[35] Daughter of Sir James Mackintosh, and wife of Mr. Rich.
[36] Herodotus; Diodorus Siculus; Ælian; Prideaux; Rollin; Stackhouse;
Gibbon; Rees; Brewster; Kinneir; Morier; Rich.
[37] Strabo; Plutarch; Brydone; Swinburne; Jose.
[38] The computation of time by Olympiads, which began about four
hundred years after the destruction of Troy, was used until the reign of
Theodosius the Great; when a new mode of reckoning, by indictions, or
from the victory of Augustus at Actium, was introduced; the Olympic
games, in the general assembly, were abolished; and the image, made by
Phidias, was removed to Constantinople.—CHANDLER.
[39] Gen. xxxii. 24.
[40] Πᾶν κράτος.
[41] There is a fine specimen in the Townley gallery, at the British
Museum.
[42] Chandler.
[43] Chandler.
[44] Clarke; Pausanias; Plutarch; Rollin; Chandler; Barthelemy; Dodwell.
[45] “This name indicates,” says Mr. Swinburne, “that they pursued, or
wished to be thought to pursue, a line of conduct in commercial
transactions, which it would be happy for mankind, all maritime powers
would adopt.”
[46] Pholas dactylus.
[47] Eustace.
[48] Plin. xxx. c. 3.
[49] Pliny; Swinburne; Eustace; Wilkinson.
[50] The persons who visited Palmyra in 1678, found in the neighbourhood
“a garden, full of palm-trees;” but when Mr. Wood was there, not a
single one remained. “The name of Palmyra,” says Mr. Addison, “is
supposed by some to have been derived from the word Palma, indicative of
the number of palm-trees that grew here; but that name was given by the
Greeks, and, although Palma signifies palm-tree in the Latin, yet in the
Greek tongue it has a very different signification. Neither does Tadmor
signify palm-tree in the Syrian language, nor in the Arabic; nor does
Thadamoura, as the place is called by Josephus, signify palm-tree in the
Hebrew. Neither do palms thrive in Syria, as the climate is too severe
for them in the winter.”
[51] 1 Kings, ix. 18. 2 Chron. viii. 4.
[52] It is a well known and very true observation, that is made by
Ammianus Marcellinus (lib. xiv.), that the Greek and Roman names of
places never took among the natives of Syria; which is the reason why
most places retain their first and original names at this day.—WHISTON.
[53] Wood.
[54] Ch. ix. ver. 18.
[55] Ch. x. v. 14
[56] He was of mean parentage, according to Orosius. Zonaras calls him
“a man of Palmyra;” and Agathias speaks of him as a person entirely
unknown, till he made his name illustrious by his actions. Sextus Rufus,
however, calls him by an epithet implying that he was a senator.
[57] Though history nowhere gives the first name of Zenobia, we learn
from coins, that it was Septimia.
[58] She is thus described:—Her complexion was a dark brown; she had
black sparkling eyes, of uncommon fire; her countenance was divinely
sprightly; and her person graceful and genteel beyond imagination; her
teeth were white as pearls, and her voice clear and strong. If we add to
this an uncommon strength, and consider her excessive military fatigues;
for she used no carriage, generally rode, and often marched on foot
three or four miles with her army; and if we, at the same time, suppose
her haranguing her troops, which she used to do in her helmet, and often
with her arms bare, it will give us an idea of that severe character of
masculine beauty, which puts one more in mind of Minerva than of Venus.
[59] There are several meanings to this word:—Balista implying a
cross-bow, a sling, or an engine to shoot darts or stones.
[60] “Her manly understanding,” says Gibbon, “was strengthened and
adorned by study. She was not ignorant of the Latin tongue, but
possessed, in equal perfection, the Greek, the Syriac, and the Egyptian
languages. She had drawn up, for her own use, an epitome of oriental
history, and familiarly compared the beauties of Homer and Plato, under
the tuition of the sublime Longinus.”
