Chapter XVII: Part 17

[180] Rollin.

[181] Harmonies of Nature.

[182] Gibbon.

[183] Clarke.

[184] "A company, formed at Paris, for exploring the ruins of Carthage, has already met with great success. A large house has been discovered on the margin of the sea, near Bourj-Jedid. Paintings in fresco, similar to those at Pompeii, adorn many of the rooms, and beautiful mosaics, representing men, women, and nymphs, fishes of various kinds, tigers, gazelles, &c. have been found. Fifteen cases with these precious relics have arrived at Toulon."--_Literary Gazette, May 19, 1838._

[185] Polybius; Livy; Cicero; Justin; Rollin; Kennett; Gibbon; Montague; Chateaubriand; Clarke; Sir George Temple.

[186] Swinburne; Brydone; Malte Brun; Encyclop. Londinensis.

[187] By Pliny, Strabo, and Tacitus.

[188] Quercus.

[189] Zonaras, apud Gyll.

[190] Julian; Barthelemy; Gibbon; Pococke; Clarke.

[191] The _sacred_ battalion was famous in history. It consisted of a body of young warriors, brought up together, at the public expense, in the citadel. Their exercises and even their amusements were regulated by the sounds of the flute, and in order to prevent their courage from degenerating into blind fury, care was taken to inspire them with the noblest and most animated sentiments. Each warrior chose from the band a friend to whom he remained inseparably united. These three hundred warriors were anciently distributed in troops at the head of the different divisions of the army.

Philip destroyed this cohort at the battle of Chæronea, and the prince seeing these young Thebans stretched on the field of battle covered with honourable wounds, and lying side by side on the ground on which they had been stationed, could not restrain his tears.--BARTHELEMY.

[192] Dodwell.

[193] Ibid.

[194] Rollin; Barthelemy; Leland; Hobhouse; Dodwell; Leland.

[195] Obubea changed its name to Porcuna; and this, it is supposed, from the circumstance of a sow having had thirty pigs at one litter; in memory of which her figure was cut in stone with the following inscription underneath:--

C. CORNELIVS. C. F.
C. N. GAL. CAESO.
AED. FLAMEN. II. VIR.
MVNICIPII. PONTIF.
C. CORN. CAESO. F.
SACERDOS. GENT. MVNICIPII.
SCROFAM. CUM. PORCIS. XXX.
IMPENSA. IPSORVM.
D. D.

[196] Jose.

[197] Thucydides; Rollin; Wheler; Dodwell; Williams.

[198] Rollin.

[199] Rollin.

[200]

Demens! qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen,
Ære et cornipedum cursu simulâret squorum.--VIRG.

[201] Kennet.

[202] History of the Turks.

[203] Dodwell.

[204] Herodotus; Pliny the Nat.; Du Loir; Rollin; Kennet; Knowles; Wheler; Chandler; Barthelemy; Stuart; Dodwell; Quin; Turner.

[205] The story of the maid of Corinth may be found in Pliny, lib. xxxv.; and in Athenagoras, with this additional circumstance, that the lover, while his outlines were taken, is described to have been asleep.

[206] Gibbon.

[207] The royal canal (Nahar-Malcha) might be successively restored, altered, divided, &c. (Cellarius Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. p. 453): and these changes may serve to explain the seeming contradictions of antiquity. In the time of Julian, it must have fallen into the Euphrates, _below_ Ctesiphon.

[208] These works were erected by Orodes, one of the Arsacidæan kings.

[209] "I suspect," says Mr. Gibbon, "that the extravagant numbers of Elmacin may be the error, not of the text, but of the version. The best translators from the Greek, for instance, I find to be very poor arithmeticians."

[210] Selman the Pure.

[211] Rollin; Gibbon; Porter; Buckingham.

[212] Williams.

[213] Dodwell.

[214] Rollin; Barthélemi; Chandler; Clarke; Dodwell; Williams.

[215] In Judith, Dejoces is called Arphaxad:--"1. In the twelfth of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, who reigned in Nineveh, the great city; in the days of Arphaxad, which reigned over the Medes in Ecbatana.

2. And built in Ecbatana walls round about of stones hewn, three cubits broad and six cubits long, and made the height of the walls seventy cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits.

3. And set the towers thereof upon the gates of it, an hundred cubits high, and the breadth thereof in the foundation thereof three score cubits.

4. And he made the gates thereof, even gates that were raised to the height of seventy cubits, and the breadth of them was forty cubits, for the going forth of his mighty armies, and for the setting in array of his footmen."

