Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2)

A little to the north, at the foot of the rock, are two more figures of horsemen contending for a ring, and under the horses’ feet two human heads, besides other attendants. Both these horses are called Rustum, whose tomb is shown near the foot of the rock, – a square building, of blue stone, twenty feet high, with windows and niches.

In part of the rock to the east is a mutilated equestrian figure, with a horn on the left side of his forehead, called Iskunder zu el Kemeen, or Alexander, Lord of horns87.

In regard to the excavations, Mr. Kinneir is disposed to believe, that they could have been applied to no other use than as receptacles for the dead. The city continued to rank among the first cities of the empire, until the Mahomedan conquest, and was the burial place of many of the Sassanian kings.

The body of Yesdigird, the last of that powerful race, was transported from the distant province of Khorassan, to be interred at Persepolis, or rather, perhaps, in the cavities of Nuckshi Rustum.

“Our first, and, indeed, lasting impressions,” says Mr. Morier, “were astonishment at the immensity, and admiration at the beauties, of the ruins. Although there was nothing in the architecture of the buildings, or in the sculptures and reliefs on the rocks, which could bear a critical comparison with the delicate proportions and perfect statuary of the Greeks; yet, without trying Persepolis by a standard to which it never was amenable, we yielded at once to emotions the most lively and the most enraptured88

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1

Dodwell.

2

Barthelemy.

3

Dodwell.

4

Barthelemy; Rollin; Dodwell; Clarke.

5

Knight.

6

Chandler.

7

Clarke.

8

Clarke.

9

Strabo; Pausanias; Rollin; Wheler; Barthelemy; Chandler; Turner; Clarke.

10

Gillies.

11

Acts xx. ver. 13. And we went before to ship, and sailed unto Assos, there intending to take in Paul: for so had he appointed, minding himself to go afoot.

14. And when he met with us at Assos, we took him in, and came to Mitylene.

15. And we sailed thence, and came the next day over against Chios; and the next day we arrived at Samos, and tarried at Trogyllium; and the next day we came to Miletus.

16. For Paul had determined to sail by Ephesus, because he would not spend the time in Asia: for he hasted, if it were possible for him, to be at Jerusalem the day of Pentecost.

17. And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.

18. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know, from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons.

12

He was the first that accurately calculated eclipses of the sun; he discovered the solstices; he divided the heavens into five zones, and recommended the division of the year into three hundred and sixty-five days.

13

The inventor of sun-dials and the gnomon. This philosopher had nevertheless many curious opinions; amongst which may be mentioned, that air was the parent of every created being; and that the sun, moon, and stars, had been made from the earth.

14

He taught that men were born of earth and water, mixed together by the heat of the sun.

15

An historian.

16

A musician.

17

Ionian Antiquities.

18

Herodotus; Strabo; Pausanias; Quintus Curtius; Prideaux; Chandler; Stuart; Barthelemy; Gillies.

19

This was written in 1806, and published in 1819.

20

Pausanias; Dodwell; La Martine.

21

Barthelemy; Dodwell; Rees; Brewster.

22

See Herod. i. c. 184; Diodor. Sic. ii.; Pompon. Mela, i. c. 3; Justin. i. c. 1; Val. Max. ix. c. 3.

23

The character of Sardanapalus has been treated more gently by a modern poet. “The Sardanapalus of Lord Byron is pretty nearly such a person as the Sardanapalus of history may be supposed to have been, – young, thoughtless, spoiled by flattery and unbounded self-indulgence; but, with a temper naturally amiable, and abilities of a superior order, he affects to undervalue the sanguinary renown of his ancestors, as an excuse for inattention to the most necessary duties of his rank; and flatters himself, while he is indulging his own sloth, that he is making his people happy. Yet, even in his fondness for pleasure, there lurks a love of contradiction. Of the whole picture, selfishness is the prevailing feature; – selfishness admirably drawn, indeed; apologised for by every palliating circumstance of education and habit, and clothed in the brightest colours of which it is susceptible, from youth, talents, and placidity. But it is selfishness still; and we should have been tempted to quarrel with the art which made vice and frivolity thus amiable, if Lord Byron had not, at the same time, pointed out with much skill the bitterness and weariness of spirit which inevitably wait on such a character; and if he had not given a fine contrast to the picture, in the accompanying portraits of Salamenes and Myrrha.” – Heber.

24

Atherstone’s “Fall of Nineveh.”

25

Ælian calls him Thilgamus.

26

2 Kings.

27

Adrammelech and Sharezer.

28

2 Kings, xix. ver. 37.

29

Tobit, xiv. ver. 5, 13

30

Nahum, chap. iii.

31

Zephaniah, chap. ii.

