Chapter XI: Part 11

Expeditious as it is, some of our indefatigable countrymen have contrived to hit upon one still more so. You may tell them that the antiquaries allow eight days for the tour, and they will boast of having beaten the antiquaries, and “done it in six.” This rapid system may do, or rather must do, for those who have no time for any other; but to the traveller who wishes to derive instruction and profit from his visit, a more leisurely survey is essential. “For my own part,” says Mr. Woods, “the first eight days I spent in Rome were all hurry and confusion, and I could attend to nothing systematically, nor even examine any thing with accuracy; a sort of restless eagerness to see every thing and know every thing, gave me no power of fixing my attention on any one particular.”

We must now close our account: not that we have by any means exhausted the subject, for it demands volumes and years; whereas our space is limited, and our time is short. We shall, therefore, devote the remainder of our space and time to the impressions with which the ruins of this city have been viewed by several elegant and accomplished travellers.

“At length I behold Rome,” said Dupaty. “I behold that theatre, where human nature has been all that it can ever be, has performed every thing it can perform, has displayed all the virtues, exhibited all the vices, brought forth the sublimest heroes, and the most execrable monsters, has been elevated to a Brutus, degraded to a Nero, and re-ascended to a Marcus Aurelius.”

“Even those who have not read at all,” says Dr. Burton, “know, perhaps, more of the Romans than of any other nation[194] which has figured in the world. If we prefer modern history to ancient, we still find Rome in every page; and if we look with composure upon an event so antiquated as the fall of the Roman empire, we cannot, as Englishmen, or as protestants, contemplate with indifference the sacred empire which Rome erected over the minds and consciences of men. Without making any invidious allusion, it may be said that this second empire has nearly passed away; so that, in both points of view, we have former recollections to excite our curiosity.”

“Neither the superb structures,” says Sir John Hobhouse, “nor the happy climate, have made Rome the country of every man, and ‘the city of the soul.’ The education, which has qualified the traveller of every nation for that citizenship, prepares enjoyments for him at Rome, independent of the city and inhabitants about him, and of all the allurements of site and climate. He will already people the banks of the Tiber with the shades of Pompey, Constantine, and Belisarius, and other heroes. The first footsteps within the venerable walls will have shown him the name and magnificence of Augustus, and the three long narrow streets, branching from the obelisk in the centre of the Piazza del Popolo, like the theatre of Palladio, will have imposed upon his fancy with an air of antiquity congenial to the soil. Even the mendicants of the country asking alms in Latin prayers, and the vineyard gates of the suburbs, inscribed with the ancient language, may be allowed to contribute to the agreeable delusion.”

“What,” says Chateaubriand, gazing on the ruins of Rome by moonlight, “what was doing here eighteen centuries ago, at a like hour of night? Not only has ancient Italy vanished, but the Italy of the middle ages is also gone. Nevertheless, the traces of both are plainly marked at Rome. If this modern city vaunts her St. Peter’s, ancient Rome opposes her Pantheon and all her ruins; if the one marshals from the Capitol her consuls and emperors, the other arrays her long succession of pontiffs. The Tiber divides the rival glories; seated in the same dust, pagan Rome sinks faster and faster into decay, and Christian Rome is gradually re-descending into the catacombs whence she issued.”

What says Lord Byron in regard to this celebrated city?—“I am delighted with Rome. As a whole—ancient and modern—it beats Greece, Constantinople, every thing,—at least that I have seen. As for the Coliseum, Pantheon, St. Peter’s, the Vatican, &c. &c., they are quite inconceivable, and must be _seen_.”

We close this article with a fine passage from Middleton’s Life of Cicero:—“One cannot help reflecting on the surprising fate and revolutions of kingdoms; how Rome, once the mistress of the world, the seat of arts, empire, and glory, now lies sunk in sloth, ignorance, and poverty, enslaved to the most cruel, as well as the most contemptible of tyrants, superstition and religious imposture; while this remote country, anciently the jest and contempt of the polite Romans, is become the happy seat of liberty, plenty, and letters; flourishing in all the arts and refinements of civil life; yet running, perhaps, the same course which Rome itself had run before,—from virtuous industry to wealth; from wealth to luxury; from luxury to an impatience of discipline and corruption of morals; till, by a total degeneracy and loss of virtue, being grown ripe for destruction, it falls a prey at last to some hardy oppressor; and, with the loss of liberty, losing every thing that is valuable, sinks gradually again into original barbarism.”

See the wild waste of all-devouring years:
How Rome her own sad sepulchre appears!
With nodding arches, broken temples spread!
The very tombs now vanish’d like their dead!
Imperial wonders raised on nations spoil’d,
Where mix’d with slaves the groaning martyr toil’d:
Huge theatres, that now unpeopled woods,
Now drain’d a distant country of her floods:
Fanes, which admiring gods with pride survey,
Statues of men, scarce less alive than they![195]

POPE’S _Epistle to Addison_.

NO. XXII.—SAGUNTUM.

_Proud and cruel nation! every thing must be yours, and at
your disposal! You are to prescribe to us with whom we shall
make war; with whom we shall make peace! You are to set
bounds; to shut us up between hills and rivers: but you—you
are not to observe the limits which yourselves have fixed.
Pass not the Iberus. What next? Touch not the Saguntines.
Saguntum is upon the Iberus; move not a step towards that
city._

HANNIBAL’S SPEECH TO HIS SOLDIERS.

