theatre, and an odéum; the last of which was superior to any in Greece,
with one exception, viz. that of Herodes Atticus at Athens. In the lower
part of the city was a temple of Bacchus, in which was an image
preserved in a chest. There was also one of Ceres, with a pleasant grove
and a prophetic fountain, which determined the events of illness. After
supplicating the goddess with incense, the sick person is said to have
appeared, living or dead, in a mirror suspended so as to touch the
surface of the water[74].
Patræ was selected by Augustus as a place in which to settle some of
those, who had fought with him at Actium. Some of the cities of Achaia
were made tributary to the Patrenses, and they continued long to
flourish after the decay of the neighbouring states.
They were rich in the monuments of art. Pausanias enumerates nineteen or
twenty temples, besides statues, altars, and marble sepulchres, existing
in his time in the city, the port, and the sacred groves.
Patras, though it has now recovered the destruction, was wholly
destroyed by the Turks in 1770. We must, however, first state, that in
1447 it made the best defence against the Turks of any place in the
Peloponnesus. In 1532 it was taken and ransacked by Doria. But of all
its distresses the last was the most terrible; this was in 1770. It had
lately been freed by the temporary success of Greek insurgents from the
yoke of the Turks; but the appearance of the Athenians, who rushed
through the passes of the isthmus to the assistance of the Mahometans,
soon decided the fate of the place. An army of ten thousand, both horse
and foot, entered the town through every avenue. It was not a contest,
but a carnage: not a Greek capable of bearing arms was spared, and the
houses were all burned to the ground[75].
In forty years, Patras recovered this calamity, and is now said to be a
flourishing place; but Mr. Dodwell describes it as being composed, like
all other Turkish cities, of dirty and narrow streets; with houses built
of earth, baked in the sun; with eaves overhanging the streets.
The few remains, which are in Patras, are of Roman construction; and
those neither grand, interesting, nor well preserved. In the castle,
however, there are said to be several beautiful forms of female statues:
and here we have to state an instance of barbarism, strikingly
illustrative of the character of the more ignorant portion of the Turks.
Some marble columns and mutilated statues having been found, a few years
ago, in the garden of a Turk, he immediately broke them to pieces!
There are several large fissures in the walls of the castle, occasioned
by an earthquake, about forty years ago; in which forty persons were
killed in the town, and thirteen crushed by the falling of one of the
turrets.
“Nothing can be,” says Mr. Hobhouse, “more pleasant than the immediate
vicinity of this town; which is one blooming garden of orange and lemon
plantations, of olive groves, and currant grounds. The temple and the
statues, the theatre, the columns and the marble porch, have
disappeared: but the valleys and the mountains, and some, not frequent,
fragments, of more value than all the costly monuments of barbaric
labour,—these still remain, and remind the traveller, that he treads
the ground once trod by the heroes and sages of antiquity. To traverse
the native country of those, whose deeds and whose wisdom have been
proposed to all the polished nations of every succeeding age, as the
models which they should endeavour to imitate, but must never hope to
equal, with no other emotions than would arise in passing through
regions never civilised, is unnatural; is impossible! No one would roam
with the same indifference through the sad solitudes of Greece, and the
savage wilds of America; nor is the expression of feelings, which it is
the object and end of all liberal education to instil and encourage, to
be derided as the unprofitable effusion of folly and affectation.”[76]
NO. XII.—PELLA.
It was a long time before the Greeks had any regard to Macedonia. The
kings, living retired in woods and mountains, it seemed not to be
considered as a part of Greece.
Pella was the capital of the kings of Macedon. There Philip lived and
reigned, and here Alexander was born. After his death the kingdom of
Macedon frequently changed masters. Philip Aridæus was succeeded by
Cassander, who left three sons. Philip, the eldest, died presently after
his father. The other two contended for the crown, without enjoying it;
both dying soon after without issue.
Demetrius Poliorcetes, Pyrrhus, and Lysimachus, made themselves masters
of all, or the greatest part of Macedonia, sometimes in conjunction, and
at other times separately.
After the death of Lysimachus, Seleucus possessed himself of Macedonia,
but did not long enjoy it.
