Ruins of Ancient Cities Part 27

In an excavation, made in one of the tumuli, some years ago, were found a number of busts;--of Socrates, Lucius Verus, and Marcus Aurelius, with another of an unknown person, sculptured with great care, and happily finished.

The unknown bust is supposed to be that of Herodes Atticus, a native of this city, and greatly distinguished. His history is exceedingly curious. We take it from Sir George Wheler.

"He flourished about the time of the emperors Trajan, Adrian, Antoninus Pius, and Marcus Aurelius. His grandfather Hipparchus, or as Suidas has it, Plutarchus, was well to pa.s.s in the world, but having been accused of some tyrannical practices, used towards the people, the emperor confiscated all his estates; so that his son, Atticus, father of this Herod; lived afterwards in Athens in a mean condition; until, having found a great hidden treasure in his own house, near the theatre, he became on a sudden very rich. He was not more fortunate in lending it, than prudent in getting it confirmed on himself; for well knowing, should it come to be discovered, he should be obliged to give an account of it to the emperor, he wrote thus:--'My liege, I have found a treasure in my house; what do you command that I should do with it?' The emperor answered him, 'That he should make use of what he had found.' But Atticus, yet fearing that he might be in danger of some trouble, when the greatness of the treasure should come to be known, wrote a second time to the emperor, professing ingenuously, that the treasure he had written to him about was too great a possession for him, and exceeded the capacity of a private man. But the emperor answered him again with the same generosity, 'Abuse, also, if thou wilt, the riches thou hast so accidentally come by; for they are thine.' By this means, Atticus became again extremely rich and powerful, having married a wife also that was very rich, whence it came to pa.s.s that his son and heir Herodes far surpa.s.sed his father both in wealth and magnificence, and became the founder of many stately edifices in sundry parts of Greece; and, dying, left by his will ten crowns to every citizen of Athens. Neither did he partake less of virtue and merit than he did of fortune; being very learned, and so eloquent, that he was called the tongue of Athens; having been the disciple of the famous Phavorinus. Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus, emperors of his time, made it their glory that they had been his auditors. His entire name was Tiberius Claudius Atticus Herodes; as I prove by an inscription that is at Athens, in the house of Signor Nicoli Limbonia."--Thus far, Sir George Wheler. Chandler goes on to observe, that Herodes Atticus directed his freed-men to bury him at Marathon; where he died, at the age of seventy-six. But the Ephebi, or young men of Athens, transported his body on their shoulders to the city, a mult.i.tude meeting the bier, and weeping like children for the loss of a parent.

The antiquities of this plain resolve themselves into the tomb of the Athenians, the monument of Miltiades, and the tomb of the Plataeans. Dr.

Clarke found also many interesting relics, for an account of which we must refer to his Travels, in order that we may find s.p.a.ce for some beautiful remarks, with which he closes his very agreeable account. "If there be a spot upon earth, pre-eminently calculated to awaken the solemn sentiments, which such a view of nature is fitted to make upon all men, it may surely be found in the plain of Marathon; where, amidst the wreck of generations, and the graves of ancient heroes, we elevate our thoughts towards HIM, 'in whose sight a thousand years are but as yesterday;' where the stillness of Nature, harmonizing with the calm solitude of that ill.u.s.trious region, which once was a scene of the most agitated pa.s.sions, enables us, by the past, to determine of the future.

In those moments, indeed, we may be said to live for ages;--a single instant, by the mult.i.tude of impressions it conveys, seems to antic.i.p.ate for us a sense of that eternity 'when time shall be no more;' when the fitful dream of human existence, with all its turbulent illusions, shall be dispelled; and the last sun having set, in the last of the world, a brighter dawn than ever gladdened the universe, shall renovate the dominions of darkness and of death."[351]

NO. LI.--MEGALOPOLIS.

This city, situated in Arcadia, had one of the most ill.u.s.trious persons of ancient times for its founder, Epaminondas. Its population was collected from various small cities and towns of Arcadia.

