only contemned by his subjects, in the beginning of his reign. He was
not insensible of this; but nevertheless thought it his interest to
subdue their tempers by an artful carriage, and win their affection by
gentleness and reason. He had a golden cistern in which himself, and
those persons who were admitted to his table, used to wash their feet:
he melted it down, and had it cast into a statue, and then exposed the
new god to public worship. The people hastened in crowds to pay their
adoration to the statue. The king, having assembled the people, informed
them of the vile uses to which this statue had once been put, which
nevertheless had now their religious prostrations. The application was
easy, and had the desired success; the people thenceforward paid the
king all the respect that is due to majesty.
He always used to devote the whole morning to public affairs, in order
to receive petitions, give audience, pronounce sentence, and hold his
councils: the rest of the day was given to pleasure; and as _Amasis_, in
hours of diversion, was extremely gay, and seemed to carry his mirth
beyond due bounds, his courtiers took the liberty to represent to him
the unsuitableness of such a behaviour; when he answered, that it was as
impossible for the mind to be always serious and intent upon business,
as for a bow to continue always bent.
It was this king who obliged the inhabitants of every town to enter
their names in a book, kept by the magistrate for that purpose, with
their professions, and manner of living. Solon inserted this custom
among his laws.
[200] Now in the vestibule of the university library at Cambridge.
[201] Herodotus; Apollonius Rhodius; Rollin; Egmont and Heyman; Clarke.
[202] II. Chronicles, ch. xi.
[203] Rees; Malte-Brun; Browne.
[204] Σεβαστός, in Greek, signifies Augustus.
[205] Clarke; La Martine.
[206] Chap. iii. 1-4.
[207] Phalaris.
[208] The Pactolus flowed through the centre of the Forum at Sardis, and
brought, in its descent from Tmolus, a quantity of gold dust. Hence the
vast riches of Crœsus. It ceased to do this in the age of Augustus.
[209] Herodotus; Pindar; Polyænus; Plutarch; Arrian; Quintus Curtius;
Rollin; Wheler; Chandler; Peysonell.
[210] Lib. i. v. 10.
[211] Lib. i. c. 17, 18, 19.
[212] Most authors agree that the Parthians were Scythians by origin,
who made an invasion on the more southern provinces of Asia, and at last
fixed their residence near Hyrcania. They remained long unnoticed, and
even unknown, and became successively tributary to the empire of the
Assyrians, then of the Medes, and thirdly, of Persia.
When Alexander invaded Persia, the Parthians submitted to his authority,
like other cities of Asia. After his death, they fell successively under
the power of Eumenes, Antigonus, Seleucus Nicanor, and Antiochus. At
length, in consequence of the rapacity of Antiochus’s lieutenant, whose
name was Agathocles, Arsaces, a man of great military powers, raised a
revolt, and subsequently founded the Parthian empire, about two hundred
and fifty years before the Christian era. Arsaces’ successors were
called, after him, the Arsacidæ.
[213] For the precise situation of Seleucia, Ctesiphon, Modain, and
Bagdad, cities often confounded with each other, see an excellent
geographical map of M. d’Anville, in Mém. de l’Académie, tom. xxx.
[214] Dion, l. lxxv. p. 1263; Herodian, 1. iii. 120; Gibbon, vol. i.
335.
[215] Pietro della Valle, Olivier, Otter, &c.
[216] Pliny; Prideaux; Gibbon; Gillies; Rees; Brewster; Malte-Brun;
Porter; Robinson.
[217] Vid. Mannert, Géographie des Grecs et des Romains, t. v. p. i. p.
397, 403, &c.
[218] The following observations are by the same hand. They may be taken
as a supplement to our article entitled ÆGINA:—“In the Phigalian room of
the British Museum, against the southern wall, a pediment has recently
been erected, corresponding with that opposite, which contains eleven of
the casts from the Ægina statues. On this are placed five more, which
were brought from the ruins of the same temple of Jupiter Panhelleneus,
in the island of Ægina. These five statues were all that were found
belonging to the eastern front sufficiently in a state of preservation
to assure of their original destination and design; and it is the more
to be lamented, as that was the principal façade of the edifice, and
contained the great entrance into the soros of the temple. This front
was by far the most magnificent in its decorations; the esplanade before
it extending one hundred, while that of the western was but fifty feet;
the statues also on this tympanum were more numerous, there being
originally on this fourteen figures, and but eleven on the other; they
are also both in style and sculpture far superior, and appear as the
work of the master, the others, in comparison, as those of the scholars.