Ptolemy Ceraunus having slain the preceding prince, seized the kingdom,
and possessed it alone but a very short time; having lost his life in a
battle with the Gauls, who had made an irruption into that country.
Sosthenes, who defeated the Gauls, reigned also but a short time.
Antigonus Gonatus, the son of Demetrius Poliorcetes, obtained peaceable
possession of the kingdom of Macedonia, and transmitted these dominions
to his descendants, after he had reigned thirty-four years.
He was succeeded by his son, Demetrius, who reigned ten years, and then
died; leaving a son, named Philip, who was but two years old.
Antigonus Doson, reigned twelve years, in the quality of guardian to the
young prince.
Philip, after the death of Antigonus, ascended the throne, at the age of
fourteen years. After him, Perseus; who was defeated and taken prisoner
by Paulus Æmilius; and Macedonia, in consequence of that victory, was
added to the provinces of the Roman empire, B. C. 160.
For this success Paulus Æmilius was honoured with a triumph; and as a
description of that ceremony will serve to diversify our pages in a very
agreeable manner, we adopt the account afforded us by Plutarch. “The
people erected scaffolds in the Forum and Circus, and all other parts of
the city where they could best behold the pomp. The spectators were clad
in white garments; all the temples were open and full of garlands and
perfumes; the ways cleared and cleansed by a great many officers and
tipstaffs, that drove away such as thronged the passage, or straggled up
and down. This triumph lasted three days. On the first, which was scarce
long enough for the sight, were to be seen the statues, pictures, and
images, of an extraordinary bigness, which were taken from the enemy,
drawn upon seven hundred and fifty chariots. On the second, was carried,
in a great many wains, the fairest and the richest armour of the
Macedonians, both of brass and steel, all newly furbished and
glittering; which, although piled up with the greatest art and order,
yet seemed to be tumbled on heaps carelessly and by chance; helmets were
thrown on shields, coats of mail upon greaves, Cretan targets, and
Thracian bucklers and quivers of arrows lay huddled among the horses’
bits; and through these appeared the points of naked swords, intermixed
with long spears. All these arms were tied together in a way, that they
knocked against one another as they were drawn along, and made a harsh
and terrible noise; so that the very spoils of the conquered could not
be beheld without dread. After these waggons loaden with armour, there
followed three thousand men, who carried the silver that was coined, in
seven hundred and fifty vessels, each of which weighed three talents,
and was carried by four men. Others brought silver bowls, and goblets,
and cups, all disposed in such order as to make the best show, and all
valuable, as well for their bigness, as the thickness of their engraved
work. On the third day, early in the morning, first came the trumpeters,
who did not sound as they were wont in a procession or solemn entry; but
such a charge as the Romans use when they encourage their soldiers to
fight. Next followed young men, girt about with girdles curiously
wrought, which led to the sacrifice of hundred and twenty stalled oxen,
with their horns gilded, and their heads adorned with ribands and
garlands; and with these were boys that carried platters of silver and
gold. After this was brought the gold coin, which was divided into
vessels that weighed three talents, like to those that contained the
silver; they were in number fourscore wanting three. These were followed
by those that brought the consecrated bowl, which Æmilius caused to be
made, that weighed ten talents, and was all beset with precious stones.
