Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2)

Dr. Clarke tells us, that Lusieri found here both medals and vases in such numbers, that he was under the necessity of dismissing the peasants who amassed them, without purchasing more than half that were brought to him; although they were offered for a very trifling consideration, and were of very high antiquity6.

NO. V. – AGRIGENTUM

The citadel of Agrigentum (Sicily) was situated on Mount Agragas; the city in the vale below; forming a magnificent spectacle at a distance. It was founded by a native of Rhodes, according to Polybius; but by a colony from Ionia, according to Strabo; about one hundred and eighty years after the founding of Syracuse. Thucydides, however, says that it was founded by a colony from Gela. The government was at first monarchical; afterwards democratical.

Phalaris, so well known for his superior talent and tyranny, usurped the sovereignty, which for some time afterwards was under the sway of the Carthaginians. In its most flourishing condition, it is said to have contained not less than two hundred thousand persons, who submitted, without resistance, to the superior authority of the Syracusans.

Some idea of the wealth of this city may be imagined, from what is stated by Diodorus Siculus, of one of its citizens. At the time when Exenetes, who had been declared victor in the Olympic games7, entered the city in triumph, he did so in a magnificent chariot, attended by three hundred more, all drawn by white horses. Their habits were adorned with gold and silver; and nothing was ever more splendid than their appearance. Gellias, the most wealthy citizen of the place, erected several apartments in his house for the reception and entertainment of guests. Servants waited by his order at the gates of the city, to invite all strangers to lodge at their master's house, whither they conducted them. A violent storm having obliged one hundred horsemen to take shelter there, Gellias entertained them all in his house, and supplied them immediately with dry clothes, of which he had always a great quantity in his wardrobe.

Though this gives us some notion of his wealth, there is another description still more indicative of his humanity. He entertained the people with spectacles and feasts; and, during a famine, prevented the citizens from dying with hunger; he gave portions to poor maidens also, and rescued the unfortunate from want and despair. He had houses built in the city and the country, purposely for the accommodation of strangers, whom he usually dismissed with handsome presents. Five hundred shipwrecked citizens of Gela, applying to him, were bountifully relieved; and every man supplied with a cloak and a coat out of his wardrobe.

Agrigentum was first taken by the Carthaginians. It was strongly fortified. It was situated, as were Hymera and Selinuntum, on that coast of Sicily which faces Africa. Accordingly, Hannibal, imagining that it was impregnable except on one side, turned his whole force that way. He threw up banks and terraces as high as the walls; and made use, on this occasion, of the rubbish and fragments of the tombs standing round the city, which he had demolished for that purpose. Soon after, the plague infected the army, and swept away a great number of the soldiers. The Carthaginians interpreted this disaster as a punishment inflicted by the gods, who revenged in this manner the injuries done to the dead, whose ghosts many fancied they had seen stalking before them in the night. No more tombs were therefore demolished; prayers were ordered to be made according to the practice of Carthage; a child was sacrificed to Saturn, in compliance with a most inhumanly superstitious custom; and many victims were thrown into the sea in honour of Neptune.

The besieged, who at first had gained several advantages, were at last so pressed by famine, that all hopes of relief seeming desperate, they resolved to abandon the city. The following night was fixed on for this purpose. The reader will naturally imagine to himself the grief with which these miserable people must be seized, on their being forced to leave their houses, rich possessions, and their country; but life was still dearer to them than all these. Never was a more melancholy spectacle seen. To omit the rest, a crowd of women, bathed in tears, were seen dragging after them their helpless infants, in order to secure them from the brutal fury of the victor. But the most grievous circumstance was the necessity they were under of leaving behind them the aged and sick, who were unable either to fly or to make the least resistance. The unhappy exiles arrived at Gela, which was the nearest city in their way, and there received all the comforts they could expect in the deplorable condition to which they were reduced.

In the meantime Imilcon entered the city, and murdered all who were found in it. The plunder was immensely rich, and such as might be expected from one of the most opulent cities of Sicily, which contained two hundred thousand inhabitants, and had never been besieged, nor, consequently, plundered before. A numberless multitude of pictures, vases, and statues of all kinds, were found here, the citizens having an exquisite taste for the polite arts. Among other curiosities, was the famous bull of Phalaris, which was sent to Carthage.