32

Soon after the great fire of London, the rector of St. Michael, Queenhithe, preached a sermon before the Lord Mayor and corporation of London, in which he instituted a parallel between the cities of London and Nineveh, to show that unless the inhabitants of the former repented of their many public and private vices, and reformed their lives and manners, as did the Ninevites on the preaching of Jonah, they might justly be expected to become the objects of the signal vengeance of Heaven: putting them in mind of the many dreadful calamities that have, from time to time, befallen the English nation in general, and the great City of London in particular; and of the too great reason there was to apprehend some yet more signal vengeance from the hands of Omnipotence, since former judgments had not proved examples sufficient to warn and amend a very wicked people.

33

Diodorus says, that Nineveh stood on the Euphrates: but this is contrary to all evidence.

34

One of these is in the British Museum.

35

Daughter of Sir James Mackintosh, and wife of Mr. Rich.

36

Herodotus; Diodorus Siculus; Ælian; Prideaux; Rollin; Stackhouse; Gibbon; Rees; Brewster; Kinneir; Morier; Rich.

37

Strabo; Plutarch; Brydone; Swinburne; Jose.

38

The computation of time by Olympiads, which began about four hundred years after the destruction of Troy, was used until the reign of Theodosius the Great; when a new mode of reckoning, by indictions, or from the victory of Augustus at Actium, was introduced; the Olympic games, in the general assembly, were abolished; and the image, made by Phidias, was removed to Constantinople. – Chandler.

39

Gen. xxxii. 24.

40

Πᾶν κράτος.

41

There is a fine specimen in the Townley gallery, at the British Museum.

42

Chandler.

43

Chandler.

44

Clarke; Pausanias; Plutarch; Rollin; Chandler; Barthelemy; Dodwell.

45

“This name indicates,” says Mr. Swinburne, “that they pursued, or wished to be thought to pursue, a line of conduct in commercial transactions, which it would be happy for mankind, all maritime powers would adopt.”

46

Pholas dactylus.

47

Eustace.

48

Plin. xxx. c. 3.

49

Pliny; Swinburne; Eustace; Wilkinson.

50

The persons who visited Palmyra in 1678, found in the neighbourhood “a garden, full of palm-trees;” but when Mr. Wood was there, not a single one remained. “The name of Palmyra,” says Mr. Addison, “is supposed by some to have been derived from the word Palma, indicative of the number of palm-trees that grew here; but that name was given by the Greeks, and, although Palma signifies palm-tree in the Latin, yet in the Greek tongue it has a very different signification. Neither does Tadmor signify palm-tree in the Syrian language, nor in the Arabic; nor does Thadamoura, as the place is called by Josephus, signify palm-tree in the Hebrew. Neither do palms thrive in Syria, as the climate is too severe for them in the winter.”

51

1 Kings, ix. 18. 2 Chron. viii. 4.

52

It is a well known and very true observation, that is made by Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. xiv.), that the Greek and Roman names of places never took among the natives of Syria; which is the reason why most places retain their first and original names at this day. – Whiston.

53

Wood.

54

Ch. ix. ver. 18.

55

Ch. x. v. 14

56

He was of mean parentage, according to Orosius. Zonaras calls him “a man of Palmyra;” and Agathias speaks of him as a person entirely unknown, till he made his name illustrious by his actions. Sextus Rufus, however, calls him by an epithet implying that he was a senator.

57

Though history nowhere gives the first name of Zenobia, we learn from coins, that it was Septimia.

58

She is thus described: – Her complexion was a dark brown; she had black sparkling eyes, of uncommon fire; her countenance was divinely sprightly; and her person graceful and genteel beyond imagination; her teeth were white as pearls, and her voice clear and strong. If we add to this an uncommon strength, and consider her excessive military fatigues; for she used no carriage, generally rode, and often marched on foot three or four miles with her army; and if we, at the same time, suppose her haranguing her troops, which she used to do in her helmet, and often with her arms bare, it will give us an idea of that severe character of masculine beauty, which puts one more in mind of Minerva than of Venus.

59

There are several meanings to this word: – Balista implying a cross-bow, a sling, or an engine to shoot darts or stones.

60

“Her manly understanding,” says Gibbon, “was strengthened and adorned by study. She was not ignorant of the Latin tongue, but possessed, in equal perfection, the Greek, the Syriac, and the Egyptian languages. She had drawn up, for her own use, an epitome of oriental history, and familiarly compared the beauties of Homer and Plato, under the tuition of the sublime Longinus.”

61

Anon.

62

“The emperor afterwards presented Zenobia with an elegant villa at Tibur, or Tivoli, about twenty miles from the capital; where, in happy tranquillity, she fed the greatness of her soul with the noble images of Homer, and the exalted precepts of Plato; supported the adversity of her fortunes with fortitude and resignation; and learned that the anxieties, attendant on ambition, are happily exchanged for the enjoyments of ease, and the comforts of philosophy. The Syrian queen sank into a Roman matron; her daughters married into noble families; and her race was not yet extinct in the fifth century.” – Gibbon.

