Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2)

On a hill, in the shape of a cone, at about two hours’ distance from Beyramitch, towards Gargarus, are a vast quantity of substances for building; they may be traced from the bottom to the summit. These are supposed to have constituted a temple and altar of Jupiter; the work seems to be Roman. On the western extremity of the area are remains of baths, the walls of which are stuccoed; and there are remaining earthenware conduits still entire in several places. Above this are tombs, and close to them a bath; near which lie scattered about several columns, with broken pieces of amphoræ, marble, basalt, granite, jasper, and blue chalcedony. At no great distance off lies the cornice of a Doric entablature, so large, that M. Preaux said he had seen nothing like it at Athens. Higher up are the remains of another temple, the area of which measures one hundred and forty yards long and forty-four wide. These are supposed to be the temple and altars of Jupiter mentioned by Homer, Æschylus, and Plutarch. From this spot the view is represented as being exceedingly grand. “Immediately before the eye is spread the whole of Gargarus, seeming, from its immense size and the vastness of its features, as if those who were stationed on this spot might hold converse with persons upon its clear and sunny summit. Far below is seen the bed and valley of the Scamander.”

What kind of a scene is beheld from Gargarus may be, in some measure, imagined from what Dr. Clarke says of it. “In a few minutes I stood upon the summit. What a spectacle! All European Turkey, and the whole of Asia Minor, seemed as it were modelled before me on a vast surface of glass. The great objects drew my attention first. The eye, roaming to Constantinople, beheld all the sea of Marmora, the mountains of Prusa, with Asiatic Olympus, and all the surrounding territory; comprehending, in one wide survey, all Propontis and the Hellespont, with the shores of Thrace and Chersonesus, all the north of the Egean, Mount Athos, the islands of Imbrus, Samothrace, Lemnos, Tenedos, and all beyond, even to Eubœa; the gulf of Smyrna, almost all Mysia, and Bithynia, with part of Lydia and Ionia. Looking down upon Troas, it appeared spread as a lawn before me.”

In the same district are considerable remains of the ancient city Alexandria Troas. Long before the extinction of the Greek empire, this city was laid under perpetual obligation to contribute, by its monuments of ancient splendour, towards the public structures of Constantinople. Notwithstanding this, there are still some interesting remains; among which is to be noted the aqueduct of Herodes Atticus, formed of blocks of hewn stone of vast size. Part of one of its gates also remains; consisting of two round towers, with square basements, supporting pedestals for statues. At a few yards’ distance are the ruins of public baths. “Broken marble soroi lie about;” says the intelligent traveller to whom, in this account, we have been so largely indebted; “soroi of such prodigious size, that their fragments seem as rocks among the Valany oaks covering the soil. But in all that now exists of this devoted city, there is nothing so conspicuous as the edifice, vulgarly termed by the mariners the Palace of Priam; from an erroneous notion, prevalent in the writings of early travellers, that Alexandria Troas was the Ilium of Homer.”

This building has three noble arches in front, and there are many others behind. The stones with which it is constructed are placed without any cement; and the whole appear to have been once coated over with marble. There are, also, the bases of columns, each eight feet in diameter. This building is supposed to have been intended for baths, as a grand terminus of the aqueduct of Atticus.

There are other vestiges, also, of this city, amongst which may be mentioned a series of vaults and subterranean chambers, one beneath another, now serving as sheds for tenders, and herds of goats. Towards the south-west there are remains also of an immense theatre, still in a state of considerable preservation. Its diameter is two hundred and fifty feet, and there is a semicircular range of seats at each extremity. Towards the port, lower down, are marble soroi, and other antiquities of less importance.