[61] Anon.
[62] “The emperor afterwards presented Zenobia with an elegant villa at
Tibur, or Tivoli, about twenty miles from the capital; where, in happy
tranquillity, she fed the greatness of her soul with the noble images of
Homer, and the exalted precepts of Plato; supported the adversity of her
fortunes with fortitude and resignation; and learned that the anxieties,
attendant on ambition, are happily exchanged for the enjoyments of ease,
and the comforts of philosophy. The Syrian queen sank into a Roman
matron; her daughters married into noble families; and her race was not
yet extinct in the fifth century.”—GIBBON.
[63] Addison.
[64] Yet Bruce says:—“Palmyra is nowhere covered with sand or rubbish as
in other ruins. The desert that surrounds it is rather gravel than sand,
and is, therefore, not easily moved. Her mountains are perfectly bare,
and produce nothing.”
[65] This Emir lived upon rapine; being followed by a considerable
number of men, who not only hated labour, but disliked equally to live
under any settled government.
[66] Philosophical Transactions.
[67] This was the custom also in the days of Ezekiel. See ch. xxiii. 40.
[68] In Mr. Wood’s well-known, though exceedingly scarce work, the ruins
are represented in fifty-seven copper-plates, sixteen inches by twelve
inches, printed on imperial paper; they are finely executed, the drawing
is correct and masterly, and the engraving highly finished. The
Palmyrene and Greek inscriptions on the funeral monuments, and other
buildings, are copied; and besides picturesque views of the ruins, from
several points of sight, the plans are generally laid down, and the
several parts of the columns, doors, windows, pediments, ceilings and
bas-reliefs, are delineated, with a scale by which they may be measured
and compared.
[69] “In this plain,” says Mr. Halifax, “you see a large valley of salt,
affording great quantities thereof, and lying about an hour’s distance
from the city: and this, more probably, is the valley of salt, mentioned
in 2 Sam. 8-13, where David smote the Syrians, and slew one hundred and
eighty thousand men; than another, which lies but four hours from
Aleppo, and has sometimes passed for it.”
[70] “Istakar,” says Abulfeda, quoted by Sir William Ouseley, “is one of
the most ancient cities in Persia, and was formerly the royal residence:
it contains vestiges of buildings so stupendous, that, like Tadmor, and
Balbec, they are said to be the work of supernatural beings.”
[71] A city in Persia.
[72] Buckingham.
[73] Diodorus; Strabo; Josephus; Appian; Zosimus; Procopius; Benjamin of
Tudela; Halifax; Halley; Wood; Prideaux; Rollin; Gibbon; Bruce; Volney;
Brewster; Burckhardt; Addison.
[74] Chandler.
[75] Hobhouse.
[76] Pausanias; Chandler; Rees; Hobhouse; Dodwell; Williams.
[77] Plutarch; Rees; Pouqueville.
[78] This library consisted of two hundred thousand volumes.
[79] Tacitus; Plutarch; Choiseul-Gouffier; Rees; Turner.
[80] Sir John Malcolm has preserved an account of Jemsheed, from Moullab
Ackber’s MSS., which may serve to diversify our page. “Jemsheed was the
first who discovered wine. He was immoderately fond of grapes, and
desired to preserve some; which were placed in a large vessel, and
lodged in a vault for future use. When the vessel was opened, the grapes
had fermented. Their juice, in this state, was so acid, that the king
believed it must be poisonous. He had some vessels filled with it, and
poison written upon each: these were placed in his bed-room. It happened
that one of his favourite ladies was affected with nervous head-aches.
The pain distracted her so much, that she desired death; and observing a
vessel with the word poison written upon it, she took it and swallowed
its contents. The wine, for such it had become, overpowered the lady,
who fell into a sound sleep, and awoke much refreshed. Delighted with
the remedy, she repeated the dose so often, that the monarch’s poison
was all drunk. He soon discovered this, and forced the lady to confess
what she had done. A quantity of wine was made; and Jemsheed, and all
his court, drank of the new beverage, which, from the circumstance that
led to its discovery, is to this day known in Persia by the name of
zeher-e-khoosh, or the delightful poison.”