Then were exposed to view the cups of Antigonus and Seleucus, and such
as were made after the fashion invented by Thericles, and all the gold
plate that was used at Perseus’s table. Next to these came Perseus’s
chariot, in which his armour was placed, and on that his diadem. And
after a little intermission, the king’s children were led captives, and
with them a train of nurses, masters, and governors, who all wept, and
stretched forth their hands to the spectators, and taught the little
infants to beg and entreat their compassion. There were two sons and a
daughter, who, by reason of their tender age, were altogether insensible
of the greatness of their misery; which insensibility of their condition
rendered it much more deplorable; insomuch, that Perseus himself was
scarce regarded as he went along, whilst pity had fixed the eyes of the
Romans upon the infants, and many of them could not forbear tears; all
beheld the sight with a mixture of sorrow and joy, until the children
were past. After his children and their attendants, came Perseus
himself, clad all in black, and wearing slippers, after the fashion of
his country. He looked like one altogether astonished and deprived of
reason, through the greatness of his misfortunes. Next followed a great
company of his friends and familiars, whose countenances were disfigured
with grief, and who testified to all that beheld them by their tears,
and their continual looking upon Perseus, that it was his hard fortune
they so much lamented, that they were regardless of their own. After
these were carried four hundred crowns all made of gold, and sent from
the cities by their respective ambassadors to Æmilius, as a reward due
to his valour. Then he himself came seated on a chariot magnificently
adorned (a man worthy to be beheld, even without these ensigns of
power): he was clad in a garment of purple interwoven with gold, and
held out a laurel branch in his right hand. All the army, in like
manner, with boughs of laurel in their hands, and divided into bands and
companies, followed the chariot of their commander; some singing odes
(according to the usual custom) mingled with raillery; others, songs of
triumph, and the praises of Æmilius’s deeds, who was admired and
accounted happy by all men; yet unenvied by every one that was good.”
“The ancient capital of the kings of Macedon,” says Monsieur de
Pouqueville, “does not announce itself in its desolation to the eye of
the stranger, as at Athens and Corinth, by the display of the remains of
its ancient splendour. Its vestiges are found on an eminence sloping to
the south-west, and surrounded by marshes. In vain, however, does the
traveller look for the walls of the city, for the citadel, for the dykes
constructed to defend from inundation the temples, buildings, and the
monuments of its grandeur. The barbarians from the North, the Romans,
and the succession of ages, have destroyed even the ruins. The once
powerful city of Pella is now sunk down into fragments of tombs, masses
of brick and tile, and about threescore huts, inhabited by Bulgarians,
with a tower garrisoned by about a dozen Albanians. Such are the present
edifices, population, and military establishment of Pella, once the
powerful capital of Alexander and Perseus! A low Mahommedan now
commands, whip in hand, in the city where Alexander first saw the light;
and the paternal seat of that monarch, whose dominions extended from the
Adriatic to the Indus, was, some years ago, the property of Achmet, son
of Ismael, Bey of Serres[77].”
NO. XIII.—PERGAMUS.
This was a city of Great Mysia, in Asia Minor, the capital of the
kingdom of Pergamus, which was founded by a eunuch, named Philatera, who
had been a servant to Docima, a commander of the troops of Antigonus.
Pergamus was assaulted by Philip, king of Macedon, in his war against
Attalus the First, who had taken part with the Romans. All his efforts,
however, being unavailing, he turned his rage and fury against the gods;
and, not satisfied with burning their temples, he demolished statues,
broke to pieces their altars, and even pulled up the stones from their
foundations, that not the least footsteps of them might remain.
At the death of Attalus, his son Eumenes the Second succeeded; and it
was during his reign and under his inspiration,—if such an expression
may be allowed—that the celebrated library was collected[78], which
makes such a figure in literary history.
The kingdom ceased to exist at the death of Attalus the Third; since
that prince left it to the Roman people.
As this event was very important to the city as well as kingdom of
Pergamus, we may, with propriety, enter a little into the character of
the prince, who made so extraordinary a bequeathment. Historians relate,
that he was scarcely on the throne before he stained it with the blood
of his nearest relatives. He caused almost all those, who had served his
father and his uncle with extreme fidelity, to have their throats cut;
under pretence that some of them had killed his mother, who died of a
disease in a very advanced age, and others his wife, who died of an
incurable distemper. He caused the destruction also of wives, children,
and whole families. Having committed all these enormities, he appeared
no more in the city, and ate no longer in public. He put on old clothes,
let his beard grow, and did every thing which persons, accused of
capital crimes, used to do in those days; as if he intended thereby to
acknowledge the extent of his own atrocity. From hence he proceeded to
other species of folly and iniquity. He renounced the cares of state,
and retired into his garden, and applied to digging the ground himself,
and sowing all sorts of poisonous as well as wholesome herbs; then
poisoning the good with the juice of the bad, he sent them in that
manner as presents to his friends. At length he took it into his head to
practise the trade of a brass-founder; and formed the model of a
monument of brass to be erected to his mother. As he was casting the
metal for this purpose, one hot summer’s day, he was seized with a
fever, which in a few days carried him off. The principal clause in his
will was expressed in these terms:—“Let the people of Rome inherit all
my fortunes.” This will having been carried to Rome, the city and
kingdom of Pergamus, as we have already stated, passed into a Roman
province.