[216] It is said, in Esther, that Ahasuerus reigned over one hundred and twenty-seven princes; from India to Ethiopia.

[217] According to Herodotus, the reign of

Dejoces was 53 years
Phraortes 22 ----
Cyaxares 12 ----
The Scythians 28 ----
Astyages 35 ----
----
Total 150

[218] Some authors have made a strange mistake: they have confused this city with that of the same name in Syria, at the foot of Mount Carmel; and still more often with that which was called the "City of the Magi."

[219] Lib. x. 24.

[220] Clio, 98.

[221] Ecbatana was taken by Nadir Shah. Nadir marched against the Turks as soon as his troops were refreshed from the fatigues they had endured in the pursuit of the Afghauns. He encountered the force of two Turkish pachas on the plains of Hameden, overthrew them, and made himself master, not only of that city, but of all the country in the vicinity.--Meerza Mehdy's Hist. Sir William Jones's works, vol. v. 112; Malcolm's Hist. of Persia, vol. ii. 51. 4to.

[222] "This custom," says Mr. Morier, "which I had never seen in any other part of Asia, forcibly struck me as a most happy illustration of our Saviour's parable of the labourer in the vineyard; particularly when passing by the same place, late in the day, we still found _others standing idle_, and remembered his words, '_Why stand ye here all the day idle?_' as most applicable to their situation; for in putting the question to them, they answered '_Because no one has hired us._'"

[223] Lib. x. c. 24.

[224] "The habitations of the people here (at Hameden) were equally mean as those of the villages through which we had passed before. The occupiers of these last resembled, very strongly, the African Arabs, or Moors, and also the mixed race of Egypt, in their physiognomy, complexion, and dress. The reception, given by these villagers to my Tartar companions, was like that of the most abject slaves to a powerful master; and the manner in which the yellow-crowned courtiers of the Sublime Porte treated their entertainers in return, was quite as much in the spirit of the despotic sultan whom they served."--_Buckingham's Travels in Mesopotamia_, vol. ii. p. 18.

[225] Herodotus; Diodorus Siculus; Plutarch; Arrian; Quintus Curtius; Rollin; Rennell; Morier; Sir R. Ker Porter; Buckingham.

[226] Rollin.

[227] Dodwell.

[228] Rollin; Barthelemy; Wheler; Chandler; Sandwich; Clarke; Hobhouse; Dodwell.

[229] Gillies.

[230] Chandler.

[231] Pausanias; Plutarch; Barthelemy; Chandler; Dodwell; Rees; Gillies.

[232] Breadth scarcely anywhere exceeding forty miles.

[233] The others were, Miletus, Myus, Lebedos, Colophon, Priene, Teos, Erythræ, Phocæa, Clazomenæ, Chios, and Samos.

[234] Polyen. Strat. vi.

[235] Diana was the patroness of all women in labour, as well as of the children born.

[236] The Ephesians have a very wise law relative to the construction of public edifices. The architect whose plan is chosen enters into a bond, by which he engages all his property. If he exactly fulfils the condition of his agreement, honours are decreed him; if the expense exceeds the sum stipulated only by one quarter, the surplus is paid from the public treasury; but if it amounts to more, the property of the architect is taken to pay the remainder.--BARTHELEMY, vol. v. 394, 5; from Vitruvius Præf., lib. x. 203.

[237] We often see this temple represented upon medals with the figure of Diana. It is never charged with more than eight pillars; and sometimes only with six, four, and now and then only with two.

[238] The columns being sixty feet high, the diameter, according to rule, must be six feet eight inches; that is, one-ninth part. Thus, every column would contain one hundred and ten tons of marble, besides base and capital!--WREN'S PARENTALIA, p. 361.

[239] Mithridates caused 150,000 Romans in Asia to be massacred in one day.

[240] Hist. August, p. 178; Jornandes, c. 20.

[241] Strabo, 1. xiv. 640; Vitruvius, 1. i. c. 1; Præf. 1. vii.; Tacitus Annal. iii. 61; Plin. Nat. Hist. xxxvi. 14.

[242] The length of St. Peter's is 840 Roman palms; each palm is very little short of nine English inches.

[243] They offered no sacrifices to the Grecian gods.

[244] Acts xx. 31.

[245] Acts xix. 11; 1 Cor. xv. 9.

[246] Acts xx. 19.

[247] Ch. ii.

[248] Revett's MS. notes.

