heralds into Greece, demanding earth and water. He did not, however,
send either to Athens or Lacedæmon. His motive for enforcing his demand
to the other cities, was the expectation that they, who had before
refused earth and water to Darius, would, from the alarm at his
approach, send it now. In this, however, he was for the most part
mistaken. Xerxes wintered at this city.
Alexander having conquered the Persians at the battle of the Granicus,
marched towards Sardis. It was the bulwark of the Persian empire on the
side next the sea. The citizens surrendered; and, as a reward for so
doing, the king gave them their liberties, and permitted them to live
under their own laws. He gave orders, also, to the Sardians to erect a
temple to Olympian Jove.
After the death of Alexander, Seleucus, carrying on a war with
Lysimachus, took possession of Sardis, B. C. 283. In 214 B. C. Antiochus
the Great made himself master of the citadel and city. He kept
possession of it twenty-five years, and it became his favourite place of
retreat after having lost the battle of Magnesia. His taking it is thus
described by Polybius:—“An officer had observed, that vultures and
birds of prey gathered round the rock on which the citadel was placed,
about the offals and dead bodies, thrown into a hollow by the besieged;
and inferred that the wall standing on the edge of the precipice was
neglected, as secure from attack. He scaled it with a resolute party,
while Antiochus called off the attention both of his own army and of the
enemy by a feint, marching as if he intended to attack the Persian gate.
Two thousand soldiers rushed in at the gate opened for them, and took
their post at the theatre, when the town was plundered and burned.”
Attalus Philomater, one of the descendants of the Antiochus just
mentioned, bequeathed Sardis, with all his other possessions, to the
Roman people; and, three years after his death, it was in consequence
reduced to a Roman province.
Under the reign of Tiberius, Sardis was a very large city; but it was
almost wholly destroyed by an earthquake. The emperor, however, had
sufficient public virtue to order it to be rebuilt, and at a very great
expense. In this patronage of Sardis, he was imitated by Hadrian, who
was so great a benefactor, that he obtained the name of Neocorus. The
patron god was Jupiter, who was called by a name synonymous with
protector.
Sardis was one of the first towns that embraced the Christian religion,
having been converted by St. John; and some have thought that its first
bishop was Clement, the disciple of St. Paul.
In the time of Julian great efforts were made to restore the Pagan
worship, by erecting temporary altars at Sardis, where none had been
left, and repairing those temples of which vestiges remained.
A. D. 400, the city was plundered by the Goths, under Tribigildus and
Cairanas, officers in the Roman pay, who had revolted from the emperor
Arcadius.
A. D. 1304, the Turks, on an insurrection of the Tartars, were permitted
to occupy a portion of the Acropolis; but the Sardians, on the same
night, murdered them in their sleep.
The town is now called Sart or Serte. When Dr. Chandler visited it in
1774, he found the site of it “green and flowery.” Coming from the east,
he found on his left the ground-work of a theatre; of which still
remained some pieces of the vault, which supported the seats, and
completed the semicircle.
Going on, he passed remnants of massy buildings; marble piers sustaining
heavy fragments of arches of brick, and more indistinct ruins. These are
in the plain before the hill of the Acropolis. On the right hand, near
the road, was a portion of a large edifice, with a heap of ponderous
materials before and behind it. The walls also are standing of two
large, long, and lofty rooms, with a space between them, as of a
passage. This remnant, according to M. Peysonell, was the house of
Crœsus, once appropriated by the Sardians as a place of retirement for
superannuated citizens. The walls in this ruin have double arches
beneath, and consist chiefly of brick, with layers of stone: it is
called the Gerusia. The bricks are exceedingly fine and good, of various
sizes, some flat and broad. “We employed,” continues Dr. Chandler, “a
man to procure one entire, but the cement proved so very hard and
tenacious, it was next to impossible. Both Crœsus and Mausolus, neither
of whom could be accused of parsimony, had used this material in the
walls of their palaces. It was insensible of decay; and it is asserted,
if the walls were erected true to their perpendicular, would, without
violence, last for ever.”
