Chapter XII: Part 12

This city was founded A. U. C. 127, by a colony from Megara. It received its name from a Greek word meaning parsley, which grew there in great profusion; and its ancient consequence may be learned from the ruins now remaining. It was destroyed by Hannibal. The conduct of the war having been committed to that general, he set sail with a very large fleet and army. He landed at a place called the Well of Lilybæum, which gave its name to a city afterwards built on the same spot.

His first enterprise was the siege of Selinuntum. The attack and defence were equally vigorous; the very women showing a resolution and bravery beyond their sex. The city, after making a long resistance, was taken by storm, and the plunder of it abandoned to the soldiers. The victor exercised the most horrid cruelties, without showing the least regard to age or sex. He permitted, however, such inhabitants as had fled to continue in the city after it had been dismantled, and to till the lands, on condition of their paying a tribute to the Carthaginians. The city had then been built 242 years. It became afterwards an important place; but from the manner in which the columns and other fragments of three stupendous temples lie, it is quite evident they must have been thrown down by an earthquake; but the date of that calamity is not known.

The ruins of Selinus are thus described by Mr. Swinburne:—“They lie in several stupendous heaps, with many columns still erect, and at a distance resemble a large town with a crowd of steeples. On the top of the hill is a very extensive level, seven miles off, on which lie the scattered members of three Doric temples, thirty yards asunder, in a direct line from north to south. The most northerly temple, which was pseudodipterous, exceeded the others very much in dimensions and majesty, and now composes one of the most gigantic and sublime ruins imaginable. They all lie in great confusion and disorder.

“The second temple is easily described. It had six columns in the front, and eleven on each side; in all thirty-four. Their diameter is five feet; they were all fluted; and most of them now remain standing as high as the second course of stones. The pillars of the third temple were also fluted, and have fallen down so very entire, that the five pieces which composed them lie almost close to each other, in the order they were placed in when upright. These temples are all of the Doric order, without a base.

“The two lesser ones are more delicate in their parts and ornaments than the principal ruins; the stone of which they are composed is smooth and yellowish, and brought from the quarries of Castel-Franco. There are other ruins and broken columns dispersed over the site of the city, but none equal to these.” Such is the account given by Mr. Swinburne; what follows first appeared in the Penny Magazine.

On the southern coast of Sicily, about ten miles to the east of Cape Granitola, and between the little rivers of Maduini and Bilici, (the Crimisus and Hypsa of ancient times,) a tremendous mass of ruins presents itself in the midst of a solitary and desolate country. These are the sad remains of the once splendid city of Selinus, or Selinuntum, which was founded by a Greek colony from Megara, more than two thousand four hundred years ago. When seen at a distance from the sea, they still look like a mighty city; but on a near approach nothing is seen but a confused heap of fallen edifices—a mixture of broken shafts, capitals, entablatures, and metopæ, with a few truncated columns erect among them. They seem to consist chiefly of the remains of three temples of the Doric order. One of these temples was naturally devoted by a maritime and trading people to Neptune; a second was dedicated to Castor and Pollux, the friends of navigation and the scourge of pirates; the destination of the third temple is uncertain.

The size of the columns and the masses of stone that lie heaped about them is prodigious. The lower circumference of the columns is thirty-one feet and a half; many of the stone blocks measure twenty-five feet in length, eight in height, and six in thickness. Twelve of the columns have fallen with singular regularity, the disjointed shaft-pieces of each lying in a straight line with the base from which they fell, and having their several capitals at the other end of the line. If architects and antiquaries have not been mistaken in their task of measuring among heaps of ruins that in good part cover and conceal the exterior lines, the largest of the three temples was three hundred and thirty-four feet long, and one hundred and fifty-four feet wide.

These are prodigious and unusual dimensions for ancient edifices of this kind. That wonder of the whole world, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, itself did not much exceed these admeasurements. The great Selinuntian temple seems to have had porticoes of four columns in depth, and eight in width, with a double row of sixteen columns on the lateral sides of the cella. It is somewhat singular, from having had all the columns of the first row on the east front fluted, while all the rest of the columns were quite plain. One of these fluted columns is erect and tolerably entire, with the exception of its capital. The fluting, moreover, is not in the Doric style; for each flute is separated by a fillet. The material of which this and the other edifices were formed, is a species of fine-grained petrifaction, hard, and very sonorous on being struck with a hammer. It was hewn out of quarries near at hand, at a place called Campo Bello, where many masses, only partially separated from the rock, and looking as if the excavation had been suddenly interrupted, are still seen.

A flight of ancient steps, in tolerable preservation, leads from the Marinella to the Acropolis, where the covert-ways, gates, and walls, built of large squared stones, may still be traced all round the hill. A little to the west of the Acropolis is the small pestiferous lake, Yhalici, partly choked up with sand. In ancient times this was called _Stagnum Gonusa_, and it is said the great philosopher Empedocles purified it and made the air around it wholesome, by clearing a mouth towards the sea, and conveying a good stream of water through it. The Fountain of Diana, at a short distance, which supplied this stream, still pours forth a copious volume of excellent water; but it is allowed to run and stagnate over the plain, and now adds to the _malaria_ created by the stagnant lake. The surrounding country is wholly uncultivated, and, where not a morass, is covered with underwood, dwarf palms, and myrtle-bushes of a prodigious growth.

