Observations on the Position of Ras Sem — Remarks of Bruce
connected with this place — Difficulty of reconciling the several
positions assigned to it — Extravagant Stories related of its
Petrifactions, supposed to be those of Human Beings — Fallacy
of these Statements as recorded by Shaw — Report of Petrified
Remains at Ghirza made to Captain Smyth by Mukni (Bey, or Sultan, of
Fezzan) during the progress of his Excavations at Lebda — Journey
of Captain Smyth in search of the objects described to him —
Description of the actual Remains at Ghirza — Monumental Obelisk
discovered there, and Tombs, combining a mixture of the Egyptian and
Grecian styles of Architecture — Indifferent Taste and Execution
of these Remains — Veneration in which they are held by Mahometans
of all classes, who suppose them to be Petrified Human Beings of
their own persuasion — Geographic Position of Ghirza determined by
Captain Smyth — Further Observations on the Remains at Apollonia
— Return of our party to Cyrene — Account of that City continued.
In concluding our account of that part of the coast which lies
between the promontory called Ras Sem and Derna, we may observe
that the name of the first-mentioned place, however it may have
originated, is not at the present day known to the Arabs, at
least not to any of whom we inquired for it. Bruce and Dr. Shaw
have described it as situated in the interior; the former at five
long days, the latter at six days’ journey to the _southward_
of Bengazi. The term Ras, which in Arabic signifies a head, is the
usual Arab term for a promontory, and it is in this sense that we
find it adopted in modern charts to distinguish the headland above
mentioned. But the place which is alluded to by Shaw and Bruce is
not, as we have stated, on any part of the coast, but lying at a
distance of several days from it, that is to say, south of Bengazi;
and Bruce translates the name which has been given to it differently,
calling it the Fountain and not the Head of Poison, as Ras Sem is
commonly interpreted; probably from the indifferent quality of the
water which he found there in a very disagreeable spring impregnated
with alum. We are not prepared to reconcile the different positions
assigned to the fountain or the promontory in question; but have
chiefly adverted to it on account of the fictions which have been
circulated with respect to its alleged petrifactions. It appears,
as reported by a Tripoline Ambassador resident in London about an
hundred years ago, on the authority of a friend of his, a person
of _great veracity_, and of a thousand other people besides—all,
no doubt, of equal respectability—that “a large town was to be
seen at Ras Sem, of a circular figure, which had several streets,
shops, and a magnificent castle belonging to it.” “Olive and
palm trees were found there, among others, turned into a bluish
or cinder coloured stone, and men were conspicuous in different
attitudes, some of them exercising their trades and occupations,
others holding stuffs, bread, &c., in their hands. Women at the
same time were observed giving suck to their children, or busy
at the kneading trough or other occupations. A man was to be seen
on entering the castle lying upon a magnificent bed of stone, and
guards were still visible standing at the doors armed with their
pikes and spears. Animals of different sorts (nay, the very dogs,
cats and mice) were observed by some persons converted into stone,
and all of the same bluish colour[1].” Here we have evidently
the description of an ancient city, with its buildings and statues,
converted by the fertile imagination of the Arabs, and other ignorant
spectators of its remains, into the fancied semblances mentioned. It
is probable that one of the cities of the Pentapolis, Cyrene perhaps,
as having most statues, was the petrified city in question; and
we may venture to say that there is scarcely an individual who has
travelled in Mahometan countries who has not been induced to take
journies of inquiry on the authority of similar fictions. Happy
are they who find the least resemblance between the description
which they have heard and the reality!—for it often occurs that
amplification and hyperbole have less to do in such accounts than
pure invention. Shaw was encouraged, as he himself informs us, to
undertake a very tedious and dangerous journey to Hamam Meskouteen
in Numidia upon the authority of Arab reports; he had been assured,
with the most solemn asseverations, that a number of tents had been
seen there, with cattle of different kinds, converted into stone. On
arriving, however, at the place, he had the mortification of finding
that all the accounts which he had heard were idle and fictitious,
without the least foundation, unless in the wild and extravagant
brains of his informers. “Neither (he continues) will the reports
concerning the petrified bodies at Ras Sem deserve any greater regard
or credibility, as will appear from the following relation[2].”
A similar disappointment was experienced by Captain Smyth, who was
induced, from the report of the Sultan of Fezzan, an eye-witness
of the scene he described, to undertake a journey to Ghirza; and
as he has obligingly favoured us with the details of it, we submit
them to the inspection of the reader in the form in which they were
extracted from his private journal.
* * * * *
“During the time I was excavating amongst the ruins of Leptis
Magna, the Arab Sheiks who visited my tent frequently remarked
that I should have a better chance of finding good sculpture in
the interior, and made many vague observations on the subject, to
which I paid little attention at the time. On my return to Tripoli
however, Mukni, sultan of Fezzan, had just returned from a marauding
expedition into the interior; and in a conference I held with him,
he assured me that within the last month he had passed through an
ancient city, now called Ghirrza, abounding in spacious buildings,
and ornamented with such a profusion of statues as to have all the
appearance of an inhabited place. This account, supported by several
collateral circumstances, impressed me with the idea of its being
the celebrated Ras Sem, so confusedly quoted by Shaw and Bruce,
and consequently inspired me with a strong desire to repair thither.”
“Accordingly Colonel Warrington and I waited on the Bashaw,
requesting permission to undertake the journey, with which
he immediately complied. Only, as his eldest son, the Bey of
Bengazi, was in rebellion against him, and might by seizing the
Consul-general and myself demand terms which his Highness would find
it difficult to accede to, he wished us to proceed with a small
force to the mountains, and there be reinforced according to the
actual state of the country. His Highness also signified his desire
that Seedy Amouri, his son-in-law, and Seedy Mahomet his nephew,
should accompany us. He moreover furnished us with his Teskerah
(an authority for being gratuitously subsisted by the Arabs),
though we never used it but to insure a supply, and always made
a present in return, proportionate to the value of the articles
provided, being of opinion that availing ourselves otherwise of
this document would be detrimental to future travellers.”
“On the 28th of February 1817, we left Tripoli before sunrise,
accompanied by the two Seedies, an escort of twenty-six Moorish
cavalry, and several camels. Proceeding by the fertile grounds of
Sahal, we rode southward in the direction of the hills; but before
quitting the plain, our companions saluted us and each other by
firing their guns whilst riding at full speed, in imitation of
desultory attack and defence, which, allowing for the difference of
weapon, shewed a striking resemblance to their Numidian ancestors. As
we advanced up the hills we found the country beyond the tower of
Grara, neglected; the clothing and equipments of the inhabitants
were also more rude and scanty than in the plains.”
“On the 2nd of March we passed an old tower called Gusser-Kzab, in
the plain of Frussa, where, about three years before, a considerable
treasure had been discovered in gold and silver coins, of which
however I was unable to procure a single specimen, they having been
all taken to the coast of Tripoli, where they were most probably
melted, and their date and story lost for ever. Proceeding from
Frussa over a sterile and fatiguing district, we arrived about
noon on the 3rd at the Wadie of Benioleet, where, having been
expected, the principal people came out to welcome us, and some met
us even as far off as the valley of Mezmouth. This, though only a
distance of four or five miles, is a very laborious and dreary ride,
over a rocky tract, exhibiting a remarkably volcanic appearance,
from a black substance resembling porous lava, lying upon a bed of
tertiary limestone, and forming, perhaps, a part of the Harutsch of
Horneman. The melancholy aspect of these hills renders the first
view of the Wadie of Benioleet, with its houses, fields, and palm
trees, extremely picturesque, and the additional bustle occasioned
by our arrival gave great animation to the whole scene.”
“Benioleet consists of several straggling mud villages on the
sides of a fertile ravine, several miles in length, and bounded by
rocks of difficult access. The centre is laid out in gardens, planted
with date and olive trees, and producing also corn, vegetables, and
pulse. This valley is subject to inundation during the winter rains,
but in summer requires to be watered with great labour by means of
wells of extraordinary depth. It is inhabited by the Orfilla tribe,
which amounts to about two thousand souls, subsisting chiefly by
agriculture and the rearing of cattle, aided only in a trifling
degree by a manufacture of nitre; they are accounted hardy, brave,
and industrious, but at the same time dishonest and cruel. A large
and ill-proportioned building called the castle, near one of the
pleasantest spots in the ravine, was prepared for our reception,
and a plentiful supply of victuals and forage provided. Though
commanded at almost every point, this is the principal fortress; it
contains several apartments, good stabling, and a large court-yard,
but the water must be drawn from a very deep well at the distance
of a musketshot. The walls are badly perforated for musketry,
and flanked with round bastions, too weak to bear artillery.”
“Having found several people here who had recently arrived from
the place I was bound to, I repeated my inquiries respecting the
sculpture, and again received positive assurances that I should see
figures of men, women, children, camels, horses, ostriches, &c., in
perfect preservation; and the belief of their being petrifactions
was so prevalent, that doubts were expressed whether I should be
able to remove any one of those whom it had pleased Providence thus
to punish for their sins.”
“On the 6th, after our party had been joined by three mountain
chiefs, Mahmoud, Abdallah, and Hadgi Alli, with twenty-five
Janissaries, and fifteen camels laden with water, barley, tents,
&c., we proceeded over a hilly and bare country to the southward. On
the 7th we arrived at a well of bad water called Kanaphiz, in an
open space nearly surrounded by the Lodz hills. We found a small
Kaffle there from Fezzan, and purchased of the Moors a quantity of
exquisite Sockna dates, and some dried locusts. We were exceedingly
tormented here by the numerous ticks that swarmed over the whole
plain, and teazed alike both ourselves and our horses. On the 8th
having passed the range of Souarat, we advanced through a pretty
valley called Taaza, neglected, but evidently capable of improvement,
from the luxuriant myrtle, lotus, juniper, cypress, and other plants,
flourishing spontaneously. I also observed many trees called Talha,
from which a gum exudes resembling that brought from the forests
on the north-west of the Zaara; and probably it is the same tree,
for it is of stunted growth, with small brownish leaves, though
its character is rather that of a rhamnus than a mimosa.”