At a subsequent period the Romans attacked this city, then in possession of the Carthaginians; took it, and the chief persons of Agrigentum were, by the consul's order, first scourged with rods, and then beheaded. The common people were made slaves, and sold to the best bidder. After this, Agrigentum is seldom mentioned in history; nor is it easy to ascertain the precise time in which the old city was destroyed, and the new one (Gergenti) was built. It was crushed in the general fall of the Greek state, and its unfortunate inhabitants, expelled by the Saracens, took refuge among the black and inaccessible rocks of Girgenti.

In ancient times, this city was greatly celebrated for the hospitality and luxurious mode of living, adopted by its inhabitants. On one side of the city there was a large artificial lake, about a quarter of a league in circumference, dug out of the solid rock by the Carthaginian captives, and to which the water was conveyed from the hills. It was thirty feet deep; great quantities of fish were kept in this reservoir for the public feasts; and swans and other fowls were kept upon it for the amusement of the citizens; and the depth of its waters secured the city from the sudden assault of an enemy. It is now dry, and converted into a garden.

It is, nevertheless, a curious fact, that though the whole space within the walls of the ancient city abounds with traces of antiquity, there are no ruins which can be supposed to have belonged to places of public entertainment. Yet the Agrigentines were remarkably fond of shows and dramatic amusements; and their connexion with the Romans must have introduced among them the savage games of the circus. Theatres and amphitheatres seem peculiarly calculated to resist the outrages of time; yet not a vestige of these are to be seen on the site of Agrigentum. They appear, however, to have been quite alive to the pleasures to be derived from sculpture and painting.

The Temple of Juno was adorned by one of the most famous pictures of antiquity; which is celebrated by many of the ancient writers. Zeuxis was determined to excel any thing that had gone before him, and to form a model of human perfection. To this end, he prevailed on all the finest women of Agrigentum, who were ambitious of the honour, to appear naked before him. Of these he chose five for his models; and moulding all the perfections of these beauties into one, he composed the picture of the goddess. This was ever looked upon as his masterpiece; but was, unfortunately, burnt when the Carthaginians took Agrigentum. At that period, many of the citizens retired into this temple, as to a place of safety; but as soon as they found the gates attacked by the enemy, they agreed to set fire to it, and chose rather to perish in the flames, than submit to the power of the conqueror. In the Temple of Hercules, there was another picture by Zeuxis. Hercules was represented, in his cradle, killing the two serpents; Alcmena and Amphitrion, having just entered the apartment, were painted with every mark of terror and astonishment. Pliny says, the painter looked upon this piece as invaluable; and, therefore, could never be prevailed upon to put a price upon it; but gave it as a present to the people of Agrigentum, to be placed in the temple of Hercules.

The temples, also, were very magnificent. That of Æsculapius, two columns and two pilasters of which now support the end of a farm-house, was not less celebrated for a statue of Apollo. It was taken from them by the Carthaginians, at the same time that the Temple of Juno was burnt. It was carried off by the conquerors, and continued the greatest ornament of Carthage for many years; but was, at last, restored by Scipio, at the final destruction of the city. Some of the Sicilians allege, but it is supposed without ground, that this statue was afterward carried to Rome, and still remains there, the wonder of all ages; and known to the whole world, under the name of the Apollo Belvidere.

An edifice of the Doric order, called the Temple of Concord, has still its walls, its columns, entablature, and pediments, entire. In proceeding from the Temple of Concord, you walk between rows of sepulchres, cut in the rock, wherever it admitted of being excavated by the hand of man, or was so already by that of nature. Some masses are hewn into the shape of coffins; others drilled full of small square holes, employed in a different mode of interment, and serving as receptacles of urns. One ponderous piece of the rock lies in an extraordinary position. By the failure of its foundation, or the shock of an earthquake, it has been loosened from the general quarry, and rolled down the declivity, where it now remains supine, with the cavities turned upwards. There was also a temple dedicated to Ceres and Proserpine; with the ruins was formed a church, which now exists; and the road, leading to which, was cut out of the solid rock. In respect to the temple of Castor and Pollux, vegetation has covered the lower parts of the building, and only a few fragments of two columns appear between the vines. Of the Temple of Venus, about one half remains; but the glory of the place was the Temple of Jupiter Olympius, three hundred and forty feet long, sixty broad, and one hundred and twenty in height. Its columns and porticos were in the finest style of architecture; and its bas-reliefs and paintings executed with admirable taste. On its eastern walls was sculptured the Battle of the Giants; while the western represented the Trojan War; corresponding exactly with the description which Virgil had given of the painting in the Temple of Juno at Carthage.