The superiority of conception and manner is apparent, the forms are more
muscular and robust, the veins and muscles more displayed, an imitation
of a maturer nature. At the first opening of the ruins twenty-five
statues were discovered, besides the four female figures belonging to
the Acroteria. To the artist the canon of proportion and the system of
anatomical expression observable throughout the whole may be regarded as
the models whence was derived that still bolder style of conception
which afterwards distinguished the sculptors and made the perfection of
the Athenian school; what the works of Ghulandia were to Raphael, these
were to Phidias. The surprise of the common observer may be excited when
he contemplates these figures, however disadvantageous the circumstances
under which he views them. Perhaps he cannot call to mind in the capital
of his country, however civilisation and the arts may have advanced, any
sculptures of the nineteenth century which appear equally imposing; the
more so, when he reflects that the history of their origin is buried in
the darkness of two thousand four hundred years. Long after this period
Lysippus held as a principal of the ideal which has in later times been
too generally followed, to make men as they seem to be, not as they
really are. In this group there is not, as seen in the opposite one, any
figure immediately under the centre of the tympanum; that of Minerva,
which was found, and which, no doubt, had occupied it, being thought too
much broken to be placed. The one nearest is the figure of a warrior,
who appears as having fallen wounded to the ground. He is supporting
himself on the right arm, endeavouring to rise. The hand no doubt held a
sword, as the rivets of bronze still remaining indicate. On the left arm
is a shield held close to the body, the hand enclasping the τελαμών,
or holder. The countenance, contrary to the one in a similar position on
the opposite pediment, seems calmly to regard, and to mark the moment to
resist with any chance of success an advancing adversary, who is rushing
forward to seize his spoils. Whether this statue is rightly placed we
think will admit of doubt. The figure rushing forward could not have
inflicted the wound by which he has been disabled, and it seems more
probable that an arrow, which an archer at the extreme of the pediment
has just discharged, has been the cause of his wound, and that it
should, instead of being on the ground, have been placed as if in the
act of falling. In the attitude of the attacking warrior, a desire is
shown to give the greatest interest to the action; the position of the
right leg seems calculated to give movement to the figure as seen from
below; behind the fallen an unarmed figure is stooping forward,
apparently to raise him; but this statue would seem rather to belong to
the other pediment, where a hollow is found in the pedestal on which the
Goddess Minerva stands, which appears to have been made to allow room
for its advance. Among the statues found, but broken, was one which
stood nearly over the body of the wounded hero, to defend him against
the advancing enemy before mentioned. Near the archer is another
combatant on the ground; the countenance of this figure is aged, the
beard most minutely sculptured; it is of a square form, and descends to
the breast; on the lip are long mustachios. It is by far the most aged
of either group, and appears to be a chief of consequence; he is raising
himself on his shield; the expression of the face is very fine, it has a
smile on it, though evidently in pain. The archer is a Phrygian, and his
body is protected by leathern armour; as he has no shield allowed, he is
holding the bow, which is small and of the Indian shape, in the left
hand, with the arm outstretched; the bow-string has been drawn to the
ear, the arrow seems just to have sped, and the exultation of the
countenance shows it has taken effect. Three of these figures have that
sort of helmet which defends the face by a guard descending over the
nose, and the back by the length of the λόφος, or crest, or horsehair,
_crista_; the shields are massy and large, they are the Argive ἀσπὶς
ἔγκυκλος, circular shields, and the handles are nicely framed. The
inside of all of them were painted in red colour, and within a circle of
the exterior a blue colour was seen, on which was pictured, without
doubt, the symbol adopted by the hero; for on a fragment of one of those
belonging to this front was in relief a part of a female figure. The
remaining figures belonging to this tympanum, the fragments of which
were found, were principally archers.
