Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2)

On his arrival, Alexander offered magnificent sacrifices to the deities, in thanksgiving for the success that had crowned his arms. Gymnic games and theatrical representations succeeded, and universal festivities reigned in the Grecian army. But in the midst of these rejoicings, the king had the misfortune to lose the friend he loved the most. He was engaged in presiding at the games, when he was suddenly and hastily sent for; but before he could reach the bed-side of Hephæstion, his friend had expired.

The king gave himself up to sorrow many days. At length, when he had recovered his self-command, he gave orders for a magnificent funeral, the expense of which is said to have amounted to not less than 10,000 talents, that is, about two millions! All the Oriental subjects were charged to put on mourning; and it is even affirmed, that, to gratify Alexander's affection, several of his companions dedicated themselves and arms to the deceased favourite. The folly of Alexander went even farther. He wrote to Cleomenes, his governor in Egypt, a person of an inordinate bad character, commanding him to erect two temples to Hephæstion; one at Alexandria, and another in the island of Pharos: "If I find these temples erected, when I return into Egypt, I will not only forgive all thy past deeds, but likewise all thou mayest hereafter commit!"

Plutarch says: – When he came to Ecbatana, in Media, and had despatched the most urgent affairs, he employed himself in the celebration of games, and other public solemnities; for which purpose 3000 artificers, lately arrived from Greece, were very serviceable to him. But, unfortunately, Hephæstion fell sick of a fever in the midst of this festivity. As a young man and a soldier, he could not bear to be kept to strict diet; and taking the opportunity to dine when his physician Glaucus was gone to the theatre, he ate a roasted fowl, and drank a flagon of wine, made as cold as possible; in consequence of which he grew worse, and died a few days after.

Plutarch and Quintus Curtius relate, that when Darius offered Alexander all the country which lies on the west of the Euphrates, with his daughter Statira in marriage, and a portion of 10,000 talents of gold, Parmenio having been present at this offer, and having been required to state his opinion in regard to it, answered, that if it were he, he would accept it; "so would I," answered Alexander, "were I Parmenio."

Sometime after this, the life of this excellent friend and consummate general, as well as that of his son, was sacrificed to a mean and wanton accusation made against him of treason against his master's person; dying in the height of his prosperity, in the 70th year of his age. At Ecbatana, it was commonly observed in the army to which he belonged, that Parmenio had gained many victories without Alexander, but that Alexander had gained none without Parmenio.

Ecbatana is supposed to have been situated where the modern Hameden now stands; that is, in the province of Irac-Agemi, winding between Bagdad and Ispahan, 240 miles from each. It stands at the foot of a mountain, whence issue streams, that water the country. The adjacent parts are fertile, and productive of corn and rice. The air is healthy, but the winter is said to be intense. Its climate, however, was so fine in ancient times, that the Persian kings preferred it to Ispahan or Susa; hence It acquired the title of the "Royal City."

"Ecbatana," says Rennell, "was unquestionably on, or near, the site of Hameden in Al Jebel. A great number of authorities concur in proving this; although many refer to Tauris, or Tebriz, in Aderbigian; Mr. Gibbon and Sir William Jones among the rest. The authorities are too numerous to be adduced here. We shall only mention that Isidore of Charax places it on the road from Seleucia to Parthia; that Pliny says Susa is equi-distant from Seleucia and Ecbatana; and that Ecbatana itself lies in the road from Nineveh to Rages or Ray." "The situation of Hameden," says Mr. Morier, "so much unlike that of other Persian cities, would of itself be sufficient to establish its claim to a remote origin, considering the propensity of the ancients to build their cities on elevated positions. Ispahan, Schiraz, Teheran, Tabris, Khoi, &c., are all built on plains; but Hameden occupies a great diversity of surface, and, like Rome and Constantinople, can enumerate the hills over which it is spread. Its locality, too, agrees with that of Ecbatana, built on the declivity of the Orontes, according to Polybius219, and is also conformable to Herodotus220; who, in describing the walls, rising into circles one above another, says, 'this mode of building was favoured by the situation of the place.'"