Soon after its establishment, the inhabitants sent to Plato for a code of laws. The philosopher was much pleased with so flattering an offer; but he ultimately declined sending them one, because he learned from a disciple, whom he had sent to Megalopolis, that the inhabitants would never consent to an equality of property.

In 232 B.C., Megalopolis joined the Achaian league, and was taken and ruined by Cleomenes. At that period it was as large a city as Sparta.

Its most valuable paintings and sculptures were conveyed to the Laconian capital, and great part of the city destroyed.

The Athenians, soon after, beginning to see the impropriety of not keeping up the balance of power in Greece, Demosthenes signalised himself greatly in endeavouring to persuade them to take part with the Megalopolitans. "It has been a perpetual maxim with us," said he, "to a.s.sist the oppressed against the oppressor. We have never varied from this principle. The reproach of changing, therefore, ought not to fall upon us, but upon those whose injustice and usurpation oblige us to declare against them."

"I admire the language of politicians," says Rollin. "To hear them talk, it is always reason and the strictest justice that determine them; but to see them act, makes it evident that interest and ambition are the sole rule and guide of their conduct. Their discourse is an effect of that regard for justice, which nature has implanted on the mind of man, and which they cannot entirely shake off. There are few that venture to declare against that internal principle in their expressions, or to contradict it openly. But there are also few who observe it with fidelity and constancy in their actions. Greece never was known to have more treaties of alliance than at the time we are now speaking of, nor were they ever less regarded. This contempt of religion, of oaths in states, is a proof of their decline, and often denotes and occasions their approaching ruin." The Athenians, moved by the eloquent discourse of Demosthenes, sent three thousand foot and three hundred horse to the aid of Pamanes. Megalopolis was reinstated in its former condition; and the inhabitants, who had retired into their own countries, were obliged to return.

Anacharsis, from whose travels we have gleaned so many interesting anecdotes, says:--"A small river, called the Helisson, divides the city into two parts, in both of which houses and public edifices have been built, and are still building. That to the north contains a tower, enclosed by a stone bal.u.s.trade, and surrounded by some edifices and porticoes. A superb bronze statue of Apollo, twelve feet high, has been erected facing the temple of Jupiter. This statue is a present from the Philagians, who contributed with pleasure to the embellishments of the new city. Some private individuals have done the same. One of the porticoes bears the name of Aristander, who caused it to be built at his own expense. In the part to the south we saw a s.p.a.cious edifice, in which is held the a.s.sembly of the ten thousand deputies, appointed to conduct the important affairs of the state. The city contains a great number of statues; among others, we saw the work of two Athenian artists, Cephisodorus and Xenophon, consisting of a group, in which Jupiter is represented, seated on a throne, with the city of Megalopolis in his right hand, and Diana Conservatrix on his left. The marble of which it is made is the production of the quarries of Mount Pentelicus, near Athens.

The theatre at Megalopolis was the largest in Greece. The circular part still remains; but the seats are covered with earth and overgrown with bushes. Part of the walls of the proscenium are also seen facing the Helisson, a small but rapid river, which flows a few yards to the east.

The remains of the temples are dubious; some ma.s.ses of walls and scattered blocks of columns indicate their situations; without indicating the divinities to whose worship they were consecrated. The soil being much raised, Mr. Dodwell thinks that it may conceal several remains of the city.

There are several other ruins at the distance of a few miles from Megalopolis, which recent travellers have not been able to visit on account of the troubles which have lately prevailed in almost every part of the Morea[352].

NO. LII.--MEGARA.

Megara, a city of Achaia, formerly possessed such a mult.i.tude of objects for a stranger to see, that Pausanias, in his description of Greece, occupies no less than six chapters in the mere enumeration of them.