“In the evening we arrived at a brackish well of great depth called
Zemzem, from having been blessed by a holy Marabut, and thence is
derived the name of the whole Wadie, which running towards the
north-east reaches the Syrtis below Turghar. Intending to pitch
our tents here, we had first to burn away the stubble to destroy
a species of venomous spider, from the bites of which we had two
or three narrow escapes, saving ourselves only by killing them
suddenly on the spot with a smart blow, the moment we saw them upon
us. Ghirrza, the scene of the extraordinary story so extensively
propagated, being only within three or four miles of this place,
occasioned me a restless night: so that early on the morning of
the 9th I eagerly sat off over the hills, and after a short ride
the ruins of Ghirrza abruptly met my sight.”
“I instantly perceived the error of some writers, in ascribing
cold springs and moving sands to this spot, for the site is
mountainous and bare, presenting only dreary masses of lime and
sandstone, intersected with the ramifications of the great wadie
of Zemzem. And although I had not allowed my imagination to rise
at all in proportion to the exhilarating accounts I had heard, I
could not but be sorely disappointed on seeing some ill-constructed
houses of comparatively modern date, on the break of a rocky
hill, and a few tombs at a small distance beyond the ravine. On
approaching the latter I found them of a mixed style, and in very
indifferent taste, ornamented with ill-proportioned columns and
clumsy capitals. The regular architectural divisions of frieze and
cornice being neglected, nearly the whole depth of the entablatures
was loaded with absurd representations of warriors, huntsmen, camels,
horses, and other animals in low relief, or rather scratched on the
freestone of which they are constructed. The pedestals are mostly
without a dye, and the sides bore a vile imitation of arabesque
decoration. The human figures and animals are miserably executed,
and are generally small, though they vary in size from about three
feet and a half to a foot in height, even on the same tombs, which
adds to their ridiculous effect; whilst some palpable and obtruding
indecencies render them disgusting.”
“Across a fine but neglected valley, to the south-eastward, in
which were numerous herds of wild antelopes, and a few ostriches,
is a monumental obelisk of heavy proportions, and near it are four
tombs of similar style and ornament with the first set. These
are remarkable however as more strongly combining a mixture of
Egyptian and Greek architecture, and are placed so as to give a
singular interest to the scene. There are but three inscriptions,
and those are comparatively insignificant, nor can other particulars
be learned, the whole of them having been opened, in search probably
of treasure, but as no person permanently resides near the spot, I
was deprived of any local information. A wandering Bedoween, who had
been some time in the Wadie, brought me a fine medal, in large brass,
of the elder Faustina, which he had found in the immediate vicinity.”
“The tombs appear to have remained uninjured by the action of
either the sun or the atmosphere, excepting only a deep fallow
tint they have imbibed;—the sculpture therefore, as we must
call it, remains nearly perfect. As these edifices are near the
Fezzan road, people from the interior have occasionally tarried
to examine them, and being the only specimens of the art they
ever saw, yet representing familiar objects, they have described
them on their arrival at the coast in glowing colours. It is this
nucleus, which rendered more plausible, perhaps, by the story
of Nardoun, soon swelled into a petrified city, and at length
attracted the curiosity not only of Europe, but obtained universal
belief in Africa. It has been deemed a species of pilgrimage to
resort thither, as the caravan passes, and inscribe a blessing
for the supposed unfortunate petrified Moslems, and with these
the pedestals are actually covered. Thus, notwithstanding the
diminutive size and despicable execution of these bas-reliefs,
the Turks who accompanied me eyed them with admiration and respect,
pointing out to my notice that the horses had actually four legs,
and other similar trifles. Never, in fact, has a palpable instance
occurred to me, so strongly indicative of the degradation of mind
inflicted by the Mahometan tenets on its votaries; nor could I
but regret to find men, in many respects estimable, so benighted,
and so glaringly deficient in the discernment bestowed by education.”
“Ghirrza is situated near some barren hills called Garatilia,
and from its want of water, and sterile, comfortless appearance,
could only have been a military post in communication with Thabunte,
and the stations along the shores of the greater Syrtis. The wadie,
indeed, may have been formerly well cultivated, being even now
covered with spontaneous vegetation and flourishing talha, cypress,
lotus, and other trees. I observed no traces of roads or aqueducts,
during my short stay, but I was too much occupied with my operations
for determining the geographical position of the place, to extend
my researches to any distance[3].”
“On the 11th I wished to proceed to Towergha, and Mesurata, and
thence to Lebida, but we had so many men and camels belonging to
Benioleet, that it became necessary to return to that place. On
our arrival there, we found the inhabitants eager to learn our
opinion of the petrifications of Ghirrza, and they were evidently
chagrined when they found we had brought some specimens away with
us, thereby dissolving the favourite axiom respecting the futility
of attempting to remove them.”
* * * * *
Such was the result of Captain Smyth’s journey to the petrified
city at Ghirza; by which, notwithstanding it fell short of
his expectations, more was obtained than those travellers are
generally fortunate enough to meet with who have an opportunity of
comparing the objects described with the florid description of them
by Turks and Arabs. With regard to the Ras Sem of Shaw and Bruce,
it is difficult to say what place is intended in the accounts which
these writers have given of it; for we have already observed that
no part of the Cyrenaica is known at the present day by that name
to the Arabs of the district, at least not that we were able to
ascertain; and we are inclined to believe that one of the cities
of the pentapolis is in reality the place originally alluded to in
the extravagant reports of the natives, and of others who may have
visited the country in question. The distance of five and six days
_south_ of Bengazi would not certainly correspond with the position
of any one of these cities; but it appears to us more probable that
a place of some importance would be selected, in preference to one
of inferior consideration, as the theme of a tale so marvellous;
and there can be no remains in the position alluded to which may
at all be compared with those of the Pentapolis.
We shall now resume the thread of our narrative, and proceed to
finish our account of Apollonia.
It will be observed, in referring to the plan of that city, that
the greater part of the wall is remaining; and we have never seen
so good an example of ancient fortification (the wall of Teuchira
excepted) as that which it still affords. It has been strengthened
by quadrangular turrets, at intervals of about eighty yards, and the
gates have in general been placed in the angles formed by the wall
with the towers, a position which rendered them less accessible
when besieged than if they had been otherwise situated. All the
turrets, however, are not square; for one at the south-west corner
is circular, as are also two of much larger dimensions on the
north-western side of the city, which are about eighty feet in
diameter, and have been built uncommonly solid to resist the wash
of the sea. At the opposite corner of the town there is nothing
remaining but the foundations of one of the towers and a part of
the wall extending westward from it along the beach: these were,
however, sufficient to determine the limits of the town in that
direction. It will be observed that this wall is only apparent as
far as (m), beyond which is a large space where everything is buried
in sand, and a conjecture arose whether it might not have continued
along the cliff leading to the tower (n); but traces of it were again
discovered near point (o), with two turrets and other evident remains
to the westward of it, which determined its continuation along the
beach to (p). We afterwards found that the cliff just alluded to
formed a boundary to that portion of the town which appears, from its
great strength, contracted limits, and elevated position, to have
been the citadel. There are but two approaches to this fortress;
one from the town at (r), and another by a very narrow gate at
(s) from without. The whole of the south-eastern corner is high,
and extremely difficult of access, on account of the quarries which
surround it forming a trench of considerable dimensions.
The town appears to have been purposely destroyed, and the wreck of
building with which it is incumbered renders the examination of the
ground-plans very difficult and tedious, indeed for the most part
impossible. Of the five principal buildings laid down in the plan
of the city we contrived to obtain, with a good deal of trouble,
some comparatively satisfactory measurements, (a) and (b) were
unquestionably Christian churches; and must have been erected at
great expense, from the costliness of the material employed for
their columns (a species of marble somewhat resembling Tripoline).
The building marked (d) has been one of no ordinary importance,
and seems to bear more resemblance to a Basilica than to any other
public edifice. It will be observed that the semicircular part of
this structure has a different aspect from those of the churches,
both of which are at the eastern extremities where the altars appear
to have been placed. The columns of the basilica (if so we may call
it) are also composed of handsome coloured marble—we mean the
shafts of the columns, for the capitals are of white marble. The
remaining two, (c) and (e), appear to have been dwelling-houses of
a superior description, (e) has had immediate communication with the
turret close to which it is placed on the southern side of the town;
and a long colonnade running parallel with the sea has been erected
close to the other dwelling-house leading along the edge of the cliff
towards the eastern church. On the south side of the town, without
the walls, there is another large building (h), which seems to have
been a fort and to have contained quarters for soldiers. A road,
inclosed by large stones placed upright, has been purposely carried
close along the eastern side of this structure, and turning short
round it through an archway has led to the semicircular excavation
opposite to the gate (l), one of the principal entrances to the
city. We will not pretend to fix with any certainty the date of the
buildings we have here alluded to; but we should consider them to
be decidedly Roman, and the employment of Corinthian capitals and
shafts of coloured marble would seem to favour this opinion. It is
not improbable that the churches may have been erected in the time
of Justinian, although we do not recollect that they are mentioned
by Procopius in his account of the works of that emperor.
