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Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2)
The height of the temple thus repaired is said to have been one thousand two hundred feet. The stones of which it was built were all of marble, forty cubits long, twelve thick, eight high, and so exquisitely joined that they appeared to be of one combined piece. There were one thousand four hundred and fifty-three columns of Parian marble, and two thousand nine hundred and six pilasters, of such thickness, that three men could hardly embrace them; and their height and capital proportionable, and all of the Corinthian order.306 All the materials of the original fabric were, as it is well known, finished and adapted to their several ends before they were brought to Jerusalem: that is, the stones in their quarries, and the cedars in Lebanon; so that there was no noise of axe, hammer, or any other tool, heard in the rearing of it. There were no less than one hundred and sixty-three thousand men employed in this work; and yet it took nine years in the building.
The expense of building this wonderful structure was prodigious: the gold and silver employed for this purpose, amounted to 800,000,000l. sterling, which, according to Prideaux's calculation, was a sum equal to have built the whole of solid silver; but it can scarcely be questioned, we think, that some error has crept into the account307: There could not have been so much bullion, much less coin, at that time in the world.
In ancient Jerusalem there were ten gates and four towers. Its extent was about one mile. In Solomon's time, this extent appears to have been twice, if not thrice, more. In the time of Titus it was four miles 125 paces. Eusebius lays the circumference at 2550 toises.
We must now proceed to give some account of the destruction of the city by Titus308: and in doing so we shall adopt the description presented by the author of – "On the Beauties, Harmonies, and Sublimities of Nature."
"The war began in the month of May, A. D. 66; and the siege left to the management of Titus, April 14, A. D. 70. Previous to the siege, the city was a prey to the most intolerable anarchy; robbers having broken into it, and filled almost every house with thieves, assassins, and broilers, of every description. The best citizens were thrown into prisons, and afterwards murdered, without even a form of trial. At this time Titus appeared before the gates – a vast multitude having previously arrived in the city to celebrate the feast of the passover. During this celebrated siege, there were no less than three earthquakes; and an aurora borealis terrified the inhabitants with forms, which their fears and astonishment converted into prodigies of enemies fighting in the air, and flaming swords hanging over their temple. They were visited with a plague, so dreadful, that more than one hundred and fifty thousand persons were carried out of the city, at the public charge, to be buried; and six hundred and fifty thousand were cast over the walls, and out of the gates. A famine ensued; and so horrible was the want, that a bushel of corn sold for six hundred crowns. The populace were reduced to the necessity of taking old excrement of horses, mules, and oxen, to satisfy their hunger; and a lady of quality even boiled her own child and ate it – a crime so exquisite, that Titus vowed to the eternal Gods, that he would bury its infamy in the ruins of the city. He took it soon after by storm; the plough was drawn over it; and with the exception of the west walls, and three towers, not one stone remained above another. Ninety thousand persons were made captives; and one million one hundred thousand perished during the siege. Those made captives being sold to several nations, they were dispersed over a great portion of the ancient world; and from them are descended the present race of Jews, scattered singly, and in detached portions, in every province of Europe, and in most districts of Africa and Asia. Thus terminated this memorable siege – a siege the results of which meet the eye in every Jew we meet."
The Jews having, in the reign of Adrian, given way to a turbulent disposition, that emperor resolved to level all things to the ground – that is, those buildings which the Jews had erected to destroy the towers, that were left by Titus for the convenience of the Roman garrison; and to sow salt in the ground on which the city had stood. Thus did Adrian literally fulfil the prophecy, that neither in the city, nor in the temple, should one stone be left upon another. This final destruction took place forty-seven years after that of Titus.
A new city, under the name of Ælia Capitolina, was soon after built, where the presence of the Jews was absolutely prohibited. In this new city, the Christians were sometimes persecuted, and sometimes protected, by the Roman emperors, till the time when the empress Helena came to visit the city; when, finding it in a most forlorn and ruinous condition, she formed the design of restoring it to its ancient lustre; and her son, Constantine, having embraced the Christian doctrine, he issued an edict, that the old name of Jerusalem should be employed when speaking of the city.