“Those statues offer the only illustration now extant of the armour of
the heroic ages. The bodies of all the figures of this pediment, with
the exception of the archer who is encased in leathern armour, are
uncovered. The great minuteness of execution in the details corresponds
with the exactness which Æschylus, Homer, and the earlier writers of the
heroic age have preserved in their descriptions; in the whole of these
statues this is observable in every tie and fastening. It would appear
that the whole had undergone the strictest scrutiny; as, in each, those
parts which, from their position on the building, could not have been
seen, are found equally exact: in every particular they are the same as
those which are traced on the vases of the most Archaic style, where
they are delineated in black on a red ground, as is seen in the Museum
collection. The two female figures on the apex of the pediment are
clothed; the drapery falls in thick folds around the figure; in their
hands they hold the pomegranate flower; the feet are on a small plinth;
they are the Ἐλπίς of the Greeks, the Goddess of Hope, so well known in
museums and on coins, and their situation here is peculiarly
appropriate, as presiding over an undecided combat. It does not appear
that any of the figures on either pediment had any support to fix them
in position but the cornice where they came in contact with it; they
must all have been easily removable; and perhaps it may not be
unreasonable to suppose, that on particular festivals they were so
disposed as to represent the actions then in celebration, to recall to
the imagination of the votaries the reason for those sacrifices then
offered to the god who presided over the temple. This would account why
almost all the celebrated groups of antiquity, which have decorated the
façades of their sacred edifices, among which may be reckoned those of
the Parthenon, the Sicilian Adrimetum, and the Ægina, are so completely
finished, and shows how what would otherwise seem a waste both of talent
and labour, was brought to account.”
[219] Livy; Rollin; Swinburne; Parker; Knight; Hamilton.
[220] Dodwell.
[221] Clarke.
[222] A stadium was a place in the form of a circus, for the running of
men and horses.
[223] Williams.
[224] Pausanias; Barthelemy; Rollin; Wheler; Clarke; Dodwell; Williams;
Byron.
[225] Gen. x. ver. 15.
[226] Gen. xlix. ver. 13.
[227] Drummond’s Origines, vol. iii. p. 97. Homer makes the Phœnician
woman speak, of whom mention is made in the Odyssey b. xv.—“_I glory to
be of Sidon abounding in brass, and am the daughter of the wealthy
Arybas._”
[228] Zidon-rabbah: ch. xi. v. 8.
[229] “Neither did Ashur drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the
inhabitants of Zidon.”—Judges i. 31.
[230] “Now, therefore, command thou that they hew me cedar trees out of
Lebanon; and my servants shall be with thy servants; and unto thee I
will give hire for thy servants, according to all that they shall
appoint; for thou knowest that there is not amongst us any that has
skill to hew timber like unto the Sidonians.”—1 Kings, ch. x. v. 6.
[231] Dictys Cretensis acquaints us that Paris returned not directly to
Troy after the rape of Helen, but fetched a compass, probably to avoid
pursuit. He touched at Sidon, where he surprised the king of Phœnicia by
night, and carried off many of his treasures and captives, among which
probably were these Sidonian women.—POPE.
[232] “The common voyce and fame runneth, that there arrived certain
merchants, in a ship laden with nitre, in the mouth of the river; and
beeing landed, minded to seath their victuals upon the shore, and the
very sands: but that they wanted other stones, to serve as trivets, to
beare up their pans and cauldrons over the fire, they made shift with
certaine pieces of sal-nitre out of the ship, to support the said pans,
and so made fire underneath; which being once afire among the sand and
gravell of the shore, they might perceive a certaine cleare liquor run
from under the fire, in very streams, and hereupon they say came the
first invention of making glass.”—_Philemon Howard, Pliny_, xxxvi. c.
26.
[233] Book viii. ch. 8.
[234] Chap. xxviii. ver. 20, 21, &c.
[235] Vol. I. b. 4, c. 1.
[236] During the Crusades, Sidon fell into the hands of the Christians.
They lost it A. D. 1111. In 1250 it was recovered by the Saracens; but in
1289 they were compelled to surrender it again to the Christians.
[237] In the sixteenth century.
[238] Herodotus; Diodorus; Pliny; Plutarch; Arrian; Quintus Curtius;
Justin; Prideaux; Rollin; Stackhouse; Volney; Drummond; Buckingham;
Robinson.
[239] A very ancient basso-rilievo, among the antiquities at Wilton
House, brought from _Smyrna_, represents Mantheus, the son of Æthus,
giving thanks to Jupiter, for his son’s being victor in the five
exercises of the Olympic games; wherein is shown, by an inscription of
the oldest Greek letters, the ancient Greek way of writing that was in
use six hundred years before our Saviour.
[240] Pausanias; Arrian; Quintus Curtius; Wheler; Pococke; Chandler;
Barthelemy; Hobhouse; La Martine.