In the quarries which inclose the walls, serving, as we have
already stated, the purpose of trenches, there are a good many
excavated tombs; but they are all so much decayed that it was not
worth while making plans of them, and those farther from the city
are in no better state; some are filled with sand washed in by the
sea, which has encroached considerably upon the land at Apollonia,
and surrounds occasionally some very conspicuous tombs which form
striking objects to the westward of the town.
On the two islands which are opposite the town there are some
excavations and remains of building; but as we had no boat with us,
and none is to be found in the neighbourhood, Apollonia, not being
used in modern times as a port, we were unable to ascertain their
precise nature. The islands are very small, but the town receives
great protection from them in northerly gales, although the shelter
which they afford is not sufficient, we should imagine, for vessels,
even if there should be water enough inside them.
By the 20th June we had completed our plan of Apollonia, which, from
the incumbered state of the ruins, was no easy task to accomplish,
and we think that little more could be satisfactorily made out
without removing the heavy blocks of stone which are everywhere
scattered over the town: but this labour would probably be greater
than the object appears to demand, since the ground-plans which
remain are not of any great antiquity, and, with the exception of
the churches, and perhaps the other buildings which we have given, do
not seem to call for much more attention than we were able to bestow
upon them. We must confess we should have liked to remain there
a little longer to have excavated about the larger theatre, where
statues would probably be found; we say the larger theatre, because
a circular space within the town appears, as we have mentioned, to
contain one of smaller dimensions, which must be cleared from the
soil and vegetable matter with which it is covered before anything
can be determined with certainty respecting it. If a theatre has
stood here it must have been a very small one, of a circular form,
and, unless appropriated to musical performances, appears, to be
unfit for any other. Without the town, to the westward and southward,
excavation would probably be interesting; and indeed there is hardly
a spot in the habitable parts of the Pentapolis where objects of
interest would not in all probability be found. In the space between
Apollonia and Derna there are remains of several ancient villages
and stations, where we could have very much wished to excavate;
and in that between Apollonia and Cyrene there appears to be a great
deal of matter for inquiry. The embarkation of heavy objects would
be difficult at Apollonia on account of the little depth of water
near the beach; it might, however, be managed, and would at any rate
be preferable to the transport by land-carriage to Bengazi or Derna,
which indeed may be said to be wholly impracticable on account of the
frequent deep ravines and dangerous mountain-passes which intervene.
During the time, about a fortnight, of our absence from Cyrene,
the changes which had taken place in the appearance of the country
about it were very remarkable. We found the hills on our return
covered with Arabs, their camels, flocks, and herds; the scarcity
of water in the interior at this season having driven the Bedouins
to the mountains, and particularly to Cyrene, where the springs
afford at all times an abundant supply. The corn was all cut,
and the high grass and luxuriant vegetation, which we had found it
so difficult to wade through on former occasions, had been eaten
down to the roots by the cattle: the whole face of the country was
parched by the sun, and had assumed a deep brown and yellow tint
instead of the rich green which it had worn on our first arrival;
a hot wind was blowing, which had all the character of a sirocco,
though coming from a north-west quarter, and the thermometer stood
constantly at 97° in the shade, a degree of heat we had not before
experienced at Cyrene.
The scorching quality of the north-westerly gale may probably be
attributed to the heat of the ground in the hollows about the place,
for we did not experience any great degree of heat at Apollonia
(we mean, not from the wind, for the sun was very powerful) where
the same breeze came to us immediately from the sea. The excessive
dryness of the atmosphere of Cyrene at this time may be readily
conjectured from the indication of a very good hygrometer which
we had with us, which showed 55 during the period in question,
an extreme which we had never before seen it mark.
We found afterwards that at Malta, on the same days, they had
experienced a strong sirocco wind, and had had the thermometer at
95°. It may be remarked generally of the heat of northern Africa
that it has not often that oppressive quality so much complained
of in other hot latitudes; and it does not appear to be at all
unhealthy, as we often find it to be in damp climates. The sun,
however, is uncommonly powerful, and it is necessary for those
not accustomed to its influence to keep the head well covered if
they would avoid a coup-de-soleil. The force of habit will at the
same time enable Europeans to encounter much more heat than they
would venture to subject themselves to on first arriving from more
temperate regions: we found that we could walk about the whole
of the day (which we were obliged to do in making our plans)
without feeling more than what may be termed inconvenience; and
the greatest annoyance was the reflection from the ground on our
eyes and lips, which the masses of white stone among which we had
to scramble, in examining and taking measurements of the ruins,
made stronger than is felt in cultivated places: these become so
hot from ten or eleven o’clock till sunset that the atmosphere
about them is like that of an oven; the heat which is reflected from
them absolutely scorches, and the eyes of persons long exposed to
its influence would probably suffer materially. For the rest, the
heat may be borne without prejudice (especially through the folds
of an ample turban) unless a greater freedom of diet be indulged
in than is prudent in any hot climate. We saw very few serpents
in the Pentapolis, and very few scorpions, even among the ruins,
where they are generally fond of hiding themselves; but the grass
land, at Cyrene in particular, is much infested by a dark-coloured
centiped, almost black, with red feelers and legs; we usually
found half a dozen of them in taking up the mats in our tents,
and had great difficulty in killing them. Any part which chanced
to be separated from the rest of the body would continue to run
about as if nothing had happened, and were the reptile even divided
into twenty pieces each part would travel about, as if in search of
the others, without any of them seeming to be the worse. The only
mode by which we could kill them at once was by crushing the head,
which effectually destroyed life in every other part instantaneously.
On arriving at Cyrene we immediately resumed our examination of the
antiquities of the place, and were able to make out the ground plans
much better than on former occasions; in consequence of finding
the grass eaten up by the cattle and sheep of the Bedouins, whom
the scarcity of water, as we have already mentioned, had driven to
the heights where the fountains are situated.
At the conclusion of the sixteenth chapter we have noticed two
theatres, near which our tents were pitched, and shall proceed to
give some description of them. We found them both so much incumbered
with the soil which had accumulated about them, in which the grass
springs up to a considerable height, that, had it not been for the
semicircular shape of the green masses which presented themselves
to our view, we should not have suspected them to have been
theatres. The columns which once ornamented the back of the scene
in the largest of these buildings had been thrown (for they could
scarcely have fallen) from the basement on which they formerly stood,
and crossed our track in various places along the whole length of
the range: among them were several statues, which appeared to have
been portraits, executed with great freedom and taste, and beyond
were the Corinthian capitals of the columns which had rolled,
in their fall, to some distance from the shafts. These, as well
as the bases, were composed of a fine white marble, the polish of
which was in many cases very perfect; and the shafts (of coloured
marble) were formed of single pieces, which added considerably to
the effect produced by the costliness of the material. From these
circumstances, as well as from the resemblance of the draperies in
which the statues were wrapt to the toga, it seems probable that this
theatre was Roman; but the execution of the capitals and bases have
none of that degeneracy of style which characterizes the works of the
lower empire; and we should be disposed to attribute them to the time
of Augustus or of Hadrian, when Roman art was undoubtedly entitled
to our respect, and (we may also say), in various instances, to our
admiration. The whole depth of the theatre, including the seats, the
orchestra and the stage, appears to have been about one hundred and
fifty English feet, and the length of the scene about the same. The
porticoes at the back of the seats are two hundred and fifty feet
in length, and the space between these and the colonnade at the
back of the scene is of equal extent. The whole building would thus
appear to have been included in a square of two hundred and fifty
feet, not including the depth of the portico behind the subsellia,
which is at present rather uncertain. The theatre has been built,
like many of the Greek theatres, against the side of a hill, which
forms the support of the subsellia; and the highest range of seats
appears to have been upon a level with the platform from which it
was approached at the back. On this level also are the porticoes
behind the seats; which would seem to prove, if other evidence were
wanting, that the cunei were not approached by internal passages,
of which there are no indications, but from the platform just
mentioned (on a level with the highest range of seats) from which
the spectators descended to the lower ranges. There appears to
have been a row of columns, inclosing the uppermost range of seats;
and as we found several statues in the orchestra, close under the
subsellia, it may perhaps be supposed that the upper part of the
theatre was decorated with these ornaments, the place of which
was probably between the columns of the peristyle in question,
since the statues appear to have fallen from some place above the
level of the seats; and we know of no situation more appropriate
for them than along the colonnade we have mentioned.
This theatre is placed by the side of the road leading down to
the fountain, and must have been a beautiful object when perfect;
the richness of the materials of which the columns were formed,
adding greatly to the effect of the building, if not in point of
taste, at least in point of costliness and splendour. The style and
execution of the remaining parts of this structure have not however
been neglected; and we often stopped to admire the beauty of the
Corinthian capitals, which were carved with great sharpness and
freedom, and exhibited considerable taste of design. The position of
this building will be seen in the ground plan of the city (p. 520);
it is the most northern, and the largest of the two. The plan of the
other theatre differs materially from that of the one which we have
just described, and its proportions are also very different. The
depth of the orchestra is much less in proportion to its width,
and the space allotted to the seats is at the same time greater for
the size of the building. Instead of being approached from above,
as that which we have first mentioned appears to have been, there
are five passages (or vomitoria), by which the spectators entered,
and two communicating with some place beneath the front of the stage
which are so much blocked up with rubbish, occasioned chiefly by the
fall of the roof, that we could not explore them to the end. These
passages descend very abruptly towards the centre, and appear to
communicate with the same point, or with each other; they have been
arched with blocks of stone, ranged longitudinally, and are of very
good construction. We were able to go down thirty-two feet in one
of them, after some little trouble in clearing the entrance; but
the impediments which then presented themselves were too serious
for our time and resources. A casual observer would not have been
aware that there were any passages in this theatre by which the
spectators entered, so much was the whole building covered with
soil and vegetation; and it was only on close examination, that some
appearance of the arched roofs which covered them was discernable;
and we determined upon excavating in the same line below.
