Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2)

The people waited for their return, with such an impatience and terror, as words can never express. It was scarcely possible for them to break through the crowd that flocked around them, to hear the answer which was but too strongly painted in their faces. When they were come into the senate, and had declared the barbarous orders of the Romans, a general shriek informed the people of their too lamentable fate; and from that instant nothing was seen or heard in every part of the city but howling and despair, madness and fury. The consuls made no great haste to march against Carthage; not suspecting they had reason to be under apprehension from that city, as it was now disarmed. However, the inhabitants took advantage of this delay to put themselves in a posture of defence, being all unanimously resolved not to quit the city. They appointed, as a general, without the walls, Asdrubal, who was at the head of twenty thousand men; and to whom deputies were sent accordingly, to entreat him to forget, for his country's sake, the injustice which had been done to him, from the dread they were under of the Romans. The command of the troops, within the walls, was given to another Asdrubal, grandson to Masinissa. They then applied themselves to making arms with considerable expedition. The temples, the palaces, the open markets and squares, were all changed into so many arsenals, where men and women worked day and night. Every day were made one hundred and forty shields, three hundred swords, five hundred pikes or javelins, a thousand arrows, and a great number of engines to discharge them; and because they wanted materials to make ropes, the women cut off their hair, and abundantly supplied their wants on this occasion.

The combat, which was carried on from the tops of the houses, continued six days, during which a dreadful slaughter was made. To clear the streets, and make way for the troops, the Romans dragged aside with hooks the bodies of such of the inhabitants as had been slain, or precipitated headlong from the houses, and threw them into pits, the greatest part of them being still alive and panting.

There was still reason to believe that the siege would last much longer, and occasion a great effusion of blood. But on the seventh day there appeared a company of men, in a suppliant posture and habit, who desired no other conditions, but that the Romans would be pleased to spare the lives of all those who should be willing to leave the citadel; which request was granted them. The deserters only were excepted. Accordingly, there came out fifty thousand men and women, who were sent into the fields under a strong guard. The deserters were about nine hundred. Finding they would be allowed no quarter, they fortified themselves in the temple of Æsculapius, with Asdrubal, his wife, and two children; where, though their number was but small, they might have held out a long time, because the temple stood on a very high hill, upon rocks, to which the ascent was by sixty steps. But, at last, exhausted by hunger and watchings, oppressed with fear, and seeing their destruction at hand, they lost all patience, when, abandoning the lower part of the temple, they retired to the uppermost story, and resolved not to quit it but with their lives.

In the mean time, Asdrubal, being desirous of saving his own life, came down privately to Scipio, carrying an olive-branch in his hand, and threw himself at his feet. Scipio showed him immediately to the deserters, who, transported with rage and fury at the sight, vented millions of imprecations against him, and set fire to the temple. Whilst it was lighting, we are told that Asdrubal's wife, dressing herself as splendidly as possible, and placing herself and her two children in sight of Scipio, addressed him with a loud voice: – "I call not down," says she, "curses on thy head, O Roman, for thou only takest the privilege allowed by the laws of war: but may the gods of Carthage, and thou, in concert with them, punish, according to his deserts, the false wretch who has betrayed his country, his gods, his wife, his children!" Then directing herself to Asdrubal, "perfidious wretch!" says she, "thou basest of creatures! this fire will presently consume both me and my children; but as to thee, too shameful general of Carthage, – go, – adorn the gay triumph of thy conqueror, – suffer, in the sight of all Rome, the tortures thou so justly deservest!" She had no sooner pronounced these words, but, seizing her children, she cut their throats, threw them into the flames, and afterwards rushed into them herself; in which she was imitated by all the deserters. With regard to Scipio, when he saw this famous city, which had flourished seven hundred years, and might have been compared to the greatest empires on account of the extent of its dominions both by sea and land, its mighty armies, its fleets, elephants, and riches, and that the Carthaginians were even superior to other nations, by their courage and greatness of soul, as, notwithstanding their being deprived of armies and ships, they had sustained, for three whole years, all the hardships and calamities of a long siege; seeing, I say, this city entirely ruined, historians relate, that he could not refuse his tears to the unhappy fate of Carthage. He reflected that cities, nations, and empires, are liable to revolutions no less than particular men; that the like sad fate had attended Troy, anciently so powerful; and in latter times, the Assyrians, Medes, and Persians, whose dominions were once of so great an extent; and lastly, the Macedonians, whose empire had been so glorious throughout the world. Full of these mournful ideas, he repeated the following verses of Homer: —