Pergamus gave birth to Apollodorus, the preceptor of Augustus; and
Galen, next to Hippocrates the greatest physician that ever adorned the
annals of medical science. It is also remarkable for having been alluded
to by Tiberius, in one of his hypocritical speeches to the Roman senate,
as reported in Tacitus. “I know very well,” said he, “that many men will
condemn me for suffering Asia to build me a temple, as Spain at present
would do: but I will give you a reason for what I have done, and declare
my resolution for the future. The divine Augustus, whose actions and
words are so many inviolable laws to me, having consented that the
people of _Pergamus_ should dedicate a temple to him and the city of
Rome, I thought I might follow so great an example; so much the rather,
since the honour, intended me, was joined with the veneration paid to
the senate. But as on the one hand it might have been too great a piece
of severity to have denied it for once; so on the other, doubtless, it
would be too great a vanity and folly, to suffer one’s self to be adored
as a God, through all the provinces of the empire. Besides, it cannot
but be a great diminution to the glory of Augustus, to communicate it
indifferently to all the world. For my own part, I am mortal, and
subject to human infirmities; I am contented with being a prince here,
without being raised to the throne of a God. I protest to you, I desire
this testimony may be given of me to posterity. It will be glory enough
for me to be thought worthy of my ancestors; a vigilant prince, one who
is insensible of fear, when the commonwealth is in danger. These are the
temples and monuments which I desire to erect in your breasts: for works
of marble and brass, raised to the glory of princes, are contemned by
posterity as so many naked sepulchres, when their memory is condemned. I
entreat heaven to give me a serenity of mind, and a spirit to discern
and judge uprightly of the laws of God and man; and after my decease, I
confide, my fellow-citizens and allies will preserve my memory with
their blessings and praises.”
Mr. Turner found several ancient inscriptions at Pergamus. He ascended
the ancient Acropolis, which is built on a mount of about two hundred
feet height, overhanging the town: on the top are extensive remains of
the walls both of the Roman and Venetian city. Part of the walls are
built with large fluted columns, laid length-ways. Among the Roman ruins
are several immense arched caves under ground, about sixty feet deep. At
the top of the hill lay a large Corinthian capital, and half way down
the hill a small marble column, on which is a Greek inscription, now
illegible.
In a valley west of the Acropolis are considerable remains of a large
Roman amphitheatre; near which is a gate with part of a wall. The arch
of the gate is curiously inclined, being unequal; the only instance of
such an irregularity Mr. Turner ever saw in an ancient building. There
are also ruins of several Roman baths; in one of which was found a vase,
which has excited a great deal of admiration. Mr. Turner thus describes
it:—“It is of fine marble, and in good preservation, being only a
little broken round the rim. The shape of it is a flattened globe; on
the outside round the circumference of the centre are fifteen equestrian
figures in high-relief; nine of these have their heads much broken, nine
have their arms extended; the horses are all at full speed, and a race
is probably the subject represented, as none of the figures bear arms.
Five of the figures are clinging to their horses, and one appears to be
falling. Nothing,” continues Mr. Turner, “can exceed the spirit of the
execution; the very horses seem to breathe; above and below the figures
a band, on which is engraved the pattern of a laurel leaf, surrounds the
vase: a very correct engraving of which is given in the work of
Choiseul-Gouffier. There are said to have been seven of these vases at
Pergamus; six of which were taken to Constantinople.”
There are also in the neighbourhood of Bergamo, the present ruins of
this city, six tumuli; three large and three small[79].
NO. XIV.—PERSEPOLIS.
“——I know
The wealth,” she cries, “of every urn,
In which unnumbered rubies burn,
Beneath the pillars of CHILMINAR.”