It soon appeared, that passages really existed; and we succeeded
in clearing one of them sufficiently to determine the fact beyond
dispute. We found that the roofs descended with the seats, some of
which they probably supported, but the floors appear to have been
level; or, at least, the inclination is so slight (if there be any)
as not to be ascertained by the eye. In the course of this excavation
we found that some of the rows of seats were hollow; and were in
hopes of discovering a further confirmation of the circumstance
mentioned by Vitruvius, that the Greeks were in the habit of
appropriating hollow spaces beneath the seats of their theatres
to the reception of brazen vases, by means of which the sound was
considerably improved. We were led to imagine the possibility of
this, from the fact of the spaces to which we allude having been
carefully formed, and not left merely for the purpose of saving
material, or adding to the lightness of the building. We found
nothing, however, which could be said to verify the conjecture; and
a few fragments of pottery, which were picked up in some of these
apertures, were all that presented themselves, in confirmation of
the practice alluded to, during the progress of our excavation[4].
We must observe, with respect to the passages which we have supposed
to have been used as entrances to the theatre, that they were all
of them on the same level, and had no other communication than with
a præcinction, a few feet above the orchestra; how many cannot
well be ascertained, as we could not, in the present state of the
building, determine the position of the lowest range of seats,
and the height of it from the level of the orchestra. The sides of
the passages were cased with stone and marble, and decorated with
architectural ornament; but we could not ascertain the elevation of
the front presented to the stage, no portion of which is standing:
perhaps, among the ruins which encumber the orchestra some details
of this might be found; but the little time which we had to excavate
did not allow us to search for them long, and some fragments of
Doric columns were all that we dug out, except blocks of stone and
marble. The passages were perfectly strait, and communicated direct
with the lower ranges of seats, from which the spectators must have
ascended to the upper ones; but we could not perceive any remains
of staircases, which were not perhaps necessary, considering the
moderate size of the building. No portion of the stage, except
the lower part of a wall, is now remaining, which indeed seems
rather to have formed a part of the proscenium, as it appears to be
somewhat in advance of the stage itself. The width of the orchestra
where it joins the proscenium is not more than sixty feet, and its
depth about eighty. The depth of the whole space occupied by the
seats is not more than forty feet. There are extensive remains of
building which appear to have been attached to this theatre, on its
eastern side: they seem to have inclosed public walks, and have been
surrounded by porticoes, and strong walls of considerable height,
in one of which a gate still remaining has been formed communicating
directly with one of the principal roads. In the neighbourhood of the
theatre we have last mentioned, there are still many statues above
ground, in excellent style. One of these, from the representation
of the Ammon’s head, and the eagles which ornament the armour,
is probably a statue of some one of the Ptolemies; and near it is
a female statue, one of the Cleopatras, Berenices, or Arsinoës,
perhaps, of the family.
We wished to have introduced a drawing which we made of the figure
first mentioned, the ornamental parts of which are beautifully
executed; but our limits will not allow of it. The head and limbs are
wanting, but the trunk, clothed in armour, is a beautiful example of
taste and execution. It is of white marble, much larger than life,
as is also the female statue near it, of corresponding dimensions.
There are several other statues above ground in this part of the
city, in the best style of Grecian art; and many good examples of
Roman sculpture, or it may be Roman portraits, executed by Greek
artists, which we should rather conclude from the excellence of the
workmanship employed in them, and from the fact of Cyrene having
been a colony of Greeks, even when under the dominion of Rome.
Every part of the city, and indeed of the suburbs, must have
formerly abounded in statues; and we are confident that excavation
judiciously employed, in many parts even indiscriminately, would
produce at the present time many admirable examples of sculpture.
We will now proceed to give some account of the amphitheatre, of
which considerable remains are still extant without the walls to the
westward of the town, and which must have been in its perfect state
a very conspicuous object from the sea. It has been constructed on
the verge of a precipice, commanding a most extensive and beautiful
view, and receiving in all its purity the freshness of the northern
breeze, so grateful in an African climate. Part of it is built
against the side of a hill which formed the support of the ranges of
seats fronting the precipice; and that portion of it which bordered
upon the verge of the descent rose abruptly from the edge, like a
stupendous wall, overlooking the country below. The foundations of
this part of the amphitheatre were, it may be imagined, remarkably
strong, and they still remain to a great extent very perfect; but
all the seats which they supported have been tumbled at once from
their places, and lie in masses of ruin beneath. This appears to
have been occasioned by a part of the substructure having given
way; and as we imagine the whole side to have fallen at once, the
crash must have been a tremendous one. On the opposite side, (that
which rests against the hill,) nearly forty rows of seats are still
remaining, one above the other; and as each of these are fifteen
inches in height, the edge of the precipice appears from the upper
seats to be close at the foot of the ranges, although the whole of
the arena intervenes, and it often made us giddy to look down from
them. As the lower ranges of seats are not in their places, it is
difficult to ascertain the diameter of the arena, but it seems to
have been more than a hundred feet across; and to have been, like
that which we have mentioned at Ptolemeta, of a perfectly circular
form. There is no appearance of any præcinctions, owing probably to
the absence of interior communications, which are not to be found
in this building; and it seems to have been chiefly approached
from the top, which is equal in height with the level summit of
the hill, against which the seats are on this side built. The most
natural approach would certainly have been that which leads from
the fountain of Apollo, along the edge of the descent which we
have mentioned: this will be evident from the plan of the city;
but strong walls, which are undoubtedly of ancient construction,
cross the road here so completely as to preclude the possibility of
any approach from the city to the amphitheatre in this direction. If
the walls which we allude to had not been standing at the present
day many feet above the level of the road, we should have concluded
that they must originally have contained gates which led to the
arena; but there is no appearance whatever of such communication,
even supposing that the gates were approached by flights of steps,
which would not have been an unreasonable conjecture.
The only road which remains (under the difficulties stated) must at
the same time have been a circuitous one; and as it communicated
merely with the level summit of the hill, against which the seats
rested, any approach to the arena, or other lower parts of the
amphitheatre, must have been by descents, right and left to them,
from the terrace (or platform) which surrounds the upper range of
seats, or by the staircases leading from it to the lower ranges,
of which decided vestiges are still remaining. The arena seems
to have been about a hundred English feet in diameter, and the
seats to have occupied a space of about eighty feet in depth; if we
reckon the level space (or platform) inclosing the amphitheatre at
twenty, the whole building will have stood upon three hundred feet
of ground. It could not be ascertained whether any subterranean
chambers existed communicating with the arena, as this part is
incumbered with the ruins of the fallen seats, and we had neither
time nor means to excavate in search of them; we should rather
conclude that there were not; for on the north side, where no seats
are remaining, (all this portion of the building having fallen down
the cliff,) the substructure is very apparent, and no arrangement
appears to have been made for vaults. There are remains of a Doric
colonnade along the edge of the cliff, forming the north side of
one of the spaces walled in to the eastward of the amphitheatre,
the capitals of which are beautifully formed, exhibiting all the
sharpness and taste peculiar to the early manner of executing the
order. Both these inclosures appear to have been appropriated to the
amphitheatre,—perhaps as public walks for the use of the audience;
but it is difficult to say how they were approached, either from the
east or from the west; and the two other sides are inaccessible, in
consequence of the abrupt descent of the cliff to the northward, and
the rise of the mountain to the southward of the inclosures. We have
already said that there is no appearance of any gates, by which the
amphitheatre could have been accessible from the eastward, through
the walled spaces here alluded to; but we think there must have
been a communication originally, although there are at present no
traces of any. There is a small building close to the eastern wall
of the inclosures, apparently of very early construction: it is a
simple quadrangle, without any interior divisions; and the remains of
several columns, all of which are not apparently in their original
places, are still visible on the north side of the structure, but
none are observable on the other sides. This building has also no
gate, and it is evident from the appearance of the walls, all of
which are standing, that there have never been any formed in it;
we will not pretend to say for what purpose it may have been erected.
In returning from the amphitheatre to the city, the road skirts
the edge of the cliff, which descends everywhere abruptly, and the
soil is kept up by strong walls along the brink of the descent,
without which it would be washed down by the winter rains, and the
buildings in time undermined. It is over a part of this wall that the
fountain of Apollo (which in ancient times was copiously distributed
over the city and fertile lands of Cyrene) now precipitates itself,
as it probably did in its natural state, into the plain, and finds
its way to the sea. Near the end of this wall begin the ranges of
tombs which skirt the northern face of the mountain below the city,
descending in galleries one above another, till they reach the level
of the plain at its foot. The summit is occupied by part of the city;
and the edge of the descent was here, as in front of the fountain,
skirted by a wall running along the whole line of the cliff, till
it joined that which enclosed Cyrene to the westward. From this
portion of the mountain descend five large ravines, once thickly
wooded with pine and other trees, which have been cleared for the
use of the town, and to disencumber the ground appropriated to the
tombs. Some of the ravines are, however, still partially wooded,
in many places very thickly, and springs of excellent water are
found in various parts of them.