[81] It is called Nouroze. Some of the sculptures of the dilapidated
palace are supposed to represent the processions at this festival.
[82] Rollin.
[83] Kæmpfer, Hyde, Niebuhr, and St. Croix, regard the ruins as those of
a palace:—Della Valle, Chardin, D’Hancarville, and others, as those of a
temple. This is a question, however, which many writers regard as being
impossible of solution, till an alphabet shall have been discovered of
the arrow-headed inscriptions.
[84] At the distance of about five miles is a conspicuous hill, on the
top of which, and visible to the eye from Persepolis, are the remains of
a fortress. This hill is now called Istakhar, and is quite distinct from
Persepolis. Of this hill Le Brun has given a drawing; and the original
must strike every traveller the moment he enters the palace of Merdusht;
as it has all the appearance of having been much fashioned by the hand
of man.—MORIER.
[85] Civil Architecture.
[86] Fraser.
[87] In allusion to the horns of Jupiter Ammon.
[88] Diodorus; Plutarch; Arrian; Quintus Curtius; Pietro de la Valle;
Chardin; Le Brun; Francklin, Encylop. Metropol.; Rees; Brewster;
Kinneir; Morier; Porter; Malcolm; Buckingham; Ouseley; Fraser.
[89] Chambers.
[90] Periplus of the Red Sea.
[91] Harmonies of Nature.
[92] He is supposed to have been poisoned at Akaba, where he died.
[93] See Month. Mag. No. 367.
[94] Wady signifies a valley; Wady Mousa is the valley of Moses.
[95] We may here give place to a few pertinent observations, in regard
to the infancy and old age of nations, written by M. Claret
Fleurien:—“If we are not disposed to challenge all the testimonies of
antiquity, we cannot refuse to believe that the Old World has had its
infancy and its adolescence: and, observing it in its progressive
career, we may consider it as in its maturity, and foresee, in an
unlimited time, its decrepitude and its end. The New World, like the
Old, must have had its periods. America, at the epoch of its discovery,
appears as if little remote from creation, from infancy, if we consider
it in regard to the men by whom it was inhabited: the greater part of
its people were still at the point where our ancestors and those of all
the nations, at this day civilised, were four thousand years ago. Read
what travellers and historians have related to us of the inhabitants of
the New World; you will there find the man of the Old one in his
infancy: among the small scattered nations, you will fancy that you see
the first Egyptians; wild and savage men, living at random, ignorant of
the conveniences of life, even of the use of fire, and not knowing how
to form arms for defending themselves against the attack of beasts[a]:
in the Pesserais of Tierra del Fuego, the savage Greeks, living on the
leaves of trees, and, as it were, browsing on grass, before Pelasgus had
taught the Arcadians to construct huts, to clothe themselves with the
skin of animals, and to eat acorns[b]: in the greater part of the
savages of Canada, the ancient Scythians, cutting off the hair of their
vanquished enemies, and drinking their blood out of their skull[c]: in
several of the nations of the north and south, the inhabitant of the
East Indies, ignorant of culture, subsisting only on fruits, covered
with skins of beasts, and killing the old men and the infirm, who could
no longer follow in their excursions the rest of the family[d]: in
Mexico, you will recognize the Cimbri and the Scythians, burying alive
with the dead king the great officers of the crown[e]: in Peru as well
as Mexico, and even among the small nations, you will find Druids,
Vates, Eubages, mountebanks, cheating priests and credulous men[f]: on
every part of the Continent and in the neighbouring islands, you will
see the Bretons or Britons, the Picts of the Romans, and the Thracians,
men and women, painting their body and face, puncturing and making
incisions in their skin; and the latter condemning their women to till
the ground, to carry heavy burdens, and imposing on them the most
laborious employments[g]: in the forests of Canada, in the Brazils, and
elsewhere, you will find Cantabri causing their enemies whom they have
made prisoners of war to undergo torture, and singing the song of the
dead round the stake where the victim is expiring in the most frightful
torments[h]: in short, every where, America will present to you the
horrible spectacle of those human sacrifices, with which the people of
both worlds have polluted the whole surface of the globe; and several
nations of the New World, like some of those of the Old[i], will make
you shrink with horror at the sight of those execrable festivals, where
man feeds with delight on the flesh of his fellow-creature. The picture
which the New World exhibited to the men of the Old who discovered it,
therefore, offered no feature of which our history does not furnish us
with a model in the infancy of our political societies.”