Megara was founded 1131 B.C. It is situate at an equal distance from Athens and Corinth, and is built on two rocks. Its founder has been variously stated. Some have insisted that it was called after Megareus, the son of Apollo; some after Megarius, a Boeotian chief; and others after Megara, a supposed wife of Hercules. However this may be, certain, we believe, it is, that, under the reign of Codrus, the Peloponnesians having declared war against the Athenians, and miscarried in their enterprise, returned and took possession of Megara, which they peopled with Corinthians. It was originally governed by twelve kings, but afterwards became a republic. The ancient Megareans are said to have excelled in nothing but naval affairs. They were reckoned the worst people of Greece, and were generally detested as fraudulent and perfidious[353]. Their military acts were few, and not brilliant. They were bandied about by the Athenians and Corinthians, and had all the bad qualities of insolent slaves, or servile and dependent friends. Such having been the case, we are not surprised at what Tertullian says of the Megareans; viz., that they ate as if they were to die the next day, and built as if they were to live for ever. Megara, however, was not without some redeeming qualities, for it had at one time a school for philosophy, so highly distinguished, that Euclid was at the head of it.

Megara has been greatly distinguished from the circ.u.mstance of Phocion having been buried in its territories. The enemies of Phocion, not satisfied with the punishment they had caused him to suffer, and believing some particulars were still wanting to complete their triumph, obtained an order from the people, that his body should be carried out of the dominions of Attica, and that none of the Athenians should contribute the least quant.i.ty of wood to honour his funeral pile: these last offices were therefore rendered to him in the territories of _Megara_. A lady of the country, who accidentally a.s.sisted at his funeral with her servants, caused a cenotaph, or vacant tomb, to be erected to his memory on the same spot; and, collecting into her robe the bones of that great man, which she had carefully gathered up, she conveyed them into her house by night, and buried them under her hearth, with these expressions: "Dear and sacred hearth, I here confide to thee, and deposit in thy bosom, these precious remains of a worthy man.

Preserve them with fidelity, in order to restore them hereafter to the monument of his ancestors, when the Athenians shall become wiser than they are at present."

Megara still retains it name: it has been greatly infested by corsairs; insomuch that in 1676, the inhabitants were accustomed, on seeing a boat approaching in the daytime, or hearing their dogs bark by night, immediately to secrete their effects and run away. The Vaiwode, who lived in a forsaken tower, above the village, was once carried off.

Besides two citadels, Megara had several magnificent structures and ornaments. One was an aqueduct, distinguished for its grandeur and beauty; another for a statue of Diana, the protectress; and to these were added statues of the twelve great G.o.ds, of so much excellence, that they were ascribed to Praxiteles;--a group, consecrated to Jupiter Olympius, in which was a statue of that deity, with its face of gold and ivory, and the rest of the body of burnt earth. There were also a temple of Bacchus, and another of Venus; a third of Ceres, a fourth of Apollo, a fifth of Diana, and a sixth of Minerva; in which last was a statue of the G.o.ddess, the body of which was gilt, and the face, feet, and hands of ivory. There was, also, a chapel dedicated to the Night. Pausanias speaks, also, of several tombs; especially those of Hyllus, Alcmenes, Therea, and Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons.

In Wheler's time, Megara was a collection of pitiful cottages, whose walls were sometimes only the broken stones of her ruins, or clay dried in the sun, covered only with f.a.ggots; and these again spread over with earth above them*.

Chandler describes the site of Megara as covered with rubbish, amongst which were standing some ruinous churches; some pieces of ancient wall, on which a modern fortress has been erected. The village consisting of low, mean cottages, pleasantly situated on the slope of an eminence, indented in the middle. Nearly the whole site of the ancient city he found green with corn, and marked by heaps of stones, and the rubbish of buildings. A few inscriptions, too, were seen: one of which relates to Herodes Atticus, signalising the grat.i.tude of the Megareans, for his benefactions and good will. There was another on a stone:--"_This, too, is the work of the most magnificent Count Diogenes, the son of Archelaus, who, regarding the Grecian cities as his own family, has bestowed on that of the Megarensians 100 pieces of gold towards the building of their towers; and also 150 more, with 2200 feet of marble, toward re-edifying the bath; deeming nothing more honourable than to do good to the Greeks, and to restore their cities._"

The person here signalised was one of the generals of the emperor Anastasius, who employed him on a rebellion in Isauria, A.D. 494.

Wheler also gives an inscription in "honour of Callimachus, Scribe and Gymnasiarch," and several others. Dr. Clarke also saw one, setting forth that, "_under the care of Julius, the proconsul, and the praetorship of Aiscron, this (monument or statue) is raised by the Adrianidae to Adrian_."