A few years after, an attempt was made to rebuild the temple by the emperor Julian, an attempt which is recorded as having proved abortive, from fiery eruptions escaping out of the earth, and dispersing the workmen.
In the reign of Justinian, that emperor built a magnificent church at Jerusalem; the foundation being formed by raising part of a deep valley. The stones of a neighbouring quarry were hewn into regular forms; each block was fixed on a peculiar carriage drawn by forty of the strongest oxen, and the roads were widened for the passage of such enormous weights. Lebanon furnished her loftiest cedars for the timbers of the church; and the seasonable discovery of a vein of red marble supplied its beautiful columns; – two of which, the supporters of the extensive portico, were esteemed the largest in the world.
In 613, Jerusalem was taken by Chosroes, king of Persia. The sepulchre of Christ and the stately churches of Helena and Constantine were consumed; the devout offerings of three hundred years were rifled, "the true cross" was transported into Persia; and the massacre of ninety thousand Christians is imputed to the Jews and Arabs, who swelled the disorder of the Persian march.
It was recaptured by Heraclius in 627. This emperor banished all the Jews, and interdicted them from coming nearer to it than three miles.
Nine years after this, Jerusalem was taken by Khaled, one of Omar's generals. Omar being apprised of this success of his arms, immediately set out to visit the Holy City. He was attended in his journey by a numerous retinue. He rode upon a red camel, and carried with him two sacks of provision and fruits. Before him he had a leather bottle containing water, and behind him a wooden platter, out of which many of his retinue ate in common with himself. His clothes were made of camels' hair, and were in a very tattered condition; and the figure he made was mean and sordid to the last degree. On the morning after his arrival, he said prayers and preached to his troops. After the conclusion of his sermon, he pitched his tent within sight of the city. There he signed the articles of capitulation; by which the inhabitants were entitled to the free exercise of their religion, the possession of their property, and his protection.
It continued under the caliphs of Bagdad till A. D. 868, when it was taken by a Turkish sovereign of Egypt; during the space of two hundred and twenty years it was subject to several masters, Turkish and Saracenic; and in 1099, it was taken by the crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon, who was elected king. He was succeeded by his brother Baldwin, who died A. D. 1118, and having no son, his eldest daughter, Melisandra, conveyed the kingdom into her husband's family. In A. D. 1188, Saladin, sultan of the East, captured the city, assisted by Raymond, count of Tripoli, who was found dead in his bed on the morning of the day on which he was to have delivered up the city. It was restored in 1242 to the Latin princes by Salah Ismael, emir of Damascus. They lost it in 1291 to the sultans of Egypt, who held it till 1382.
Selim, the Turkish sultan, reduced Egypt and Syria, including Jerusalem, in 1517, and his son Solyman built the present walls in 1534. It continues to the present day under the Turkish dominion, fulfilling the prophecy, that it "should be trodden down of the Gentiles." It is not, therefore, only in the history of Josephus, and in other ancient writers, that we are to look for the accomplishment of Christ's prediction; we see them verified at this moment before our eyes, in the desolate state of this once celebrated city and temple, and in the present condition of the Jewish people; not collected together into any one country, into one political society, and under one form of government, but dispersed into every region of the globe, and everywhere treated with contumely and scorn.
We now proceed to give some account of the city, as it now stands, from various travellers who have visited it; confining ourselves, however, almost entirely to what may be called its antiquities.
The following particulars in regard to the approach to Jerusalem are from the pen of Mr. Robinson.
"As we approach Jerusalem, the road becomes more and more rugged, and all the appearance of vegetation ceases; the rocks are scantily covered with soil, and what little verdure might have existed in the spring, is in the autumn entirely burnt up. There is a like absence of animal life; and it is no exaggeration to say, here man dwelleth not; the beast wandereth not; the bird flieth not; indeed, nothing indicates the approach to the ancient metropolis of Judea, unless it be the apparent evidences of a curse upon its soil, impressed in the dreadful characters just mentioned, whilst the 'inhabitants thereof,' are 'scattered abroad.' Oftentimes on the road was I tempted to exclaim, like the stranger that was come from a strange land, 'Wherefore hath the Lord done this unto the land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger309?'"