For six months in the year, Selinunte is a most unhealthy place; and though the stranger may visit it by day-time without much danger of catching the infection, it seems scarcely possible to sleep there in summer and escape the malaria fever in one of its worst forms. Of four English artists who tried the experiment in 1822, not one escaped; and Mr. Harris, a young architect of great promise, died in Sicily from the consequences. These gentlemen made a discovery of some importance. They dug up near one of the temples some sculptured metopæ with figures in rilievo, of a singular primitive style, which seems to have more affinity with the Egyptian or the Etruscan, than with the Greek style of a later age. There are probably few Greek fragments of so ancient a date in so perfect a state of preservation.

The government claimed these treasures, and caused them to be transported to Palermo; but Mr. Samuel Angel, an architect, and one of the party, took casts from them, which may now be seen at the British Museum; and of which we present the reader with an account, drawn up, we believe, by a gentleman named Hamilton.—“Within a temporary building opening from the fifth room, are the casts from the marble metopæ of the great temple of Jupiter Olympius, at Selinus, in Sicily. Valuable as they are, as belonging to a school of art prior to that of Ægina, and probably of a date coeval with the earliest Egyptian, a short notice of them may not be unacceptable, as no account of them is to be found in the Synopsis, although to the public in general subjects of great curiosity and inquiry. The legend which they tell and their appearance, are altogether as unaccountable as mysterious. At Selinus, in Sicily, there are the remains of six temples of the earliest Doric, within a short distance of each other, and it was during the researches into the ruins of the largest, called the Western, and the one farthest from it, named the Eastern, by Messrs. Harris and Angell, in 1832, that these ancient sculptures were found: among them there were no single and perfect statues as in the temple of Ægina, which probably arose from the neighbourhood being well peopled, and they had no doubt been repeatedly ransacked. These temples may be reckoned among the largest of antiquity, being equal in their dimensions to those at Agrigentum, in the fluting of whose columns there is sufficient space for a man to stand. Immediately after the discovery, application was made to the Neapolitan Government to allow them to be shipped for England; but permission was refused, and they are now in the Royal Gallery at Palermo. Casts were, however, allowed to be taken, and they are these we now describe.

“They are probably of as early a date as any that have reached our times, and are of different styles of art; those which belonged to the temple called Eastern, whence the sculpture of the head of the dying warrior, and the chariot drawn by horses, were taken, possess much of the Æginitan character; those of the Western are of a ruder age. In most of the figures the anatomy resembles that of the earliest coins, but differs in many respects from the Greek sculptures; and there is a short and full character in the faces approaching the Egyptian. From the short proportions, the fleshy part of the thigh overcharged, and the peculiar manner in which the hair is arranged, they might be taken for specimens of Æginitan art; but on a close inspection it will be found, that they are the work of artists educated on different principles. At a much later period it is known that the artists of Ægina were employed by the kings of Sicily; and these, therefore, are not unlikely to have been the work of Carthaginian sculptors brought to decorate a city in alliance and newly founded, which will account for the Egyptian character given to the whole.

“The cast, which consists of the body and head of a dying soldier, a part of a female figure behind, formed the third metope of the Eastern Temple, and is a most valuable and curious fragment, and determines the style and character of the sculpture of the temple. It bears a marked resemblance to some of the heads in the Ægina marbles, but it has much more expression; the artist has evidently intended to mark the agonies of death, by the closed eyes, the mouth slightly opened, and the tongue appearing between the teeth; the hair and beard are most carefully and symmetrically arranged and most elaborately finished; the helmet is thrown back, and is of the kind called ‘γεῖσον’—part of the crest ‘λόφος’ is visible under the left shoulder of the figure. The fragment of the female is very spirited, and evidently in strong action. Those metopes, like those of the Parthenon, are in high relief, and in some parts detached. Thorwaldsen has pronounced them equal in execution to the Ægina. The next, which consists of three figures, one of which has a horse under the arm, is particularly interesting, from the illustration it presents of the death of the Gorgon Medusa. Perseus, emboldened by the presence of Minerva, is represented in the act of slaying Medusa; his eyes are averted from the object of his honour, while his right arm, guided by the goddess, thrusts his sword into the throat of the monster. Pegasus, a winged foal, springs from her blood, and Medusa presses him to her side with apparent solicitude. The monstrous face of the Gorgon is finely represented; the large round head and hideous face rise from the shoulders without the intervention of a neck; all the features are frightfully distorted, the nose is flat and spreading, and the mouth is nearly the whole width of the face, and is armed on each side with two immense tusks; the hair over the forehead is curiously shown, and almost appears to have represented the serpents to which it was changed. The figure of Minerva on the right is draped with the ‘πέπλον,’ and has the Mæander ornament on the edge. The figure of Perseus is in the centre; he is armed with the harp of Mercury and the helmet of Pluto, which latter has a pendant falling on each side; the ‘πτηνὰ πέδιλα,’ or _talaria_, are represented as covering the feet entirely, and bear some resemblance to the ancient greaves; the front part is attached to the ancle by thongs. The form of the young Pegasus is exceedingly beautiful; he seems bounding from the earth. The metope, containing the figure bearing two others on its shoulders, represents the adventure of Hercules, surnamed Melampyges, from the black and hairy appearance of his loins. The story is as follows:—Passalus and Achemon, two brothers, reviled their mother, who warned them to beware of a man whose loins were covered with black hair. They attempted to rob Hercules while asleep, and from that had the name of Cercopes; in the attempt they failed and awoke him, and he bound them hand and foot to his bow, with their heads downwards, and carried them in that manner. They began laughing on the accomplishment of their mother’s prophecy; Hercules asked them why they laughed, and on their telling him the reason, he also laughed and liberated them. The figure of the god is represented as strong and muscular, and the two prisoners have a very ludicrous appearance; in the reversed position, the hair falls in a curious manner; the whole group has been painted in various colours, and in the countenances much of Egyptian expression is to be observed. The horses which draw the chariot formed part of the centre metope of the Eastern Temple; it is very imperfect, and is supposed to represent the celebration of the race of Pelops and Œnomus; they are drawn full of fire and courage, and are finely fore-shortened; they have the cropped ears and manes which are observable in those of the Parthenon.