[249] On this passage Mr. Revett has left the following observation in a MS. note: "Upon what authority? Vitruvius, though he relates the story, does not give us the name of the mountain on which it happened. If mount Prion consists of white marble, it is very extraordinary it was not discovered sooner; part of the mountain being included in the city."

[250] Diodorus Siculus; Vitruvius; Plin. Nat. Hist.; Plutarch; Polyænus; Wren's Parentalia; Barthelemy; Gibbon; Wheler; Chandler; Revett; Clarke; Hobhouse; Brewster; Rees.

[251] Seetzen; Burckhardt; Irby; Robinson.

[252] From a work published in 1778.

[253] Anon.

[254] Hippolyto de Jose; Swinburne; Wright; Murphy; Washington Irving.

[255] Lempriere.

[256] Morritt.

[257] Turner.

[258] Turner; Clarke.

[259] Barthelemy; Lempriere; Rees; Mitford; Clarke; Walpole; Morritt; Turner.

[260] Rollin.

[261] Bossuet; Rollin; Encyclop. Metropolitana; Denon.

[262] Eustace.

[263] Dionysius of Halicarnassus makes it sixty years before the fall of Troy; or 1342 B.C.

[264] Chambers.

[265] Chambers.

[266] He was then only eighteen.

[267] The death of this celebrated naturalist was probably occasioned by carbonic acid gas. This noxious vapour must have been generated to a great extent during the eruption. It is heavier than common air, and, of course, occupies in greater proportion the substrata of that circumambient fluid. The supposition is greatly strengthened by the fact, that the old philosopher had lain down to rest; but the flames approaching him, he was compelled to rise, assisted by two servants, which he had no sooner done than he fell down dead.

[268] It is a remarkable circumstance that some naturalists walking amid the flowers, on the summit of Vesuvius, the very day before this eruption, were discussing whether this mountain was a volcano.

[269] Gandy, 53.

[270] Mons. Du Theil.

[271] Rees.

[272] Brewster.

[273] Ibid.

[274] Brewster.

[275] Brewster.

[276] Brewster, 741.

[277] Ibid, 740.

[278] Rees.

[279] Dupaty.

[280] Brewster.

[281] The letters in the smaller type were inserted by Ciampitti; as those he considered appropriate for filling up passages which could not be deciphered.

[282] Pliny the younger; Encycl. Rees, Metrop.; Brewster; Dupaty; Eustace.

[283] Plin. v. c. 26. Ptolem. v. c. 15.

[284] Ptolemy; Pliny; Pococke; Chandler.

[285] This was an epithet given to Crete, from the 100 cities which it once contained: also to Thebes in Egypt, on account of its 100 gates. The territory of Laconia had the same epithet for the same reason that Thebes had; and it was the custom of these 100 cities to sacrifice a hecatomb every year.

[286] Sir John Malcolm.

[287] The boundaries of Iran, which Europeans call Persia, have undergone many changes. The limits of the kingdom in its most prosperous periods may, however, be easily described. The Persian Gulf, or Indian Ocean, to the south; the Indies and the Oxus to the east and north-east; the Caspian Sea and Mount Caucasus to the north; and the river Euphrates to the west. The most striking features of this extensive country, are numerous chains of mountains, and large tracts of desert; amid which are interspersed beautiful valleys and rich pasture lands.--SIR JOHN MALCOLM.

[288] I conquered the city of Isfahan, and I trusted in the people of Isfahan, and I delivered the cattle in their hands. And they rebelled; and the darogah whom I had placed over them they slew, with 3000 of the soldiers. And I also commanded that a general slaughter should be made of the people of Isfahan.--TIMOUR'S Institutes, p. 119. MALCOLM'S Hist. Persia, vol. i. 461.

[289] Porter.

[290] Lett. ii. 1. 3.

[291] vii. 273, 486. viii. 2, 144.

[292] Sir John Kinneir says of this causeway: "It is in length about 300 miles. The pavement is now nearly in the same condition as it was in the time of Hanway; being perfect in many places, although it has hardly ever been repaired."

[293] At one time a horse's carcase sold for one thousand crowns.

[294] Malcolm, Hist. Persia from Murza Mahdy.

[295] The horrors of this siege, equal to any recorded in ancient history, have been described by the Polish Jesuit Krurinski, who personally witnessed them (see his History of the Revolution of Persia, published by Père du Cerceau); and they are noticed in the "Histoire de Perse depuis le commencement de ce siècle" of M. la Marnya Clairac, on authorities that cannot be disputed.--OUSELEY'S Trav.