[a] Diodor. Book I. Parag. 1. Art. 3.
[b] Pausanias. Book VIII. Chap. 1.
[c] Herodot. Book IV.
[d] Ibid. Book III. and IV.—Val. Max. Book II.
[e] Ibid. and Strabo.
[f] In the ancient history of Gaul, in that of the British
islands, and in all the histories of the ancient times of Europe, of the
North, of Asia, &c.
[g] Herodot. Book II.
[h] Strabo. Book II.
[i] The Irish and the Massagetæ, according to Strabo, Book
II.—The Scythians, according to Eusebius, Preparat. Evangel. Book II,
Chap. 4, and other people of the Old Continent.
[96] Diodorus; Strabo; Pliny; Vincent; Volney; Seetzen; Burckhardt; Irby
and Mangles; Laborde; Chambers; Knight.
[97] Chandler; Barthelemy; Rees; Brewster; Gell.
[98] Rollin.
[99] Dodwell.
[100] Herodotus; Rollin; Barthelemy; Rees; Brewster; Clarke; Dodwell;
Williams.
[101] By an accident this article is misplaced, which, it is hoped, the
reader will be pleased to excuse.
[102] “Biferique rosaria Pæsti.”
[103] Eustace.
[104] Ibid.
[105] Anon.
[106] Eustace.
[107] Anon.
[108] Clarke.
[109] The Doric order may be thus defined:—a column without a base,
terminated by a capital, consisting of a square abacus, with an ovolo
and annulets. An entablature, consisting of the parts,—architrave,
frieze, and cornice; the architrave plain, the frieze ornamented with
triglyphs symmetrically disposed, and a cornice with mutules. These are
sufficient to constitute a definition; and are, I believe, all that can
be asserted without exception; but some others may be added as necessary
to the beauty and perfection of the order; and which, though not
universal, are, however, general among the examples of antiquity.—AIKIN,
_on the Doric order_.
[110] Swinburne.
[111] Ibid.
[112] Forsyth.
[113] Eustace.
[114] Forsyth.
[115] Ibid.
[116] Eustace.
[117] Dupaty; Stuart; Swinburne; Eustace; Clarke; Forsyth; Williams;
Chambers; Knight; Parker; Rees; Brewster.
[118] See Herculaneum, vol. i. p. 335.
[119] Ibid.