The day shall come, that great avenging day,Which Troy's proud glories in the dust shall lay;When Priam's powers, and Priam's self shall fall,And one prodigious ruin follow all.

Thereby denouncing the future destiny of Rome, as he himself confessed to Polybius, who desired Scipio to explain himself on that occasion. Carthage being taken in this manner, Scipio gave the plunder of it (the gold, silver, statues, and other offerings which should be found in the temples excepted) to his soldiers for seven days. After this, adorning a very small ship with the enemy's spoils, he sent it to Rome, with the news of the victory. At the same time he ordered the inhabitants of Sicily to come and take possession of the pictures and statues, which the Carthaginians had plundered them of in former wars.

When the news of the taking of Carthage was brought to Rome, the people abandoned themselves to the most immoderate transports of joy, as if the public tranquillity had not been secured till that instant. All ranks and degrees of men emulously strove who should show the greatest gratitude towards the gods; and the citizens were, for many days, employed wholly in solemn sacrifices, in public prayers, games, and spectacles.

After those religious duties were ended, the senate sent ten commissioners into Africa, to regulate, in conjunction with Scipio, the fate and condition of that country in times to come. Their first care was to demolish whatever was still remaining of Carthage: and we may guess at the dimensions of this famous city by what Florus says, viz., that it was seventeen days on fire before it could be all consumed. Rome, though mistress of almost the whole world, could not believe herself safe as long as even the name of Carthage was in being. Orders were given that it should never be inhabited again; and dreadful imprecations were denounced against those, who, contrary to this prohibition, should attempt to rebuild any parts of it. In the mean time, every one, who desired it, was admitted to see Carthage; Scipio being well pleased to have people view the sad ruins of a city, which had dared to contend for empire with the majesty of Rome.180

Commerce, strictly speaking, was the occupation of Carthage, the particular object of its industry, and its peculiar and predominant characteristic. It formed the greatest strength and the chief support of that commonwealth. In a word, it may be affirmed, that the power, the conquests, the credit, and the glory of the Carthaginians, all flowed from trade.

This gives Mr. Montague an opportunity of comparing Carthage with England: – "To the commercial maxims of the Carthaginians, we have added their insatiable lust of gain, without their economy, and contempt of luxury and effeminacy. To the luxury and dissipation of the Romans, we have joined their venality, without their military spirit: and we feel the pernicious effects of the same species of faction, which was the great leading cause to ruin in both those republics. The Roman institution was formed to make and to preserve their conquests. Abroad invincible, at home invulnerable, they possessed within themselves all the resources requisite for a warlike nation. The military spirit of their people, where every citizen was a soldier, furnished inexhaustible supplies for their armies abroad, and secured them at home from all attempts of invasion. The Carthaginian was better calculated to acquire than to preserve. They depended upon commerce for the acquisition of wealth, and upon their wealth for the protection of their commerce. They owed their conquests to the venal blood and sinews of other people; and, like their ancestors the Phœnicians, exhibited their money bags as symbols of their power. They trusted too much to the valour of foreigners, and too little to that of their own natives. Thus while they were formidable abroad by their fleets and mercenary armies, they were weak and defenceless at home. But the great event showed how dangerous it is for the greatest commercial nation to rely on this kind of mercantile policy; and that a nation of unarmed undisciplined traders can never be a match, whilst they are so circumstanced, for a nation of soldiers."

Notwithstanding the denunciations of the senate against all who should attempt to rebuild Carthage, the senators were induced, in a very short period, themselves to sanction the undertaking.