The north side of the town, from its present appearance, does not
seem to have been ever much inhabited, and very few remains of
dwelling-houses are observable there. The buildings which still
exist are however of an interesting character, and excavation would
be particularly desirable in this part. Two eminences which rise
conspicuously above the general level of the summit are occupied
by the ruins of spacious temples, and close to the western wall
of the city is all that remains of the stadium. The largest of
the temples (we mean the ædes, without the columns) is a hundred
and sixty-nine English feet in length, and its breadth sixty-one
feet. It is of the Doric order, in its early style; and the capitals,
which with the columns are lying on the ground, still exhibit marks
of excellent taste and execution, though very much defaced by time;
they measure nine feet across, and the capital and abacus are of one
piece. The form of this building is peripteral; but the columns on
the sides appear to have been twelve in number, which is one more
than is allowed to temples of that class by Vitruvius, supposing
the edifice to be hexastyle; for in peripteral temples the number of
intercolumniations on the flanks should, according to this author,
be only double those of the front. That there were twelve columns,
however, appeared evident on the first inspection, from the existing
number of capitals lying on one of the sides of the temple; and on
adding two spaces, and the diameters of two columns to the length
of the ædes (or body of the temple), which is, as we have stated
from actual measurement, a hundred and sixty-nine English feet, and
comparing this measurement with that of twelve columns and eleven
spaces, the first number given was two hundred and five, and the
latter two hundred and four, which result was quite near enough to
be conclusive of the fact. In this calculation we have taken the
diameter of the columns, as they measured within an inch or two,
at six feet; and supposed the intercolumniation to be systyle,
that is two diameters of the columns. The same calculation applies
equally to the breadth of the temple, which would seem to prove
that the intercolumniation assumed was correct,—six columns and
five spaces giving ninety-six,—and the breadth of the ædes, with
two spaces, and the diameters of two columns added, ninety-seven;
bringing the results within one of each other, as in the instance
just given with regard to the length. Traces are still remaining
of a pronaos and posticus; but one of the walls of the pronaos
(the only one remaining) has a very decided return of two feet
(at its central extremity) in the direction of the cella. The depth
of the posticus is at the same time much greater than that of the
pronaos, and rather more than half as much as that of the cella:
this distribution is, however, consistent with the character of the
climate; for the rain falls very heavily, and almost incessantly,
during the winter season at Cyrene; and the unusual space given to
the posticus would be found very serviceable to the inhabitants,
particularly as the temple was somewhat removed from what may be
called the inhabited part of the town. The same reasoning would apply
equally in summer time, for the heat of Cyrene is at that period
very great. An additional motive for increasing the posticus so
much beyond its usual dimensions would be found in the width of the
ambulatory (which is regulated by that of the intercolumniations),
for the systyle species is too contracted to afford much shelter on
any occasion; and we may probably assume, from the calculations above
stated, that the temple in question was in fact of that species,
although the intercolumniation could not otherwise be ascertained,
on account of the encumbered and ruined state of the building,
which we had no opportunity of excavating.
We should mention that the walls of the ædes have decided returns
of six feet both in front and rear of the temple, towards the two
columns which range in a line with them; they are about four feet
and a half in thickness, and one of the stones of which they were
composed measured fifteen feet in length.
The smaller temple, like that which we have just described, was
built upon a rising ground, and had the additional elevation of a
very solid basement or substructure, considerably raised above the
level of the summit of the hill, part of which (about four-and-twenty
feet) has been left as a kind of terrace round the building. The
disposition of the columns is by no means evident in this temple,
and the number is very uncertain; but the ambulatory must have
been a good deal below the pavement of the ædes, since there
is no space allowed for it upon the basement we have mentioned;
and it must consequently have been upon the terrace beneath it,
which appears to have been left for that purpose. The columns
must therefore have been unconnected with the roof, and have
merely supported the covering of the ambulatory. Indeed, it seems
likely that the portico was altogether detached from the ædes,
and judging from the remains of a wall, which appears to be part
of the original plan, and the position of a column without it,
we may perhaps suppose that it was situated on the edge of the
terrace above-mentioned; and that the whole space of four-and-twenty
feet between this wall and that of the ædes, was a space between
the portico and the body of the temple, which does not appear to
have been covered in. In this disposition we imagine the wall just
alluded to to have formed the back of the portico, and the column,
still remaining, to have been one of the range which supported its
roof in front. Immediately below this column the ground descends,
and traces may be observed of steps leading up to it.
In the ædes there seem to have been only a pronaos and cella;
and in the latter is a detached mass of building, raised above the
level of the other parts of it, for which we are wholly at a loss
to account, there being no analogy between its disposition and that
of any part of a cella in its usual arrangements.
The length of the ædes is a hundred and eleven feet, and its
breadth fifty feet; the outer walls are four feet in thickness, and
that of the pronaos somewhat more than three. The capitals of some
fluted columns which are now lying at the foot of the hill on which
the temple stands, are of no established order of architecture,
and may perhaps be said to be a mixture of Greek and Egyptian; a
coalition which we should certainly expect to meet with at Cyrene,
but of which we recollect to have seen only a few instances. Close
to this building, on its northern side, is the quarry from which the
stone employed in its construction was probably taken, forming a deep
trench at the foot of the hill. The aspect of both temples is nearly
east, as is usual, we believe, in buildings of such a description.
To the eastward of the larger temple, and close to the city walls,
are the remains of the stadium, part of which is excavated in the
rocky soil on which it stands, and those parts only built which
the rock could not supply. Its length is somewhat more than seven
hundred feet, and its breadth about two hundred and fifty. The
course is now so much buried, and overgrown with long grass and
other vegetation, that the mode in which it was disposed could
not be ascertained with any certainty; neither is it easy to
decide clearly how much space was allotted to the seats, which
do not occupy at present more than five-and-thirty feet on either
side. The whole is, in fact, (like the temples,) in a very ruinous
state, and nearly all the constructed part has disappeared. There
are two masses of building to the north-westward of the stadium,
which appear to have had some connection with it, but we will not
venture to state any decided opinion with respect to their precise
use. One of them is a solid quadrangular mass, now about five
feet in height, which appears to have been intended as a station
merely, from which the horses and chariots of those contending for
the prize might be inspected as they entered or came out of the
stadium, for it is not sufficiently elevated to command a view
of the course. It is fifty-eight feet in length by eighteen in
breadth, without any appearance of having been more than a kind
of raised platform, unvaried by architectural ornament; and we
have only suggested the use for it mentioned because we cannot in
fact assign any other to it. The second may, perhaps, have been a
small temple, or some building in which the contending parties, and
those who had the management or superintendence of the games, might
assemble to make arrangements respecting the course, or to settle
any differences which might arise with regard to the race. Its form
is similar to that of a temple, without external columns; but there
is some appearance of there having been a colonnade attached to it,
supported by the walls of the building. It is raised upon a small
eminence, about an hundred feet to the westward of the terrace,
near the entrance of the stadium. Westward of the circular part
of the hippodrome, and to the south-east of the largest of the
temples which have been described, is a walled space of ground
of considerable extent, which may have been appropriated to the
gymnasium; but there is so little at present remaining within its
limits, that we will not venture an opinion respecting it. We could
very much have wished to excavate in parts of this inclosure, as well
as about the temple themselves, but our time and means would not
allow of it: the stadium would probably afford little of interest,
for the stones which were employed in its construction appear to have
been carried away in later times to serve in other buildings; and,
indeed, little more could be expected from excavating the temples,
than fragments of architecture too much decayed by time to render
them particularly useful in furnishing details, or of statues which
enthusiasm and bigotry have probably defaced, if they should even
have been spared by the hand of time.
The city walls approach closely to the southern extremity of the
stadium, and are in this part very decided. They begin from the
verge of a deep ravine, as will appear by the plan, and continue in
an unbroken line to the spacious reservoirs (at the south-eastern
angle of the city) which are mentioned in the publication of
Dr. Della Cella. Here we lose traces of them, but they again make
their appearance on the south side of the buildings just alluded to,
and extend to the brink of the large ravine with which the aqueduct
communicated. Beyond this (the aqueduct), a wall was unnecessary,
for the mountain descends perpendicularly to the bed of the ravine,
and renders all approach to the town in this direction impossible;
and as the wall of the aqueduct has not been built with arches,
but carried along the mountain in a solid mass, it would have been
fully sufficient for the purpose of defence, and was probably built
solid with this intention.
Square towers were attached to the city wall in various parts, not
apparently at regular intervals, but approaching each other more
closely where the ground was low, and consequently more favourable to
the attack of an enemy. Several parts of the wall have been excavated
in the rocky soil on which they stood, and building only employed
where the rock was not sufficiently high to render it unnecessary. It
should be stated, that the masses of rock here alluded to were not
of the nature of a cliff, but detached masses rising in irregular
forms as well from within as without the walls. It is evident,
as will appear by the plan of the city, that the line of wall was
continued round the large reservoirs above mentioned, so as to
inclose them completely within its limits, a precaution which might
naturally be expected in a climate where water is so valuable. If the
winter rains should fail, which we should scarcely think possible
at Cyrene, these cisterns might have been filled from the aqueduct
which communicated with the principal fountain, for although it
only extended across the high ground to the westward of the town,
there are traces of conduits, or water-courses, in every part of
the city, leading towards the place on which it has been built.