[296] Geog. Mem. of Persia.

[297] Morier.

[298] Malte-Brun.

[299] Job, chap. xv. ver. 28.

[300] Ferdousi; Ebn Hakekl; Della Valle; Chardin; Kinneir; Porter; Malcolm; Malte-Brun; Ouseley.

[301] Hippolito de Jose.

[302] From the time that Solomon, by means of his temple, had made Jerusalem the common place of worship to all Israel, it was distinguished from the rest of the cities by the epithet Holy, and in the Old Testament was called Air Hakkodesh, _i. e._, the city of holiness, or the holy city. It bore this title upon the coins, and the shekel was inscribed Jerusalem Kedusha, _i. e._, Jerusalem the Holy. At length Jerusalem, for brevity's sake, was omitted, and only Kedusha reserved. The Syriac being the prevailing language in Herodotus's time, Kedusha, by a change in that dialect of sh into th, was made Kedutha; and Herodotus, giving it a Greek termination, it was writ [Greek: Kadytis], or Cadytis.--PRIDEAUX'S Connexion of the Old and New Testament, vol. i. part i. p. 80, 81, 8vo. edit.

[303] And Joshua smote all the country of the hills, and of the south, and of the vale, and of the springs, and all their kings; he left none remaining; but utterly destroyed all that breathed, as the Lord God of Israel commanded.--Joshua, ch. x. ver. 40.

[304] --The emotions which filled the minds of those who witnessed the laying of the foundation of the temple were strangely mingled. All gave thanks to the Lord; and the multitude shouted with a great shout when the foundations were laid; but, "many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the fathers, who were ancient men, that had seen the first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice."--EZRA, iii. 12.

[305] Besides this, he built another temple.

[306] Some have thought that this description, which is from Josephus, applies rather to the temple of Herod.

[307] It is remarkable that the sum mentioned is equal to the British national debt.

[308] "Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things; therefore shalt thou serve thine enemies which the Lord shall send against thee, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in want of all things: and he shall put a yoke of iron upon thy neck, until he have destroyed thee. The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; a nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favour to the young: and he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee. And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the Lord thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee: so that the man that is tender among you and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother, and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave: so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat: because he hath nothing left him in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee in all thy gates. The tender and delicate woman among you, which would not adventure to set the sole of her foot upon the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter, and toward her children which she shall bear: for she shall eat them for want of all things secretly in the siege and straitness wherewith thine enemy shall distress thee in thy gates."--DEUT. xxviii. 47-57.

[309] Deut. xxix. 22, 24, 27.

[310] Robinson.

[311] Buckingham.

[312] The patriarch, says an accomplished traveller, makes his appearance in a flowing vest of silk, instead of a monkish habit, and every thing around him bears the character of Eastern magnificence. He receives his visitors in regal stateliness; sitting among clouds of incense, and regaling them with all the luxuriance of a Persian court.

[313] Dr. Clarke.

[314] Robinson.

[315] Matt. xiii. 2.

[316] D'Anville.

[317] Id.

[318] Buckingham.

[319] 2 Kings xxiii. 10, 12. 2 Chron. xxvii. 3.

[320] 2 Kings xxiii. 10.

[321] Brewster.

[322] Robinson.

[323] Id.

[324] Carne.

[325] John xx.

[326] Ib. v. 4.

[327] Ib. v. 5, 11.

[328] Clarke.

[329] Robinson.

[330] La Martine.

[331] Carne.

[332] Id.

[333] Robinson.

[334] Id.

[335] Josephus; Tacitus; Prideaux; Rollin; Stackhouse; Pococke; D'Anville; Gibbon; Rees; Brewster; Clarke; Eustace; Chateaubriand; Buckingham; Robinson; La Martine; Carne.

[336] Rollin.

[337] Polybius; Plutarch; Rollin; Titler; Barthelemy; Chateaubriand; Dodwell.

[338] Shaw; Chandler; Kinneir; Malte-Brun; Buckingham; Porter.

[339] Rollin.

[340] Rollin.

[341] Turner.

[342] Those of Magnesia amounted to fifty talents every year, a sum equivalent to 11,250_l._ sterling.

[343] Such was the custom of the ancient kings of the East. Instead of settling pensions on persons they rewarded, they gave them cities, and sometimes even provinces, which, under the name of bread, wine, &c, were to furnish them abundantly with all things necessary for supporting, in a magnificent manner, their family and equipage.--ROLLIN.