“These sculptures are valuable as specimens of the third period of the art, the earliest of which is probably the Hindoo; the great resemblance both these and the Egyptian bear to that style is remarkable, and gives warrant to suppose that it was the original school. Of Hebrew sculpture there are no remains; the command to form no graven images prevented the art attaining the perfection which it reached in the neighbouring country of Syria, and would seem to confirm the account, that within the land of Judea no statue bearing marks of great antiquity has been discovered. The Egyptian, the Etruscan, the Selinuntine, and the Ægina schools, furnished the models for the Grecian; and the careful observer has it in his power, within the walls of the Museum, to trace, step by step, the progress of the art; till it attained its meridian splendour in the production of those sculptures, whose dilapidated remains are there preserved, and which the accumulated knowledge, genius, labour, and talent of two thousand five hundred years has never yet been able to surpass[218].”

The neighbouring country is interesting, as having been the scene of many of the memorable events recorded by the ancient historians. A few miles to the west of the ruins, on the banks of a little river, that now, unless when swelled by the winter torrents, creeps gently into the sea, was fought, amidst thunder, lightning, and rain, one of the most celebrated battles of ancient times, in which the “Immortal Timoleon,” the liberator of Corinth, and the saviour of Syracuse, gained a glorious victory over the Carthaginian invaders. The events are preserved in popular traditions; and the names of Mago, Hamilcar, Hannibal, Agathocles, Dionysius, and Timoleon, are common in the mouths of the country people, though not unfrequently confused with one another, and subjected to the same laughable mutilation as the name of Castor and Selinute[219].

NO. XXIX.—SICYON.

The most ancient kingdom of Greece was that of Sicyon, the beginning of which is placed by Eusebius 1313 years before the first Olympiad. Its duration is believed to have been about a thousand years; during which period it is said to have had a succession of kings, whose reigns were so equitable that nothing of importance is recorded of them. It sent, however, 3000 troops to the battle of Platea, and fifteen ships to that of Salamis. It is now only a village.

Of these monarchs the most remarkable was Sicyon, who is supposed to have built, though some say he only enlarged, the metropolis of his kingdom, and to have called it by his own name.

It became very powerful in the time of the Achaian league, which it joined, at the persuasion of Aratus, A. C. 251. It was destroyed by Demetrius, son of Antigonus, who afterwards rebuilt it, and endeavoured to impose upon it the name of Demetrius; but it soon sunk under its ancient and more memorable appellation.

Sicyon was in great reputation for the arts, and painting in particular; the true taste for which was preserved there in all its ancient purity. It is even said, that Apelles, who was then admired by all the world, had been at Sicyon, where he frequented the schools of two painters, to whom he gave a talent; not for acquiring a perfection of the art from them, but in order to obtain a share in their great reputation. When Aratus had reinstated his city in its former liberties, he destroyed all the pictures of the tyrants; but when he came to that of Aristratus, who reigned in the time of Philip, and whom the painter had represented in the attitude of standing in a triumphant chariot, he hesitated a long time whether he should deface it or not; for all the capital disciples of Melanthus had contributed to the completion of that piece; and it had even been touched by the pencil of Apelles. This work was so inimitable in its kind, that Aratus was enchanted with its beauties; but his aversion to tyrants prevailed over his admiration of the picture, and he accordingly ordered it to be destroyed.

In the time of Pausanias, Sicyon was destroyed by an earthquake. It was, nevertheless, not long after, not only one of the noblest cities of Greece, on account of its magnificent edifices, many of which were built of marble, and ingenious workmen, but it was a distinguished place when the Venetians were masters of the Morea. The period, however, when it fell from that eminence is unknown.

Sicyon[220] was the school of the most celebrated artists of antiquity, and was sumptuously decorated with temples and statues. Pausanias enumerates seventeen temples, a stadium, a theatre, two gymnasia, an agora, a senate-house, and a temenos for the Roman emperors, with many altars, monuments, and numerous statues of ivory and gold, of marble, of bronze, and of wood.

Its present condition, in respect to population, may be, in a great measure, attributed to its having, about twenty years before Sir George Wheler visited it, been afflicted by the plague. “This final destruction,” said one of the inhabitants, “is a judgment of God upon the Turks for turning one of the Christian churches into a mosque. The Vaywode fell down dead upon the place, the first time he caused the Koran to be read in it. This was followed by a plague, which, in a short time, utterly destroyed the whole town; and it could never afterwards be repeopled.”