"I had not expected to see Ecbatana," says Sir Robert Ker Porter, "as Alexander found it; neither in the superb ruin, in which Timour had left it; but, almost unconsciously to myself, some indistinct ideas of what it had been floated before me; and when I actually beheld its remains, it was with the appalled shock of seeing a prostrate dead body, where I had anticipated a living man, though drooping to decay. Orontes, indeed, was there, magnificent and hoary-headed; the funeral remnant of the poor corpse beneath." The extensive plain of Hameden stretched below, and the scene there was delightful. Numberless castellated villages, rising amidst groves of the noblest trees. The whole tract appeared as a carpet of luxuriant verdure, studded by hamlets and watered by rivulets. "If the aspect of this part of the country," thought the traveller, "now presents so rich a picture, when its palaces are no more, what must it have been when Astyages held his court here; and Cyrus, in his yearly courses from Persepolis, Susa, and Babylon, stretched his golden sceptre over this delicious plain? Well might such a garden of nature's bounties be the favourite seat of kings, the nursery of the arts, and all the graceful courtesies of life."

The site of the modern town, Sir Robert goes on to observe, like that of the ancient, is on a gradual ascent, terminating near the foot of the eastern side of the mountain. It bears many vestiges of having been strongly fortified. The sides and summits are covered with large remnants of great thickness, and also of towers, the materials of which were bricks, dried in the sun.

When it lost the name of Ecbatana in that of Hameden, it seems to have lost its honours too; for while it preserved the old appellation of the capital, whence the great kings of the Kaianian race had dictated their decrees; and where "Cyrus, the king, had placed, in the house of the rolls of its palace, the record wherein was written his order for the rebuilding of Jerusalem," it seems, with the retention of its name, to have preserved some memory of its consequence, even so far into modern times as three centuries of "the Christian era." "It was then," continues our accomplished traveller, "that Tiridates attempted to transfer its glories to his own capital; and, according to Ebn Haukel, the gradual progress of six hundred years mouldered away the architectural superiority of the ancient city. Towards the end of the fourteenth century, Tamerlane sacked, pillaged, and destroyed its proudest buildings, ruined the inhabitants, and reduced the whole, from being one of the most extensive cities of the East, to hardly a parsang in length and breadth221. In that dismantled and dismembered state, though dwindled to a mere day-built suburb of what it was, it possessed iron gates, till within these fifty years; when Aga Mahomed Khan, not satisfied with the depth of so great a capital's degradation, ordered every remain of past consequence to be destroyed." The result? "His commands were obeyed to a tittle. The mud alleys, which now occupy the site of ancient streets or squares, are narrow, interrupted by large holes or hollows, in the way, and heaps of the fallen crumbled walls of deserted dwellings. A miserable bazaar or two are passed through in traversing the town; and large lonely spots are met with, marked by broken low mounds over older ruins; with here and there a few poplars or willow trees, shadowing the border of a dirty stream, abandoned to the meanest uses; which, probably, flowed pellucid and admired, when these places were gardens, and the grass-grown heap some stately dwelling of Ecbatana."

In one or two spots may be observed square platforms of large stones, many of which are chiselled over with the finest Arabic characters. These, however, are evidently tomb-stones of the inhabitants during the caliphs' rule; the register of yesterday. "As I passed through the wretched hovelled streets, and saw the once lofty city of Astyages, shrunk like a shrivelled gourd, the contemplation of such a spectacle called forth more saddening reflections than any that had awakened in me on any former ground of departed greatness. In some I had seen mouldering pomp, or sublime desolation; in this, every object spoke of neglect, and hopeless poverty. Not majesty in stately ruin, pining to find dissolution on the spot where it was first blasted; but beggary, seated on the place which kings had occupied, squalid with rags, and stupid with misery. It was impossible to look on it and not exclaim, "O Ecbatana, seat of princes! How is the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!"

Sir Robert saw, not far from the remains of a fortress to the south, the broken base and shaft of a column; which, on examination, proved to him that the architecture of Persepolis and Ecbatana had been the same.