Our traveller was then led toward the mountain; when, on a turning of
the road, he was struck with the view of a ruin of a temple, in a
retired situation beyond the Pactolus, and between Mount Tmolus and the
hill of the Acropolis. Five columns were standing, one without the
capital, and one with the capital awry, to the south. The architrave was
of two stones. A piece remains of one column, to the southward; the
other part, with the column which contributed to its support, has fallen
since the year 1699. One capital was then distorted, as was imagined, by
an earthquake; and over the entrance of the Naos was a vast stone, which
occasioned wonder by what art or power it could be raised. That
magnificent portal has since been destroyed; and in the heap lies that
huge and ponderous marble. The soil has accumulated round the ruin; and
the bases, with a moiety of each column, are concealed. This, in the
opinion of Dr. Chandler, is probably the Temple of Cybele; and which was
damaged in the conflagration of Sardis by the Milesians. It was of the
Ionic order, and had eight columns in front. The shafts are fluted, and
the capitals designed with exquisite taste and skill. “It is
impossible,” continues our traveller, “to behold without deep regret,
this imperfect remnant of so beautiful and so glorious an edifice!”
In allusion to this, Wheler, who visited Sart towards the latter part of
the seventeenth century, says:—“Now see how it fareth with this
miserable church, marked out by God; who, being reduced to a very
inconsiderable number, live by the sweat of their brows in digging and
planting the gardens of the Turks they live amongst and serve; having
neither church nor priest among them. Nor are the Turks themselves there
very considerable, either for number or riches; being only herdsmen to
cattle feeding on those spacious plains; dwelling in a few pitiful
earthen huts; having one mosque, perverted to that use from a Christian
church. Thus is that once glorious city of the rich king Crœsus now
reduced to a nest of worse than beggars. Their Pactolus hath long since
ceased to yield them gold,[208] and the treasures to recover them their
dying glories. Yet there are some remains of noble structures,
remembrances of their prosperous state, long since destroyed. For there
are the remains of an old castle, of a great church, palaces, and other
proud buildings, humbled to the earth.”
Several inscriptions have been found here; and, amongst these, one
recording the good will of the council and senate of Sardis towards the
emperor Antoninus Pius. Medals, too, have been found; amongst which,
two very rare ones; viz. one of the Empress Tranquillina, and another of
Caracalla, with an urn on the reverse, containing a branch of olives;
under which is an inscription, which translated, is, “_The sport
Chysanthina of the Sardians twice Nercorus_.” Another, stamped by the
common assembly of Asia there, in honour of Drusus and Germanicus. Also
one with the Emperor Commodus, seated in the midst of a zodiac, with
celestial signs engraved on it: on the reverse, “_Sardis, the first
metropolis of Asia, Greece, Lydia_.”[209]
NO. XXVII.—SELEUCIA.
There were no less than thirteen cities, which were called Seleucia, and
which received their name from Seleucus Nicanor. These were situated in
Syria, in Cilicia, and near the Euphrates.
“It must be acknowledged,” says Dr. Prideaux, “that there is mention
made of Babylon, as of a city standing long after the time I have placed
its dissolution, as in Lucan[210], Philostratus[211], and others. But in
all those authors, and wherever also we find Babylon mentioned as a city
in being, after the time of Seleucus Nicanor, it must be understood, not
of old Babylon, on the Euphrates, but of Seleucia, on the Tigris. For as
that succeeded to the dignity and grandeur of old Babylon, so also did
it in its name.”
“Since the days of Alexander,” says Sir R. Porter, “we find four
capitals, at least, built out of the remains of Babylon; Seleucia by the
Greeks; Ctesiphon by the Parthians; Al Maidan by the Persians; Kufa by
the Caliphs; with towns, villages, and caravanserais, without number.
That the fragments of one city should travel so far, to build or repair
the breaches of another, appeared, on the first view of the subject, to
be unlikely to myself; but, on traversing the country between the
approximating shores of the two rivers, and observing all the facilities
of water-carriage from one side to the other, I could no longer be
incredulous of what had been told me; particularly when scarce a day
passed without my seeing people digging the mounds of Babylon for
bricks, which they carried to the verge of the Euphrates, and thence
conveyed in boats to wherever they might be wanted.”