[241] The valour of Diocletian was never found inadequate to his duty or
to the occasion; but he appears not to have possessed the daring and
generous spirit of a hero, who courts danger and fame, disdains
artifice, and boldly challenges the allegiance of his equals. His
abilities were useful rather than splendid; a vigorous mind, improved by
the experience and study of mankind; dexterity and application in
business; a judicious mixture of liberality and economy; steadiness to
pursue his ends; flexibility to vary his means; and, above all, the
great art of submitting his own passions, as well as those of others, to
the interest of his ambition, and of colouring his ambition with the
most specious pretences of justice and public utility. Like Augustus,
Diocletian may be considered as the founder of a new empire; like the
adopted son of Cæsar, he was distinguished as a statesman rather than a
warrior; nor did either of those princes employ force whenever their
purpose could be effected by policy.—GIBBON.
[242] De Administrando Imperio.
[243] Adam’s Antiquities at Diocletian’s palace at Spalatro, p. 67. Thus
the Abate Fortis:—“E ’bastevolmente nota agli amatori dell’
architettura, e dell’ antichità, l’opera del Signor Adam, che a donato
molto a que’ superbi vestigi coll’ abituale eleganza del suo toccalapis
e del bulino. In generale la rozzezza del scalpello, e ’l cativo gusto
del secolo vi gareggiano colla magnificenza del fabricato.”—Vide Viaggio
in Dalmazia, p. 40. For the plan and views of the palace, temples of
Jupiter and Æsculapius, with the Dalmatian coast, vide “Voyage de
l’Istrie et de la Dalmatie.”
[244] Gibbon; Adam.
[245] Rollin; Chandler.
[246] This is Quintus Curtius’ account. Plutarch says 40,000 talents.
[247] Or five thousand talents weight. Dacier calls it so many
hundred-weight; and the eastern talent was near that weight. Pliny tells
us, that a pound of the double-dipped Tyrian purple, in the time of
Augustus, sold for a hundred crowns.—LANGHORNE.
[248] Plutarch says, that in his time specimens were still to be seen of
the same kind and age, in all their pristine lustre.
[249] Rollin.
[250] Fragments of earthenware, scattered in the greatest profusion, are
found to the distance of twenty-six miles.—WALPOLE’S _Travels in
Turkey_, vol. i. 420.
[251] Nearchus, p. 415.
[252] When taken prisoner by Sapor.
[253] The Pagan writers lament, the Christian insult, the misfortunes of
Valerian. Their various testimonies are accurately collected by
Tillemont, tom. iii. p. 739, &c. So little has been preserved in eastern
history before Mahomet, that the modern Persians are totally ignorant of
the victory of Sapor, an event so glorious to their nation. See
Bibliothèque Orientale.—GIBBON.
[254] Strabo; Plutarch; Arrian; Quintus Curtius; Prideaux; Rollin;
Gibbon; Vincent; Rennell; Barthelemy; Kinneir; Walpole.
[255] Rollin.
[256] Lempriere.
[257] Lempriere; Rollin; Swinburne; Eustace.
[258] Wilkinson; Malte-Brun.
[259] He was, according to most historians, the son of a potter, but all
allow him to have worked at the trade. From the obscurity of his birth
and condition, Polybius raises an argument to prove his capacity and
talents, in opposition to the slanders of Timæus. But his greatest
eulogium was the praise of Scipio. That illustrious Roman being asked,
who, in his opinion, were the most prudent in the conduct of their
affairs, and most judiciously bold in the execution of their designs,
answered, Agathocles and Dionysius. (Polyb. 1. xv. p. 1003, edit.
Gronov.) However, let his capacity have been ever so great, it was
exceeded by his cruelties.—_Rollin._
[260] Swinburne.
[261] This account Mr. Swinburne suspected of exaggeration; but after
spending two days in tracing the ruins, and making reasonable allowances
for the encroachments of the sea, he was convinced of the exactness of
Strabo’s measurement.
[262] Brydone.
[263] Plutarch relates, that Marcellus took the spoils of Sicily,
consisting, in part, of the most valuable statues and paintings of
Syracuse, purposely to adorn his triumph, and ornament the city of Rome,
which, before his time, had never known any curiosity of that kind; and
he adds, that Marcellus took merit to himself for being the first, who
taught the Romans to admire the exquisite performances of Greece.
[264] Swinburne.
[265] Brydone.
[266] Brydone.
[267] Plutarch; Rollin; Swinburne; Brydone.
[268] Saturday Magazine.
