, the edges of the fluting, where no fillet was used, must have been nearly as sharp as the edge of a sword, and consequently very liable to accident. We may add that the width of the fillet accommodated itself to the entasis of the shaft, and was continued round the upper part of the channels, so as to form the crown of the hypotrachelium, when no annulets were made use of; for in that case the channels finished in these, forming an elegant curve from the line of the column to the lowest of the annulets, which sometimes projected considerably from the upper part of the shaft. With regard to the disposition of the triglyphs with respect to the columns, we usually found them placed over the axes of the latter, with sometimes one, and sometimes two intervening, as we have already mentioned above; with the exception, however, of those at the extremities of the zophorus, which were sometimes placed in the angle, and sometimes a little removed from it, being in the latter case placed over the joint centre of the half column and pilaster which usually terminated the façade at both extremities. We must remark, with respect to the introduction of the pilaster conjointly with the columns at the angles, that the shafts and the capitals were not wholly relieved from the surface, although they were more so than half their diameter. It must be recollected at the same time that the whole façade was generally formed in the rock itself, and had consequently no weight to support, and no internal arrangements to which it was necessary that it should be accommodated. The placing of the triglyphs was therefore purely optional, and might be adapted to the taste or the fancy of the architect, who was thus enabled to follow his own ideas of proportion and arrangement, without reference to any standard but the eye.]

[Footnote 13: In the tomb of Theron at Agrigentum we have a similar instance of a Doric entablature supported by Ionic columns.]

[Footnote 14: An operation which is at present necessary, in order to make them bear out.]

[Footnote 15: Each of these customs (as practised by the Greeks) had well-founded claims to great antiquity; for interment appears to have been in use in the time of Cecrops, and burning must at any rate be allowed to have been practised by the Grecians, as far back as the Trojan war, if we rely upon the testimony of Homer. The custom of burning was perhaps the most peculiar to the Greeks, of the two modes in question; for Lucian, in enumerating the various methods resorted to by different nations in the disposal of their dead, expressly assigns burning to the Greeks, and interment to the Persians—διελομενοι κατα εθνη τας ταφας, ὁ μεν Ἕλλην εκαυσεν, ὁ δε Περσης εθαψεν . . . (περι πενθους, § 21.) Some, however, considered the former as an inhuman custom, and philosophers were divided in their opinions on the subject: each sect esteeming that method the most reasonable by which bodies would, according to their tenets, be soonest reduced to their first principles.—See Potter’s Archæologia, vol. ii. p. 207-8, &c.]

BY _Captn. F. W. Beechey R.N._]

BY _Captn. F. W. Beechey R.N._

_J. & C. Walker Sculpt._

_Published as the act directs, April 1827, by J. Murray, Albemarle St. London._]

BY _Captn. F. W. Beechey R.N._

_J. & C. Walker Sculpt._

_Published as the act directs, April 1827, by J. Murray, Albemarle St. London._]

SINGULAR POSITION OF TWO INHABITED CAVES IN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF APOLLONIA.

_Published March 1827, by John Murray, London._]