Hameden is to be seen for several miles before reaching Surkhahed, for several stages. Mr. Morier saw nothing in Persia that wore such an appearance of prosperity; for the plain, about nine miles in breadth and fifteen in length, was one continued series of fields and orchards. Hameden itself is one of the best watered places in Persia. All the habitations are interspersed with trees. The most conspicuous building is a large mosque, called Mesjed Jumah, now falling into decay; and there was to be seen, every morning, before the sun rises, a numerous body of peasants, with spades in their hands, waiting to be hired for the day, to work in the surrounding fields.222 Near the Mosque, in a court, filled with tents, stands a building, called the sepulchre of Esther and Mordecai. It is of an architecture of the earliest ages of Mohammedism. It was erected in the year of the Creation 4474, by two devout Jews of Kasham.

Translation of the inscription on the marble slab in the sepulchre of Esther and Mordecai

"Mordecai, beloved and honoured by a king, was great and good. His garments were those of a sovereign. Ahasuerus covered him with this rich dress, and also placed a golden chain around his neck. The city of Susa rejoiced at his honours, and his high fortune became the glory of the Jews."

On a steep declivity of the Orontes are to be seen two tablets, each of which is divided into three longitudinal compartments, inscribed by the arrow-headed character of Persepolis. In the northern skirts of the city, Mr. Morier found another monument of antiquity. This is the base of the column, which we noticed just now; and this, Mr. Morier is equally certain with Sir Robert, is of the identical order of the columns of Persepolis, and of the same sort of stone. This, says Mr. Morier, led to a discovery of some importance; for, adjacent to this fragment is a large but irregular terrace, evidently the work of art, and perhaps the ground-plan of some great building; of the remains of which its soil must be the repository. Mr. Morier is induced to believe, that the situation of this spot agrees with that Polybius223 would assign to the palace of the kings of Persia, which, he says, was below the citadel.

Besides these, there are many other antiquities; but as they all belong to Mohammedan times, they do not come within the sphere of our subject. There are some hopes that this city may, one day, assume a far different rank than what it now holds;224 for, within a few years, it has been created a royal government, and committed to the care of Mohammed Ali Mirza. Palaces, therefore, have been erected, and mansions for his ministers, new bazaars and mercantile caravanserais.

We shall close this account with Sir Robert's description of the view that is to be seen from Mount Orontes, now called Mount Elwund. "It is one of the most stupendous scenes I had ever seen! I stood on the eastern park. The apparently intermediate peaks of the Courdistan mountains spread before me far to the north-west; while continued chains of the less towering heights of Louristan stretched south-east; and linking themselves with the more lofty piles of the Bactiari, my eye followed their receding summits, till lost in the hot and tremulous haze of an Asiatic sky. The general hue of this endless mountain region was murky red; to which in many parts the arid glare of the atmosphere gave so preternatural a brightness, that it might well have been called a land of fire. From the point on which I stood, I beheld the whole mass of country round the unbroken concave: – it was of enormous expanse; and although, from the clearness of the air, and the cloudless state of the heavens, no object was clouded from my sight; yet, from the immensity of the height whence I viewed the scene, the luxuriancy of the valleys was entirely lost in the shadows of the hills; and nothing was left to the beholder from the top of Elwund, but the bare and burning summits of countless mountains. Not a drop of water was discernible of all the many streams, which poured from the bosom into the plains below. In my life I had never beheld so tremendous a spectacle. It appeared like standing upon the stony crust of some rocky world, which had yet to be broken up by the Almighty word, and unfold to the beneficent mandate the fructifying principles of earth and water, bursting into vegetation and terrestrial life225."

NO. XXXIII. – ELEUSIS

This was a town of Attica, equally distant from Megara and the Piræus; greatly celebrated for the observance, every fifth year, of the greatest festival in Greece, called the Eleusinian; a festival sacred to Ceres and Proserpine; every thing appertaining to which was a secret, or mystery; to divulge any of which was supposed to call down an immediate judgment from heaven.

"Ceres," says an Athenian orator, "wandering in quest of her daughter Proserpine, came into Attica, where some good offices were done her, which it is unlawful for those who are not initiated to hear. In return, she conferred two unparalleled benefits: – the knowledge of agriculture, by which the human race is raised above the brute creation; and the mysteries, from which the partakers derive sweeter hopes than other men enjoy, both in the present life and to eternity."

