Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2) With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

The reader is requested to observe, that, though the plan of this work is entirely his own, the compiler of it does not put it forth as in any way original in respect to language or description. It is, in fact, a much better book, than if it had been what is strictly called original, (which, indeed, must have involved an utter impossibility:) for it is a selection of some of the best materials the British Museum could furnish; sometimes worked up in his own language; and sometimes--and, indeed, very frequently--in that of others: the compiler having, at an humble distance and with unequal steps, followed the plan which M. Rollin proposed to himself, when he composed his celebrated history of ancient times.--"To adorn and enrich my own," says that celebrated writer, "I will be so ingenuous as to confess, that I do not scruple, nor am ashamed, to rifle whereever I come; and that I often do not cite the authors from whom I transcribe, because of the liberty I take to make some slight alterations. I have made the best use in my power of the solid reflections that occur in the Bishop of Meaux's Universal History, which is one of the most beautiful and most useful books in our language. I have also received great assistance from the learned Dean Prideaux's 'Connexion of the Old and New Testament,' in which he has traced and cleared up, in an admirable manner, the particulars relating to ancient history. I shall take the same liberty with whatever comes in my way, that may suit my design, and contribute to its perfection. I am very sensible, that it is not so much for a person's reputation to make use of other men's labours, and that it is in a manner renouncing the name and quality of author. But I am not over-fond of that title, and shall be extremely well pleased, and think myself very happy, if I can but deserve the name of a good compiler; and supply my readers with a tolerable history, who will not be over-solicitous to inquire what hand it comes from, provided they are but pleased with it."

Having followed this example,--the compiler wishes he could say with equal effect,--he will be fully satisfied, should judicious readers feel inclined to concede, that he has shown some judgment in selecting his materials, and some taste in binding "the beads of the chain," that connects them together. He disclaims, in fact, (as, in the present instance, he is bound to do), all the "_divine honours_" of authorship; satisfied with those of a selecter, adapter, and compiler; and happy in the hope that he has here, by means of the superior writers, whose labours he has used, furnished his readers with an useful, accurate, and amusing work.

C. B. London, January 1st, 1840.

CONTENTS.

PAGE I. ABYDOS 1 II. ABYDUS 5 III. ÆGESTA 7 IV. ÆGINA 8 V. AGRIGENTUM 15 VI. ALBA LONGA 22 VII. ALCANTARA 23 VIII. ALEXANDRIA 25 IX. AMISUS 50 X. ANTIOCH 53 XI. ARGOS 57 XII. ARIAMMENE 65 XIII. ARSINOE 66 XIV. ARTAXATA 69 XV. ARTEMITA 70 XVI. ATHENS 74 XVII. BABYLON 121 XVIII. BALBEC 165 XIX. BYZANTIUM 185 XX. CAIRO (OLD) 200 XXI. CANNÆ 205 XXII. CAPUA 209 XXIII. CARTHAGE 213 XXIV. CATANEA 237 XXV. CHALCEDON 240 XXVI. CHÆRONEA 243 XXVII. CORDUBA 247 XXVIII. CORCYRA (CORFU) 249 XXIX. CORINTH 252 XXX. CTESIPHON 265 XXXI. DELPHOS 274 XXXII. ECBATANA 279 XXXIII. ELEUSIS 294 XXXIV. ELIS 299 XXXV. EPHESUS 301 XXXVI. GERASA (DJERASH) 316 XXXVII. GRANADA 321 XXXVIII. GNIDOS 330 XXXIX. HELIOPOLIS 333 XL. HERCULANEUM 335 XLI. HIERAPOLIS 352 XLII. ISPAHAN 353 XLIII. ITALICA 365 XLIV. JERUSALEM 366 XLV. LACEDÆMON, OR SPARTA 399 XLVI. LAODICEA 407 XLVII. LEUCTRA 410 XLVIII. MAGNESIA 413 XLIX. MANTINEA 415 L. MARATHON 423 LI. MEGALOPOLIS 428 LII. MEGARA 430 LIII. MEMPHIS 435

RUINS OF ANCIENT CITIES.

NO. I.--ABYDOS.

Of chance or change, oh! let not man complain; Else shall he never, never, cease to wail; For from the imperial dome, to where the swain Rears his lone cottage in the silent dale, All feel the assault of fortune's fickle gale. Art, empire, earth itself, to change are doom'd; Earthquakes have raised to heaven the humble vale; And gulfs the mountains' mighty mass entomb'd; And where the Atlantic rolls wide continents have bloom'd.

BEATTIE.

This city stood on the Asiatic side of the Hellespont, now called the Dardanelles, opposite to the city of Sestos, on the European side, the distance from each other being about two miles. Abydos was built by the Milesians, and became greatly celebrated from the circumstance that it was here that Xerxes built his bridge over the Hellespont;--also for the loves of Hero and Leander.

Philip, king of Macedon, laid siege to this city, and nothing of what is generally practised in the assaulting and defending of cities was omitted in the siege. No place, say the historians, was ever defended with greater obstinacy, which might be said at length, on the side of the besieged, to have risen to fury and brutality. Confiding in its own strength, they repulsed, with the greatest vigour, the approaches of the Macedonians. Finding, however, at last, that the outer wall of their city was sapped, and that the Macedonians carried their mines under the inner one, they sent deputies to Philip, offering to surrender the city on certain conditions, one of which was, that all the free citizens should retire whithersoever they pleased, with the clothes they then had on. These conditions were not approved by Philip, he therefore sent for answer, that the Abydonians had only to choose, whether they would surrender at discretion or continue to defend themselves gallantly as they had before done.