Diodorus Siculus extols the beauty of the columns which supported the building; the admirable structure of the porticos, and the exquisite taste with which the bas-reliefs and paintings were executed; but he adds, that the stately edifice was never finished. Cicero, against Verres, speaks of the statues he carried away. Mr. Swinburne says, that it has remaining not one stone upon another; and that it is barely possible, with the liberal aid of conjecture, to discover the traces of its plan and dimensions. He adds, however, that St. Peter's at Rome exceeds this celebrated temple more than doubly in every dimension; being two hundred and fifteen feet higher, three hundred and thirty-four longer, and four hundred and thirty-three wider.

Added to these, there is now remaining a monument of Tero, king of Agrigentum, one of the first of the Sicilian tyrants. The great antiquity of this monument may be gathered from this; that Tero is not only mentioned by Diodorus, Polybius, and the more modern of the ancient historians, but likewise by Herodotus, and Pindar, who dedicates two of his Olympic Odes to him; so that this monument must be much more than two thousand years old. It is a kind of pyramid, the most durable of forms; and is surrounded by aged olive-trees, which cast a wild, irregular shade over the ruin.

All these mighty ruins of Agrigentum, and the whole mountain on which it stands, says Mr. Brydone, is composed of an immense concretion of seashells, run together, and cemented by a kind of sand, or gravel, and now become as hard, and perhaps more durable, than even marble itself. This stone is white before it has been exposed to the air; but in the temples and other ruins it is become "set," of a very dark brown. These shells are found on the very summit of the mountain, which is at least fourteen or fifteen hundred feet above the level of the sea.

The celebrated Empedocles was a native of this city; one of the finest spirits that ever adorned the earth. His saying, in regard to his fellow-citizens, is well known; – viz., that they squandered their money so excessively every day, that they seemed to expect it could never be exhausted; and that they built with such solidity and magnificence, as if they thought they should live for ever8.

NO. VI. – ALBA LONGA

It has been stated, or rather speculated upon, that the entire history of this place is no other than a romance. By Dionysius of Halicarnassus, however, it is said to have existed four hundred and eighty-seven years; when, after having been the founder of thirty other Latin cities, it was destroyed by the Roman power.

That it existed, is also attested by the ruins that now remain. Its ancient characteristics are thus described by Dionysius: – it was so built, with regard to its mountain and lake, that it occupied a space between them, each serving like a wall of defence to the city.

It was long supposed to have been situated where Palazzuolo now is. Sir W. Gell says, "On passing up the new road, running from the dry bed of the river Albanus, where it crosses the Appian Way, near Bolerillæ, and leading to the Villa Torlonia, or Castel Gandolfo, a few ancient tombs were observed about half way up the ascent; and further examination showed, that these tombs had once bordered an ancient road, now almost obliterated. It was obvious, that such a road must have led from some place on the plain, to another on the mountain. Toward the sea, the high tower of Pratica (Lavinium) lay in the direct line of the road; and it seemed certain that the city on the mountain, to which it led, could have been no other than Alba Longa. Climbing upward among the bushes, ponderous blocks of stone were discovered, evidently the remains of the walls of this city. By a farther search, more were found. At a distance a small cavern was discovered; and not only the remains of a well, but part of a column of stone, two feet four inches in diameter. At a higher point the shore was covered with ruins, consisting of large blocks of rectangular stones, nearly buried in the soil, and scarcely discernible among the bushes."

There is a tradition, that the palaces of the kings of Alba stood on a rock; and so near to the edge of the precipice, that when the impiety of one of its monarchs provoked Jupiter to strike it with his lightning, a part of the mass was precipitated into the lake, carrying the impious king along with the ruins of his habitation. This tradition is apparently confirmed by a singular feature in a part of the remains of this city; for, directly under the rock of the citadel, toward the lake, and where the palace, both for security and prospect, would have been placed, is a cavern, fifty feet in depth, and more than one hundred in width; a part of the roof of which has evidently fallen in, and some of the blocks still remain on the spot9.