We ought not to omit on this occasion a few remarks which are
necessary on the subject of the reservoirs here alluded to, as they
may serve to explain an error into which Signor Della Cella appears
to have fallen, with respect to the inscriptions which he found in
them. He has informed us, that these inscriptions were in a language
altogether unknown to us, each stone of the interior wall bearing
a separate letter, so that the inscriptions continued, in parallels
with the ranges of stone, along the whole length of the buildings in
question. The partial absence of light, and the immediate presence
of water in these spacious and gloomy subterranean inclosures,
appear to have conspired, with the inconvenient position which it
was necessary for the Doctor to take, in preventing him from copying
more than a few of them. These, however, he tells us, may probably
be serviceable in contributing towards the elements of languages now
wrapt in obscurity; languages which are the only means at present
afforded us of checking the various statements which have come down
to us upon the authority of Greek historians, and other writers in
that language, who it is well known (Signor Della Cella observes)
were so much attached to every thing peculiar to themselves, that
they could not avoid pointing out a Grecian origin for whatever bore
the traces of civilization. We give the passage here alluded to in
the Doctor’s own words[5], and proceed to mention, that the letters
which compose his inscriptions have no other meaning than that which
is usually conveyed by what are called quarry marks, and do not form
any sentence or any single word. Many of them are Greek letters,
which are occasionally reversed, and placed in various positions,
so that the same letter might at first sight be taken for several
others distinct from itself; sometimes two or more Greek letters
appear together on the same stone, (occasionally united in a kind
of cipher,) and their forms are often made out so rudely, from the
dispatch used in cutting and often scratching them on the blocks
of stone, as not to bear a very close resemblance to the usual
ones. Some of them are not letters of any kind, but simply marks
or characters invented for the occasion, as will be observed by
the instances which are given of them below[6]. We fear, too, that
even if the characters in question had really been inscriptions
of the greatest importance, they must have been for ages lost to
the world, and were certainly never intended to meet the public
eye by those who had them placed where they are; for the whole
interior of the cisterns, or reservoirs, upon the stones of which
they are inscribed, have been coated with a thick and very hard
cement, which still remains perfect in a great many places. We may
add that these cisterns, which are three in number, one at right
angles with the two others, are partly built, and partly excavated
in the rock, as Signor Della Cella very truly observes. The roofs
are arched with stone and beautifully turned; indeed, the whole
construction of these vaulted chambers, in which large and very
regularly-shaped stones have been employed, is excellent in the
highest degree. Externally, the roofs are built up on the sides,
and form at the top long platforms, or terraces, each of more than
a hundred and fifty feet in length, along which we have often walked
with pleasure admiring the beauty of their structure.
The south-eastern part of the city appears to be that which was
most thickly inhabited, and the number of small buildings crowded
closely together are, in their present state, likely to exercise
the patience of those who may endeavour to make out their plans. We
gave up the task as a hopeless undertaking after a few days’
attentive examination of these remains; and it seems probable,
that if we had even succeeded in giving all the details which
can now be procured of them, little interesting matter would have
resulted from the collection. Those in the centre of the town (in
the neighbourhood of the theatres) are of much more importance;
and the remains in the space between the theatres and the aqueduct
have very considerable interest. We do not think, however, that
satisfactory plans could be given of either without a great deal
of excavation, and we should certainly hesitate in giving names to
any which we have not already described from the details which we
were able to procure of them. In the large inclosed space attached
to the smaller theatre, where there are still traces of colonnades
extending three hundred feet, is a semicircular building situated
at the western extremity of one of the porticoes (or colonnades)
here alluded to, which resembles in its form the tribunal of
a basilica. It is possible that this might have been the forum,
as the porticoes would have afforded very ample convenience in any
weather for the transaction of business; and its position, close
to the principal road leading through the centre of the town with
which it communicates by a gateway, would at the same time have
been equally favourable. Its situation, however, with regard to the
theatre, to which it is decidedly attached, has rather led us to
imagine, that this place contained the covered walks, or porticoes,
for the convenience, or shelter in rainy weather, of the audience;
as which we have mentioned it above. The central space, where there
are no traces of building, with the exception of a kind of raised
platform opposite the gateway, were most probably in that case laid
out as a garden; and the whole together would have somewhat resembled
in plan the garden and covered walks of the Palais Royal at Paris. A
very strong wall, on the south side of which is the gateway, extends
at the present day round three sides of the place; and the southern
wall appears to have been continued about four hundred feet farther
in the same line (turning then to the north in a line parallel with
the eastern wall), and to have inclosed the small theatre within
its limits. We have already mentioned the statues which we found in
this space, at the back of the theatre now alluded to; and suggested
that one of them in all probability was a resemblance of one of
the Ptolemies; the head of the statue is wanting, and we fear it
has been knocked off at some period by the Arabs of the place, for
the chance of disposing of it at Tripoly or Bengazi; a fate which
has befallen many a beautiful example of Grecian art, now lying in
the city and the neighbourhood of Cyrene. It is possible, however,
that it might be found in the course of excavation, although we
did not ourselves succeed in discovering it in the parts where we
dug for it about the statue. We remember to have been very anxious
upon the occasion, and fancied that we should know a head of any
of the Lagides, meet with it wherever we might. It was from the
decorations carved upon the armour, as we have stated in another
place, that we imagined this statue to be the portrait of a Ptolemy;
and it is well known that the eagle and the head of Jupiter Ammon are
usually borne on the coins of that family. If it had been possible,
we should have brought home what remains of this statue (which is
merely the trunk), as well as several other very excellent examples
of Grecian sculpture in its neighbourhood; and we are convinced, that
excavation judiciously employed in the central and eastern parts of
Cyrene, would bring to light many beautiful specimens of art, now
covered only with the soil and vegetation which have been allowed
to accumulate for ages about them. There have been several public
buildings of importance immediately without the walls inclosing
the theatre, of which plans might perhaps be satisfactorily made,
if excavation were employed for the purpose; and it is very probable
that inscriptions might at the same time be found, which would help
to throw light upon the nature of the buildings, and to ascertain
the period at which they were erected. There must be a considerable
number of those buried in different parts of the city; for we never
saw an ancient town in which fewer inscriptions are to be seen
than that of Cyrene; especially for a town in which literature and
the fine arts were cultivated with so much success. The few which
we copied are scarcely worth inserting, and we shall only give (in
addition to that over the fountain) another in Doric Greek, which is
given by Signor Della Cella, in the reading of which we also differ
in some respects from his copy. It was found upon a stone bearing the
form of a pedestal, immediately without the wall above mentioned;
and the Doctor has suggested that the remains of a female statue,
seated in a chair, which is lying in the road not far from it, was
the representation of Claudia Arete, the matron, in commemoration of
whose benevolence and virtue the inscription in question was erected
by the Cyreneans. We give it below[7], but are not of opinion that
the statue alluded to by Dr. Della Cella ever occupied a place
upon the pedestal inscribed. Near this female statue is another
of a young man (also without the head) which we never remember to
have seen equalled in Greek sculpture, for the taste and execution
of the drapery.
There are some extensive remains of building, with a very handsome
colonnade, on the high ground between the small theatre and the
aqueduct, which appear to be those of a palace or other residence
of more than ordinary importance. From the northern colonnade
the ground descends abruptly, and the soil is kept up by a wall
which forms the back part of the chambers built at the foot of
it. These consist of a single range of quadrangular apartments,
which appear to have been from twenty-five to thirty in number;
their length (at right angles with the wall already mentioned)
is about forty feet, and their average breadth (for they differ in
some instances) about twenty. It is not at present evident, whether
these communicated with the building above them or not; but one of
them has had a wall built across it, opposite to that which forms
the back of the chambers, in which there is no door, so that there
could not have been any access to it from the lower ground. There
is at the same time no appearance of any staircase leading down to
them from above; and if there had, it would have been necessary to
have built a separate one for each, for they have no communication
one with another. We do not, therefore, imagine that all of them
have been closed, but that they had access to the ground in front of
them, and none to the colonnades and chambers above. That which is
built across is placed at one angle of the range, and is eight feet
wider the average breadth, taking it at twenty feet. If a groom or
a coachman were to give an opinion with respect to the use of the
chambers in question, with reference to the structure above, they
would certainly decide, without the least hesitation, that this
uniform, long range of building, was the stabling of the palace,
and could only have been appropriated to the horses and chariots
of the noble Cyrenean who inhabited it. As we have never seen the
stables of any ancient residence, whether Grecian or Roman, we will
not venture to assign such a use to these chambers; but it is well
known that the Cyreneans were particularly celebrated for their
skilful management of horses and chariots, and we must confess,
without being either coachmen or grooms, that such an appropriation
did more than once occur to us[8].
There are remains of apartments adjoining each other to the
westward of the handsome colonnades which we have mentioned, the
plans of which we would not hazard without excavation; nor could
we without it complete that of the porticoes, the columns of which
are nearly four feet in diameter. The whole building appears to
have extended about three hundred feet in a southerly direction,
and to have occupied more than four hundred in length from east to
west. There are remains of much larger columns, near the road, at
the southern extremity of this large mass of building; and we feel
confident that matter of considerable interest is still to be found
beneath the rich soil which covers it, in their immediate vicinity
and neighbourhood. Corn is now growing over a great part of the
ground in question; and an old Arab, who was employed in cutting it
down, when we measured the remains of building just described, was
greatly astonished at the trouble we gave ourselves in walking over
and examining them in a very hot day; when he could scarcely himself
make his mind up to cut down his wheat, which was certainly a matter
(he said) of much more importance. He had his gun ready charged by
his side, and moved it along with him as he changed his position in
reaping; a ceremony at which we should have been a little surprised,
if we had not before seen frequent instances of similar precaution
in the Arabs of the Syrtis and Cyrenaica. In fact, the Bedouin,
like the Albanian or the Corsican, never stirs out without his gun,
if he has one; for it rarely happens that any individual has not
some feud upon his hands, and it is necessary to be provided with
the means of defence, in a country where every man is the legal
avenger of his own or his family’s wrongs. We use the term Bedouin,
because, although our swarthy friend was cutting wheat, he was at the
same time a wandering Arab; and only visited the place periodically,
chiefly during the summer season. For three parts of the year Cyrene
is untenanted, except by jackalls and hyænas, and the Bedouins pitch
their tents chiefly on the low ground to the southward of the range
on which the city is built. Were it not for its elevated position,
Cyrene would probably, on account of its luxuriant pasturage, and
the abundant supply of fresh water which it possesses, be at all
times a favourite haunt of the wandering tribes of the Cyrenaica:
but the Arab, for an active man, is one of the most lazy of any race
of people with which we are acquainted, and will rather forego a
very decided advantage than give himself much trouble in acquiring
or maintaining it; he would in consequence easily persuade himself
that the advantages which Cyrene must be acknowledged to possess,
would be more than counterbalanced by the trouble of ascending and
descending its hills, and of driving his flocks and his camels to
water in places which would be thought inconvenient.