Seleucus built many cities; of which far the greater part was raised
from superstitious motives; many were peopled from the ruins of places
in their neighbourhood, whose sites were equally convenient; and only a
very few were erected in conformity with those great military and
commercial views, by which, in this particular, his master (Alexander)
had uniformly been guided. He named nine after himself; and four in
honour of four of his wives; three Apameas; and one Stratonice; in all
thirty-five. Sixteen were named Antioch; five Laodicea, after his
mother. Many foundations were laid of other cities. Some, after
favourite scenes in Greece or Macedon; some in memory of glorious
exploits; and not a few after his master Alexander.
This Seleucia was built of the ruins of Babylon; and Pliny, the
naturalist, gives the following account:—“Seleucia was built by
Seleucus Nicanor, forty miles from Babylon, at a point of the confluence
of the Euphrates with the Tigris, by a canal. There were 600,000
citizens here at one time; and all the commerce and wealth of Babylon
had flowed into it. The territory in which it stood was called
Babylonia; but it was itself a free state, and the people lived after
the laws and manners of the Macedonians. The form of the walls
resembled an eagle spreading her wings.”
In a country, destitute of wood and stone, whose edifices were hastily
erected with bricks baked in the sun, and cemented with the native
bitumen, Seleucia speedily eclipsed the ancient capital of the East.
Many ages after the fall of the Macedonian empire, Seleucia retained the
genuine character of a Greek colony; arts, military virtue, and a love
of freedom: and while the republic remained independent, it was governed
by a senate consisting of three hundred nobles. The walls were strong;
and as long as concord prevailed among the several orders of the state,
the power of the Parthians was regarded with indifference, if not with
contempt. The madness of faction, however, was sometimes so great, that
the common enemy was occasionally implored; and the Parthians[212] were,
in consequence, beheld at the gates, to assist sometimes one party, and
sometimes the other. Ctesiphon was then but a village[213], on the
opposite side of the Tigris, in which the Parthian kings were
accustomed to reside during the winter, on account of the mildness of
the climate. The summer they passed at Ecbatana.
Trajan left Rome A. D. 112, and after subduing several cities in the
East, laid siege to Seleucia and Ctesiphon. Chosroes, the king, being
absent quelling a revolt in some part of his more eastern dominions,
these cities soon surrendered to the Roman hero, and all the
neighbouring country. “The degenerate Parthians,” says the Roman
historian, “broken by internal discord, fled before his arms. He
descended the Tigris in triumph from the mountains of Armenia to the
Persian gulf. He enjoyed the honour of being the first, as he was the
last, of the Roman generals who ever navigated that remote sea.” At his
death, which occurred soon after his return to Rome, most of the cities
of Asia, that he had conquered, threw off the Roman yoke; and among
these were Seleucia and Ctesiphon.
Under the reign of Marcus, A. D. 165, the Roman generals penetrated as
far as these celebrated cities. They were received as friends by the
Greek colony; they attacked, as enemies, the seat of the Parthian kings;
and yet both experienced the same treatment. Seleucia was sacked by the
friends they had invited—though it has been alleged in their favour,
that the citizens of Seleucia had first violated their faith.
More than 300,000 of the inhabitants were put to the sword; and the city
itself nearly destroyed by conflagration.
Seleucia never recovered this blow: but Ctesiphon, in about thirty-three
years, had sufficiently recovered its strength to maintain an obstinate
siege against the emperor Severus. It was at last, nevertheless, taken
by assault; and the king, who defended it in person, escaped with
precipitation. The Romans netted a rich booty, and took captive 100,000
persons[214].