Saguntum was a celebrated city of Hispania Taraconensis, on the west side of the Iberus, about a mile from the sea-shore. It was founded by a colony of Zacynthians, and by some of the Rutili of Ardea[196].

Saguntum, according to Livy, acquired immense riches, partly from its commerce both by land and sea, and partly from its just laws and excellent police.

Saguntum was under the protection of the Romans, if not numbered amongst its cities; and when by a treaty made between that people and the Carthaginians, the latter were permitted to carry their arms as far as the Iberus, this city was excepted.

The moment Hannibal was created general, he lost no time, for fear of being prevented by death, as his father had been. Though the Spaniards had so much advantage over him, with regard to the number of forces, their army amounting to upwards of one hundred thousand men, yet he chose his time and posts so happily, that he entirely defeated them. After this every thing submitted to his arms. But he still forbore laying siege to Saguntum, carefully avoiding every occasion of a rupture with the Romans, till he should be furnished with all things necessary for so important an enterprise;—pursuant to the advice of his father. He applied himself particularly to engage the affections of the citizens and allies, and to gain their confidence, by allotting them a large share of the plunder taken from the enemy, and by paying them all their arrears.

The Saguntines, on their side, sensible of the danger with which they were threatened, from the continued successes of Hannibal, advertised the Romans of them. Upon this, deputies were nominated by the latter, and ordered to go and take a personal information upon the spot; they commanded them also to lay their complaints before Hannibal, if it should be thought proper; and in case he should refuse to do justice, that then they should go directly to Carthage, and make the same complaints. In the meantime, Hannibal laid siege to Saguntum, promising himself great advantages from the taking of this city. He was persuaded that this would deprive the Romans of all hopes of carrying the war into Spain; that this new conquest would secure the old ones; and that no enemy would be left behind him; that he should find money enough in it for the execution of his designs; that the plunder of the city would inspire his soldiers with great ardour, and make them follow him with greater cheerfulness; and that, lastly, the spoils which he should send to Carthage would gain him the favour of the citizens. Animated by these motives, he carried on the siege with the utmost vigour.

News was soon carried to Rome, that Saguntum was besieged. But the Romans, instead of flying to its relief, lost their time in fruitless debates, and equally insignificant disputations. The Saguntines were now reduced to the last extremity, and in want of all things. An accommodation was thereupon proposed; but the conditions on which it was offered, appeared so harsh, that the Saguntines could not so much as think of accepting them. Before they gave their final answer, the principal senators, bringing their gold and silver, and that of the public treasury, into the market-place, threw both into a fire, lighted for that purpose, and afterwards themselves! At the same time, a tower which had been long assaulted by the battering-rams, falling with a dreadful noise, the Carthaginians entered the city by the breach, and soon made themselves masters of it, and cut to pieces all the inhabitants, who were of sufficient age to bear arms.

“Words,” says Polybius, “could never express the grief and consternation with which the news of the taking, and cruel fate of Saguntum, was received at Rome. Compassion for an unfortunate city, shame for their having failed to succour such faithful allies, a just indignation against the Carthaginians, the authors of all these calamities; the strong alarms, raised by the successes of Hannibal, whom the Romans fancied they saw already at their gates; all these sentiments were so violent, that, during the first moments of them, the Romans were unable to come to any resolution, or do any thing, but give way to the torrent of their passion, and sacrifice floods of tears to the memory of a city, which lay in ruins because of its inviolable fidelity to the Romans, and had been betrayed by their imprudent delays, and unaccountable indolence. When they were a little recovered, an assembly of the people was called, and war unanimously declared against the people of Carthage.”

The conqueror afterwards rebuilt it, and placed a garrison there, with all the noblemen whom he had detained as hostages, from the several neighbouring nations of Spain[197].

The city remained in a deplorable state of distress under the Carthaginians, till the year of Rome 538, when Scipio, having humbled the power of Carthage in Spain, in process of time recovered Saguntum, and made it, as Pliny says, “a new city.” By the Romans it was treated with every kind of distinction; but at some period, not ascertained by historians, it was reduced to ruins.

The city of Morviedro is supposed to be situated on the ruins of Saguntum; the name of which being derived from _Muri veteres_, _Muros viejos_, “old walls.” It abounds with vestiges of antiquity. Several Celtiberian and Roman inscriptions are seen; but of all the numerous statues that the temples, and other public edifices of Saguntum once had, only one remains, of white marble, without a head; besides the fragment of another.

The traces of the walls of its circus are, nevertheless, still discernible; though its mosaic pavement is destroyed. A greater portion of the theatre remains than of any other Roman monument.

A writer on Spanish antiquities in 1684, gives the following account of this city, whereby we may learn that at that time there were many more remains of antiquity then there are at present. “The Roman inscriptions,” says he, “that are scattered up and down in the public and private buildings, and the medals and other monuments of antiquity, that have been found there, being endless, I shall only present my reader with that which is over one of the gates of the town, in honour of the emperor Claudius:—

“SENATVS. POPVLVSQUE.
SAGVNTINORVM.
CLAVDIO.
INVICTO. PIO. FEL. IMP.
CAES. PONT. MAX.
TRIB. POT. P.P.
PROCOS.