Dr. Clarke, however, was nevertheless struck with its grandeur. He says that, instead of a wretched and ruined town, as he had expected, he beheld a flourishing and stately metropolis, domes, towers, palaces, and monasteries, shining in the sun's rays with inconceivable splendour. "Like many other ancient places," says a French commentator on this account, "it no doubt presents two aspects; a mixture of magnificence and paltriness."
To the southward of the site of Bethlehem stands the city castle310. It is composed of towers connected by curtains, which form two or three enclosures, the interior successively commanding the exterior. A few old guns, mounted on broken carriages, are planted on its walls to keep the Arabs in awe. The castle is sometimes called the castle of Daniel; and sometimes of the Pisans, having been erected by that people when the city was in the hands of the Christians. From one of the windows looking north, travellers are shown the site of the house of Uriah; and a piece of ground attached to it, and just within the walls, an old tank, called Bathsheba's bath. But the place where the latter was bathing, when seen by the amorous monarch, was more probably the great basin lying in the ravine to the south of the castle at the foot of Mount Zion, and called the lower pool of Gihon.
The sides of the hill of Zion have a pleasing appearance; as they possess a few olive-trees and rude gardens, and a crop of corn was growing there when Mr. Carne visited it. On its southern extremity is the mosque of David, which is held in the highest reverence by the Turks, who affirm that the remains of that monarch, and his son Solomon, were interred there.
The palace of Pilate is now a Turkish residence, and stands near to the gateway by which Christ was led thence to Calvary, to be crucified. Here is pointed out the spot on which Pilate presented Jesus to the people, declaring he could find no guilt in him; the place on which he fainted under the weight of the cross, and where the Virgin swooned, also, at the sight; the spot where Veronica gave him her handkerchief to wipe his forehead; and lastly, where the soldiers compelled Simon of Cyrene to bear his cross. In the palace the monk points out the room where Christ was confined before his trial; and at a short distance is a dark and ruinous hall, shown as the arch where Christ stood till his judge exclaimed "Behold the man311!"
One of the streets is said to be the same where Christ made his first appearance after his resurrection; and in the same street stands an Armenian convent, erected over the spot on which James, the brother of John, was beheaded. This is one of the finest buildings in Jerusalem312. At a short distance is a small church, said to be erected on the spot where formerly stood the house of the high-priest Annas; and, a little farther on, another which marks the house of Caiaphas; while, just beyond the gate, the attention is directed to a mosque, where the house stood in which Christ ate his last supper.
The mosque of Omar, which occupies the site of the Jewish temple, loses nothing of its grandeur or beauty on a near approach. The spacious paved courts, the flights of steps, and surrounding arcades, the dark tall cypress-trees and running fountains, and the large octagonal body of the mosque, with its surrounding domes, produce altogether the finest effect, and increase the desire to enter its forbidden walls. It is said to be the most magnificent piece of architecture in the Turkish empire; far superior to the mosque of St. Sophia in Constantinople. By the sides of the spacious area in which it stands are several vaulted remains; and evidence is said to be capable of proving, that they belonged to the foundation of Solomon's temple313.
Chateaubriand says, that he was strongly tempted to find some mode of penetrating to the interior of the mosque; but was prevented by the fear, that he might thereby involve the whole Christian population of Jerusalem in destruction. Dr. Richardson, however, succeeded in gratifying a similar curiosity, which he shared in common with a host of other travellers.
The Tomb of Zacharias is square, with four or five pillars, and is cut out of the rock. Near this is a sort of grotto, hewn out of the elevated part of the rock, with four pillars in front, which is said to have been the apostles' prison at the time they were confined by the rulers.