[120] It is well known that the Romans constructed with great solidity,
and maintained with constant care, roads diverging from the capital to
the extremities of the empire. The good condition of these was thought
to be of such importance, that the charge was only entrusted to persons
of the highest dignity, and Augustus himself assumed the care of those
in the neighbourhood of Rome. The expense of their construction was
enormous, but they were built to last for ever, and to this day remain
entire and level, in many parts of the world, where they have not been
exposed to destructive violence. They usually were raised some height
above the ground which they traversed, and proceeded in as straight a
line as possible, running over hill and valley with a sovereign contempt
for all the principles of engineering. They consisted of three distinct
layers of materials; the lowest, stones mixed with cement, (_statumen_);
the middle, gravel or small stones, (_rudera_), to prepare a level and
unyielding surface to receive the upper and most important structure,
which consisted of large masses accurately fitted together. It is
curious to observe that, after many ages of imperfect paving, we have
returned to the same plan. The new pavement of Cheapside and Holborn is
based in the same way upon broken granite, instead of loose earth which
is constantly working through the interstices, and vitiating the solid
bearing which the stones should possess. A further security against its
working into holes is given by dressing each stone accurately to the
same breadth, and into the form of a wedge, like the voussoirs of an
arch, so that each tier of stones spans the street like a bridge. This
is an improvement on the Roman system: they depended for the solidity of
their construction on the size of their blocks, which were irregularly
shaped, although carefully and firmly fitted. These roads, especially in
the neighbourhood of cities, had, on both sides, raised footways
(_margines_), protected by curb-stones, which defined the extent of the
central part (_agger_) for carriages. The latter was barrelled, that no
water might lie upon it.—_Gell._
[121] Knight.
[122] Knight.
[123] Knight.
[124] Brewster.
[125] Chambers.
[126] Anon.
[127] Chambers.
[128] Chambers.
[129] Anon.
[130] Chambers.
[131] Ibid.
[132] Philip.
[133] Brewster.
[134] Anon.
[135] Parker.
[136] Chambers.
[137] Knight.
[138] Knight.
[139] Brewster.
[140] Brewster.
[141] Chambers.
[142] Blunt.
[143] Gell.
[144] Parker.
[145] Chambers.
[146] Taylor.
[147] Pliny; Dupaty; Taylor; Knight; Chambers; Parker; Encyclop.
Londinensis and Metropolitana, Rees’ and Britannica; Phillips;
Chateaubriand; Eustace; Forsyth; Blunt; Stuart; Clarke; Williams; Gell.
[148] Jeremiah xxxi. 15.
[149] Brewster; Clarke.
[150] The conquest of Greece contributed to the decay and ruin of that
very empire, by introducing into Rome, by the wealth it brought into it,
a taste and love for luxury and effeminate pleasures; for it is from the
victory over Antiochus, and the conquest of Asia, that Pliny dates the
depravity and corruption of manners in the republic of Rome, and the
fatal changes which ensued. Asia, vanquished by the Roman arms,
afterwards vanquished Rome by its vices. Foreign wealth extinguished in
that city a love for the ancient poverty and simplicity, in which its
strength and honour consisted. Luxury, that in a manner entered Rome in
triumph with the superb spoils of Asia, brought with her in her train
irregularities and crimes of every kind, made greater havoc in the city
than the mightiest armies could have done, and in that manner avenged
the conquered globe.—ROLLIN.
[151] The cicerone said to the king of Sweden, as that monarch was
looking over the ruins of the Coliseum,—“Ah, sire, what cursed Goths
those were, that tore away so many fine things here, and pulled down
such magnificent pillars, &c.”. “Hold, hold, friend,” cried the king,
“what were your Roman nobles doing, I would ask, when they laboured to
destroy an edifice like this, and build their palaces with its
materials!”
[152] Knight.
[153] “The public colossal statues of Castor and Pollux, said to be by
Phidias and Praxiteles, on Monte Cavallo,” says Mr. Williams, “are
superior to all the statues of that description which I have seen in
Italy. Both of the figures are in the act of guiding their horses, and
are remarkable for lightness and manly beauty; suggesting no idea of
huge blocks of marble, as most of the colossal statues do. The
proportions of these figures are exquisite, and from certain points
appear little inferior to the finest statues in the world. The horses,
however, are not so well proportioned. That the sculptors might give
dignity to the figures, they have made the horses comparatively small—a
liberty which will not be condemned by the judicious critic.”
[154] Parker.
[155] Knight.