“And upon another gate, near the cathedral, is a head of Hannibal, cut in stone. From hence, if you mount still higher up the rock, you come to an amphitheatre, which has twenty-six rows of seats one above another, all cut in the rock; and in the other parts the arches are so thick and strong, that they are little inferior to the rock itself. There are remains of prodigious aqueducts, and numbers of vast cisterns under ground. As this country has been celebrated by Titus Livius, and Polybius, for its fertility, I shall take notice of one or two of its productions, which are peculiar to it. First then, the winter figs, which Pliny speaks of, are to be met with in great perfection at this day; and are almost as remarkable for their flavour and sweetness, as for their hanging upon the trees in the middle of the winter. Their pears also have a higher reputation than any others. There are cherry-trees that are full of fine fruit in January: and in a place near Canet, about half a league off, they raised a melon that weighed thirty pounds[198].”

NO. XXIII.—SAIS.

Sais stands on the eastern side of the Nile, near the place where a canal, passing across the Delta, joins the Pelusiac with the Canopic branch of the Nile.

It was the metropolis of Lower Egypt; and its inhabitants were, originally, an Athenian colony.

At this place there was a temple dedicated to Minerva, who is supposed to be the same as Isis, with the following inscription:—“I am whatever hath been, and is, and shall be; no mortal hath yet pierced through the veil that shrouds me.”

In this city Osiris is said to have been buried. “They have a tomb at Sais,” says Herodotus, “of a certain personage, whom I do not think myself permitted to specify. It is behind the Temple of Minerva, and is continued by the whole length of the wall of that building: around this are many large obelisks, near which is a lake, whose banks are lined with stone. It is of a circular form, and, I should think, as large as that of Delos, which is called Trochoeides.”

To name this “personage” seems to have been an act carefully to be avoided. How very sacred the ancients deemed their mysteries appears from the following passage in Apollonius Rhodius:—

“To Samothrace, Electra’s isle, they steer:
That there, initiated in rights divine,
Safe might they sail the navigable brine.
But Muse, presume not of those rights to tell.
Farewell, dread isle, dire deities, farewell!
Let not my verse these mysteries explain;
To name is impious, to reveal profane.”

In this temple (that of Minerva) Herodotus informs us the inhabitants buried their princes; and in the area before it stood a large marble edifice, magnificently adorned with obelisks in the shape of palm-trees, with various other ornaments. This temple was erected by Amasis, who was a native of Sais.[199]

In magnitude and grandeur it surpassed any they had before seen; of such enormous size were the stones employed in the building and foundation. There was a room cut out of one stone, which had been conveyed by water from Elephantis by the labour of two thousand men; costing three years’ labour. This stone measured on the outside twenty-one cubits long, fourteen broad, and eight high.

Cambyses entertained a mortal hatred to the monarch just mentioned. From Memphis he went to Sais, where was the burying-place of the kings of Egypt. As soon as he entered the palace, he caused the body of Amasis to be taken out of its tomb, and after having exposed it to a thousand indignities in his own presence, he ordered it to be cast into the fire and burned; which was a thing equally contrary to the customs of the Persians and Egyptians. The rage, this prince testified against the dead body of Amasis, shows to what a degree he hated his person. Whatever was the cause of this aversion, it seems to have been one of the chief motives, Cambyses had of carrying his arms into Egypt.

The first notice of the ruins of Sais, by Europeans, occurs in the travels of Egmont and Heyman, two Dutchmen, who found a curious inscription in honour of its “benefactor,” Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. They saw also a colossal statue of a female, with hieroglyphics. Fourteen camel-loads of treasure are said to have been found among the ruins.

“The village of Sé’l Hajar,” says Dr. Clarke, “seems in the suburban district of the ancient city; for as we proceeded hence in an eastern direction we soon discerned its vestiges. Irregular heaps, containing ruined foundations which had defied the labours of the peasants, appeared between the village, and some more considerable remains farther towards the south-east. The earth was covered with fragments of the ancient terra-cotta, which the labourers had cast out of their sieves. At the distance of about three furlongs we came to an immense quadrangular inclosure, nearly a mile wide, formed by high walls, or rather mounds of earth, facing the four points of the compass, and placed at right angles to each other, so as to surround the spacious area. In the centre of this was another conical heap, supporting the ruins of some building, whose original form cannot be now ascertained. The ramparts of this inclosure are indeed so lofty as to be visible from the river, although at this distance, the irregularity of their appearance might cause a person ignorant of their real nature to mistake them for natural eminences.”

Dr. Clarke found several things at Sais well worthy attention; among which may be particularly mentioned several bronze relics; an ara-triform sceptre, a curious hieroglyphic tablet[200], the torso of an ancient statue, a triple hierogram with the symbol of the cross, and several other antiquities.

On the east is another fragment of a very highly finished edifice; and the hieroglyphics which remain are perfectly well sculptured.

Many fragments of these ruins have been, of late years, taken away by Mohamed Bey, to build therewith a miserable palace at E’Sooan[201].

NO. XXIV.—SAMARIA.

Samaria is never called in Scripture Sebast, though strangers know it only by that name.

Obadiah is supposed to have been buried in this city; and here, at one time, were shown the tombs of Elisha, and of John the Baptist; and many ancient coins of this town are still preserved in the cabinets of the curious.

Samaria, during a siege, was afflicted with a great famine; and a very extraordinary occurrence is related with respect to it[202].

“24. And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria.

“25. And there was a great famine in Samaria; and, behold, they besieged it, until an ass’s head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of dove’s dung for five pieces of silver.

“26. And as the king of Israel was passing by upon the wall, there cried a woman unto him, saying, Help, my lord, O king.