At a small distance within the gates of St. Stephen, that fronts Olivet, is the pool of Bethesda, said to be the scene of one of Christ's most striking miracles. The pool is at present dry, and its bed nearly filled up with earth and rubbish. Wild tamarisk bushes and pomegranate trees spread their foliage round it; but, according to Chateaubriand, the mason-work of the sides, composed of large stones, joined together by iron cramps, may still be traced; making the measurement of this reservoir to have been in width 40 feet, and in length 150. At its eastern end are some arches dammed up. It is evidently the most ancient work in Jerusalem, and, as such, is an interesting specimen of the primitive architecture of its inhabitants. All travellers seem to agree that this was the pool of Bethesda, memorable in the Gospel history as the scene of the paralytic, related in St. John. It was here, perhaps, that the sheep were marked, preparatory to the sacrifices of the temple314.
"At about two-thirds of the ascent of the Mount of Olives," says Mr. Robinson, "we were shown the place where our Lord, looking down upon the city, wept over its impending fate. 'Seest thou these great buildings? There shall not be left one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down315.'"
"From the summit," says Mr. Carne, "you enjoy an admirable view of the city. It is beneath, and very near, and looks, with its valleys around it, like a panorama. This noble mosque of Omar, and large area, planted with palms, its narrow streets, ruinous places and towers, are all laid out before you, as you have seen Naples and Corfu in Leicester-square. On the summit are the remains of a church, built by the empress Helena; and in a small edifice, containing one large and lofty apartment, is shown the print of the last footsteps of Christ, when he took his leave of earth."
"About forty years," says Dr. Clarke, "before the idolatrous profanation of the Mount of Olives by Solomon, his afflicted parent, driven from Jerusalem by his son Absalom, came to this eminence to present a less offensive sacrifice, and, as it is beautifully expressed by Adichomius, 'flens et nudis pedibus adoravit,' what a scene does the sublime description, given by the prophet, picture to the imagination of every one who has felt the influence of filial piety, but especially of the traveller, standing upon the very spot where the aged monarch gave to heaven the offering of his wounded spirit. "And David went up by the ascent of Mount Olives, and wept as he went up, and had his head covered, and he went barefoot, and all the people that was with him covered every man his head; and they went up weeping."
On the top of the mount are the remains of several works, the history of which has been lost. Among these are several subterraneous chambers. One of them has the shape of a cone, of very large size. It is upon the very pinnacle of the mountain.
"The Mount of Olives," says Mons. La Martine, "slopes suddenly and rapidly down to the deep abyss, called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which separates it from Jerusalem. From the bottom of this sombre and narrow valley, the barren sides of which are everywhere paved with black and white stones, the funereal stones of death, rises an immense hill, with so abrupt an elevation, that it resembles a fallen rampart: no tree here strikes its roots; no moss even can here fix its filaments. The slope is so steep that the earth and stones continually roll from it, and it presents to the eye only a surface of dry dust, as if powdered cinders had been thrown upon it. From the heights of the city, towards the middle of this hill, or natural rampart, rise high and strong walls of large stones, not externally sawed by the mason, which conceal their Hebrew and Roman foundations beneath the same cinders, and are here from fifty to one hundred, and further on, from two to three hundred feet in height. The walls are here cut by three city gates, two of which are fastened up, and the only one open before us seems as void and as desolate as if it gave entrance to an uninhabited town. The walls, rising again beyond this gate, sustain a large and vast terrace, which runs along two-thirds of the length of Jerusalem, on the eastern side; and, judging by the eye, may be a thousand feet in length, and five or six hundred in breadth. It is nearly level, except at its centre, where it sinks insensibly, as if to recall to the eye the valley of little depth, which formerly separated the hill of Sion from the city of Jerusalem. This magnificent platform, prepared no doubt by nature, but evidently finished by the hand of man, was the sublime pedestal upon which arose the temple of Solomon. It now supports two Turkish mosques."
Acra Hill316 rose to the north of Sion, the east side facing mount Moriah, on which the temple was situated, and from which this hill was separated only by a chasm, which the Asmoneans partly filled up by lowering the summit of Acra. As we are informed by Josephus, Antiochus Epiphanes erected a fortress upon it to overawe the city and the temple; which fortress, having a Greek or Macedonian garrison, held out against the Jews till the time of Simon, who demolished it, and at the same time levelled the summit of the hill.