When Marius took refuge in Africa, outcast and deserted, he is said to have dwelt in a hovel amidst the ruins of Carthage. The answer of Marius to the prætor of Africa, is one of the finest indications of a strong mind recorded in history. Oppressed with every species of misfortune, Marius, after escaping many dangers, arrived at length in Africa; where he hoped to have received some mark of favour from the governor. He was scarcely landed, however, when an officer came to him, and addressed him after the following manner: – "Marius, I am directed by the prætor to forbid your landing in Africa. If, after this message, you shall persist in doing so, he will not fail to treat you as a public enemy." Struck with indignation at this unexpected intelligence, Marius, without making any reply, fixed his eyes, in a stern menacing manner, upon the officer. In this position he stood for some time. At length, the officer desiring to know whether he chose to return any answer; – "Yes," replied Marius, "go to the prætor, and tell him that thou hast seen the exiled Marius, sitting among the ruins of Carthage181."

Twenty-four years after the victory of Æmilianus (B. C. 142), the sedition of Tiberius Gracchus began to be formidable to the patricians, since he was supported by the great body of the people in his endeavours to pass an Agrarian law. Gracchus, finding himself unable to accomplish his purpose, was probably not unwilling to accept the offer, made to him by the senate, of becoming the leader of six thousand citizens to the site of Carthage, for the purpose of its restoration. From this, however, he was terrified by a dream.

It seems probable, nevertheless that a few buildings began to spring up among the ruins. Julius Cæsar determined on rebuilding it, in consequence of having beheld, in a dream, a numerous army, weeping at the fate of Carthage. His death prevented the fulfilment of his purpose. Augustus, however, sent three thousand Romans thither, or rather, within a short distance of it, who were joined by the inhabitants of the neighbouring country.

From this time it appears to have increased in beauty, convenience, and the number of its inhabitants.

In the early part of the fifth century, however, Genseric having invaded Africa, the whole of the fruitful provinces, from Tangier to Tripoli, were in succession overwhelmed, and Carthage was surprised, five hundred and eighty-five years after its destruction by the younger Scipio.

At this time, we are told182, Carthage was considered as the "Rome" of the African world. It contained the arms, the manufactures, and the treasures of six provinces; schools and gymnasia were instituted for the education of youth; and the liberal arts were publicly taught in the Greek and Latin languages.

The buildings were uniform and magnificent; a shady grove was planted in the midst of the city; the new port, a secure and capacious harbour, was subservient to the commercial industry of citizens and strangers; and the splendid games of the circus and the theatre were exhibited.

After Genseric had permitted his licentious troops to satiate their rage and avarice, he promulgated an edict, which enjoined all persons to deliver up their gold, silver, jewels, and valuable furniture and apparel, to the royal officers; and the attempt to secrete any part of their patrimony was punished with torture and death, as an act of treason against the state.

Carthage never recovered this blow, and it fell gradually into such insignificance, that it disappeared altogether from the records of history.

We now select a few passages from Mons. Chateaubriand and Sir George Temple, in respect to its present condition.

"The ship in which I left Alexandria," says the former, "having arrived in the port of Tunis, we cast anchor opposite to the ruins of Carthage. I looked at them, but was unable to make out what they could be. I perceived a few Moorish huts, a Mahommedan hermitage at the point of a projecting cape; sheep browsing among the ruins – ruins so far from striking, that I could scarcely distinguish them from the ground on which they lay – this was Carthage. In order to distinguish these ruins, it is necessary to go methodically to work. I suppose then that the reader sets out with me from the port of Goltetha, standing upon the canal by which the lake of Tunis discharges itself into the sea. Riding along the shore in an east-north-east direction, you come in about half an hour to some salt-pits of the sea. You begin to discover jetties running out to a considerable distance under water. The sea and jetties are on your right; on your left you perceive a great quantity of ruins upon eminences of unequal height, and below these ruins is a basin of circular form and of considerable depth, which formerly communicated with the sea by means of a canal, traces of which are still to be seen. This basin must be, in my opinion, the Cothon or inner port of Carthage. The remains of the immense works, discernible in the sea, would, in this case, indicate the site of the outer mole. If I am not mistaken, some piles of the dam, constructed by Scipio, for the purpose of blocking up the port, may still be distinguished. I also observed a second inner canal, which may have been the cut, made by the Carthaginians when they opened a new passage for their fleet."