“27. And he said, if the Lord do not help thee, whence shall I help thee? out of the barn-floor, or out of the wine-press?

“28. And the king said unto her, What aileth thee? And she answered, This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him to-day, and we will eat my son to-morrow.

“29. So we boiled my son, and did eat him: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him: and she hath hid her son.

“30. And it came to pass, when the king heard the words of the woman, that he rent his clothes; and he passed by upon the wall, and the people looked, and, behold, he had sackcloth within upon his flesh.

“31. Then he said, God do so and more also to me, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat shall stand on him this day.

“32. But Elisha sat in his house, and the elders sat with him; and the king sent a man from before him; but ere the messenger came to him, he said to the elders, See how this son of a murderer hath sent to take away mine head! look, when the messenger cometh, shut the door, and hold him fast at the door: is not the sound of his master’s feet behind him?

“33. And while he yet talked with them, behold, the messenger came down unto him: and he said, Behold, this evil is of the Lord; what should I wait for the Lord any longer?”

This was one of the cities of Palestine. The country in which it is situated was at one time greatly infested with lions. The inhabitants were always at variance with their neighbours the Jews,—who detested them. The Samaritans having built a temple on Mount Gerizim, similar to that at Jerusalem, insisting that Gerizim was the spot which God had originally consecrated, the Jews never forgave them for so doing, either in precept or practice. Their malice pursued them everywhere; they called them rebels and apostates; and held them in such utter detestation, that to say,—“There goes a Samaritan,” was a phrase equivalent to that of “There goes a serpent.” This hatred was returned with nearly equal force by the Samaritans; insomuch, that when the Jews were building their temple, they did all they could to prevent the execution of it.

When Alexander marched into Judæa, and had arrived at Jerusalem, the Samaritans sent a number of deputies, with great pomp and ceremony, to request that he would visit the temple they had erected on Mount Gerizim. As they had submitted to Alexander, and assisted him with troops, they naturally thought that they deserved as much favour from him as the Jews; and, indeed, more. Alexander, however, does not appear to have thought so; for when the deputies were introduced, he thanked them, indeed, in a courteous manner, but he declined visiting their temple; giving them to understand, that his affairs were urgent, and, therefore, that he had not sufficient time; but that if he should return that way from Egypt, he would not fail to do as they desired; that is, if he had time. The Samaritans afterwards mutinied; in consequence of which Alexander drove them out of Samaria; for they had set fire to the house of the governor he had appointed, and burned him alive. He divided their lands amongst the Jews, and repeopled their city with a colony of Macedonians.

When Antiochus afterwards marched into their country, they had the baseness to send a petition to that monarch, in which they declared themselves not to be Jews; in confirmation of which they entreated, that the temple, they had built upon Mount Gerizim, might be dedicated to the Jupiter of Greece. This petition was received with favour; and the temple was, therefore, dedicated as the Samaritans had petitioned.

This city was afterwards subject to the vengeance of Hyrcanus, son of Simon, one of the Maccabees. It stood a siege for nearly a year. When the conqueror took it, he ordered it to be immediately demolished. The walls of the city, and the houses of the inhabitants, were entirely razed and laid level with the ground; and, to prevent its ever being rebuilt, he caused deep trenches and ditches to be cut through the new plain, where the city had stood, into which water was turned[203].

Thus it remained till the time of Herod, who rebuilt the city; and, in honour of Augustus, gave it the name of Sebastos[204].

NO. XXV.—SAPPHURA.

This village was once the chief city and bulwark of Galilee. Its inhabitants often revolted against the Romans; but few remains of its ancient greatness now exist. There are, however, ruins of a stately Gothic edifice, which some travellers esteem one of the finest structures in the Holy Land. “We entered,” says Dr. Clarke, “beneath lofty massive arches of stone. The roof of the building was of the same materials. The arches are placed in the intersection of a Greek cross, and originally supported a dome or tower; their appearance is highly picturesque, and they exhibit the grandeur of a noble style of architecture. Broken columns of granite and marble lie scattered among the walls; and these prove how richly it was decorated.” In this place Dr. Clarke saw several very curious paintings.

This place was visited in the early part of the seventeenth century by a Franciscan friar of Lodi, in Italy, named Quaresimius, who says:—“This place now exhibits a scene of ruin and desolation, consisting only of peasants’ habitations, and sufficiently manifests, in its remains, the splendour of the ancient city. Considered as the native place of Joachim and Anna, the parents of the Virgin, it is renowned, and worthy of being visited.” “It is not easy,” says Dr. Clarke, “to account for the disregard shown to a monument of antiquity, highly interesting from its title to consideration in the history of ancient architecture, or to the city of which it was the pride, once renowned as the metropolis of Galilee.”

The following account is from the pen of the celebrated French traveller, M. La Martine:—“A great number of blocks of stone, hollowed out for tombs, traced our route to the summit of the mamelon, on which Saphora is situated. Arrived at the top, we beheld an insulated column of granite still standing, and marking the site of a temple. Beautiful sculptured capitals were lying on the ground at the foot of the column, and immense fragments of hewn stone, removed from some great Roman monument, were scattered everywhere round, serving the Arabs as boundaries to their property, and extending as far as a mile from Saphora, where we stopped to halt in the middle of the day.”

This is all that now remains of this once noble city.