So little is known[221] concerning this ancient seat of Grecian power, that it is not possible to ascertain in what period it dwindled from its pre-eminence to become, what it is now, one of the most wretched villages of the Peloponnesus. The remains of its former magnificence are, however, still considerable, and in some instances they exist in such a state of preservation, that it is evident the buildings of the city either survived the earthquakes said to have overwhelmed them, or they must have been constructed at some later period.

“The ruins of Sicyon,” says Mr. Dodwell, “still retain some vestiges of ancient magnificence. Among these a fine theatre, situate at the north-east foot of the Acropolis; having seats in a perfect state. Near it are some large masses of Roman brick walls, and the remains of the gymnasium, supported by strong walls of polygonal construction. There are several dilapidated churches which, composed of ancient fragments, are supposed to occupy the site of the temples. Several fragments of the Doric order are observable among them; also several inscriptions.”

“In respect to the temple of Bacchus,” says Dr. Clarke, “we can be at no loss for its name, although nothing but the ground-plot now remains. It is distinctly stated by Pausanias to have been the temple of Bacchus, which was placed beyond the theatre to a person coming from the citadel, and to this temple were made those annual processions which took place at night, and by the light of the torches, when the Sicyonians brought hither the mystic images, called Bacchus and Lysius, chanting their ancient hymns.”

The theatre is almost in its entire state; and although the notes were made upon the spot, did not enable Dr. Clarke to afford a description of its form and dimensions equally copious with that already given of the famous theatre of Polycletus in Eidausia; yet this of Sicyon may be considered as surpassing every other in Greece, in the harmony of its proportions, the costliness of the workmanship, the grandeur of the coilon, and the stupendous nature of the prospect presented to all those who were seated upon its benches. If it were cleared of the rubbish about it, and laid open to view, it would afford an astonishing idea of the magnificence of a city, whose treasures were so great, that its inhabitants ranked amongst the most voluptuous and effeminate people of all Greece. The stone-work is entirely of that massive kind, which denotes a very high degree of antiquity.

The stadium[222] is on the right hand of a person facing the theatre, and it is undoubtedly the oldest work remaining of all that belonged to the ancient city. The walls exactly resemble those of Mycenæ and Tiryns; we may, therefore, class it among the examples of the Cyclopean masonry. It is, in other respects, the most remarkable structure of the kind existing; combining at once a natural and artificial character. The persons by whom it was formed, finding that the mountain whereon the coilon of the theatre has been constructed, would not allow a sufficient space for another oblong cavea of the length requisite to complete a stadium, built upon an artificial rampart reaching out into the plain, from the mountain toward the sea; so that this front-work resembles half a stadium thrust into the semicircular cavity of a theatre; the entrance to the area, included between both, being formed with great taste and effect at the two sides or extremities of the semicircle. The ancient masonry appears in the front-work so placed. The length of the whole area equals two hundred and sixty-seven paces; the width of the advanced bastion thirty-six paces; and its height twenty-two feet six inches.

Besides these there are some few other antiquities, but of too minute a kind to merit description.

Even her ruins[223] speak less emphatically of the melancholy fate of Greece than her extensive solitudes. Oppression has degraded her children, and broken her spirit. Hence those prodigious plains, which God hath given for their good, are neglected; hence, too, the beauteous seas are without a sail; the lands of ancient Sicyon so thinly peopled!

’Tis Greece, but living Greece no more!
So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
We start—for soul is wanting there!
Hers is the loveliness in death,
That parts not quite with parting breath;
But beauty with that fearful bloom,
That hue which haunts it to the tomb—
Expression’s last receding ray,
A gilded halo, hovering round decay,
The farewell beam of feeling past away;
Spark of that flame, perchance of heavenly birth,
Which gleams, but warms no more its cherished earth![224]

NO. XXX.—SIDON.

Phœnicia comprised Sidon, Tyre, Ptolemais, and Berytus. Its mountains were Libanus and Anti-Libanus. Its most ancient city was Sidon; which was an opulent city even at so early a period as that in which the Greeks are said to have lived upon acorns. It is situated on the shores of the Mediterranean, at a distance of about twenty miles from Tyre, and fifty from Damascus.

Sidon is supposed to have been built by Canaan’s first-born, whose name was Sidon[225]. It is, therefore, celebrated as the most ancient of the cities of Phœnicia. It is frequently mentioned in holy writ. It is named by Jacob[226], in his prophetic speech concerning the country which his sons were to inhabit; and it is stated as a place for some of the kings who were driven out by Joshua. Its remote origin, however, is perhaps still uncertain, though Justin speaks of it in the following manner:—“The nation of the Tyrians, descended from the Phœnicians, being shaken by an earthquake, and having abandoned their country, did first inhabit the Assyrian marsh; and, not long afterwards, the shore next unto the sea, where they built a city, and called it Sidon, from the abundance of fishes that were there: for the Phœnicians call a fish _sidon_. After the process of many years, being overcome by king Ascalon, they took shipping again, and built Tyre in the year before the destruction of Troy.”