From this spot, Dr. Clarke proceeded to an immense tumulus, called after Æsyates, the situation of which, he says, perfectly agrees with the account given of that monument by Strabo. He then descended again into the vale of Troy, and arrived at a village, called Erkessy, in which he found a marble soros, quite entire. Upon it is an inscription in Greek, beautifully cast, and in a very perfect state. “Aurelius Agethopodos Othoniacus, and the son of Aurelius, who was also a Pancratiast, of whom there is a hollow statue in the temple of Smintheus, and here in the Temple of Æsculapius, I have placed this Soros for myself and my dearest father, the afore-written Amelius Paulinus and to my descendants. But if any one shall dare to open this Soros, and lay in it the dead body of any other, or any man’s bones, he shall pay, as a fine to the city of the Troadenses, two thousand five hundred drachms, and to the most sacred Treasury as much more.”

At no great distance from this soros, Dr. Clarke found a village, the inhabitants of which live with great cleanliness in small cottages, and practising the customs of their forefathers, in their hospitality to strangers. They presented him with a medal, found in their village; and they showed him a marble, on which was an inscription in Greek characters, implying, that “Metrodorus of Amphipolis, the son of Timocles, is praised by the senate and people, for his virtue and good-will towards the king Antiochus and Seleucus and the people: he is deemed a benefactor to the state; is to have access to the senate; and to be inscribed into the tribe and fraternity to which he may wish to belong292.”

NO. XL. – TYRE

Tyre is, in Scripture, called “the daughter of Sidon,” and very appropriately; for the Tyrians were, in the first instance, a colony from Sidon. It was built two hundred and forty years before the building of Jerusalem.

The king of Tyre assisted Solomon in procuring wood for his temple, and artisans wherewith to build it. Thus it is stated, in the Book of Chronicles: —

“3. And Solomon sent to Huram, the king of Tyre, saying, As thou didst deal with David my father, and didst send him cedars to build him an house to dwell therein, even so deal with me.

“4. Behold, I build an house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to him, and to burn before him sweet incense, and for the continual shewbread, and for the burnt offerings morning and evening, on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts of the Lord our God. This is an ordinance for ever to Israel.

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“7. Send me now therefore a man cunning to work in gold, and in silver, and in brass, and in iron, and in purple, and crimson, and blue, and that can skill to grave with the cunning men that are with me in Judah and in Jerusalem, whom David my father did provide.

“8. Send me also cedar-trees, fir-trees, and algum-trees, out of Lebanon; for I know that thy servants can skill to cut timber in Lebanon; and, behold, my servants shall be with thy servants.

“9. Even to prepare me timber in abundance: for the house which I am about to build shall be wonderful great.

“10. And, behold, I will give to thy servants, the hewers that cut timber, twenty thousand measures of beaten wheat, and twenty thousand measures of barley, and twenty thousand baths of wine, and twenty thousand baths of oil.

“11. Then Huram the king of Tyre answered in writing, which he sent to Solomon, Because the Lord hath loved his people, he hath made thee king over them.

“12. Huram said moreover, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, that made heaven and earth, who hath given to David the king a wise son, endued with prudence and understanding, that might build an house for the Lord, and an house for his kingdom.

“13. And now I have sent a cunning man, endued with understanding, of Huram my father’s,

“14. The son of a woman of the daughters of Dan; and the father was a man of Tyre, skilful to work in gold, and in silver, in brass, in iron, in stone, and in timber, in purple, in blue, and in fine linen, and in crimson; also to grave any manner of graving, and to find out every device which shall be put to him, with thy cunning men, and with the cunning men of my lord David thy father.

“15. Now therefore the wheat, and the barley, the oil, and the wine, which my lord hath spoken of, let him send unto his servants:

“16. And we will cut wood out of Lebanon, as much as thou shalt need: and we will bring it to thee in floats by sea to Joppa; and thou shalt carry it up to Jerusalem.”

Various are the opinions concerning the origin of Tyre, and the date when it was founded. Herodotus (lib. ii. c. 44) says, that he was told by the priests of Tyre, that the temple of Hercules was as ancient as the city, which had been built two thousand three hundred years. According to this account, Tyre was founded about the year two thousand seven hundred and sixty before the Christian era; four hundred and sixty-nine years after the deluge, according to the Septuagint293.

