Ruins of Ancient Cities Part 18

NO. x.x.xIV.--ELIS.

Elis was formed, like many of the Grecian cities, more especially in the Peloponnesus, by the union of several hamlets.

It was a large and populous city in the time of Demosthenes; but in that of Homer it did not exist.

Elis was originally governed by kings, and received its name from Eleus, one of its monarchs. It was famous for the horses it produced, whose celebrity was so often tried at the Olympic games.

"On our arrival at Elis," says Anacharsis, "we met a procession on its way to the temple of Minerva, and that made part of a ceremony, in which the youth of Elis contended for the prize of beauty. The victor was led in triumph; the first, with his head bound with ribands, bore the weapons to be consecrated to the G.o.ddess; the second conducted the victim; and the third carried the other offerings. I have often seen similar contests in Greece, for the young men; as well as for the women and girls. Even among distant nations, I have seen women admitted to public compet.i.tions; with this difference, however, that the Greeks decree the prize to the most beautiful, and the barbarians to the most virtuous."

This city was once ornamented with temples, sumptuous edifices, and a number of statues. Among these was particularly distinguished the group of the Graces, in a temple dedicated to them. They were habited in a light and brilliant drapery;--the first held a myrtle branch in honour of Venus; the second, a rose, to denote the spring; the third, a die, the symbol of infant sports.

The chief curiosity at Elis, however, was a statue of Jupiter, formed by Phidias[229]. The serene majesty and beauty of this piece of sculpture ranked it among the wonders of the world. Jupiter was represented sitting upon a throne, with an olive wreath of gold about his temples; the upper part of his body was naked; a wide mantle, covering the rest of it, hung down in the richest folds to his feet, which rested on a footstool. The naked parts of the statue were of ivory; the dress was of beaten gold, with an imitation of embroidery, painted by Panaenus, brother of Phidias. In the right hand stood the G.o.ddess Victoria, turning towards the statue, and carved, like it, out of ivory and gold; she was holding out a band, with which she appeared desirous to encircle his olive crown. In his left hand the divinity held a parti-coloured sceptre, made of various metals skilfully joined, and on the sceptre rested an eagle. Power, wisdom, and goodness, were admirably expressed in his features. He sat with the air of a divinity, presiding among the judges of the games, and dispensing the laurel wreaths to the victors, calm in conscious dignity. The statue was surrounded with magnificent drapery, which was drawn aside only on particular occasions, when the deity was to be exhibited. A sense of greatness and splendour overwhelmed the spectator, the height of the figure being about forty feet.

The structures of Elis[230] seem to have been raised with materials far less elegant and durable than the produce of the Ionian and Attic quarries. The ruins are of brick, and not considerable; consisting of pieces of ordinary wall, and an octagon building with niches, which, it is supposed, was the temple, with a circular peristyle. These stand detached from each other, ranging in a vale southward from the wide bed of the river Peneus, which, by the margin, has several large stones, perhaps the relics of the gymnasium.

The ruins of Elis, says Mr. Dodwell, are few and uninteresting. Of Grecian remains nothing is seen but a confused wreck of scattered blocks. There are some ma.s.ses of brick-work, and an octagon tower of the same materials, which appears to be of Roman origin. It is surprising that there should be so few remains of the temples, porticoes, theatres, and other edifices, which embellished the town at the time of Pausanias; but some suppose that much is covered by the earth; since it is considerably higher than its original level[231].

NO. x.x.xV.--EPHESUS.

This city was once reputed the metropolis of Asia; and thence it was styled Epiphanestata, a name signifying "Monstrous." It was at first not merely a village, but a small village; yet, in the time of Strabo, it was the largest and most frequented emporium of all that continent. It was situated in Ionia, about 50 miles south of Smyrna, near the mouth of the river Cayster. Pliny tells us, that before his age, it had been known by various names. In the time of the Trojan war, it was called Alopes; soon after, Ortygia, and Morges; then it took the name of Smyrna; then Samornium, and Ptelea. "It is mounted on a hill," says he, "and hath the river Cayster under it, which cometh out of the Cilbian hills, and brings down with it the waters of many other rivers; but is princ.i.p.ally maintained and enriched by the lake Pegaseum, which discharges itself by the river Phyrites, that runs into it. A large quant.i.ty of mud is brought down, which increases the land; for already, a good way within the land, is an island called Phyrie, nearly joined to the continent."