“I cannot help thinking,” says Mr. Drummond, “that the city, called Tsidon by the Hebrews; Tsaid or Tsaida, by the Syrians; and Said or Saida, by the Arabians; originally received its name from the language of the last. The Tsidonians were celebrated for their skill in metallurgy, and for the art with which they worked in gold, silver, and brass. Much iron and brass existed in Phœnicia, and the possession of this country having been once intended for the tribe of Ashur, Moses said to that tribe, ‘under thy shoes shall be iron and brass:’ (Deut. xxxiii. 25.): that is, the soil under thy feet shall abound with iron and brass. Now I consider Sidon, or rather Saida, to have been so called from its abounding with _saidi_ or _saidan_, viz. brass.”[227]

During the administration of Joshua, and afterwards, Sidon was governed by kings. He calls it “Zidon the great.”[228] In the division of Palestine it was allotted to Ashur; but this tribe could never get possession of it.[229]

The inhabitants are said to have assisted Solomon, in his preparations for the building of the temple; their skill in hewing timber being superior to that of all other nations.[230]

That Sidon was celebrated for its women being skilled in embroidery, we learn, in the first instance, from several passages in Scripture; and secondly, from a curious passage in Homer:

The Phrygian queen to her rich wardrobe went,
Where treasured odours breathed a costly scent.
There lay the vestures of no vulgar art,
Sidonian maids embroider’d every part,
Whom from soft Sidon youthful Paris bore,
With Helen touching on the Tyrian shore.
Here as the queen revolved with careful eyes
The various textures and the various dyes,
She chose a veil that shone superior far,
And glow’d refulgent as the morning star.[231]

To the Sidonians, also, are attributed the inventions of glass,[232] linen, and purple dye. They were also greatly celebrated for their industry. They were highly commercial, and were famous for the many voyages some of their fellow-citizens undertook. It was the most ancient of maritime cities: illustrious for its wealth, for the sobriety and industry of its inhabitants; for the wisdom of its councils, and for its skill, not only in commerce and geography, but in astronomy.

The Sidonians were often engaged in war; but we can afford space only to a few instances. The origin of that with Artaxerxes Ochus, is thus related by Diodorus:[233]—“The king’s lieutenants and generals then in Sidon, carrying themselves, by their severe edicts, rigorously and haughtily towards the Sidonians, the citizens, being so abused, and not being able longer to brook it, studied how to revolt from the Persians. Upon which, the rest of the Phœnicians, being wrought upon by the others to vindicate their liberty, sent messengers to Nectanetus, the king of Egypt, then at war with the Persians, to receive them as confederates, and so the whole nation (Phœnicia,) prepared for war. And being that Sidon exceeded all the rest of the cities in wealth, and even private men, by the advantage of trade, were grown very rich, they built a great number of ships, and raised a potent army of mercenaries; and both arms, and darts, and provisions, and all other things necessary for war were prepared; and that they might appear first in the war, they spoiled and ruined the king’s garden, cutting down all the trees, where the Persian kings used to recreate and divert themselves. Then they burned all the hay, which the lieutenants had laid up for the horses. At last they seized upon the Persians, who had so insulted them, and led them to punishment, and in this manner began the war of the Persians with the Phœnicians.”

Ochus Artaxerxes acted in a manner so contrary to all the best notions of government, that some historians have not hesitated to regard him as the most cruel and wicked of all the princes of his race. Not only the palace, but the empire was filled with his murderers. Several nations, over whom he exercised sway, in consequence revolted. Amongst these, Sidon and the other Phœnician cities. Ochus hearing of this, resolved to go in person to reduce the rebels. He repaired to Phœnicia with an army of 300,000 foot, and 30,000 horse. Mentor was at this time in Sidon with some troops from Greece. He had come thither to assist the rebels. When he learned how great a force the Persian king had, he was so alarmed, that he sent secretly to the king to offer to deliver up Sidon. This offer Ochus accepted; and the king of Sidon having come into the treason, the city was surrendered into his hands.

When the Sidonians saw themselves betrayed, and that the enemy had got entire possession of their city, they gave themselves up to despair, shut themselves up in their houses, and set them on fire. In this manner 40,000 men, besides women and children, perished in the flames! At this time, Sidon was so immensely rich, that the cinders, among which a vast quantity of gold and silver had melted, were sold by the conqueror for a large sum of money.

This judgment had been prophesied by Ezekiel[234].

“20. Again the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,

“21. Son of man, set thy face against Zidon, and prophesy against it.

“22. And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I am against thee, O Zidon; and I will be glorified in the midst of thee: and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her.

“23. For I will send into her pestilence, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall be judged in the midst of her by the sword upon her on every side; and they shall know that I am the Lord.”

Eighteen years after this misfortune, Alexander of Macedon marched into Phœnicia. All submitted to him as he advanced; nor did any people do this with greater alacrity than the Sidonians: who, having suffered so largely from the Persian king, held the Persians in very great detestation. Strato, their king, however, having declared for Darius, Alexander desired Hephæstion to place in his stead any one of the Sidonians that he should judge worthy of so exalted a station. Being quartered at the house of two brothers, of whom he had reason to entertain the highest opinion, Hephæstion offered the crown to them; but these brothers had the virtue to refuse it, telling him, that, by the laws of the country, no one could ascend the throne but those who were of the blood-royal. Hephæstion, greatly moved at seeing the greatness of those who could refuse what so many others had striven to obtain by fire and sword, expressed his admiration of their magnanimity; and desired them to name any person of the royal family who would, on being placed upon the throne, remember who it was that put him there. On this the brothers answered, that they knew of no one more worthy of a diadem than a person, named Abdolonymus. He was, they said, of the royal family, though at a great distance from the succession; but so poor that he was compelled to earn his bread by working in one of the gardens outside the city. He was not only poor, they continued, but of so contented a spirit, of so exalted a mind, and of such deep engagement of purpose, that the wars, which were then shaking Asia, were altogether unknown to him.