Several other inscriptions have been found; one in honour of the Empress Sabina; and others in praise of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. There is another, too, in honour of a person, who had been several times conqueror in almost all the public games in Greece and Italy. There was, also (formerly), another inscription, still more honourable. This was on the tomb of a person named Choraebus, in which was related, in elegiac verse, the history of his having devoted himself to death, in order to free his native country (Thebes) from the evils of a pestilence[354].

The Earl of Sandwich mentions two statues of women, about eight feet high, without heads; and having no attributes to show for what they were designed.

Clarke says, that Ionic and Doric capitals, some of which are of limestone, and others of marble, lie scattered among the ruins, and in the courts of some of the houses. He procured, also, a few fragments of terra-cotta, of a bright red hue, beautifully fluted.

Chandler speaks of the remains of a temple of Minerva, near a large basin of water; on the sides of which are the remains of a bath, remarkable for its size and ornaments, and for the number of its columns.

The stone of Megara was of a kind unknown any where else in h.e.l.las; very white, and consisting entirely of c.o.c.kle sh.e.l.ls; which, not being hard, may be reckoned among the causes of the destruction of Megara.

Another cause of destruction may be supposed to have originated in its locality; it being the great road leading to and from the peninsula, as well as its immediate situation between the two powerful enemies,--the Athenians and Corinthians,--with whom the Megareans had frequent contests concerning the boundaries of their respective territories. If its situation, however, was the cause of its destruction, it was, also, the one great cause of its consequence[355].

Megara is well known from the following anecdote. The city of _Megara_ being taken by Demetrius, the soldiers demanded leave to plunder the inhabitants; but the Athenians interceded for them so effectually, that the city was saved. Stilpon, a celebrated philosopher, lived in that city, and was visited by Demetrius, who asked him if he had lost any thing?--"Nothing at all," replied Stilpon, "for I carry all my effects about me;" meaning by that expression, his justice, probity, temperance, and wisdom; with the advantage of not ranking any thing in the cla.s.s of blessings that could be taken from him[356].

NO. LIII.--MEMPHIS.

There are said to be in Upper Egypt thirty-four temples, still in existence, and five palaces. The most ancient have been constructed chiefly of sand-stone, and a few with calcareous stone. Granite was only used in obelisks and colossal statues. After the seat of empire was removed to Memphis, granite was made use of.

Memphis, according to Herodotus, was built (eight generations after Thebes) by Menes; but Diodorus attributes its origin to Uch.o.r.eus, one of the successors of Osymandyas, king of Thebes. To reconcile this want of agreement, some authors ascribe the commencement to Menes, and its completion and aggrandis.e.m.e.nt to Uch.o.r.eus, who first made it a royal city.

The occasion of its having been erected, is thus stated[357]:--A king of Egypt having turned the course of the Nile, which diffused itself over the sands of Lybia, and the Delta being formed from the mud of its waters, ca.n.a.ls were cut to drain Lower Egypt. The monarchs, who till then had resided at Thebes, removed nearer the mouth of the river, to enjoy an air more temperate, and be more ready to defend the entrance of their empire. They founded the city of Memphis, and endeavoured to render it equal to the ancient capital; decorating it with many temples, among which that of Vulcan drew the attention of travellers: its grandeur and sumptuousness of rich ornaments, each excited admiration.

Another temple beside the barren plain was dedicated to Serapis, the princ.i.p.al entrance to which had a sphinx avenue. Egypt has always been oppressed with sands, which, acc.u.mulating here, half buried some of the sphinxes, and others up to the neck, in the time of Strabo; at present they have disappeared. To prevent this disaster, they built a large mound on the south side, which also served as a barrier against the inundations of the river, and the encroachments of the enemy. The palace of the kings and a fortress built on the mountain, defended it on the west; the Nile on the east; and to the north were the lakes, beyond which were the plain of mummies, and the causeway which led from Busiris to the great pyramids. Thus situated, Memphis commanded the valley of Egypt, and communicated by ca.n.a.ls with the lakes Moeris and Mareotis.