Before the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, Tyre was the greatest maritime city in the world; its situation and industry having raised it to the sovereignty of the sea. From the extreme parts of India, Persia, and Arabia, to the western coast; from Ethiopia and Egypt on the south, to Scythia on the north, all nations contributed to the increase of its power, splendour, and wealth. Every thing that was useful, and all that was curious, magnificent, and precious, were there to be sold. Every article of commerce was brought to its markets.

This state of prosperity swelled the pride of the Tyrians to a very exorbitant extent. “She delighted,” we are told, “to consider herself as Queen of Cities; a queen, whose head is adorned with a diadem; whose correspondents are illustrious princes; whose rich traders dispute for superiority with kings; who sees every maritime power, either as her allies or her dependents; and who made herself necessary or formidable to all nations.” Such was the pride of Tyre, when Nebuchadnezzar marched up against her.

Her fate had been foretold by the denunciations of Ezekiel.

“I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causes her waves to come up. And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers. It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; and her daughters shall be slain by the sword.” The prophet then discloses who shall be the instrument of all this destruction. “I will bring upon Tyrus Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, a king of kings, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and companies of much people.” “He shall set his engines of war against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers.” “With the hoofs of thy horses shall he tread down all thy streets; he shall slay thy people with the sword, and thy strong garrisons shall go down to the ground.” “And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise; and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses; and they shall lay thy stones, and thy timber, and thy dust, in the midst of the water.” “I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.” “Thou shalt be a place to hang nets upon; and shalt be built no more.” “Though thou be sought for, thou shall not be found.”

The pride of the Tyrians may be estimated by the splendour of their ships. These were frequently of cedar; their benches of ivory; fine embroidered linens of Egypt were used for sails; and their canopies were of scarlet and purple silk294. Its trade may be in some degree imagined, from what is stated as having been brought to her markets; – gold, silver, iron, tin, brass, and lead; slaves295; horses, horsemen, and mules; sheep and goats; horn, ivory, and ebony; emeralds, purple, and broidered work; fine linen, and coral, and agate; – wheat, honey, oil, and bales of wares, wine, and wool; cassia and calamus; cloths for chariots; all manner of spices and precious stones. All these articles were to be destroyed. “Thy riches and thy merchandise, thy mariners and thy pilots, thy calkers, and the occupiers of thy merchandise, and all thy men of war that are in thee, and in all thy company which is in the midst of thee, shall fall into the midst of the seas, in the days of thy ruin.”

The Prophet then goes on to prophesy how all the nations shall mourn for her fall. “Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry; when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee? All the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay away their robes, and put off their embroidered garments; they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble at every moment, and shall be astonished at thee.”

Tyre was besieged by Nebuchadnezzar, in the twenty-first year of his reign; Ithobel being its king. After seven years he made himself master of it; not without his troops suffering incredible hardships; insomuch that, as Ezekiel had predicted, “every head was made bald and every head was peeled.” Previous, however, to the taking of it, a multitude of its inhabitants quitted the city, and took up their abode, with the greatest part of their effects, in the neighbouring island296, half a mile from the shore; and in that spot they laid the foundation of a new city. When, therefore, Nebuchadnezzar took possession of the town, he found little in it to reward him for the trouble, danger, and expense he had been at during the siege, which lasted thirteen years. He rased the city to the foundations, and it was afterwards known only as a village, by the name of Palæ-Tyrus (ancient Tyre): the new one rose to greater power than the former one.

The new town, nevertheless, was not remitted of misfortune; for the inhabitants were made slaves of, compelled to admit a foreign yoke, and this for the space of seventy years. After the expiration of that time, they were restored, according to the prophecy of Isaiah,297 to the possession of their ancient privileges, with the liberty of having a king of their own, and that liberty they enjoyed till the time of Alexander.