“Below Bagdad,” says a celebrated French writer, on geography,
(Malte-Brun), “the ruins of Al-Modain, or the two cities, have attracted
the attention of every traveller. One of them is unquestionably the
ancient Ctesiphon; but the other, which lies on the western bank of the
Tigris, is not Seleucia, as all the travellers affirm[215]: it is
Kochos, a fortress situated opposite to Seleucia, and which, according
to the positive testimony of Arrian and Gregory of Nazianzus, was
different from Seleucia[216].” In this account Malte-Brun appears to us
to be exceedingly mistaken[217].
* * * * *
Of the ruins of SELEUCIA, near ANTIOCH, Mr. Robinson speaks
thus:—“Being desirous of visiting the ruins of the ancient Seleucia
Pieriæ, I rode over to the village of Kepse, occupying the site of the
ancient city. We were apprised of our approach to it, by seeing a number
of sepulchral grots excavated in the rock by the road-side, at present
tenanted by shepherds and their flocks. Some were arched like those I
had seen at Delphi; others were larger, with apartments, one within the
other. We entered the inclosure of the ancient city by the gate at the
south-east side; probably the one that led to Antioch. It is defended by
round towers, at present in ruins. Of the magnificent temples and
buildings mentioned by Polybius, some remains of pillars are alone
standing to gratify the curiosity of the antiquarian traveller. But
recollecting, as I sat alone on a stone seat at the jetty head, that it
was from hence Paul and Barnabas, the harbingers of Christianity to the
West, when sent forth from the church at Antioch, embarked for Cyprus;
the place all at once assumed an interest that heathen relics were
little calculated to inspire. It came opportunely, also, for I felt
particularly depressed at the sight of a large maritime city, once
echoing with the voices of thousands, now without an inhabitant; a port
formerly containing rich laden galleys, at present choked up with reeds;
and finally, a quay, on which for centuries anxious mariners paced up
and down throughout the day, at this moment without a living creature
moving on its weather-beaten surface but myself.”
NO. XXVIII.—SELINUS, OR SELINUNTUM.
This city was founded A. U. C. 127, by a colony from Megara. It received
its name from a Greek word meaning parsley, which grew there in great
profusion; and its ancient consequence may be learned from the ruins now
remaining. It was destroyed by Hannibal. The conduct of the war having
been committed to that general, he set sail with a very large fleet and
army. He landed at a place called the Well of Lilybæum, which gave its
name to a city afterwards built on the same spot.
His first enterprise was the siege of Selinuntum. The attack and defence
were equally vigorous; the very women showing a resolution and bravery
beyond their sex. The city, after making a long resistance, was taken by
storm, and the plunder of it abandoned to the soldiers. The victor
exercised the most horrid cruelties, without showing the least regard to
age or sex. He permitted, however, such inhabitants as had fled to
continue in the city after it had been dismantled, and to till the
lands, on condition of their paying a tribute to the Carthaginians. The
city had then been built 242 years. It became afterwards an important
place; but from the manner in which the columns and other fragments of
three stupendous temples lie, it is quite evident they must have been
thrown down by an earthquake; but the date of that calamity is not
known.
The ruins of Selinus are thus described by Mr. Swinburne:—“They lie in
several stupendous heaps, with many columns still erect, and at a
distance resemble a large town with a crowd of steeples. On the top of
the hill is a very extensive level, seven miles off, on which lie the
scattered members of three Doric temples, thirty yards asunder, in a
direct line from north to south. The most northerly temple, which was
pseudodipterous, exceeded the others very much in dimensions and
majesty, and now composes one of the most gigantic and sublime ruins
imaginable. They all lie in great confusion and disorder.
“The second temple is easily described. It had six columns in the front,
and eleven on each side; in all thirty-four. Their diameter is five
feet; they were all fluted; and most of them now remain standing as high
as the second course of stones. The pillars of the third temple were
also fluted, and have fallen down so very entire, that the five pieces
which composed them lie almost close to each other, in the order they
were placed in when upright. These temples are all of the Doric order,
without a base.
“The two lesser ones are more delicate in their parts and ornaments than
the principal ruins; the stone of which they are composed is smooth and
yellowish, and brought from the quarries of Castel-Franco. There are
other ruins and broken columns dispersed over the site of the city, but
none equal to these.” Such is the account given by Mr. Swinburne; what
follows first appeared in the Penny Magazine.