Pliny, and several other ancient writers, a.s.sert that this city was founded by the Amazons; but others, with greater probability, ascribe that honour to a party emigrating from Athens. As this emigration was important, we shall pause a little upon it. It is called the Ionic emigration. It was led from Athens by two young men, named Neleus and Androcles, the younger sons of Codrus the king. Mult.i.tudes followed them, especially certain Ionian and Messenian families, who had taken refuge in that city after the Dorian conquest. On landing, they seized upon four hundred miles[232] of Asia Minor, together with the islands of Samos and Chios; and having driven out the Carians and Segetes, founded twelve cities. Of these Ephesus was one[233]. Neleus settled at Miletus; but Androcles, the elder brother, at Ephesus. Strabo relates, that the authority of Androcles was at first acknowledged over all the cities; but that a republican government was soon after established, and that the munic.i.p.ality of each city claimed sovereign authority; the whole being, nevertheless, united by confederacy; having, for considering their common affairs, a general council. This council was called Panionium.

This form of government continued to the time of Pythagoras, who lived before Cyrus the Great, and was one of the most savage tyrants of whom history makes mention. He was succeeded by Pyndarus, who ruled with a less absolute and cruel sway; in whose time Ephesus was besieged by Croesus, king of Lydia. That prince advised the inhabitants to dedicate their city to Diana; and they having resolved to follow his advice, he treated them with kindness, and restored them to their former liberty.

The other tyrants, mentioned in Ephesian history, were, Athenagoras, Comes, Aristarchus, and Hegesias. The last of these governed under the patronage of Alexander[234]. That conqueror, however, at length expelled him; and, having done so, bestowed upon the temple of Diana, after having defeated the Persians on the banks of the Granicus,--all the tributes which the Ephesians had been accustomed to pay to the Persian kings. He also established a democracy in the city.

Ephesus was greatly a.s.sisted, also, by Lysander the Lacedemonian.

Plutarch relates, that when that person went to Ephesus, he found that city well disposed to the Lacedemonians, but in a bad condition as to its internal policy, and in danger of falling into the hands of the Persians; because it was near Lydia, and the king's lieutenants often visited it. Lysander, therefore, having fixed his quarters there, ordered all his store-s.h.i.+ps to be brought into the harbour, and built a dock for his galleys. By these means he filled the ports with merchants, their markets with business, and their houses and shops with money. So that from that time, and from his services, continues Plutarch, Ephesus began to conceive hopes of that greatness and splendour in which it afterwards flourished.

We must now describe the temple at this place, dedicated to Diana. It was in part built by the hands of kings. It was four hundred and twenty-five feet long and two hundred feet broad, and not only adorned with the choicest paintings and statues, but with whatever the hand of art or genius could produce in that day of superior execution and magnificence. The roof was supported by one hundred and twenty-seven columns, sixty feet high. Of these, thirty-six were carved in a most exquisite manner: nor was it entirely completed till two hundred and twenty years after its first foundation. Its architect was Ctesiphon.

The riches placed in this temple were very great, and the G.o.ddess was represented as crowned with turrets, holding in her arms lions; while a number of beasts seemed to indicate the fertility and resources of the earth, or of nature. It was formed of ebony; and Pliny states, that though the staircase, which led up to the top of this edifice, was not very narrow, it was formed out of the trunk of one single vine.

This temple was destroyed on the day on which Alexander was born. It was burnt by an Ephesian, who thus desired to immortalise his name. In order to frustrate the accomplishment of this desire, the Ephesians enacted a law, that no one should even be guilty of mentioning his name. The name of Eratostratus, nevertheless, has descended to posterity.

Such is the account left us by Plutarch and Valerius Maximus. On this occasion, Hegesias, the Magnesian, "uttered a conceit," says Plutarch, "frigid enough to have extinguished the flames." "It is no wonder," said he, "that the temple of Diana was burnt, when she was at a distance employed in bringing Alexander into the world."[235]

All the Magi, continues Plutarch, who were then at Ephesus, looked upon the fire as a sign which betokened a much greater misfortune;--they ran about the town beating their faces, and crying, "that the day had brought forth the greatest scourge and destroyer of Asia."

Barthelemy makes Anacharsis visit Ephesus some few years after this calamity. Nothing then remained of this superb temple but the four walls and some columns in the midst of ruins. The fire had consumed the roof and the ornaments which decorated the nave. Alexander offered to rebuild this edifice; but the offer being accompanied by the condition, that the Ephesians should inscribe his name upon it as that of the benefactor; the Ephesians refused to accept his offer. They, nevertheless, refused in a manner that gave him, no doubt, a superior satisfaction. It was, that one deity ought not to raise a temple to another!