The two brothers immediately repaired to the place where they knew this person was to be found. They took royal garments with them; and after no great search found him employed in weeding his garden. They immediately saluted him as King of Sidon. “You must change your tatters,” said one of the brothers, “for the royal garments we have brought with us. Put off that mean and contemptible habit, in which you have grown old. Assume the style and sentiments of a prince. When, however, you are seated on the throne, continue to preserve the virtues which have made you worthy of it.” When Abdolonymus heard this, he was amazed. He looked upon the whole as a dream. When, however, he perceived that the two brothers were standing before him in actual presence, he inquired of them if they did not feel some shame in ridiculing him in that manner? They replied, that no ridicule was intended; but that all was in the spirit of honour. They threw over his shoulders a purple raiment, richly embroidered with gold; repeated to him oaths of earnestness, and led him to the palace.

The news of this astonishing circumstance soon spread over the whole city. Most of the richer sort were indignant. Alexander, however, commanded that the newly elected prince should be brought into his presence. When he was presented, Alexander measured him with his eye from head to foot, and gazed upon his countenance for some time. At length he addressed him after the following manner:—“Thine air and thy mien by no means contradict what I have heard, in regard to thy extraction; and I therefore desire to know in what spirit thou hast borne the abject condition to which thou wert reduced.” “Would to the gods,” answered Abdolonymus, “that I may bear this crown with equal patience! These hands have procured to me all I have enjoyed; for whilst I had nothing, I wanted nothing.”

When Alexander heard this, he was so struck with admiration, that he not only presented him with all the furniture that had belonged to Strato, and part of the riches he had himself acquired in Persia, but he annexed to his dominions one of the neighbouring provinces.

At this period, Quietus Curtius says[235], Sidon was a city greatly celebrated on account of its antiquity and its founder.

Upon an elevation, on the south side of the city, stood a fine old castle, now in ruins. It was built by Lewis IX. of France, surnamed the Saint; who also repaired the city during the Holy Wars[236]. In subsequent times it fell into decay; but its final ruin is said to have been effected by Feckerdine, Emir of the Druses, when he had established an independent power, with the view of preventing the Grand Signior from landing a maritime force here to act against him. He destroyed all the little ports, from Bairout to Acra, by sinking boats and stones to prevent the Turkish ships from entering them[237]. He then built a castle, which still exists. He erected also a magnificent palace in the Italian style; but that is in ruins.

In the time of Volney, Sayda contained about five thousand inhabitants; in 1816 from six thousand to seven thousand. Of these there are one thousand Christians, five hundred Jews, the rest are Mahommedans. The climate is mild, agreeable, and healthy.

The huge stones of which the mole was built may still be seen, being capable of filling its whole thickness. Some of these are twelve feet long, eleven broad, and five deep. It is supposed to have been built by Lewis IX.; but this, perhaps, was not the case, since it contains, on the top of it, a work of a much more ancient date.

On the opposite side of the town is a modern fort, built by Degnizlu; but consisting merely of a large tower, incapable of resisting any serious attack.

“Sidon was the mother of Tyre,” says Mr. Robinson; “yet it was speedily eclipsed by that city, in fame, in riches, and in importance. After sharing in its fortunes, during the space of many centuries, it has finally survived its rival, and is again a place of considerable trade.”

The buildings of Sayda, according to Mr. Buckingham, are not at all superior to the common order of Mahommedan edifices in the modern towns of Syria. The streets are extremely narrow, the mosques mean, the caravanserais small and incommodious, and the bazaars few, and badly furnished even with the commonest necessaries. According to another traveller, Sayda is ill-built, dirty, and full of ruins. These ruins, however, are of a comparatively modern date.

Few of ancient times remain. There is, nevertheless, a large tesselated pavement of variegated marble, representing a horse, and tolerably perfect in some parts for ten feet in length, remaining close to the sea, on the northern extremity of the city, which shows that the sea encroaches on the land. There are also several columns of granite wrought into the walls; and some stand as posts on the bridge leading to the fort; and near the gate of the town is a small square building, which contains the tombs of such of the Emirs of the Druses as died when Sayda was in their possession.

Sayda is the principal port of Damascus. The harbour, like all those on this coast, was formed with much art, and at an immense expense, by means of long piers. These works, which subsisted entire under the lower empire, are now fallen into decay. “So great are the mutations, occasioned by time,” says Mr. Buckingham, “that but for the identity of name and position, there would be scarcely any marks left by which to recognise even the site of the present emporium here alluded to. The stranger, who visits it in its present state, will look around in vain for any of those vestiges of its former grandeur which the description of the ancient historians would lead him to expect; and which, indeed, are still to be seen in most of the other celebrated cities of the East,—whether in Greece, Egypt, Syria, or Asia Minor.[238]”

NO. XXXI.—SMYRNA.