There is nothing in all the Pagan antiquity more celebrated than the mysteries and feasts of Ceres Eleusina226. Their origin and institution are attributed to Ceres herself, who in the reign of Erechtheus, coming to Eleusis, a small town of Attica, in search of her daughter Proserpine, whom Pluto had carried away, and finding the country afflicted with a famine, she not only taught them the use of corn, but instructed them in the principles of probity, charity, civility, and humanity. These mysteries were divided into the less and the greater, of which the former served as a preparation for the latter. Only Athenians were admitted to them; but of them each sex, age, and condition had a right to be received. All strangers were absolutely excluded. We shall consider principally the greater mysteries, which were celebrated at Eleusis.

Those who demanded to be initiated into them, were obliged, before their reception, to purify themselves in the lesser mysteries, by bathing in the river Ilissus, by saying certain prayers, offering sacrifices, and, above all, by living in strict continence during an interval of time prescribed them. That time was employed in instructing them in the principles and elements of the sacred doctrine of the great mysteries.

When the time for their initiation arrived, they were brought into the temple; and to inspire the greater reverence and terror, the ceremony was performed in the night. Wonderful things passed upon this occasion. Visions were seen, and voices heard, of an extraordinary kind. A sudden splendour dispelled the darkness of the place; and disappearing immediately, added new horrors to the gloom. Apparitions, claps of thunder, earthquakes, improved the terror and amazement; whilst the person admitted, stupified, sweating through fear, heard trembling the mysterious volumes read to him. These nocturnal rites were attended with many disorders, which the severe law of silence, imposed on the persons initiated, prevented from coming to light. The president in this ceremony was called a Hierophant. He wore a peculiar habit, and was not admitted to marry. He had three colleagues; one who carried a torch; another, a herald, whose office was to pronounce certain mysterious words; and a third, to attend at the altar.

Besides these officers, one of the principal magistrates of the city was appointed to take care that all the ceremonies of this feast were exactly observed. He was called the king, and was one of the nine Archons. His business was to offer prayers and sacrifices. The people gave him four assistants. He had, besides, ten other ministers to assist him in the discharge of his duty, and particularly in offering sacrifices.

The Athenians initiated their children of both sexes very early into these mysteries, and would have thought it criminal to have let them die without such an advantage.

It was regularly celebrated every fifth year; that is, after a revolution of four years: and history records, that it was never interrupted, except upon the taking of Thebes by Alexander the Great. It was continued down to the time of the Christian emperors; and Valentinian would have abolished it, if Prætextatus, the proconsul of Greece, had not represented in the most lively and affecting terms the universal sorrow which the abrogation of that feast would occasion among the people; upon which it was suffered to subsist. It is supposed to have been finally suppressed by Theodosius the Great.

At this place there were several sacred monuments, such as chapels and altars; and many rich citizens of Athens had pleasant and beautiful villas there227. The great temple at Eleusis was plundered by the Spartan king Cleomenes, and it was burnt by the Persians, in their flight after the battle of Platæa. It was afterwards rebuilt by Iktinos; but nearly entirely destroyed by Alaric. After this Eleusis became an inconsiderable village. It is now inhabited by a few poor Albanian Christians. The temple of Ceres and Proserpine was built under the administration of Pericles. It was of the marble of Pentelicus. It was equally vast and magnificent. Its length, from north to south, was about three hundred and eighty-six feet, and its breadth about three hundred and twenty-seven; and the most celebrated artists were employed in its construction and decoration.

"In the most flourishing times of Athens," says Wheler, "Eleusis was one of their principal towns, but is now crushed down under their hard fortune, having been so ill treated by the Christian pirates, more inhuman than the very Turks, that all its inhabitants have left it; there being now nothing remaining but ruins. The place is situated upon a long hill, stretched out near to the sea, north-east and north-west, not far distant from the mountain Gerata. The whole hill seems to have been built upon, but chiefly towards the sea, where the first thing we came to was the stately temple of Ceres, now prostrate upon the ground; I cannot say, 'not having one stone upon another,' for it lieth all in a confused heap together, the beautiful pillars buried in the rubbish of its dejected roof and walls, and its goodly carved and polished cornices used with no more respect than the worst stone of the pavement. It lies in such a rude and disorderly manner, that it is not possible to judge of its ancient form; only it appeared to have been built of most beautiful white marble, and no less admirable stone."