“A fountain of excellent and inexhaustible water,” continues La Martine, “flows herefrom, for the use of the inhabitants of two or three valleys; it is surrounded by some orchards of fig and pomegranate trees, under the shade of which we seated ourselves; and waited more than an hour before we could water our caravan, so numerous were the herds of cows and camels which the Arabian shepherds brought from all parts of the valley. Innumerable files of cattle and black goats wound across the plain and the sides of the hill leading to Nazareth[205].”

NO. XXVI.—SARDIS.

Sardis is thus alluded to in the Apocalypse[206]:—

“1. And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write:—These things saith he that hath the seven spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name, that thou livest, and art dead.

“2. Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die; for I have not found thy works perfect before God.

“3. Remember therefore how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee.

“4. Thou hast a few names even in Sardis, which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white; for they are worthy.”

Sardis was situated five hundred and forty stadia from Ephesus; viz. seven miles and a half.

When this city was built is not, we believe, upon record. It was the capital of Lydia, and situated on the banks of the Pactolus, at the foot of Mount Tmolus; having the Cayster to the south, and Hermus to the north.

During the reign of Atys, son of Gyges, the Cimmerians, being expelled their own country by the Nomades of Scythia, passed over into Asia, and possessed themselves of Sardis. Some time after this, Crœsus became king of Lydia, and a war ensued between him and Cyrus the Great. At that period no nation of Asia was more hardy, or more valiant, than the Lydians. They fought principally on horseback, armed with long spears, and were very expert in managing the horse. Sardis, according to Herodotus, was taken by storm; according to Polyænus, by surprise. Cyrus availed himself of a truce, which he had concluded with Crœsus, (the richest of kings), to advance his forces, and making his approach by night, took the city. Crœsus, still remaining in possession of the citadel, expected the arrival of his Grecian succours: but Cyrus, putting in irons the relatives and friends of those who defended the citadel, showed them in that state to the besieged. At the same time he informed them by a herald, that, if they would give up the place, he would set their friends at liberty; but that, if they persevered in their defence, he would put them to death. The besieged chose rather to surrender, than cause their relations to perish. Such is the relation of Polyænus.

The Persians obtained possession of Sardis, and made Crœsus captive, after a siege of fourteen days, and a reign of fourteen years. Thus was a mighty empire destroyed in a few days. Crœsus being brought into the presence of Cyrus, that prince ordered him to be placed in chains upon the summit of a huge wooden pile, with fourteen Lydian youths standing round him. Before this, however, Cyrus gave the citizens to understand, that if they would bring to him and his army all their silver and gold, their city should be spared. On learning this, they brought to him all their wealth; but Crœsus was ordered to be burned alive. Before we give an account of this barbarous order, however, we must refer to a circumstance which had occurred several years before.

Solon, one of the most celebrated of legislators, having established a new system of laws at Athens, thought to improve his knowledge by travel. He went, therefore, to Sardis. The king received him very sumptuously;—dressed in magnificent apparel, enriched with gold, and glittering with diamonds. Finding that the Grecian sage did not appear in any way moved by this display, Crœsus ordered, that all his treasures, royal apartments, and costly furniture, should be shown to him. When Solon had been shown all these, he was taken back to the king, who then inquired of him:—Which of all the persons he had seen during his travels, he esteemed the most happy? “A person named Tellus,” answered Solon, “a citizen of Athens; an honest and good man; one who had lived all his days without indigence, and always seen his country flourishing and happy; who had children that were universally esteemed; and whose children he had the satisfaction, also, of seeing, and who died at last gloriously fighting for his country.”

When Crœsus heard this, thinking that if he were not esteemed the first in happiness, he would at least be thought the second, he inquired “Who, of all you have seen, was the next in happiness to Tellus?” “Cleobis and Biton of Argos,” answered Solon, “two brothers who left behind them a perfect pattern of fraternal affection, and of the respect due from children to their parents. Upon a solemn festival when their mother, a priestess of Juno, was to go to the temple, the oxen that were to draw her not being ready, the two sons put themselves to the yoke, and drew their mother’s chariot thither, which was above five miles distant. All the mothers, ravished with admiration, congratulated the priestess on the piety of her sons. She, in the transport of her joy and thankfulness, earnestly entreated the goddess to reward her children with the best thing that heaven can give to man. Her prayers were heard. When the sacrifice was over, her two sons fell asleep in the very temple to which they had brought her, and there died in a soft and peaceful slumber. In honour of their piety,” concluded Solon, “the people of Argos consecrated statues to them in the temple of Delphos.”

Crœsus was greatly mortified at this answer; and therefore said with some token of discontent, “Then you do not reckon me in the number of the happy at all?” “King of Lydia,” answered Solon, “besides many other advantages, the gods have given to us Grecians a spirit of moderation and reserve, which has produced among us a plain, popular, kind of philosophy, accompanied with a certain generous freedom, void of pride and ostentation, and therefore not well suited to the courts of kings. This philosophy, considering what an infinite number of vicissitudes and accidents the life of man is liable to, does not allow us to glory in any prospects we enjoy ourselves, or to admire happiness in others which may prove only superficial and transient.”

Having said this much, Solon paused a little,—then proceeded to say, that “the life of man seldom exceeds seventy years, which make up in all twenty-five thousand five hundred and fifty days, of which two are not exactly alike; so that the time to come is nothing but a series of various accidents, which cannot be foreseen. Therefore, in our opinion,” continued Solon, “no man can be esteemed happy, but he whose happiness God continues to the end of his life. As for others, who are perpetually exposed to a thousand dangers, we account their happiness as uncertain, as the crown is to a person that is still engaged in battle, and has not yet obtained the victory.”