At that period Tyre had again become an exceedingly large city; and because of the vast commerce she carried on with all nations, she was called “Queen of the Sea.” She boasted of having first invented navigation, and taught mankind the art of braving the waves and wind. Her happy situation, the extent and conveniency of her ports, the character of her inhabitants, who were not only industrious, laborious, and patient, but extremely courteous to strangers, invited thither merchants from all parts of the then-known world: so that it might be considered, not so much as a city belonging to any particular nation, as the common city of all nations, and the centre of their commerce.

Tyre had now for some time risen from the desolation, into which she had fallen: but with prosperity came pride, and vain-glory; luxury and voluptuousness. Another prophet, therefore, foretold to her a second ruin. She was now “the crowning city,” whose merchants were princes, and whose traffickers were styled “the honourable of the earth.”

Tyre had profited nothing from the first lesson: Another destruction, therefore, was denounced against her. This was to come from Chittim (Macedonia). Tyre was careless of this threat. Defended by strong fortifications, and surrounded on all sides by the sea, she feared nothing; neither God nor man. Isaiah, therefore, brings to her recollection the ruin, that had befallen them in the days of Nebuchadnezzar; and the destruction which had afterwards fallen on Babylon itself. “The inhabitants had raised pompous palaces, to make their names immortal; but all those fortifications had become but as dens for wild beasts to revel in.” “The Lord hath purposed it to stain all the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.” “The Lord hath given a commandment against the merchant city, to destroy the strong-holds thereof.” “Thou shalt no more rejoice, thou virgin daughter of Zidon.” This fall was to come, as we have already said, from Macedon.

Alexander besieged Tyre seven months;298 during which time he erected vast mounds of earth, plied it with his engines, and invested it on the side next the sea with two hundred galleys. When the Tyrians saw this fleet, they were astonished; because it greatly exceeded what they had any reason to expect. They had had in contemplation to send most of their women and children, with all the men, who were past the military age, to Carthage: but, confident in their strength, they had delayed doing so; and now they could not spare ships or seamen to transport them.

A vessel coming from Sidon, they seized upon the crew, led them to a part of the wall, from which they could have a full view of the besieging army, then maliciously put them to death, and threw their dead bodies over the wall. This greatly enraged the Macedonian: and he soon after took possession of the city. According to Plutarch, the siege terminated in the following manner: – Alexander had permitted his main body to rest themselves, after some great fatigues they had undergone, and ordered only some small parties to keep the Tyrians in play. In the mean time, Aristander, his principal soothsayer, offered sacrifices; and one day, upon inspecting the entrails of the victims, he boldly asserted, amongst those about him, that the city would be taken that month. As the day happened to be the last of the month, this prediction was received with great ridicule. Alexander perceiving the soothsayer to be disconcerted, and having always made a point of bringing the prophecies of his soothsayers to completion, he gave orders that the day should not be called the thirtieth, but the twenty-eighth of the month. At the same time he called out his forces by sound of trumpet, and made a much more vigorous assault than he at first intended. The attack was violent, and those who were left in the camp, quitted it to have a share in it, and to support their fellow soldiers; insomuch that the Tyrians were forced to give in; and the city was taken that very day; seven thousand being slain.299

The king, with many of the principal men, took refuge in the temple of Hercules. The lives and liberties of these were spared; but all others taken, to the number of thirteen thousand,300 were sold to slavery for the benefit of the conquering army. To the eternal ignominy of the conqueror, too, all the children and women were made slaves of, and all the young men, that survived the battle, to the amount of two thousand, were crucified along the sea-shore. The annals of no nation exhibit an atrocity equal to this! The city was burned to the ground.

In reference to this stout defence of the Tyrians against so accomplished a warrior as Alexander, and their maritime enterprises, a highly eminent scholar has made the following remarks301: – “Let us contemplate all these great things, as completed by the efforts of a single city, which, possibly, did not possess a territory of twenty miles in circumference, which sustained a siege of thirteen years against all the power of Babylon; and another of eight months against Alexander, in the full career of his victories; and then judge whether a commercial spirit debases the nature of man, or whether any single city, recorded in history, is worthy to be compared with Tyre.”