NO. VII. – ALCANTARA

This town (in Spain) was built by the Moors, who gave it the name it bears; which, in the Moorish language, signifies a bridge; and this bridge shows that the original city belonged to the Romans in the time of Trajan; for on one of the arches is this inscription: —

IMP. CAESARI, D. NERVAE, FNERVAE. TRAIANO. AVGGERM. DACICOPONT. MAX. TRIB. POTEST. VIIIIMP. VI. COS. V. P.P

Formerly there were four pieces of marble, fixed in the walls of the bridge; in each of which there was an inscription, containing the names of the several towns and districts, that contributed towards the expense of making it. Three of these marbles are lost; but the fourth remains, and bears the following inscription: —

MVNICIPIAPROVINCIAE. LVSITANSTIPE. CONFLATAQVAE. OPVSPONTIS. PERFECERVNTIGAEDITANILANCIENSES. OPIDANITALORIINTERAMNIENSESCOLARNILAOCIENSES. TRANSCVDANIARAVIMEIDVBRIGENSESARABRIGENSESBANIENSESPAESVRES

At the entrance of the bridge there is a small temple, cut in the rock, by the same person that built the bridge. The roof of this temple consists of two large stones. In the temple there is an inscription to the following effect: – "It is reasonable to imagine, that every one, that passes this way, would be glad to know the name of the person that built this bridge and temple; and with what intent they were made, by cutting into this rock of the Tagus, full of the majesty of the Gods, and of Cæsar, and where art showed itself superior to the tough and stubborn matter that resisted her. Know, then, that it was that noble architect Lacer, who built this bridge, which will last as long as the world. Lacer, having finished this noble bridge, made and dedicated this new temple, with sacrifices, to the gods, in hopes of rendering them propitious to him, for having honoured them after this manner. This temple he dedicated to the gods of Rome, and to Cæsar; looking upon himself to have been extremely fortunate, in having been able to make so just and proper a sacrifice.10"

NO. VIII. – ALEXANDRIA

Of the several capitals of Egypt in successive ages11, Thebes, or Diospolis, was the most ancient. Next was Memphis; itself a city of the most remote antiquity. Babylon seems to have been only the capital of a part, retained by the Persians, after Cambyses had subdued Egypt; and was, by all accounts, founded by the Persians. Alexandria succeeded Memphis, and remained the chief city, till the Saracens founded Misr-el-Kahira.

Alexander, in his way to the temple of Jupiter Ammon, observed, opposite to the island of Pharos, a spot which he thought extremely well adapted for the building of a city. He, therefore, set about drawing the plan of one; in doing which he particularly marked out the several places where temples and squares should be erected. The general execution he committed to the architect who had rebuilt the temple of Diana at Ephesus (Dinocrates). This city he called Alexandria, after his own name; and being situated with the Mediterranean on one side, and one of the branches of the Nile on the other, it soon drew all the commerce, both of the east and west. It still remains, and is situate about four days' journey from Cairo. The merchandises were unloaded at Portus Muris12, a town on the western coast of the Red Sea; whence they were brought upon camels to a town of Thebais, called Copt, and conveyed down the Nile to Alexandria, whither merchants from all parts resorted.

The trade of the East has at all times enriched those who carried it on. Solomon received from one commercial voyage, no less a sum than three millions two hundred and forty thousand pounds13. Tyre afterwards had the trade. When the Ptolemies, however, had built Berenice, and other ports on the western side of the Red Sea, and fixed their chief mart at Alexandria, that city became the most flourishing of all the cities in the world. "There," says Prideaux, "it continued for many centuries after; and all the traffic which the western parts of the world from that time had with Persia, India, Arabia, and the eastern coasts of Arabia, was wholly carried on through the Red Sea, and the mouth of the Nile, till a way was discovered of sailing to those parts by the Cape of Good Hope."

Alexander was buried14 in the city he had built; and as the sarcophagus in which he was placed has now become an object of great curiosity, by having been taken from the French, at Alexandria, where it was found in the mosque of St. Athanasius, and placed in the British Museum, we shall give (from Rollin) an account of his funeral; for never had any monarch one so magnificent!