It was not long before Crœsus experienced the truth of what Solon told him. Cyrus made war upon him, as we have already related: and he was now condemned to be burned. The funeral pile was prepared, and the unhappy king being laid thereon, and just on the point of execution, recollecting the conversation he had had with Solon some few years before, he cried aloud three times, “Solon! Solon! Solon!” When Cyrus heard him exclaim thus, he became curious to know why Crœsus pronounced that celebrated sage’s name with so much earnestness in the extremity to which he was reduced. Crœsus informed him. The conqueror instantly paused in the punishment designed; and, reflecting on the uncertain state to which all sublunary things are subject, he caused him to be taken from the pile, and ever afterwards treated him with honour and respect. This account is from Rollin, who has it from Herodotus and other ancient writers.

Crœsus is honourably mentioned by Pindar, in his celebrated contrast between a good sovereign and a bad one:—

When in the mouldering urn the monarch lies,
His fame in lively characters remains,
Or graved in monumental histories,
Or deck’d and painted in Aonian strains.
Thus fresh and fragrant and immortal blooms
The virtue, Crœsus, of thy gentle mind;
While fate to infamy and hatred dooms
Sicilia’s tyrant[207], scorn of human kind;
Whose ruthless bosom swelled with cruel pride,
When in his brazen bull the broiling wretches died.
Him, therefore, not in sweet society,
The generous youth, conversing, ever name;
Nor with the harp’s delightful melody
Mingle his odious, inharmonious fame.
The first, the greatest, bliss on man conferred,
Is in the acts of virtue to excel;
The second to obtain their high reward,
The soul-exalting praise of doing well.
Who both these lots attains is bless’d indeed;
Since fortune here below can give no higher meed.

PINDAR. _Pyth._ i.—WEST.

On the division of the Persian monarchy into satrapies, Sardis became the residence of the satrap who had the government of the sea-coast.

In the third year of the war arising from the revolt of the Ionians against the Persian authority, the Ionians having collected all their forces together, set sail for Ephesus, whence, leaving their ships, they marched by land to Sardis. Finding that city in a defenceless state, they made themselves masters of it; but the citadel, into which the Persian governor Artaphernes had retired, they were not able to force. Most of the houses were roofed with reeds. An Ionian soldier therefore having, whether with intention or by accident was never ascertained, set fire to a house, the flames flew from roof to roof, and the whole city was entirely destroyed, almost in a moment. In this destruction the Persians implicated the Athenians; for there were many Athenians among the Ionians. When Darius, therefore, heard of the conflagration, he immediately determined on making war upon Greece; and that he might never forget the resolution, he appointed an officer to the duty of crying out to him every night at supper,—“Sir, remember the Athenians.” It is here, also, to be remembered, that the cause why the Persians afterwards destroyed all the temples they came near in Greece, was in consequence of the temple of Cybele, the tutelary deity of Sardis, having been, at that period, reduced to ashes.

Xerxes, on his celebrated expedition, having arrived at Sardis, sent heralds into Greece, demanding earth and water. He did not, however, send either to Athens or Lacedæmon. His motive for enforcing his demand to the other cities, was the expectation that they, who had before refused earth and water to Darius, would, from the alarm at his approach, send it now. In this, however, he was for the most part mistaken. Xerxes wintered at this city.

Alexander having conquered the Persians at the battle of the Granicus, marched towards Sardis. It was the bulwark of the Persian empire on the side next the sea. The citizens surrendered; and, as a reward for so doing, the king gave them their liberties, and permitted them to live under their own laws. He gave orders, also, to the Sardians to erect a temple to Olympian Jove.

After the death of Alexander, Seleucus, carrying on a war with Lysimachus, took possession of Sardis, B. C. 283. In 214 B. C. Antiochus the Great made himself master of the citadel and city. He kept possession of it twenty-five years, and it became his favourite place of retreat after having lost the battle of Magnesia. His taking it is thus described by Polybius:—“An officer had observed, that vultures and birds of prey gathered round the rock on which the citadel was placed, about the offals and dead bodies, thrown into a hollow by the besieged; and inferred that the wall standing on the edge of the precipice was neglected, as secure from attack. He scaled it with a resolute party, while Antiochus called off the attention both of his own army and of the enemy by a feint, marching as if he intended to attack the Persian gate. Two thousand soldiers rushed in at the gate opened for them, and took their post at the theatre, when the town was plundered and burned.”

Attalus Philomater, one of the descendants of the Antiochus just mentioned, bequeathed Sardis, with all his other possessions, to the Roman people; and, three years after his death, it was in consequence reduced to a Roman province.

Under the reign of Tiberius, Sardis was a very large city; but it was almost wholly destroyed by an earthquake. The emperor, however, had sufficient public virtue to order it to be rebuilt, and at a very great expense. In this patronage of Sardis, he was imitated by Hadrian, who was so great a benefactor, that he obtained the name of Neocorus. The patron god was Jupiter, who was called by a name synonymous with protector.

Sardis was one of the first towns that embraced the Christian religion, having been converted by St. John; and some have thought that its first bishop was Clement, the disciple of St. Paul.

In the time of Julian great efforts were made to restore the Pagan worship, by erecting temporary altars at Sardis, where none had been left, and repairing those temples of which vestiges remained.

A. D. 400, the city was plundered by the Goths, under Tribigildus and Cairanas, officers in the Roman pay, who had revolted from the emperor Arcadius.