At the foot of the hill at Maallakah183 are the foundations of an amphitheatre, the length of which appears to have been about three hundred feet by two hundred and thirty, and the dimensions of the arena one hundred and eighty by one hundred.

There are, also, the ruins of a very extensive edifice, supposed to have been the temple of Ceres.

Some trifling fragments of edifices, and the traces of its triple walls, are all that remain of the Byrsa's splendid fanes and palaces; though many pieces of rare marbles have been found, as serpentine, giallo, rosso, and porphyry. Nor is there any remain of the famous temple of Æsculapius, the approach to which was by a magnificent flight of steps, and rendered so interesting from having been the place in whose flames Asdrubal's wife destroyed herself, her children, and nine hundred Roman deserters, rather than submit to the yoke of the haughty vanquishers of her country.

Sir George Temple's observations are very beautiful: – "Early in the morning, I walked to the site of the great Carthage – of that town, at the sound of whose name mighty Rome herself had so often trembled – of Carthage, the mistress of powerful and brave armies, of numerous fleets, and of the world's commerce, and to whom Africa, Spain, Sardinia, Corsica, Sicily, and Italy herself, bowed in submission as to their sovereign; – in short, 'Carthago, dives opum, studiisque asperrima belli.' I was prepared to see but few vestiges of its former grandeur; it had so often suffered from the devastating effects of war, that I knew many could not exist: but my heart sunk within me, when, ascending one of its hills, (from whose summit the eye embraces a view of the whole surrounding country to the edge of the sea,) I beheld nothing more than a few scattered and shapeless masses of masonry184. Yes, all the vestiges of the splendour and magnificence of the mighty city had, indeed, passed away, and its very name is now unknown to the present inhabitants185."

NO. XXIV. – CATANEA

This city, situated at the foot of Mount Etna, was founded by a colony from Chalcis, seven hundred and fifty-three years before the Christian era; and soon after the settlement of Syracuse. There have not been wanting some, however, to assert that ancient Catanea was one of the oldest cities in the world.

It fell into the hands of the Romans, and became the residence of a prætor.

It was then adorned with sumptuous buildings of all kinds. It was destroyed, however, by Pompey; and restored by Augustus with greater magnificence. It was large and opulent. Being so contiguous to Mount Etna, it is rendered remarkable for the fatal overthrows to which it has been subjected by the eruptions of that mountain; in some of which it has been known to discharge a stream of lava four miles broad and fifty feet deep, and advancing at the rate of seven miles in a day.

The number of eruptions from the page of history are 81.

In 1693 Catanea was entirely destroyed by an earthquake, so that hardly one stone remained upon another. It began on the 9th January, and on the 11th the earth opened in several places. Almost in a moment 11,000 persons, who had fled to the cathedral for shelter, perished by its fall; the canon, with the ministers at the altar, and about one hundred persons, being all that escaped. The undulations of this shock were felt, it is said, in Germany, France, and even in England. Fifty-four towns of some magnitude were, more or less, sufferers by this earthquake, and the total loss of human life, it is supposed, amounted to nearly one hundred thousand.

"The present town," says Malte Brun, "is well built. Its fine edifices are so many proofs, not of its prosperity, but of its misfortunes; for, in Catanea, houses never become old; they give way either to lava or volcanic shocks. It is to the earthquakes of 1693 and 1783 that it owes its magnificence; almost wholly destroyed, it was rebuilt with greater regularity. Most of its edifices, however, have been injured by the shocks in 1819."

A great many antiquities are contained in the Biscari Museum, which was founded by a wealthy noble of the same name, who spent his fortune in exploring or digging for antiquities in the territory of Catanea. The ancient theatre and amphitheatre, the old walls, baths, and temples, were buried under several layers of lava and alluvial deposits, that were removed by the same individual; lastly, the town is indebted to him for several ancient statues.