Its citizens might traverse the kingdom in boats; and it therefore became the centre of wealth, commerce, and arts; where geometry, invented by the Egyptians, flourished. Hither the Greeks came to obtain knowledge, which, carrying into their own country, they brought to perfection. Thebes, and her hundred gates, lay forgotten, and on the hill near Memphis, rose those proud monuments, those superb mausoleums, which alone, of all the Wonders of the World, have braved destructive time, and men still more destructive.

Strabo says, that in this city there were many palaces, situated along the side of a hill, stretching down to lakes and groves, forty stadia from the city. "The princ.i.p.al deities of Memphis," says Mr. Wilkinson, "were Pthah, Apis, and Butastis; and the G.o.ddess Isis had a magnificent temple in this city, erected by Amasis, who also dedicated a rec.u.mbent colossus, seventy-five feet long, in the temple of Pthah or Vulcan.

This last was said to have been founded by Menes, and was enlarged and beautified by succeeding monarchs. Moeris erected the northern vestibule; and Sesostris, besides the colossal statues, made considerable additions with enormous blocks of stone, which he employed his prisoners of war to drag to the temple. Pheron, his son, also enriched it with suitable presents, on the recovery of his sight; and on the south of the temple of Palain, were added the sacred grove and chapel of Proteons. The western vestibule was the work of Rhampsinetus, who also erected two statues, twenty-five cubits in height; and that on the east was Asychis. It was the largest and most magnificent of all these propyla, and excelled as well in the beauty of its sculpture as its dimensions. Several grand additions were afterwards made by Psamaticus, who, besides the southern vestibule, erected a large hypaethral court, where Apis was kept, when exhibited in public. It was surrounded by a peristyle of figures, twelve cubits in height, which served instead of columns, and which were no doubt similar to those in the Memnonium at Thebes."

Diodorus and Strabo speak highly of its power and opulence:--"Never was there a city," observes the former of these, "which received so many offerings in silver, gold, obelisks, and colossal statues."

The first shock this city received was from the Persians[358]. Cambyses, having invaded Egypt, sent a herald to Memphis, to summon the inhabitants to surrender. The people, however, transported with rage, fell upon the herald, and tore him to pieces, and all that were with him. Cambyses, having soon after taken the place, fully revenged the indignity, causing ten times as many Egyptians of the prime n.o.bility, as there had been of his people ma.s.sacred, to be publicly executed.

Among these was the eldest son of Psammenitus. As for the king himself, Cambyses was inclined to treat him kindly. He not only spared his life, but appointed him an honourable maintenance. But the Egyptian monarch, little affected by this kind usage, did what he could to raise new troubles and commotions, in order to recover his kingdom; as a punishment for which he was made to drink bull's blood, and died immediately. His reign lasted but six months; after which all Egypt submitted to the conqueror.

When the tyrant came back from Thebes, he dismissed all the Greeks, and sent them to their respective homes; but on his return into the city, finding it full of rejoicing, he fell into a great rage, supposing all this to have been for the ill success of his expedition. He therefore called the magistrates before him, to know the meaning of these rejoicings; and upon their telling him that it was because they had found their G.o.d, Apis, he would not believe them; but caused them to be put to death, as impostors, that insulted him in his misfortunes. And when he sent for the priests, who made him the same answer, he replied, that since their G.o.d was so kind and familiar as to appear among them, he would be acquainted with him, and therefore commanded him forthwith to be brought to him. But when, instead of a G.o.d be saw a calf, he was strangely astonished, and falling again into a rage, he drew out his dagger, and run it into the thigh of the beast; and then upbraiding the priests for their stupidity in worshipping a brute for a G.o.d, ordered them to be severely whipped, and all the Egyptians in Memphis, that should be found celebrating the feast of Apis, to be slain. The G.o.d was carried back to the temple, where he languished for some time and then died. The Egyptians say, that after this fact, which they reckon the highest instance of impiety that ever was committed among them, Cambyses grew mad. But his actions show that he had been mad long before.

The splendour of Upper Egypt terminated with the invasion of Cambyses.