A. D. 1304, the Turks, on an insurrection of the Tartars, were permitted to occupy a portion of the Acropolis; but the Sardians, on the same night, murdered them in their sleep.

The town is now called Sart or Serte. When Dr. Chandler visited it in 1774, he found the site of it “green and flowery.” Coming from the east, he found on his left the ground-work of a theatre; of which still remained some pieces of the vault, which supported the seats, and completed the semicircle.

Going on, he passed remnants of massy buildings; marble piers sustaining heavy fragments of arches of brick, and more indistinct ruins. These are in the plain before the hill of the Acropolis. On the right hand, near the road, was a portion of a large edifice, with a heap of ponderous materials before and behind it. The walls also are standing of two large, long, and lofty rooms, with a space between them, as of a passage. This remnant, according to M. Peysonell, was the house of Crœsus, once appropriated by the Sardians as a place of retirement for superannuated citizens. The walls in this ruin have double arches beneath, and consist chiefly of brick, with layers of stone: it is called the Gerusia. The bricks are exceedingly fine and good, of various sizes, some flat and broad. “We employed,” continues Dr. Chandler, “a man to procure one entire, but the cement proved so very hard and tenacious, it was next to impossible. Both Crœsus and Mausolus, neither of whom could be accused of parsimony, had used this material in the walls of their palaces. It was insensible of decay; and it is asserted, if the walls were erected true to their perpendicular, would, without violence, last for ever.”

Our traveller was then led toward the mountain; when, on a turning of the road, he was struck with the view of a ruin of a temple, in a retired situation beyond the Pactolus, and between Mount Tmolus and the hill of the Acropolis. Five columns were standing, one without the capital, and one with the capital awry, to the south. The architrave was of two stones. A piece remains of one column, to the southward; the other part, with the column which contributed to its support, has fallen since the year 1699. One capital was then distorted, as was imagined, by an earthquake; and over the entrance of the Naos was a vast stone, which occasioned wonder by what art or power it could be raised. That magnificent portal has since been destroyed; and in the heap lies that huge and ponderous marble. The soil has accumulated round the ruin; and the bases, with a moiety of each column, are concealed. This, in the opinion of Dr. Chandler, is probably the Temple of Cybele; and which was damaged in the conflagration of Sardis by the Milesians. It was of the Ionic order, and had eight columns in front. The shafts are fluted, and the capitals designed with exquisite taste and skill. “It is impossible,” continues our traveller, “to behold without deep regret, this imperfect remnant of so beautiful and so glorious an edifice!”

In allusion to this, Wheler, who visited Sart towards the latter part of the seventeenth century, says:—“Now see how it fareth with this miserable church, marked out by God; who, being reduced to a very inconsiderable number, live by the sweat of their brows in digging and planting the gardens of the Turks they live amongst and serve; having neither church nor priest among them. Nor are the Turks themselves there very considerable, either for number or riches; being only herdsmen to cattle feeding on those spacious plains; dwelling in a few pitiful earthen huts; having one mosque, perverted to that use from a Christian church. Thus is that once glorious city of the rich king Crœsus now reduced to a nest of worse than beggars. Their Pactolus hath long since ceased to yield them gold,[208] and the treasures to recover them their dying glories. Yet there are some remains of noble structures, remembrances of their prosperous state, long since destroyed. For there are the remains of an old castle, of a great church, palaces, and other proud buildings, humbled to the earth.”

Several inscriptions have been found here; and, amongst these, one recording the good will of the council and senate of Sardis towards the emperor Antoninus Pius. Medals, too, have been found; amongst which, two very rare ones; viz. one of the Empress Tranquillina, and another of Caracalla, with an urn on the reverse, containing a branch of olives; under which is an inscription, which translated, is, “_The sport Chysanthina of the Sardians twice Nercorus_.” Another, stamped by the common assembly of Asia there, in honour of Drusus and Germanicus. Also one with the Emperor Commodus, seated in the midst of a zodiac, with celestial signs engraved on it: on the reverse, “_Sardis, the first metropolis of Asia, Greece, Lydia_.”[209]

NO. XXVII.—SELEUCIA.

There were no less than thirteen cities, which were called Seleucia, and which received their name from Seleucus Nicanor. These were situated in Syria, in Cilicia, and near the Euphrates.

“It must be acknowledged,” says Dr. Prideaux, “that there is mention made of Babylon, as of a city standing long after the time I have placed its dissolution, as in Lucan[210], Philostratus[211], and others. But in all those authors, and wherever also we find Babylon mentioned as a city in being, after the time of Seleucus Nicanor, it must be understood, not of old Babylon, on the Euphrates, but of Seleucia, on the Tigris. For as that succeeded to the dignity and grandeur of old Babylon, so also did it in its name.”

“Since the days of Alexander,” says Sir R. Porter, “we find four capitals, at least, built out of the remains of Babylon; Seleucia by the Greeks; Ctesiphon by the Parthians; Al Maidan by the Persians; Kufa by the Caliphs; with towns, villages, and caravanserais, without number. That the fragments of one city should travel so far, to build or repair the breaches of another, appeared, on the first view of the subject, to be unlikely to myself; but, on traversing the country between the approximating shores of the two rivers, and observing all the facilities of water-carriage from one side to the other, I could no longer be incredulous of what had been told me; particularly when scarce a day passed without my seeing people digging the mounds of Babylon for bricks, which they carried to the verge of the Euphrates, and thence conveyed in boats to wherever they might be wanted.”