On the southern coast of Sicily, about ten miles to the east of Cape
Granitola, and between the little rivers of Maduini and Bilici, (the
Crimisus and Hypsa of ancient times,) a tremendous mass of ruins
presents itself in the midst of a solitary and desolate country. These
are the sad remains of the once splendid city of Selinus, or Selinuntum,
which was founded by a Greek colony from Megara, more than two thousand
four hundred years ago. When seen at a distance from the sea, they still
look like a mighty city; but on a near approach nothing is seen but a
confused heap of fallen edifices—a mixture of broken shafts, capitals,
entablatures, and metopæ, with a few truncated columns erect among them.
They seem to consist chiefly of the remains of three temples of the
Doric order. One of these temples was naturally devoted by a maritime
and trading people to Neptune; a second was dedicated to Castor and
Pollux, the friends of navigation and the scourge of pirates; the
destination of the third temple is uncertain.
The size of the columns and the masses of stone that lie heaped about
them is prodigious. The lower circumference of the columns is thirty-one
feet and a half; many of the stone blocks measure twenty-five feet in
length, eight in height, and six in thickness. Twelve of the columns
have fallen with singular regularity, the disjointed shaft-pieces of
each lying in a straight line with the base from which they fell, and
having their several capitals at the other end of the line. If
architects and antiquaries have not been mistaken in their task of
measuring among heaps of ruins that in good part cover and conceal the
exterior lines, the largest of the three temples was three hundred and
thirty-four feet long, and one hundred and fifty-four feet wide.
These are prodigious and unusual dimensions for ancient edifices of this
kind. That wonder of the whole world, the Temple of Diana at Ephesus,
itself did not much exceed these admeasurements. The great Selinuntian
temple seems to have had porticoes of four columns in depth, and eight
in width, with a double row of sixteen columns on the lateral sides of
the cella. It is somewhat singular, from having had all the columns of
the first row on the east front fluted, while all the rest of the
columns were quite plain. One of these fluted columns is erect and
tolerably entire, with the exception of its capital. The fluting,
moreover, is not in the Doric style; for each flute is separated by a
fillet. The material of which this and the other edifices were formed,
is a species of fine-grained petrifaction, hard, and very sonorous on
being struck with a hammer. It was hewn out of quarries near at hand, at
a place called Campo Bello, where many masses, only partially separated
from the rock, and looking as if the excavation had been suddenly
interrupted, are still seen.
A flight of ancient steps, in tolerable preservation, leads from the
Marinella to the Acropolis, where the covert-ways, gates, and walls,
built of large squared stones, may still be traced all round the hill. A
little to the west of the Acropolis is the small pestiferous lake,
Yhalici, partly choked up with sand. In ancient times this was called
_Stagnum Gonusa_, and it is said the great philosopher Empedocles
purified it and made the air around it wholesome, by clearing a mouth
towards the sea, and conveying a good stream of water through it. The
Fountain of Diana, at a short distance, which supplied this stream,
still pours forth a copious volume of excellent water; but it is allowed
to run and stagnate over the plain, and now adds to the _malaria_
created by the stagnant lake. The surrounding country is wholly
uncultivated, and, where not a morass, is covered with underwood, dwarf
palms, and myrtle-bushes of a prodigious growth.
For six months in the year, Selinunte is a most unhealthy place; and
though the stranger may visit it by day-time without much danger of
catching the infection, it seems scarcely possible to sleep there in
summer and escape the malaria fever in one of its worst forms. Of four
English artists who tried the experiment in 1822, not one escaped; and
Mr. Harris, a young architect of great promise, died in Sicily from the
consequences. These gentlemen made a discovery of some importance. They
dug up near one of the temples some sculptured metopæ with figures in
rilievo, of a singular primitive style, which seems to have more
affinity with the Egyptian or the Etruscan, than with the Greek style of
a later age. There are probably few Greek fragments of so ancient a date
in so perfect a state of preservation.