There are also remains of several old sepulchres; and among these was lately found an inscription relative to something dedicated to Ceres and her daughter, by Fabius, the Dadouchos. Another is in the wall of a cottage, and is relative to a member of the Areopagus, who erected a statue to his wife.

The temple of Neptune is supposed to have been near the sea, where traces now remain, composed of dark Eleusinian marble. The foundations of the ancient tombs are still visible; but there are no remains of the city walls; but a long wall, which united it with the port, may be still traced with little interruption.

The temple of Venus, which was of the Doric order, is now a mass of rubbish, among which have been found several marble doves of the natural size.

Many fragments, says Mr. Dodwell, have probably been removed, owing to its propinquity to the sea, and the consequent facility of exportation. The church of St. Zacharias is almost entirely composed of ancient fragments. This is probably the situation of the temple of Diana; and of a large ancient well he supposes to be that mentioned by Pausanias, round which the women of Eleusis danced in honour of the goddess.

There were also temples dedicated to Triptolemus and Neptune, the father; but of these not a fragment remains228.

NO. XXXIV. – ELIS

Elis was formed, like many of the Grecian cities, more especially in the Peloponnesus, by the union of several hamlets.

It was a large and populous city in the time of Demosthenes; but in that of Homer it did not exist.

Elis was originally governed by kings, and received its name from Eleus, one of its monarchs. It was famous for the horses it produced, whose celebrity was so often tried at the Olympic games.

"On our arrival at Elis," says Anacharsis, "we met a procession on its way to the temple of Minerva, and that made part of a ceremony, in which the youth of Elis contended for the prize of beauty. The victor was led in triumph; the first, with his head bound with ribands, bore the weapons to be consecrated to the goddess; the second conducted the victim; and the third carried the other offerings. I have often seen similar contests in Greece, for the young men; as well as for the women and girls. Even among distant nations, I have seen women admitted to public competitions; with this difference, however, that the Greeks decree the prize to the most beautiful, and the barbarians to the most virtuous."

This city was once ornamented with temples, sumptuous edifices, and a number of statues. Among these was particularly distinguished the group of the Graces, in a temple dedicated to them. They were habited in a light and brilliant drapery; – the first held a myrtle branch in honour of Venus; the second, a rose, to denote the spring; the third, a die, the symbol of infant sports.

The chief curiosity at Elis, however, was a statue of Jupiter, formed by Phidias229. The serene majesty and beauty of this piece of sculpture ranked it among the wonders of the world. Jupiter was represented sitting upon a throne, with an olive wreath of gold about his temples; the upper part of his body was naked; a wide mantle, covering the rest of it, hung down in the richest folds to his feet, which rested on a footstool. The naked parts of the statue were of ivory; the dress was of beaten gold, with an imitation of embroidery, painted by Panænus, brother of Phidias. In the right hand stood the goddess Victoria, turning towards the statue, and carved, like it, out of ivory and gold; she was holding out a band, with which she appeared desirous to encircle his olive crown. In his left hand the divinity held a parti-coloured sceptre, made of various metals skilfully joined, and on the sceptre rested an eagle. Power, wisdom, and goodness, were admirably expressed in his features. He sat with the air of a divinity, presiding among the judges of the games, and dispensing the laurel wreaths to the victors, calm in conscious dignity. The statue was surrounded with magnificent drapery, which was drawn aside only on particular occasions, when the deity was to be exhibited. A sense of greatness and splendour overwhelmed the spectator, the height of the figure being about forty feet.

The structures of Elis230 seem to have been raised with materials far less elegant and durable than the produce of the Ionian and Attic quarries. The ruins are of brick, and not considerable; consisting of pieces of ordinary wall, and an octagon building with niches, which, it is supposed, was the temple, with a circular peristyle. These stand detached from each other, ranging in a vale southward from the wide bed of the river Peneus, which, by the margin, has several large stones, perhaps the relics of the gymnasium.