At the time Barthelemy has named, the temple was beginning to be rebuilt[236]. All the citizens had contributed, and the women had sacrificed their jewels. No change was made in the form of the G.o.ddess'

statue; a form anciently borrowed from the Egyptians, and which was found, also, in the temples of several other Greek cities. The G.o.ddess bore on her head a tower; two iron rods supported her hands; and the body terminated in a sheath, encircled with symbols and the figures of animals.

Thirty-six of the columns were carved by Scopas, of the school of Praxiteles[237], and it was in this temple that the Ionic order in architecture was first employed; and every column contained one hundred and ten tons of marble[238].

In the war between the Romans and Mithridates, the Ephesians took part with the latter; and by his command went even so far as to ma.s.sacre all the Romans in their city[239]. For this atrocity they were severely fined, and reduced almost to beggars.

Whoever might have originally founded this city, certain it is that the town, which in the Roman times was the metropolis of Asia, was founded by Lysimachus; he having caused the first city to be destroyed. When he had effected that, he rebuilt it in a more convenient place.

This new city became very splendid in process of time; but it was greatly damaged in the reign of Tiberius by an earthquake. On this Tiberius ordered it to be repaired and adorned with many stately buildings; and of that city the ruins which are now visible are the remains.

Ephesus was in subsequent times sacked by the Goths, and the temple of Diana again burnt to the ground. The ruin of the temple is thus described by Gibbon:--"In the general calamities of mankind, the death of an individual, however exalted, the ruin of an edifice, however famous, are pa.s.sed over with careless inattention. Yet, we cannot forget that the temple of Diana at Ephesus, after having risen with increasing splendour from seven repeated misfortunes[240], was finally burnt by the Goths in their third naval invasion. The arts of Greece, and the wealth of Asia, had conspired to erect that sacred and magnificent structure.

It was supported by one hundred and twenty-seven marble columns of the Ionic order. They were the gifts of devout monarchs, and each was sixty feet high. The altar was adorned with the masterly sculpture of Praxiteles, who had, perhaps, selected from the favourite legends of the place, the birth of the divine children of Latona, the concealment of Apollo after the slaughter of the Cyclops, and the clemency of Bacchus to the vanquished Amazons[241]. Yet the length of the temple of Ephesus was only four hundred and twenty-five feet; about two-thirds of the measurement of the church of St. Peter's at Rome[242]. In the other dimensions it was still inferior to that sublime production of modern architecture. The spreading arms of a Christian cross require a much greater breadth than the oblong temples of the pagans; and the boldest architect of antiquity would have been startled at the proposal of raising in the air a dome of the size and proportions of the Pantheon.

The temple of Diana was, however, admired as one of the wonders of the world. Successive empires, the Persian, Macedonian, and the Roman, had revered its sanct.i.ty, and enriched its splendour. But the rude savages of the Baltic were dest.i.tute of a taste for the elegant arts, and they despised the ideal terrors of a foreign superst.i.tion[243]."

In regard to this temple, some have supposed that the subterranean arches still existing are the remains of it. This, however, cannot be allowed. "A Sybilline oracle," says Sir John Hobhouse, "foretold, that the earth would tremble and open, and that this glorious edifice would fall headlong into the abyss; and present appearances might justify the belief, that it was swept from the face of the earth by some overwhelming catastrophe." "It is easier to conceive," he goes on to observe, "that such an event, although unnoticed, did take place, than that a marble temple, four hundred and twenty feet long, and two hundred and twenty feet broad, whose columns (one hundred and twenty-seven in number) were sixty feet high, should have left no other vestige than two fragments of wall, some brick subterraneous arches, and four granite pillars." Certain it is that large portions of this city were carried away at various times to a.s.sist in building or adorning other cities, more especially Constantinople. "It is probable," says Hobhouse, "that Christian zeal accelerated the devastations of time; and that the Ephesians, in order to prevent the punishment denounced against the seven churches of Asia, may have been eager to demolish this monument of their glory and their shame. The cedar roofs, the cypress doors, the vine staircase, the sculptured column of Scopas, the altar adorned by Praxiteles, the paintings of Parrhasius and Apelles, and the ebony image of the G.o.ddess, may have fallen before the enemies of pagan idolatry; and the piety of the priests might have been more injurious to Diana than the rapacity of the Goths; but neither the cupidity nor audacity of the reformers, against whom the sophist Libanius,--an eye-witness of their progress,--so forcibly exclaims, could have destroyed, although they might have defaced, the vast fabric of the Artemisium itself."