Seleucus built many cities; of which far the greater part was raised from superstitious motives; many were peopled from the ruins of places in their neighbourhood, whose sites were equally convenient; and only a very few were erected in conformity with those great military and commercial views, by which, in this particular, his master (Alexander) had uniformly been guided. He named nine after himself; and four in honour of four of his wives; three Apameas; and one Stratonice; in all thirty-five. Sixteen were named Antioch; five Laodicea, after his mother. Many foundations were laid of other cities. Some, after favourite scenes in Greece or Macedon; some in memory of glorious exploits; and not a few after his master Alexander.

This Seleucia was built of the ruins of Babylon; and Pliny, the naturalist, gives the following account:—“Seleucia was built by Seleucus Nicanor, forty miles from Babylon, at a point of the confluence of the Euphrates with the Tigris, by a canal. There were 600,000 citizens here at one time; and all the commerce and wealth of Babylon had flowed into it. The territory in which it stood was called Babylonia; but it was itself a free state, and the people lived after the laws and manners of the Macedonians. The form of the walls resembled an eagle spreading her wings.”

In a country, destitute of wood and stone, whose edifices were hastily erected with bricks baked in the sun, and cemented with the native bitumen, Seleucia speedily eclipsed the ancient capital of the East.

Many ages after the fall of the Macedonian empire, Seleucia retained the genuine character of a Greek colony; arts, military virtue, and a love of freedom: and while the republic remained independent, it was governed by a senate consisting of three hundred nobles. The walls were strong; and as long as concord prevailed among the several orders of the state, the power of the Parthians was regarded with indifference, if not with contempt. The madness of faction, however, was sometimes so great, that the common enemy was occasionally implored; and the Parthians[212] were, in consequence, beheld at the gates, to assist sometimes one party, and sometimes the other. Ctesiphon was then but a village[213], on the opposite side of the Tigris, in which the Parthian kings were accustomed to reside during the winter, on account of the mildness of the climate. The summer they passed at Ecbatana.

Trajan left Rome A. D. 112, and after subduing several cities in the East, laid siege to Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Chosroes, the king, being absent quelling a revolt in some part of his more eastern dominions, these cities soon surrendered to the Roman hero, and all the neighbouring country. “The degenerate Parthians,” says the Roman historian, “broken by internal discord, fled before his arms. He descended the Tigris in triumph from the mountains of Armenia to the Persian gulf. He enjoyed the honour of being the first, as he was the last, of the Roman generals who ever navigated that remote sea.” At his death, which occurred soon after his return to Rome, most of the cities of Asia, that he had conquered, threw off the Roman yoke; and among these were Seleucia and Ctesiphon.

Under the reign of Marcus, A. D. 165, the Roman generals penetrated as far as these celebrated cities. They were received as friends by the Greek colony; they attacked, as enemies, the seat of the Parthian kings; and yet both experienced the same treatment. Seleucia was sacked by the friends they had invited—though it has been alleged in their favour, that the citizens of Seleucia had first violated their faith.

More than 300,000 of the inhabitants were put to the sword; and the city itself nearly destroyed by conflagration.

Seleucia never recovered this blow: but Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three years, had sufficiently recovered its strength to maintain an obstinate siege against the emperor Severus. It was at last, nevertheless, taken by assault; and the king, who defended it in person, escaped with precipitation. The Romans netted a rich booty, and took captive 100,000 persons[214].

“Below Bagdad,” says a celebrated French writer, on geography, (Malte-Brun), “the ruins of Al-Modain, or the two cities, have attracted the attention of every traveller. One of them is unquestionably the ancient Ctesiphon; but the other, which lies on the western bank of the Tigris, is not Seleucia, as all the travellers affirm[215]: it is Kochos, a fortress situated opposite to Seleucia, and which, according to the positive testimony of Arrian and Gregory of Nazianzus, was different from Seleucia[216].” In this account Malte-Brun appears to us to be exceedingly mistaken[217].

* * * * *

Of the ruins of SELEUCIA, near ANTIOCH, Mr. Robinson speaks thus:—“Being desirous of visiting the ruins of the ancient Seleucia Pieriæ, I rode over to the village of Kepse, occupying the site of the ancient city. We were apprised of our approach to it, by seeing a number of sepulchral grots excavated in the rock by the road-side, at present tenanted by shepherds and their flocks. Some were arched like those I had seen at Delphi; others were larger, with apartments, one within the other. We entered the inclosure of the ancient city by the gate at the south-east side; probably the one that led to Antioch. It is defended by round towers, at present in ruins. Of the magnificent temples and buildings mentioned by Polybius, some remains of pillars are alone standing to gratify the curiosity of the antiquarian traveller. But recollecting, as I sat alone on a stone seat at the jetty head, that it was from hence Paul and Barnabas, the harbingers of Christianity to the West, when sent forth from the church at Antioch, embarked for Cyprus; the place all at once assumed an interest that heathen relics were little calculated to inspire. It came opportunely, also, for I felt particularly depressed at the sight of a large maritime city, once echoing with the voices of thousands, now without an inhabitant; a port formerly containing rich laden galleys, at present choked up with reeds; and finally, a quay, on which for centuries anxious mariners paced up and down throughout the day, at this moment without a living creature moving on its weather-beaten surface but myself.”

NO. XXVIII.—SELINUS, OR SELINUNTUM.