The east side of Mount Moriah317 bordered the valley of Kedron, commonly called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which was very deep: the south side, overlooking a very low spot, (the Tyropœon,) was faced, from top to bottom, with a strong wall, and had a bridge going across the valley for its communication with Sion. The east side looked towards Acra, the appearance of which from the temple is compared by Josephus to a theatre; and on the north side an artificial ditch, says the same historian, separated the temple from a hill named Begetha, which was afterwards joined to the town, by an extension of its area.
The loftiest, the most extensive, and in all respects the most conspicuous eminence, included within the site of the ancient city, was that of Sion, called the Holy Hill, and the citadel of David. This we have positive authority for fixing on the south of the city. David himself saith, "Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is Mount Zion; on the sides of the north the city of the great King318."
"On its summit," says La Martine, "at some hundred paces from Jerusalem, stands a mosque and a group of Turkish edifices, not unlike an European hamlet, crowned with its church and steeple. This is Sion! the palace, the tomb of David! the seat of his inspiration and of his joys, of his life and his repose! A spot doubly sacred to me, who have so often felt my heart touched, and my thoughts rapt by the sweet singer of Israel, the first poet of sentiment, the king of lyrics. Never have human fibres vibrated to harmonies so deep, so penetrating, so solemn; all the most secret murmurs of the human heart found their voice and their note on the lips and the heart of this minstrel! and if we revert to the remote period when such chants were first echoed on the earth; if we consider that at the same period the lyric poetry of the most cultivated nations sang only of wine, love, and war, and the victories of the muses, or of the coursers at the Eleian games, we dwell with profound astonishment on the mystic accents of the prophet king, who addresses God the Creator, as friend talks to friend, comprehends and adores his wonders, admires his judgments, implores his mercies, and seems to be an anticipating echo of the evangelic poetry, repeating the mild accents of Christ, before they had been heard. Prophet or poet, as he is contemplated by the philosopher or christian, neither of them can deny the poet king an inspiration, bestowed on no other man! Read Horace or Pindar after a Psalm? For my part I cannot!"
Near Jerusalem is a spot called Tophet, which is a ravine, which contains several ancient tombs, marked with Hebrew and Greek inscriptions. This valley is remarkable for the barbarous worship here paid to Moloch; to which deity parents often sacrificed their offspring by making them pass through the fire. To drown the lamentable shrieks of the children319 thus immolated, musical instruments were played. After the captivity the Jews regarded this spot with abhorrence, on account of the abominations which had been practised there; and following the example of Josiah320, they threw into it every species of filth, as well as the carcases of animals, and the dead bodies of malefactors; and to prevent the pestilence which such a mass would occasion, if left to putrefy, constant fires were maintained in the valley in order to consume the whole; hence the place received the appellation of Gehenna.
All round the hill of Sion321, and particularly on that facing the Valley of Hinnom, are numerous excavations which may have been habitations of the living, but are more generally taken for sepulchres of the dead. They are numerous and varied, both in their sizes and forms; and are supposed to have been the tombs of the sons of Heth, of the kings of Israel, of Lazarus, and of Christ.
The modern sepulchres of the unfortunate Jews are scattered all around. The declivities of Sion and Olivet are covered with small and ill-shaped stones, disposed with little order: – Here are the tombs of their fathers.
The sepulchres of the kings of Judah consist of a series of subterranean chambers, extending in different directions, so as to form a sort of labyrinth, resembling the still more wonderful example, lying westward of Alexandria, in Egypt, by some called "the Sepulchres of the Ptolemies." Each chamber contains a certain number of receptacles for dead bodies, not being much larger than our coffins. The taste, manifested in the interior of these chambers, denotes a late period in the history of the arts. The skill and neatness visible in the carving is admirable, and there is much of ornament in several parts of the work. There are, also, slabs of marble, exquisitely sculptured. These sepulchres are not those of the kings of Judah. Some suppose they may have been constructed by Agrippa, who extended and beautified this quarter of the city; but the most current opinion is, that they were the work of Helena, queen of Aliabene, and her son Izatus.