Alexander died at Babylon. Aridæus, having been deputed by all the governors and grandees of the kingdom, to take upon himself the care of his obsequies, had employed two years in preparing every thing that could render it the most august funeral that had ever been seen. When all things were ready for the celebration of this mournful ceremonial, orders were given for the procession to begin. This was preceded by a great number of pioneers and other workmen, whose office was to make all the ways practicable, through which the procession was to pass. As soon as these were levelled, the magnificent chariot, the invention and design of which raised as much admiration as the immense riches that glittered all over it, set out from Babylon. The body of the chariot rested upon two alxetrees, that were inserted into four wheels, made after the Persian manner; the naves and spokes of which were covered with gold, and the rounds plated over with iron. The extremities of the axletrees were made of gold, representing the mouths of lions biting a dart. The chariot had four draught-poles, to each of which were harnessed four sets of mules, each set consisting of four of those animals; so that this chariot was drawn by sixty-four mules. The strongest of those creatures, and the largest, were chosen on this occasion. They were adorned with crowns of gold, and collars enriched with precious stones and golden bells. On this chariot was erected a pavilion of entire gold, twelve feet wide, and eighteen in length, supported by columns of the Ionic order, embellished with the leaves of acanthus. The inside was adorned with a blaze of jewels, disposed in the form of shells. The circumference was beautified with a fringe of golden net-work; the threads that composed the texture were an inch in thickness, and to those were fastened large bells, whose sound was heard to a great distance. The external decorations were disposed into four relievos. The first represented Alexander seated in a military chariot, with a splendid sceptre in his hand, and surrounded, on one side, with a troop of Macedonians in arms; and on the other, with an equal number of Persians, armed in their manner. These were preceded by the king's equerries. In the second were seen elephants completely harnessed, with a band of Indians seated on the fore part of their bodies; and on the hinder, another band of Macedonians, armed as in the day of battle. The third exhibited to the view several squadrons of horse ranged in military array. The fourth represented ships preparing for a battle. At the entrance into the pavilion were golden lions, that seemed to guard the passage. The four corners were adorned with statues of gold, representing victories, with trophies of arms in their hands. Under the pavilion was placed a throne of gold of a square form, adorned with the heads of animals, whose necks were encompassed with golden circles a foot and a half in breadth; to these were hung crowns that glittered with the liveliest colours, and such as were carried in procession at the celebration of sacred solemnities. At the foot of the throne was placed the coffin of Alexander, formed of beaten gold, and half filled with aromatic spices and perfumes, as well to exhale an agreeable odour, as for the preservation of the corpse. A pall of purple, wrought with gold, covered the coffin. Between this and the throne the arms of that monarch were disposed in the manner he wore them while living. The outside of the pavilion was likewise covered with purple, flowered with gold. The top ended in a very large crown of the same metal, which seemed to be a composition of olive-branches. The rays of the sun which darted on this diadem, in conjunction with the motion of the chariot, caused it to emit a kind of rays like those of lightning. It may easily be imagined, that, in so long a procession, the motion of a chariot, loaded like this, would be liable to great inconveniences. In order, therefore, that the pavilion, with all its appendages, might, when the chariot moved in any uneven ways, constantly continue in the same situation, notwithstanding the inequality of the ground, and the shocks that would frequently be unavoidable, a cylinder was raised from the middle of each axle-tree, to support the pavilion; by which expedient the whole machine was preserved steady. The chariot was followed by the royal guards, all in arms, and magnificently arrayed. The multitude of spectators of this solemnity is hardly credible; but they were drawn together as well by their veneration for the memory of Alexander, as by the magnificence of this funeral pomp, which had never been equalled in the world. There was a current prediction, that the place where Alexander should be interred, would be rendered the most happy and flourishing part of the whole earth. The governors contested with each other, for the disposal of a body that was to be attended with such a glorious prerogative. The affection, Perdiccas entertained for his country, made him desirous that the corpse should be conveyed to Æge, in Macedonia, where the remains of its kings were usually deposited. Other places were likewise proposed, but the preference was given to Egypt. Ptolemy, who had such extraordinary and recent obligations to the king of Macedonia, was determined to signalise his gratitude on this occasion. He accordingly set out with a numerous guard of his best troops, in order to meet the procession, and advanced as far as Syria. When he had joined the attendants on the funeral, he prevented them from interring the corpse in the temple of Jupiter Ammon, as they had proposed. It was therefore deposited, first, in the city of Memphis, and from thence was conveyed to Alexandria. Ptolemy raised a magnificent temple to the memory of this monarch, and rendered him all the honours which were usually paid to demi-gods and heroes by Pagan antiquity.