MOORE;—_Lalla Rookh_.
This city is supposed to have been founded by the famous Jemsheed, from
whom it is to this day called Tuklit-e-Jemsheed;—the throne of
Jemsheed; a prince, to whom Persian authors attribute the invention of
many useful arts[80]; and to whom they refer the first great reform in
the manners and usages of their countrymen. He, also, introduced the
solar year; and ordered the first day of it, when the sun entered Aries,
to be celebrated as a festival[81].
An old Persian author has left the following description of
Persepolis:—“Jemsheed built a fortified palace at the foot of a hill,
which bounds the fine plain of Murdasht to the north-west. The platform,
on which it was built, has three faces to the plain, and one to the
mountain. It is formed of hard, black granite. The elevation from the
plain is ninety feet; and every stone, used in this building, is from
nine to twelve feet long, and broad in proportion. There are two great
flights of stairs to this palace, so easy of ascent, that a man can ride
up on horseback; and on the platform a palace has been erected, part of
which still remains in its original state, and part is in ruins. The
palace of Jemsheed is that, now called the Chesel-Setoon, or Forty
Pillars. Each pillar is formed of a carved stone, is sixty feet high,
and is ornamented in a manner so delicate, that it would seem to rival
upon hard granite the sculpture of a carving upon the softest wood.
There is no granite like that, of which these pillars are made, to be
now found in Persia: and it is unknown from whence it is brought. Some
most beautiful and extraordinary figures ornament this palace; and all
the pillars, which once supported the roof (for that has fallen) are
composed of three pieces of stone, joined in so exquisite a manner, as
to make the beholder believe, that the whole shaft is one piece. There
are several figures of Jemsheed in the sculpture; in one he has an urn
in his hand, in which he burns benjamin, while he stands adoring the
sun; in another, he is represented as seizing the mane of a lion with
one hand, while he stabs him with another.”
The remains of this city stands in one of the finest plains of Persia;
being eighteen or nineteen leagues in length, and in some places two, in
some four, and in others six leagues in breadth. It is watered by the
great river Araxes, and by a multitude of rivers beside. Within the
compass of this plain there are between one thousand and one thousand
five hundred villages, without reckoning those in the mountains, all
adorned with pleasant gardens, and planted with trees. The entrance of
this plain, on the west side, has received as much grandeur from nature,
as the city it covered could do from industry or art.
Some authors say, that to attempt any guess of the period when the city
first rose from the plain, would be useless, and that the only means,
now remaining, of forming any satisfactory conjectures, in regard to its
origin, can only reach to the probable era of the different remaining
ruins. When in Persia, however, Mr. Francklin met with a short account
of the building this palace, in MS., being part of a work, called Rouzut
al Sefa, or the Garden of Purity; of which he gives this as a
translation:—“It is related by historians, that King Jemsheed removed
the seat of government, which was formerly in the province of Sejestaun,
to Fars; and that in the neighbourhood of Shirauz, having taken in a
spot of ground, of twelve furlongs in length (forty-eight English
miles), he there erected such a palace, that in the seven kingdoms of
the world there was nothing that could equal it. The remains of that
palace, and many of the pillars of it, are visible to this day; and he
caused the palace to be called Chehul Minar, or Forty Pillars. Moreover,
when the sun, quitting the sign Pisces in the heavens, had entered
Aries, Jemsheed, having assembled all the princes, nobles, and great men
of his empire, at the foot of his imperial throne, did on that day
institute a grand and solemn festival; and this day was henceforth
called Noo Roze, or first day of the new year (when the foundation of
Persepolis was laid), at which period he commanded, from all parts of
the empire, the attendance of the peasants, husbandmen, soldiers, and
others, in order to prosecute the design; requesting that all, with
joyful hearts and willing hands, should lend their assistance in
completing the work. This numerous assembly obeyed the command of their
monarch, and the building was finished with all signs of mirth and
festivity.”
To this account the Persians add, that Queen Homaie, who flourished
about eight hundred years after Jemsheed, added a thousand columns.