We are not aware that it will be of any service to dwell further
upon the nature and condition of the buildings of Cyrene; as much
as we were able to collect (with the time and means which we had
at our disposal) has already been given of the objects most worthy
of notice; and to say more would only be to offer conjecture,
on subjects which do not afford sufficient data to authorise
particular description.
In fact, the whole of the existing remains of this ancient and
once beautiful city are at present little more than a mass of
ruin; and the tombs afford the most perfect examples of Grecian
art now remaining in Cyrene. To give plans of half these would be
impossible, unless whole years of labour were devoted to the task;
but we really believe, that any zealous antiquary, any person with
tolerable feeling for the arts, would with pleasure devote every
day to such employment should he find himself stationed for years
in their neighbourhood.
We never, ourselves, passed our time more agreeably, than in
collecting the details which we have been able to procure of them;
and shall never forget the sensations of delight—we will not
use a less impressive term—which we experienced on our first
introduction to these beautiful examples of Grecian art.
The position of the tombs, as well as that of the city, has
been already described, and too much can scarcely be said in its
praise; we wish that our limits would allow us to give more of the
architectural details of the former than can be collected from the
general view of them; but we shall probably avail ourselves of some
other opportunity of submitting a few examples to public inspection,
and can only at present refer for some idea of them to the view which
we have just alluded to. To have lived in the flourishing times of
Cyrene would indeed have been a source of no trivial enjoyment; and
we are ashamed to say how often we have envied those who beheld its
numerous buildings in a state of perfection, and occupied, in their
former cultivated state, the beautiful spots on which they stand.
We must not, however, take our leave of the city, without adverting
once more to the excavated channel that has been formed for the water
of the principal fountain, to which we have formerly alluded. We had
been so much occupied in walking over the ruins, and collecting the
details of Cyrene and Apollonia, that it was only the day before
we set out on our return to Bengazi, that we were able to explore
this passage to the end. It is formed entirely in the rock from
which the stream issues, and runs, in an irregular course, for
nearly a quarter of a mile into the bowels of the mountain: the
sides and roof of the passage are flat, where time and the action
of the current (which is very strong) have not worn them away;
but the bottom is encumbered with stones, bedded fast in a quantity
of clay which has accumulated about it and against the sides. The
general height of this subterranean channel is scarcely five feet,
an elevation which we found rather inconvenient, for it obliged us
to stoop a good deal in advancing; and as it would not have been
possible to examine the place properly, or indeed to have preserved
our light, without keeping the head and body in an upright position,
we usually found the water making higher encroaches than its chilling
cold rendered agreeable.
In some places, however, where there appear to have been originally
flaws or fissures in the rock, the roof was irregular, and there
was room enough to stand upright, an occurrence of which we very
gladly availed ourselves, to the great relief of our knees. We
found the average width from three to four feet, although in the
places just mentioned it was occasionally as much as six feet;
and were it not for the clay which has been collected against the
sides, we should often have suffered from their roughness. From the
irregularity of the course of the passage we were obliged to take
bearings very often; and at each time we stopped for this purpose
we took down the distance measured with our chain between the point
we stopped at and the last; so that after much trouble we succeeded
in obtaining a tolerably correct plan of the whole. The length and
course of the channel will be seen in the plan of Cyrene, where it
is marked with a dotted line beginning from the cliff, at the foot
of which the fountain now discharges itself, and runs across the
level ground on which the amphitheatre, and little temple (as we
have named it) of Diana are situated. Within forty feet of the end
of the channel (that is to say, about thirteen hundred feet from its
beginning at the foot of the cliff), it becomes so low, that a man
cannot advance farther without creeping upon his hands and knees,
and then finishes in a small aperture scarcely a foot in diameter,
beyond which of course it is impossible to penetrate. We were
not a little surprised at the length of this singular excavation,
which seemed, as we advanced, as if it never would finish; and as
we could not accelerate our mode of operation without sacrificing
the plan of the passage, we had to remain for several hours in
the water before we had completed our task. We must say, however,
that with all the inconvenience of the stooping position which we
were obliged to assume, and the extreme cold of the water, we found
the undertaking a very agreeable one, for the interest naturally
increased with the length of the passage, and we were more than
rewarded for our trouble and temporary annoyance before we reached
the end of the passage. In fact we observed after continuing our
route for some time, that the clay, which we have already mentioned
had been washed down in considerable quantities by the current,
was occasionally plastered against the sides of the passage,
and smoothed very carefully with the palm of the hand: in this we
thought we perceived that something like letters had been scratched,
which we should scarcely have thought it worth while to examine,
had we not been a little curious to know what Europeans had visited
the place before us; we knew of none besides Signor Della Cella, who
does not appear from his own account to have penetrated more than a
few steps beyond the entrance[9]—probably to the first turning,
as far as which the light from without would guide him. Our first
conclusion was, that some of our own party had taken this method
of writing their names on the wall,—a practice which John Bull
seldom neglects in any part of the world which he visits; or that
some intrepid Arab had allowed his curiosity to prevail over his
fear of evil spirits, and penetrated thus far into the subterranean
channel[10]: it never, in effect, for a moment occurred to us, that
the characters (whatever they were,), which might be traced on so
perishable a surface, were of more than very recent formation. Our
surprise may in consequence be readily imagined when we found,
on a closer examination, that the walls of the place were covered
with Greek inscriptions; some of which, from their dates, must
have remained on the wet clay for more than fifteen hundred years,
whatever might have been the periods at which others had been
written: the preservation of these may certainly be accounted for,
by the dampness of the place, and its extreme seclusion, which would
conspire to prevent the clay from cracking and dropping off, and from
being rubbed off by intruders; but we were not prepared to meet with
inscriptions engraved on so yielding a substance, and certainly not
to find that, having once been written, they should have remained on
it down to the present day, as perfect as when they were left there
by those whose visit they were intended to commemorate. They consist,
of course, chiefly in a collection of names; many of which are Roman,
and the earliest of the most conspicuous dates which we remarked and
copied, (for it would take whole days to read and copy them all)
were those of the reign of Dioclesian. We could collect no other
fact from those which we read, than that a priest appears to have
officiated at the fountain, after Cyrene became a Roman colony,
whose name and calling (in the form επι ιερεος, &c.) are
usually written after the name of the visiter. They are in general
very rudely scratched, with a point of any kind (a sword or knife,
perhaps, or the stone of a ring,) and often with the point of the
fingers. We observed a few Arabic inscriptions among the rest, but
were so much occupied in reading over the Greek ones, in order to
gain some intelligence respecting the fountain, which might serve to
throw light upon the period at which the channel was excavated, or
other questions of interest, that we neglected to copy them. There
is an appearance in one of the Greek inscriptions of allusion to
the name of Apollo, the deity to whom we suppose this fountain
to have been sacred; but the letters are not sufficiently clear to
establish the fact decidedly, although we do not see what other sense
could be given to the words in question, with so much probability
of being that which the writer intended; and it is plain, that as
the sentence now stands it is incomplete[11]. We could not succeed
in finding any Greek dates of antiquity, although the Greek names
are very numerous; but a person accustomed to the many negligent
modes of writing the character, with plenty of time and light at his
disposal, might probably succeed in finding Greek inscriptions of
more interest than we were able to discover in the mass of writing
here alluded to; a great portion of which, as might naturally
be expected, consists of rude scrawls and hasty scratches—mere
apologies in fact for letters almost of any kind. That the fountain
continued to be an object of curiosity, and probably of religious
veneration, after the cession of the country to the Romans, may,
however, be inferred from what we have stated; and a minimum may
at least be established with respect to the date of the excavated
channel, if we cannot ascertain the precise time of its formation,
or whether it was cut at one or at several periods.
We have already mentioned that several hours had elapsed, from
the time of our entering the channel to that of our re-appearance
at its mouth; and we really believe that the Arabs of the place,
who had collected themselves round the fountain to see us come out,
were extremely disappointed to find that no accident had befallen
any one of the party; in spite of the demons so confidently believed
to haunt its dark and mysterious recesses. For our own parts, we
could not help laughing very heartily at the ridiculous appearance
which each of us exhibited on first coming into the light, covered
as we were from head to foot with the brown clay accumulated in the
channel of the fountain, which had adhered too closely to be washed
away by the stream, although its current, as we have mentioned,
was extremely rapid.
As the next day was that which had been fixed for our departure,
we employed the remainder of the afternoon in making preparations
for the journey, and set out early on the following morning
for Bengazi. Captain Beechey and Lieutenant Coffin had already
preceded us, with the intention of running over to Malta, in order
to procure a small vessel for the embarkation of the statues, which
we had decided upon removing to Apollonia, where the vessel would
have taken them on board. On their arrival, however, at Bengazi,
they found a packet of letters from England; and among them, was
a despatch from the Foreign Office, which made it necessary that
we should alter our plan, and give up any further operations. As
the season was far advanced, during which any vessels are found in
the harbour of Bengazi, a passage was secured in the last which
remained, and camels were despatched to Cyrene to bring away our
baggage and tents.
The interval was employed in completing the plans of the buildings
and tombs at Cyrene; and that of the excavated channel of the
fountain was the last upon which we employed ourselves. We had
determined, on first discovering this passage, to explore it as far
as it might be found practicable, and the first leisure moment was
accordingly devoted to it on the day which preceded our departure.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 1: See Shaw’s Travels in Barbary vol. ii. p. 286.]