"There are many remains of antiquity," says Mr. Brydone, "but most of them are in a very ruinous state. One of the most remarkable is an elephant of lava, with an obelisk of Egyptian granite on his back. There are also considerable remains of a great theatre, besides that belonging to the prince of Biscaris, a large bath, almost entire; the ruins of a great aqueduct eighteen miles long; the ruins of several temples, one of Ceres; another of Vulcan. The church, called Bocca di Fuoco, was likewise a temple. But the most entire of all is a small rotunda, which, as well as the rotunda at Rome, and some others to be met with in Italy, demonstrates that form to be the most durable of any."

There is also a well at the foot of the old walls, where the lava, after running along the parapet, and and then falling forwards, produced a very complete and lofty arch over the spring.

Through the care, and at the expense of prince Biscaris, many other monuments of ancient splendour and magnificence have been recovered by digging down to the ancient town, which, on account of the numerous torrents of lava that have flowed out of Mount Etna for the last thousand years, is now to be sought for in dark caverns many feet below the present surface of the earth.

Mr. Swinburne states, that he descended into baths, sepulchres, an amphitheatre, and a theatre, all very much injured by the various catastrophes that have befallen them. He found, too, that these buildings were erected not on the solid ground and with brick or stone, but on old beds of lava, and with square pieces of the same substance, which, in no instance, appears to have been fused by the contact of new lavas: the sciarra or stones of old lava having constantly proved as strong a barrier against the flowing torrent of fire as any other stone could have been, though some authors have been of opinion, that the hot matter would melt the whole mass, and incorporate itself with it.

There was a temple at Catanea, dedicated to Ceres, in which none but women were permitted to appear186.

NO. XXV. – CHALCEDON

This place, which stands opposite Byzantium, was built by a colony from Megara, some years before Byzantium, viz. B. C. 685. Its position was so imprudently selected, that it was called the city of blind men187; by which was intimated the inconsiderate plan of the founders. It was built on a sandy and barren soil, in preference to the rich one on the opposite side of the Bosphorus, on which Byzantium was afterwards founded.

Chalcedon, in the time of its prosperity, was considerable; not only on account of its buildings, but the wealth of its inhabitants, who enriched themselves greatly by commerce; more especially by the exportation of purple dye, which was found in great quantities upon its coast.

In ancient times it underwent many revolutions; being first subdued by Otanes, general of the Persians, whose father Sisanes, one of the judges of the Persian empire, having pronounced an unjust sentence, was flayed alive by the order of Cambyses. Not long after this the Lacedemonians made themselves masters of it, but were obliged to give place to the Athenians, who contented themselves with imposing upon the inhabitants an annual tribute, which they in time neglecting to pay, were again reduced to obedience by Alcibiades. Afterwards, with the rest of the world, it passed under the dominion of the Romans, who were succeeded by the Greek emperors, under whose administration it became famous by a celebrated council of the church (A. D. 327), which is recorded under the name of the council of Chalcedon.

A tribunal also was here erected by the Emperor Julian, to try and punish the evil ministers of his predecessor, Constantius. "We are now delivered," said Julian, in a familiar letter to one of his most intimate friends, "we are now surprisingly delivered from the voracious jaws of the hydra. I do not mean to apply that epithet to my brother, Constantius. He is no more; – may the earth lie light on his head! But his artful and cruel favourites studied to deceive and exasperate a prince, whose natural mildness cannot be praised without some efforts of adulation. It is not my intention, however, that these men should be oppressed; they are accused, and they shall enjoy the benefit of a fair and impartial trial." The executions of some of these men, one of whom (Paulus) was burned alive, were accepted, says the historian, as an inadequate atonement by the widows and orphans of so many hundred Romans, whom those legal tyrants had betrayed and murdered.

Persians, Greeks, Goths, Saracens, and Turks, by turns, despoiled Chalcedon. The walls were razed by Valens, and much of the materials was employed in the aqueduct of Constantinople that bears his name, and which was, by a singular coincidence, repaired by Soliman II., from the remaining ruins of this devoted city.