“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.”
“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.199In 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 customsof 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 wellworthy attention; among which may be particularly mentioned several bronze relics; an ara-triform sceptre, a curious hieroglyphic tablet200, 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’Sooan201.
Samariais 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 it202.
“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 forgavethem 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 templewas, 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 turned203.
Thus it remained till the time of Herod, who rebuilt the city; and, in honour of Augustus, gave it the name of Sebastos204.
Thisvillage 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. Innumerablefiles of cattle and black goats wound across the plain and the sides of the hill leading to Nazareth205.”
Sardisis thus alluded to in the Apocalypse206:—
“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. Inhonour 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 conversationhe 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 bloomsThe virtue, Crœsus, of thy gentle mind;While fate to infamy and hatred doomsSicilia’s tyrant207, 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 melodyMingle 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.
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 bloomsThe virtue, Crœsus, of thy gentle mind;While fate to infamy and hatred doomsSicilia’s tyrant207, 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 melodyMingle 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 intosatrapies, 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 wasfor 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 214B. 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 byan 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 theconflagration 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,208and 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
Therewere 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 Lucan210, Philostratus211, 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 cityshould 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 Parthians212were, in consequence, beheld at the gates, to assist sometimes one party, and sometimes the other. Ctesiphon was then but a village213, on the opposite side of the Tigris, in whichthe 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 RomeA. 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 persons214.
“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 affirm215: 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 Seleucia216.” In this account Malte-Brun appears to us to be exceedingly mistaken217.
Of the ruins ofSeleucia, nearAntioch, 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.”
Thiscity was foundedA. 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 conditionof 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 thewhole 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 calledStagnum 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 themalariacreated 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 thelargest, 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 decoratea 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, andis 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,’ ortalaria, 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 veryimperfect, and is supposed to represent the celebration of the race of Pelops and Œnomaus; 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 surpass218.”
The neighbouring country is interesting, as having been the scene of many of the memorable eventsrecorded 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 Selinute219.
Themost 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 timewhether 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.
Sicyon220was 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 known221concerning this ancient seat ofGrecian 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 everyother 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 stadium222is 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 semi-circular 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 ruins223speak 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!