The buildings were spacious and magnificent; above all, the temples of Jupiter, Hercules, and Astarte. These were built by Huram. The walls were one hundred and fifty feet high, proportionably broad, and firmly built of large blocks of stone, bound together with white plaster.

When the conqueror had satiated his vengeance, he rebuilt it, and planted it anew with people, drawn from the neighbouring parts; chiefly that he might, in future times, be called the founder of Tyre.

In the year 313 B. C. this new city sustained a siege against Antigonus; for soon after the death of Eumenes, Antigonus formed designs against Tyre, Joppa, and Gaza. The two last soon submitted; but Tyre gave him great trouble. Being master of all the other ports on the Phœnician coasts, he caused a vast number of trees to be cut down on Mount Libanus, – cedars and cypress trees of great height and beauty; and these were conveyed to the different ports, where he commanded a number of ships to be built, and where he employed in that object several thousand men. With these, and other ships he received from Rhodes, Cyprus, and other places, he made himself master of the sea. Tyre was, therefore, reduced to great extremities. The fleet of Antigonus cut off all communication of provisions, and the city was soon after compelled to capitulate. It was no longer than nineteen years before this event, that Alexander had destroyed this city in a manner as made it natural to believe it would require whole ages to re-establish it; and yet, in so short a time as that we speak of, it became capable of sustaining this new siege, which lasted more than as long again as that of Alexander. This circumstance discovers the great resources derived from commerce; for this was the only expedient by which Tyre rose out of its ruins, and recovered most of its former splendour.

Isaiah had foretold that Tyre should lie in obscurity and oblivion for seventy years302. This term being expired, it recovered its former credit; and, at the same time, recovered again its former vices. At length, according to another passage in the same prophecy303, converted by the preaching of the Christians, it became a holy and religious city.

After this period it belonged to several masters, till the time when it was taken possession of by Antiochus the Great, B. C. 218.

Afterwards it became subject to the Seleucidæ. It was then sold to a Roman, named Marion, whose wealth was so great, that he was enabled to purchase the whole principality. It was still in repute in the time of Christ, and is, therefore, several times mentioned in the New Testament.

“Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.” —Matthew, ch. xi. ver. 21.

“And from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came to him.” —Mark, ch. iii. ver. 8. Luke, ch. vi. ver. 17.

“And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon; but they came with one accord to him, and having made Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, their friend, desired peace, because their country was nourished by the king’s country.” —Acts, ch. xi. ver. 20.

Tyre, in the time of Pliny: – “Tyrus, in the olden time an island, lying almost three quarters of a mile within the deep sea; but now, through the skill and labour of Alexander at the siege of it, joined to the main land. It is greatly renowned; for out of it have come three other cities of ancient name; – viz., Leptis, Utica, and that great Carthage, which so long strove with the empire of Rome, for the monarchy and dominion of the whole world. Not only these, but the Gades, divided, as it were, from the rest of the earth, were peopled from thence. Now, all its glory and reputation arise out of its dye purple and crimson colours. The compass of it is nineteen miles, if Palæ-tyrus be included in it.”

There was a style of architecture called Tyrian; and of this order Sir C. Wren supposes was the theatre; by the fall of which, Samson made so great a slaughter of the Philistines. “In considering what this fabric must be,” says he304, “that could at one pull be demolished, I conceive it an oval amphitheatre, the scene in the middle, where a vast roof of cedar-beams, resting round upon the walls, centered all upon one short architrave, that united two cedar pillars in the middle. One pillar would not be sufficient to unite the ends of at least one hundred beams that tended to a centre; therefore, I say, there must be a short architrave resting upon two pillars, upon which all the beams tending to the centre of the amphitheatre might be supported. Now, if Samson, by his miraculous strength, pressing upon one of these pillars, moved it from its basis, the whole roof must of necessity fall.” The most observable monument of the Tyrian style is the sepulchre of Absalom, over against Jerusalem, in the valley of Jehosaphat.