63

Addison.

64

Yet Bruce says: – “Palmyra is nowhere covered with sand or rubbish as in other ruins. The desert that surrounds it is rather gravel than sand, and is, therefore, not easily moved. Her mountains are perfectly bare, and produce nothing.”

65

This Emir lived upon rapine; being followed by a considerable number of men, who not only hated labour, but disliked equally to live under any settled government.

66

Philosophical Transactions.

67

This was the custom also in the days of Ezekiel. See ch. xxiii. 40.

68

In Mr. Wood’s well-known, though exceedingly scarce work, the ruins are represented in fifty-seven copper-plates, sixteen inches by twelve inches, printed on imperial paper; they are finely executed, the drawing is correct and masterly, and the engraving highly finished. The Palmyrene and Greek inscriptions on the funeral monuments, and other buildings, are copied; and besides picturesque views of the ruins, from several points of sight, the plans are generally laid down, and the several parts of the columns, doors, windows, pediments, ceilings and bas-reliefs, are delineated, with a scale by which they may be measured and compared.

69

“In this plain,” says Mr. Halifax, “you see a large valley of salt, affording great quantities thereof, and lying about an hour’s distance from the city: and this, more probably, is the valley of salt, mentioned in 2 Sam. 8-13, where David smote the Syrians, and slew one hundred and eighty thousand men; than another, which lies but four hours from Aleppo, and has sometimes passed for it.”

70

[70] “Istakar,” says Abulfeda, quoted by Sir William Ouseley, “is one of the most ancient cities in Persia, and was formerly the royal residence: it contains vestiges of buildings so stupendous, that, like Tadmor, and Balbec, they are said to be the work of supernatural beings.”

71

A city in Persia.

72

Buckingham.

73

Diodorus; Strabo; Josephus; Appian; Zosimus; Procopius; Benjamin of Tudela; Halifax; Halley; Wood; Prideaux; Rollin; Gibbon; Bruce; Volney; Brewster; Burckhardt; Addison.

74

Chandler.

75

Hobhouse.

76

Pausanias; Chandler; Rees; Hobhouse; Dodwell; Williams.

77

Plutarch; Rees; Pouqueville.

78

This library consisted of two hundred thousand volumes.

79

Tacitus; Plutarch; Choiseul-Gouffier; Rees; Turner.

80

Sir John Malcolm has preserved an account of Jemsheed, from Moullab Ackber’s MSS., which may serve to diversify our page. “Jemsheed was the first who discovered wine. He was immoderately fond of grapes, and desired to preserve some; which were placed in a large vessel, and lodged in a vault for future use. When the vessel was opened, the grapes had fermented. Their juice, in this state, was so acid, that the king believed it must be poisonous. He had some vessels filled with it, and poison written upon each: these were placed in his bed-room. It happened that one of his favourite ladies was affected with nervous head-aches. The pain distracted her so much, that she desired death; and observing a vessel with the word poison written upon it, she took it and swallowed its contents. The wine, for such it had become, overpowered the lady, who fell into a sound sleep, and awoke much refreshed. Delighted with the remedy, she repeated the dose so often, that the monarch’s poison was all drunk. He soon discovered this, and forced the lady to confess what she had done. A quantity of wine was made; and Jemsheed, and all his court, drank of the new beverage, which, from the circumstance that led to its discovery, is to this day known in Persia by the name of zeher-e-khoosh, or the delightful poison.”

81

It is called Nouroze. Some of the sculptures of the dilapidated palace are supposed to represent the processions at this festival.

82

Rollin.

83

Kæmpfer, Hyde, Niebuhr, and St. Croix, regard the ruins as those of a palace: – Della Valle, Chardin, D’Hancarville, and others, as those of a temple. This is a question, however, which many writers regard as being impossible of solution, till an alphabet shall have been discovered of the arrow-headed inscriptions.

84

At the distance of about five miles is a conspicuous hill, on the top of which, and visible to the eye from Persepolis, are the remains of a fortress. This hill is now called Istakhar, and is quite distinct from Persepolis. Of this hill Le Brun has given a drawing; and the original must strike every traveller the moment he enters the palace of Merdusht; as it has all the appearance of having been much fashioned by the hand of man. – Morier.

85

Civil Architecture.

86

Fraser.

87

In allusion to the horns of Jupiter Ammon.

88

Diodorus; Plutarch; Arrian; Quintus Curtius; Pietro de la Valle; Chardin; Le Brun; Francklin, Encylop. Metropol.; Rees; Brewster; Kinneir; Morier; Porter; Malcolm; Buckingham; Ouseley; Fraser.