[269] The folly of the Egyptians in respect to their deifications is
well known; and for this they are ingeniously reproached by the
Satirist.
Who has not heard, where Egypt’s realms are named,
What monster gods her frantic sons have framed?
Here Ibis gorged with well-grown serpents, there
The Crocodile commands religious fear.
Through towns Diana’s power neglected lies,
Where to her dogs aspiring temples rise;
And should you leeks or onions eat, no time
Would expiate the sacrilegious crime.
Religious nations sure, and blest abodes,
Where every orchard is o’er-run with gods!
[270] Parker.
[271] Knight.
[272] Anon.
[273] In antiquity, the pyramids of Egypt surpass every other monument
now existing; but they do not, of course, from the nature of their
construction, at all vie with the magnificence of the ruins of
Karnac.—WILKINSON.
[274] Jacob went into Egypt with his whole family, which met with the
kindest treatment from the Egyptians; but after his death, say the
Scriptures, there arose up a new king, which knew not Joseph.
Rameses-Miamun, according to archbishop Usher, was the name of this
king, who is called Pharaoh in scripture. He reigned sixty-six years,
and oppressed the Israelites in a most cruel manner. He set over them
task-masters, to afflict them with their burdens. “And they built for
Pharaoh treasure-cities, Pithom and Raamses; and the Egyptians made the
children of Israel serve with rigour, and they made their lives bitter
with hard bondage, in mortar and in brick, and in all manner of service
in the field; all their service wherein they made them serve, was with
rigour.”—PRIDEAUX.
[275] Harmonies of Nature.
[276] Saturday Magazine.
[277] Belzoni’s Narrative. London 1820, p. 39.
[278] Parker.
[279] Penny Magazine.
[280] Why was this necessary? and who recompensed the poor villagers?
[281] Herodotus; Diodorus; Strabo; Tacitus; Prideaux; Rollin; Pococke;
Savary; Fleurieu; Sonnini; Lindsay; Browne; Denon; Belzoni; Carne;
Champollion; Soane; Heeren; Wilkinson; Richardson; Penny Magazine;
Saturday Magazine; Egyptian Antiquities; Encyclopedia Metropolitana;
Rees; Brewster; Londinensis.
[282] Not of Virgil, but of Lucan. Phars. lib. ix.
[283] “I am inclined to believe,” continues he, “that if Helen had been
actually in Troy, the Trojans would certainly have restored her to the
Greeks, with or without the consent of her paramour.”
[284] The signification of the name Sigéum appears in an anecdote of an
Athenian lady, celebrated for her wit, not her virtue. Wearied by the
loquacity of a visitor, she inquired of him, “Whether he did not come
from the Hellespont?” On his answering in the affirmative, she asked him
“how it happened that he was so little acquainted with the first of the
places there?” On his demanding, “Which of them?” she pointedly replied,
“Sigéum;” thus indirectly bidding him to be silent.—(_Diogenes
Laertius._) CHANDLER.
[285] Two promontories forming the bay before Troy.
[286] An island in the Ægean Sea.
[287] Annal. lib. ii. c. 54.
[288] Sir John Hobhouse says, “I traced all the windings of the Mendar,
startling young broods of ducks, and flocks of turtle-doves, out of
every bush. Nothing could be more agreeable than our frequent rambles
along the banks of this beautiful stream. The peasants of the numerous
villages, whom we frequently encountered ploughing with their buffaloes,
or driving their creaking wicker cars laden with faggots from the
mountains, whether Greeks or Turks, showed no inclination to interrupt
our pursuits. The whole region was, in a manner, in possession of the
Salsette’s men, parties of whom, in their white summer dresses, might be
seen scattered over the plain, collecting the tortoises which swarm on
the sides of the rivulet, and are found under every furze-bush.”—LETTER
XXXIX. 4to.
[289] Callifat water is the Simois. Dr. Clarke says, that he saw in this
stream hundreds of tortoises, which, being alarmed at his approach, fell
from its banks into the water, as well as from the overhanging branches
and thick underwood, among which these animals,—of all others the least
adapted to climb trees,—had singularly obtained a footing. Wild-fowl,
also, were in abundance.
[290] “Turks were employed raising enormous blocks of marble from
foundations surrounding the place; possibly the identical works
constructed by Lysimachus, who fenced New Ilium with a wall. The
appearance of the structure exhibited that colossal and massive style of
architecture, which bespeaks the masonry of the early ages of Grecian
history.”