When the citizens heard this they assembled together, to consider what they should do in so great an emergency; and here we have to record, not in our own language but in that of others, for our pen would be unequal to the description, circumstances scarcely to be paralleled in all history! It is thus given by Rollin:--

They came to these resolutions; first, that the slaves should be set at liberty, to animate them to defend the city with the utmost vigour; secondly, that all the women should be shut up in the temple of Diana, and all the children with their nurses in the Gymnasium; that this being done, they then should bring into the great square all the gold and silver in the city, and carry all the rest of the valuable effects into the quadrireme of the Rhodians and the trireme of the Cyzicenians. This resolution having passed unanimously, another assembly was called, in which they chose fifty of the wisest and most ancient of the citizens, but who at the same time had vigour enough left to execute what should have been determined; and they were made to take an oath, in presence of all the inhabitants, that the instant they saw the enemy master of the inner wall they should kill the women and children, set fire to the galleys laden with their effects, and throw into the sea all the gold and silver which they had heaped together. Then, sending for their priests, they took an oath either to conquer or die, sword in hand; and after having sacrificed the victims, they obliged the priests and priestesses to pronounce before the altar the greatest curses on those who should break their oath. This being done, they left off countermining, and resolved, the instant the wall should fall, to fly to the breach and fight to the last. Accordingly, the inward wall tumbling, the besieged, true to the oath they had taken, fought in the breach with such unparalleled bravery, that though Philip had perpetually sustained with fresh soldiers those who had mounted to the assault, yet, when night separated the combatants, he was still doubtful with regard to the success of the siege. Such Abydonians as marched first to the breach, over the heaps of slain, fought with fury, and not only made use of their swords and javelins, but after their arms were broken to pieces or forced from their hands, they rushed furiously upon the Macedonians, knocked down some, broke the long spears of others, and with the pieces struck their faces and such parts of their bodies as were uncovered, till they made them entirely despair of the event. When night had put an end to the slaughter, the breach was quite covered with the dead bodies of the Abydonians, and those who had escaped were so prodigiously fatigued, and had received so many wounds, that they could scarce support themselves. Things being brought to this dreadful extremity, two of the principal citizens, unable to execute the dreadful resolution that had been taken, and which at that time displayed itself to their imaginations in all its horror, agreed that, to save their wives and children, they should send to Philip by day-break all their priests and priestesses, clothed in pontifical habits, to implore his mercy and open their gates to him. Accordingly the next morning the city, as had been agreed, was surrendered to Philip, during which the greatest part of the Abydonians, who survived, vented millions of imprecations against their fellow-citizens, and especially against the priests and priestesses, for delivering up to the enemy those whom they themselves had devoted to death with the most dreadful oaths. Philip marched into the city and seized, without the least opposition, all the rich effects which the Abydonians had heaped together in one place. But now he was greatly terrified with the spectacle he saw. Among these ill-fated citizens, whom despair had made furious and distracted, some were strangling their wives and children; and others cutting them with swords to pieces; some were running to murder them; some were plunging them into wells; whilst others were precipitating them from the tops of the houses; in a word, death appeared in a variety of horrors. Philip, pierced with grief, and seized with horror at the spectacle, stopped the soldiers who were greedy of plunder, and published a declaration, importing that he would allow three days to all, who were resolved to lay violent hands on themselves. He was in hopes that during this interval they would change their resolution, but they had made their choice before. They thought it would be degenerating from those, who had lost their lives in fighting for their country, should they survive them. The individuals of every family killed one another, and none escaped this murderous expedition but those whose hands were tied, or were otherwise kept from destroying themselves.

Nothing now remains of the ancient town, but a few insignificant ruins in the neighbourhood of the modern one[1].

NO. II.--ABYDUS.

Abydus, in Egypt, is now called Madfuneh, or the Buried City. According to Pliny and Strabo it was a colony of Milesians. It is said once to have nearly equalled Thebes in grandeur and magnificence; but it was reduced to a village in the reign of Augustus, and is now only a heap of uninhabited ruins.

In its neighbourhood, however, the celebrated tomb of Ismandes is still found; he who built the temple of Osiris, into which no singers or dancers were ever allowed to enter. Besides numerous tombs and sepulchral monuments, that are continually found here, the remains of two grand edifices, and other ruins, evince its former extent, and justify the assertion of Strabo, that Abydus formerly held the first rank after Thebes itself. One of those edifices was called the Palace of Memnon; but it was, in reality, commenced by Osirei, and completed by his son Remesis II., and from the peculiar nature of its plan, and the structure of its roof, it is particularly interesting to the antiquary. This last is formed of large blocks of stone placed from one architrave to the other; not, as usual in Egyptian buildings, on their faces, but on their sides; so that considerable thickness having been given to the roof, a vault was afterwards cut in them, without endangering its stability. The other building is the famous temple of Osiris, who was reported to have been buried in Abydus, and who was worshipped there in his most sacred character. There are many other places, says Plutarch, where his corpse is said to have been deposited; but Abydus and Memphis are mentioned in particular as having the true body; and for this reason the rich and powerful of the Egyptians were desirous of being buried in the former of these two cities, in order to lie, as it were, in the same grave with Osiris himself. The fact, that the natives of other towns also were buried at Abydus, is fully confirmed by modern discoveries; and inscriptions, purporting that the deceased were from some distant part of the country, are frequently found in the tombs of its extensive cemetery. The temple of Osiris was completed by Remesis II., who enriched it with a splendid sanctuary, rendered unusually conspicuous from the materials used in its construction, being entirely lined with oriental alabaster. He also added to the numerous chambers and courts many elegant and highly-finished sculptures. One of these lateral apartments contains the famous tablet of kings, discovered by Mr. Bankes, and which, in an historical point of view, is one of the most precious monuments hitherto met with among the ruins of Egypt. In the cemetery to the northward are some other stone remains, among which is one of the time of Remesis the Second, and another bearing the name of Sabaco.