The true origin of Smyrna is rather doubtful. One account is, that such of the Achaians as were descended from Æolus, and had hitherto inhabited Laconia, being driven thence by the Dorians, after some wandering, settled in that part of Asia Minor which, from them, was called Æolis; where they founded twelve cities, one of which was Smyrna. According to Herodotus, however, it owed its foundation to the Curmæans, who were of Thessalian extraction; who, having built the city of Cuma, and finding it too small to contain their number, erected another city, which they named Smyrna, from the wife of their general, Theseus. According to some, it was built by Tantalus; and others insist, and perhaps with great truth, that it was founded by persons who inhabited a quarter of Ephesus called Smyrna. Some have ascribed it to an Amazon of that name: in respect to whom Sir George Wheler informs us, that they stamped their money with a figure of her head, and that he got several pieces of them very rare, and saw many more. One small one had her head crowned with towers, and a two-edged hatchet on her shoulder. On another her whole habit; thus—her head crowned with a tower, as before; a two-edged axe upon her shoulder, holding a temple in her right hand, with a short vest let down to her knees, and buskins half way up her legs. On another she was dressed in the habit of a Hercules. Whatever its origin might be, certain it is, that it was one of the richest and most powerful cities of Asia, and became one of the twelve cities of the Ionian confederacy.

Smyrna has been subject to many revolutions, and been severally in the possession of the Æolians, Ionians, and Macedonians.

The Lydians took possession under Ardys, son of Gyges; and having destroyed it, the inhabitants dispersed themselves into several districts.

Alexander, in compliance with the directions of a vision, he saw near the temple of the Furies, rebuilt it four hundred years after it had been destroyed by the Lydians. Strabo, however, attributes its re-establishment to Antigonus and Lysimachus. But as neither that author nor Arrian mention Alexander as having done so, it is not improbable that he only meditated the doing so; that Antigonus followed up his design; and that Lysimachus carried its completion into effect.

At Smyrna there were none of the tyrants, who oppressed many other cities of Asia. Even the Romans respected the happy state of this town, and left it the shadow of liberty. This is a fine panegyric upon the system of polity, that must have been adopted and invariably preserved.

There is another circumstance, highly to its honour: the inhabitants believed that Homer was born in their city, and they showed a place which bore the poet’s name. They also paid him divine honours. Of all the cities, which contended for the honour of having given birth to this transcendant poet, Smyrna has undoubtedly the most reason on her side. Herodotus absolutely decides in favour of Smyrna, assuring us, that he was born on the banks of the river Meles, whence he took the name of Melesigenes.

The inhabitants are said to have been much given to luxury and indolence; but they were universally esteemed for their valour and intrepidity when called into action. Anacharsis is made to speak of their city in the following manner:—“Our road, which was almost everywhere overshadowed by beautiful andrachnes, led us to the mouth of the Hermus; and thence our view extended over that superb bay, formed by a peninsula, on which are the cities of Erythræ and Teos. At the bottom of it are some small villages, the unfortunate remains of the ancient city of Smyrna, formerly destroyed by the Lydians. They still bear the same name; and, should circumstances one day permit the inhabitants to unite and form one town, defended by walls, their situation will doubtless attract an immense commerce.”

It was the first town of Asia Minor, according to Tacitus, which, even during the existence of Carthage, erected any temple to “Rome the Goddess.” Part of the city was destroyed by Dolabella, when he slew Trebonius, one of the conspirators against Cæsar. But it flourished greatly under the early emperors: Marcus Aurelius repaired it after it had been destroyed by an earthquake; and under Caracalla it took the name of the first city of Asia.

Smyrna was much celebrated for its stately buildings, magnificent temples, and marble porticoes. It had several grand porticoes of a square form, amongst which was one in which stood a temple of Homer, adorned with a statue of the bard. There was also a gymnasium, and a temple dedicated to the mother of the gods. Where the gymnasium was, however, is now past conjecture; but part of its theatre was still in existence in the time of Sir George Wheler. “The theatre,” says he, “is on the brow of the hill north of the course, built of white marble, but now is going to be destroyed, to build the new Kan and Bazar hard by the fort below, which they are now about; and in doing whereof there hath been lately found a pot of medals, all of the emperor Gallienus’ family, and the other tyrants that reigned in his time.” There were also there the remains of a circus, and a considerable number of ancient foundations and noble structures; but what they were Sir George considered uncertain. He found also many inscriptions and medals, on which the names of Tiberius, Claudius, and Nero were to be read; on others, sepulchral monuments. Among these, was one with an inscription “_to the emperor Adrian, Olympian, Saviour and Founder_.”

In the Armenian church-yard he saw an inscription—“_Good Fortune to the most splendid Metropolitan, and thrice Neocorus of the emperor, according to the judgment of the most holy senate of Smyrniotes_[239].”

Many writers do not seem to be aware, that the ancient Smyrna did not occupy the spot where modern Smyrna stands, but one about two miles and a half distant. It was built partly on the brow of a hill, and partly on a plain towards the port, and had a temple dedicated to Cybele. It was then the most beautiful of all the Asiatic cities. “But that which was, and ever will be, its true glory,” says Sir George Wheler, “was their early reception of the gospel of Jesus Christ—glorious in the testimony he has given of them, and happy in the faithful promises he made to them. Let us, therefore, consider what he writeth to them by the Evangelist St. John:—(Apoc. ii. 9.) ‘I know thy works and tribulation, and poverty; but thou art rich. And I know the blasphemy of them, that say they are Jews, and are not: but are the Synagogue of Satan. Fear none of those things, which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the Devil shall cast some of ye in prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Be thou faithful unto death; and I will give thee a crown of life.’”