[156] “After the fall of Rome,” says Vasi, “and particularly in the year
1084, when Robert Guiscard visited the city, this spot, so famous, was
despoiled of all its ornaments; and the buildings having been in great
part ruined, it has served from that time to our days as a market for
oxen and cows, whence is derived the name of _Campo Vaccino_
(cow-field), under which it was lately known. At the present day,
however, it has lost that vile denomination, and obtained again the
appellation of _Forum Romanum_.” Mr. Woods, however, says, that it was
called _Campo Vaccino_, not as being the market, but as the place where
the long-horned oxen, which have drawn the carts of the country-people
to Rome, wait till their masters are ready to go back again. Vasi is
mistaken, in saying that “this vile denomination” has been lost; it
never will be lost—it is too accurately descriptive—it tells the tale of
degradation too well, not to last as long as the Forum remains. Nor
would it be correct to call the space marked _Campo Vaccino_, in the
modern maps of Rome, by the name of _Forum Romanum_,—or _Foro Romano_,
to use the Italian form. The Campo Vaccino is a much larger space than
the existing remnant of the ancient Forum; and though it is quite
correct to call that remnant a part of the Campo Vaccino, yet to call
the Campo Vaccino the Forum Romanum, would give rise to very incorrect
notions concerning the limits and site of the ancient Forum.—Anon.
[157] Chambers.
[158] Eustace.
[159] Eustace.
[160] Kennett.
[161] Prima pares ineunt gravibus certamina remis
Quatuor ex omni delecta classe carinæ, &c.
[162] Knight.
[163] Kennet.
[164] Parker.
[165] Parker.
[166] Ibid.
[167] Forsyth.
[168] Knight.
[169] Eustace.
[170] Kennet.
[171] Parker.
[172] Parker.
[173] Knight.
[174] Kennet.
[175] Eustace.
[176] Kennet.
[177] Parker.
[178] Simond.
[179] Pope Boniface IV. dedicated it to the Virgin; and removed into it
the bones of various saints and martyrs from the different cemeteries,
enough to fill twenty-eight waggons.
[180] Parker.
[181] Parker.
[182] Kennet.
[183] Wood.
[184] Anon.
[185] Burford.
[186] The Basilicæ were very spacious and beautiful edifices, designed
chiefly for the centumviri, or the judges to sit in and hear causes, and
for the counsellors to receive clients. The bankers, too, had one part
of it allotted for their residence. Vossius has observed, that these
Basilicæ were exactly in the shape of our churches, oblong almost like a
ship; which was the reason that upon the ruin of so many of them
Christian churches were several times raised on the old foundations, and
very often a whole Basilica converted to such a pious use; and hence,
perhaps, all our great domos or cathedrals are still called Basilicæ.
[187] Burford.
[188] Kennet.
[189] Some give the dimensions thus:—Greatest length six hundred and
twenty-one feet; greatest breadth five hundred and thirteen; outer wall
one hundred and fifty-seven feet high in its whole extent.
[190] Forsyth.
[191] Ibid.
[192] Bede.
[193] Brewster.
[194] Except that of the Jews.
[195] Livy; Cicero; Dionysius of Halicarnassus; Seneca; Pliny; Tacitus;
Dion Cassius; Poggio Bracciolini; Rollin; Taylor; Kennet; Hooke; Gibbon;
Middleton; Dupaty; Vasi; Chateaubriand; Wraxall; Wood; Forsyth; Eustace;
Gell; Encylop. Metropolitana, Brewster, Rees, Britannica, Londinensis;
Parker (Sat. Magazine); Knight (Penny Magazine); Burford; Hobhouse;
Simond; Rome in the Nineteenth Century; Williams; Mathews; Burton.
[196] Ardea was a city of Latium. Some soldiers having set it on fire,
the inhabitants propagated a report that their town had been changed
into a bird! It was rebuilt, and became a very rich and magnificent
town, whose enmity to Rome rendered it famous. Tarquin was besieging
this city when his son dishonoured Lucretia.
[197] Some suppose that he then gave it the name of Spargetone.
[198] Polybius; Livy; Pliny; Rollin; Kennett; Jose.