[344] Civil Architecture, 617.

[345] Pococke; Chandler; Encycl. Metrop.

[346] Rollin.

[347] Rollin.

[348] Dodwell.

[349] Rollin; Dodwell; Williams.

[350] This was the same plan as Hannibal followed afterwards at the battle of Cannæ.

[351] Rollin; Wheler; Barthelemy; Clarke; Dodwell.

[352] Barthelemy; Rollin; Rees; Dodwell.

[353] Thucydides; Dodwell.

[354] This story is told at length in Statius's Thebaid.

[355] Dodwell.

[356] Thucydides; Pausanias; Plutarch; Rollin; Wheler; Chandler; Barthelemy; Dodwell.

[357] Savary.

[358] Rollin.

[359] Rollin.

[360] Alexandria may be supposed to have been partly built with its ruins.

[361] Malte-Brun.

[362] Rollin.

[363] The London and Birmingham Railway is unquestionably the greatest public work ever executed, either in ancient or modern times. If we estimate its importance by the labour alone which has been expended on it, perhaps the Great Chinese Wall might compete with it; but when we consider the immense outlay of capital which it has required,--the great and varied talents which have been in a constant state of requisition during the whole of its progress,--together with the unprecedented engineering difficulties, which we are happy to say are now overcome,--the gigantic work of the Chinese sinks totally into the shade.

It may be amusing to some readers, who are unacquainted with the magnitude of such an undertaking as the London and Birmingham Railway, if we give one or two illustrations of the above assertion. The great pyramid of Egypt, that stupendous monument which seems likely to exist to the end of all time, will afford a comparison.

After making the necessary allowances for the foundations, galleries, &c., and reducing the whole to one uniform denomination, it will be found that the labour expended on the great _pyramid_ was equivalent to lifting fifteen thousand seven hundred and thirty-three million cubic feet of stone one foot high. This labour was performed, according to Diodoras Siculus by three hundred thousand, to Herodotus by one hundred thousand men, and it required for its execution twenty years.

If we reduce in the same manner the labour, expended in constructing the London and Birmingham Railway, to one common denomination, the result is twenty-five thousand million cubic feet of material (reduced to the same weight as that used in constructing the pyramid) lifted one foot high, or nine thousand two hundred and sixty-seven million cubic feet more than was lifted one foot high in the construction of the pyramid; yet this immense undertaking has been performed by about twenty thousand men in less than five years.

From the above calculation have been omitted all the tunnelling, culverts, drains, ballasting, and fencing, and all the heavy work at the various stations, and also the labour expended on engines, carriages, wagons, &c. These are set off against the labour of drawing the materials of the pyramid from the quarries to the spot where they were to be used--a much larger allowance than is necessary.

As another means of comparison, let us take the cost of the railway and turn it into pence, and allowing each penny to be one inch and thirty-four hundredths wide, it will be found that these pence laid together, so that they all touch, would more than form a continuous band round the earth at the equator.

As a third mode of viewing the magnitude of this work, let us take the circumference of the earth in round numbers at one hundred and thirty million feet. Then, as there are about four hundred million cubic feet of earth to be moved in the railway, we see that this quantity of material alone, without looking to any thing else, would, if spread in a band one foot high and one foot broad, more than three times encompass the earth at the equator.--LECOUNT.

[364] Saturday Magazine.

[365] Saturday Magazine.

[366] Monthly Magazine.

[367] Harmonies of Nature.

[368] Strabo mentions the sepulchre, lib. xvii. p. 808.

[369] Herodotus; Diodorus; Strabo; Pliny; Plutarch; Arrian; Quintus Curtius; Rollin; Maupertuis; Montague; Maillet; Pococke; Shaw; Savary; Norden; Sandwich; Browne; Denon; Belzoni; Salt; Clarke; Wilkinson; Lecount.

* * * * *

Transcriber's Notes:

1. Passages in italics are surrounded by _underscores_.

2. Images have been moved from the middle of a paragraph to the closest paragraph break.

3. Footnotes have been renumbered and moved from the end of pages to the end of this text.

4. The original text includes Greek characters. For this text version these letters have been replaced with transliterations.

5. Certain words use oe ligature in the original.

6. In this etext letters with overhead macron are represented within square brackets preceded by equals sign. For instance, [=a] is used to represent letter 'a' with macron above it.

7. Other than that, printer's inconsistencies in spelling, punctuation, and hyphenation have been retained.