Previous to the year 1675, it had been partially destroyed, and several times, by earthquakes; and it was predicted that a seventh convulsion would be fatal to the whole city. Such a calamity, attended by a dreadful fire, and the swallowing up of multitudes by the incursion of the sea, recurred in 1688, and did, indeed, very nearly fulfil the prophecy.

“Repeated strokes,” says Sir John Hobhouse, “and almost annual pestilences, have since that period laid waste this devoted city; and yet the convenience of a most spacious and secure harbour, together with the luxuriant fertility of the surrounding country, and the prescriptive excellence allowed nearly two thousand years to this port, in preference to the other maritime stations of Asia Minor, still operate to collect and keep together a vast mass of inhabitants from every quarter of the globe.”

According to Pococke, the city might have been about four miles in compass; of a triangular form. It seems to have extended about a mile on the sea, and three miles on the north, south, and east sides, taking in the compass of the castle. This stands on the remains of the ancient castle, the walls of which were of the same kind of architecture as the city walls on the hill. It is all in ruins, except a small part of the west end, which is always kept shut up.

One of the gateways of white marble has been brought from another place; and in the architrave round the arch there is a Greek inscription of the middle ages. At another gate there is a colossal head, said to be that of the Amazon Smyrna. It is of fine workmanship, and the tresses particularly flow in a very natural manner. “Smyrna,” says Pococke, “was one of the finest cities in these parts, and the streets were beautifully laid out, well-paved, and adorned with porticoes, both above and below. There was also a temple of Mars, a circus, and a theatre; and yet there is now very little to be seen of all these things.”

Upon a survey of the castle, Dr. Chandler collected, that, after being re-edified by John Angelus Comnenus, its condition, though less ruinous than before, was far more mean and ignoble. The old wall, of which many remnants may be discovered, is of a solid massive construction, worthy of Alexander and his captains. All the repairs are mere patchwork. On the arch of a gateway, which is of marble, is inscribed a copy of verses, giving an elegant and poetical description of the extreme misery from which the above-mentioned emperor raised the city; concluding with an address to the Omnipotent Ruler of heaven and earth, that he would grant him and his queen, whose beauty it celebrates, a reign of many years. On each side is an eagle, rudely cut.

Near the sea is the ground-work of a stadium, stripped of its marble seats and decorations. Below the theatre is part of a slight wall. The city walls have long since been demolished. Even its ruins are removed. Beyond the deep valley, however, in which the Meles winds, behind the castle, are several portions of the wall of the Pomœrium, which encompassed the city at a distance, but broken. The facings are gone, and masses left only of rubble and cement.

The ancient city has supplied materials for those public edifices, which have been erected by the Turks. The Bezestan and the Vizir khan were both raised with the white marble of the theatre. The very ruins of the stones and temples are vanished. “We saw,” says Dr. Chandler, “remains of one only; some shafts of columns of variegated marble, much injured, in the way ascending through the town to the castle. Many pedestals, statues, inscriptions, and medals have been, and are still, discovered in digging. Perhaps,” continues our author, “no place has contributed more to enrich the cabinets and collections of Europe.”

“Smyrna,” says a celebrated French writer, “the queen of the cities of Anatolia, and extolled by the ancients under the title of ‘the lovely, the crown of Ionia, the ornament of Asia,’ braves the reiterated efforts of conflagrations and earthquakes. Ten times destroyed, she has ten times risen from her ruins with new splendour. According to a very common Grecian system, the principal buildings were erected on the face of a hill fronting the sea. The hill supplied marble, while its slope afforded a place for the seats rising gradually above each other in the stadium, or the great theatre for the exhibition of games. Almost every trace of the ancient city, however, has been obliterated during the contests between the Greek empire and the Ottomans, and afterwards by the ravages of Timour, in 1402. The foundation of the stadium remains; but the area is sown with grain. There are only a few vestiges of the theatre; and the castle, which crowns the hill, is chiefly patchwork, executed by John Comnenus on the ruins of the old one, the walls of which, of immense strength and thickness, may still be discovered.”

This city was visited a short time since by the celebrated French poet and traveller Lamartine. He has thus spoken of its environs:—“The view from the top of the hill over the gulf and city is beautiful. On descending the hill to the margin of the river, which I like to believe is the Meles, we were delighted with the situation of the bridge of the caravans, very near one of the gates of the town. The river is limpid, slumbering under a peaceful arch of sycamores and cypresses; we seated ourselves on its bank. If this stream heard the first notes of Homer, I love to hear its gentle murmurings amidst the roots of the palm-trees; I raise its waters to my lips. Oh! might that man appear from the Western world, who should weave its history, its dreams, and its heaven, into an epic! Such a poem is the sepulchre of times gone by, to which posterity comes to venerate traditions, and eternalise by its worship the great actions and sublime thoughts of human nature. Its author engraves his name on the pedestal of the statue which he erects to man, and he lives in all the ideas with which he enriches the world of imagination.”