[Footnote 2: “About forty years ago, when M. Le Maire was French
consul at Tripoly, he made great inquiries, by order of the French
court, into the truth of this report; and amongst other very curious
accounts relating to the same place, he told me a remarkable
circumstance to the great discredit and even confutation of all
that had been so positively advanced with regard to the petrified
bodies of men, children, and other animals. Some of the Janizaries
who, in collecting the tribute, travel over every year one part or
other of this district of Ras Sem, promised him that, as an adult
person would be too heavy and burdensome, they would undertake, for
a certain number of dollars, to bring him from thence the body of
a little child. After a great many pretended difficulties, delays,
and disappointments, they produced at length a little Cupid, which
they had found, as he learnt afterwards, among the ruins of Leptis;
and to conceal the deceit, they broke off the quiver and some other
of the distinguishing characteristics of that deity.”
“M. Le Maire’s inquiries (he continues), which we find were
supported by the promise and performance of great rewards, have
brought nothing further to light. He could never learn, after
sending a number of persons expressly, and at a great expense, to
make discoveries, that any traces of walls or buildings, animals, or
utensils, were ever to be seen within the verge of these pretended
petrifactions. The same account he heard from a Sicilian renegado,
who attended him as Janissary while in Egypt, and assured him that
he had been several times at Ras Sem; and also from another Sicilian
renegado, whom the Bashaw of Tripoly had appointed Bey or Viceroy
of the province of Derna, where Ras Sem was immediately under his
jurisdiction.”]
[Footnote 3: The position of Ghirrza, and of several of the most
conspicuous objects on the road to that place from Tripoly, are
as follows:—
Latitudes. Longitudes.
° ′ ″ ° ′ ″
Ghirrza Ruins 31 07 16 14 40 50
Benhoulat Square Tower 31 28 10 14 18 15
Benioleet Castle 31 45 38 14 12 10
Wady Denator-huts 31 52 10 14 03 50
Wou-lad-ben-Merian Pass 32 21 40 13 34 22
Wahryan Mountain-summit 32 07 50 13 02 10
]
[Footnote 4: The passage of Vitruvius in question, is as follows,
as we have extracted it from Wilkins’s translation:—
“From the foregoing investigations,”—those of Aristoxenus
on the doctrine of harmony, “brazen vases have been made upon
mathematical calculations, proportioned to the magnitude of the
theatre. They are so constructed, that upon being struck, they
form amongst themselves concords of the fourth, fifth, regularly in
succession, on to the double octave. They are then arranged amongst
the seats of the theatre according to a certain musical proportion,
in cells made for their reception. They ought not to be placed in
contact with the wall, but have a vacant space above and around
them. They should be inverted, and the edge next the stage raised by
means of wedges, six inches in height at the least: apertures ought
to be made in the seats of the lower row, opposite to the cells,
two feet in width, and one in height.”
“If the theatre be not very spacious,” continues our author,
“thirteen arched cells will be sufficient, in which as many vases
are to be placed in the order which he proceeds to point out, by
observing which, the voice,” he says, “which diverges every
where from the stage, as from a centre, striking each of these
hollow vases, will acquire an increase of clearness and strength,
and at the same time produce corresponding tones in concord with its
own sounds.” “It may, perhaps, be said,” continues Vitruvius,
“that many theatres are built every year at Rome, in which no
attention has been paid to these points: the objection, however,
is not applicable; because it is not considered that all public
theatres constructed with wood have many surfaces, which act as
sounding-boards. The truth of which will be manifest, if we observe
those who sing to the harp; who, whenever they wish to sing in
a higher tone, turn themselves to the leaves of the scene; from
which they receive the assistance of corresponding sounds. But when
theatres are not sonorous, in consequence of their being built with
solid materials, such as stone or marble, whether wrought or unhewn,
it then becomes necessary to have recourse to the expedient just
explained. Many skilful architects, who have built theatres in small
towns, have, in order to lessen the expense, adopted vases of pottery
instead of brass, of the same pitch; and, by arranging them according
to these principles have produced the most useful effects.”
We may remark on this subject, that it has hitherto been doubted,
by persons well qualified to judge of architectural details, whether
the practice alluded to by Vitruvius in the foregoing passage,
was ever really adopted by the ancients for the purpose which
he mentions. Mr. Wilkins has noticed a passage in Pliny, which
alludes to a mode of building peculiar to the walls of theatres;
in the construction of which, hollow vessels of earthenware were
immured, and whenever it was required to prolong the vibrations,
or to increase the powers of the voice, the orchestra was strewn
with sand or saw-dust, by which means, the voice being directed to
the body of the house, the sounds were carried along the walls so
long as there was no impediment to obstruct their course; whereas,
in the walls of other edifices, the interior space between the
two faces of the wall was filled in with rubble. “In describing
this mode of building,” continues Mr. Wilkins, “Pliny might
have had our author in view; whose mention of vases received a
degree of confirmation from the fact, that earthern vessels were
sometimes inserted in the masonry of ancient buildings. An instance
in which this practice has been adopted, occurs in the Circus
of Caracalla. Vases are there found regularly distributed in the
stone work above the crown of the arches, which were constructed
for the purpose of giving a proper degree of elevation to the seats
of the spectators. The object of their introduction seems to be the
diminution of weight. Vitruvius confesses (Mr. Wilkins adds) that
there was no theatre at Rome which had vases for such a purpose;
although he states them to have been in use in the provinces
of Italy, and in most of the cities of Greece. It is certain,
however, that in the various theatres which have fallen within our
observation, no provision has been made for the reception of vases,
in the situation which Vitruvius assigns to them.”
Since the publication of Mr. Wilkins’s Vitruvius, the researches of
Mr. William Bankes have fortunately enabled him to throw light upon
the subject in question; for in Syria this gentleman discovered a
theatre which was constructed in the manner alluded to by Vitruvius,
and in which some of the vases were actually found in the situations
which he has assigned to them.
We had flattered ourselves on first perceiving the hollow spaces,
which were left under the seats of the theatre which we are
describing at Cyrene, that we had ourselves discovered a second
confirmation of this practice; but no brazen vases appeared in the
spaces in question; and the few remains of pottery which we found
in some of them, will not even justify us in asserting that they
contained originally vases of earthenware.]
[Footnote 5: “Ho trovato che internamente ciascuna di queste
pietre era scolpita di una lettera d’ un alfabeto a me ignoto;
cosi la serie di queste lettere veniva a formare una linea, e queste
linee si ripetevano per ogni serie di pietre. Tentai de copiarle,
ed entrai con questo progetto nell’ aquidotto; ma tra la poca
luce che vi trapeleva da soli luoghi ov’ era rotto, e l’acqua
che spesso a lunghi tratti vi ristagnava, e l’incomoda positura
che doveva prendere per ben riconoscerle, dovette ristarmi dall’
intrapresa. Benche questi caratteri, del pari che altre iscrizioni
segnate sopra queste rovine, appartengano a lingue perdute affatto;
tuttavolta io non ho mai avvisato essere inutil cosa il registrarli,
quando mi è occorso di trovarne. Oltrechè questi caratteri possono
per avventura fornire qualche nuovo elemento agli alfabeti tuttora
oscuri di coteste lingue, conservano ancora solenni documenti de’
popoli a diversa lingua che in queste contrade mano a mano vennero a
stabilirsi. Sono questi i soli documenti che ci ritengano, dall’
abbandonarci interamente all’ autorità de’ Greci scrittori,
i quali si sa che mossi da soverchia tenerezza per le cose loro, non
sapevan temperarsi dal vedere Greche origine ovunque vedean traccie
d’incivilmento, e non videro diffatti che Greci, e discendenti
dalla colonia di Tera, nella Cirenaica.”—(_Viaggio da Tripoli_,
&c. p. 136.)]
[Footnote 6:
[Illustration]
We take these characters from the last page of Signor Della Cella’s
book, where they are inserted without any remarks, and presume that
they must be those alluded to; since all the other inscriptions which
he has introduced in different parts of his work are accounted for,
and are either in Greek or Latin. It will be evident, we think,
to all who are accustomed to see Greek and Roman quarry marks,
that the characters in question are no other, and could never have
been found on any single stone.]
[Footnote 7:
[Illustration]
]
[Footnote 8: The pasturage of Cyrene and Barca was always, as it is at
present, abundant; and both cities were remarkable for their excellent
breed of horses, and their more than ordinary skill in driving. Pindar
gives the epithet ἔυιππος (renowned for horses) to Cyrene; and the
Barceans, we are told (see the ἐθνικὰ of Stephanus), derived their art
of rearing them from Neptune, and their dexterity in the management
of chariots from Minerva. οἵ τας ἱπποτροφιας παρα Ποσειδωνος, ἡνιοχειν
δε παρα Αθηνᾶς ημαθον.]
[Footnote 9: Scavato ad arte è lo sbocco di questa fonte, e
questo incavo ben oltre si prolunga attraverso la montagna, ove
io _per qualche tratto_ volli penetrare, a malgrado le minaccie
delle mie guide, che credono quella cavità ordinaria stanza di
spiriti malevoli.]
[Footnote 10: The Arabs of the present day whom we met with at
Cyrene, would on no account be persuaded to enter the passage in
question, which they believe (as Dr. Della Cella truly observes)
to be the abode of evil spirits.]
[Footnote 11: We imagine the words to have been, επι ιερεος του
μεγιστου Απολλωνος, but the ος is wanting after Απολλων, and the μ in
μεγιστου; in which latter word also the ε and γ look more like an α and
a τ. The rest of the inscription is clear; and were we only to give it
as a fragment, επι ιερεος του...ιστου Απολλων.., there would, probably,
be no doubt raised with respect to the manner of reading it.]