Under the reign of Alexius, father of the celebrated Anna de Comnena, Ephesus fell under the dominion of the Mahometans. In A.D. 1206, the Greeks retook it; but seventy-seven years after they lost it again. At the commencement of the fourteenth century, it became a part of the Turkish dominions, and has remained so ever since.

Ephesus is greatly distinguished in ecclesiastical history. "First,"

says Rees, "it may be considered as the abode of many Jews, who obtained the privilege of citizens; and afterwards as the place where the first Paul took up his residence for three years[244]; where he wrought miracles[245], and was resisted by the Jews[246]; and where Timothy was bishop; and where John resided; and moreover, as containing one of the seven churches whose character and doom are recorded by that evangelist in the book of the Revelation[247]."

We now pa.s.s to the times in which we live; and shall present descriptions of the ruins of this once n.o.ble city, in the language of those who have visited them.

Aiasaluck is situated about thirteen or fourteen hours from Smyrna. It is now a small village, inhabited by a few Turkish families, standing chiefly on the south of a hill, called the Castle-hill, among bushes and ruins. Near a caravanserai is a marble sarcophagus, which serves as a water-trough to a well before it. It bears an inscription; and from that is learnt, that it once contained the bodies of the commander of a Roman trireme named the Griffin, and his wife. "We sat near this sarcophagus,"

says Dr. Chandler, "in the open air, while our supper was preparing; when suddenly fires began to blaze up among the bushes, and we saw the villagers collected about them in savage groups, or pa.s.sing to and fro with lighted brands for torches. The flames, with the stars and a pale moon, afforded us a dire prospect of ruin and desolation. A shrill owl, named Cucuvaia from its note, with a night-hawk, flitted near us; and a jackal cried mournfully, as if forsaken by his companions on the mountain." Such was the scene where Ephesus had been! "We retired,"

continues this elegant and accomplished traveller, "early in the evening to our shed; not without some sensations of melancholy, which were renewed at the dawn of day. We had then a distinct view of a solemn and most forlorn spot; a neglected castle, a grand mosque, and a broken aqueduct, with mean cottages, and ruinous buildings, interspersed among wild thickets, and spreading to a considerable extent. Many of the scattered structures are squares, with domes, and have been baths. Some gravestones occurred, finely painted and gilded, as the Turkish manner is, with characters in relievo. But the castle, the mosque, and the aqueduct, are alone sufficient evidences, as well of the former greatness of the place, as of its importance."

The castle is a large and barbarous edifice, with square towers. You ascend to it over heaps of stones, intermixed with sc.r.a.ps of marble. "An outwork," continues Dr. Chandler, "which secured the approach, once consisted of two lateral walls from the body of the fortress, with a gateway. This is supported on each side by a huge and awkward b.u.t.tress, constructed chiefly with the seats of a theatre, or stadium, many marked with Greek letters. Several fragments of inscriptions are inserted in it, or lie near. Over the arch are four pieces of ancient sculpture. Two in the middle are in alto-relievo, of most exquisite workmans.h.i.+p, and parts of the same design; representing the death of Patroclus, and the bringing of his body to Achilles." A third is in ba.s.so-relievo. "The figures are, a man leading away a little boy, a corpse extended, two women lamenting, and soldiers bearing forth the armour and weapons of the deceased, to decorate his funeral pile." This referred to the story of Hector. The fourth is much injured, but sufficient remains to show boys and vine-branches. The gateway faces the sea. Within the castle were a few huts, an old mosque, and a great deal of rubbish. "If you move a stone, it is a chance but you find a scorpion under it."

The grand mosque is situated beneath the castle. The side next the foot of the hill is of stone; the rest of polished marble, veined. In front is a court, having a large fountain; there are, also, broken columns--remains of a portico. The fabric was raised with old materials; and the large granite columns which sustain the roof, as well as all the marbles, are remains of what were long supposed to const.i.tute ancient Ephesus.

In regard to the aqueduct, the piers are square; not large, but many, with arches formed with brick. These are constructed with inscribed pedestals, on one of which is the name of Herodes Atticus, whose statue it once supported. These ruins abound in snakes. Chamelions and lizards, also, are frequently seen basking in the sun. "The marbles, yet untouched, would form a copious and curious harvest, if accessible. The downfall of some may be expected continually, from the tottering condition of the fabric; and time and earthquakes will supply the place of ladders; for which the traveller wishes in vain at a place, where, if a tall man, he may almost overlook the houses."

And yet these ruins, strictly speaking, are in Dr. Chandler's opinion not those of Ephesus: those lie nearer the sea; and are visible from the castle hill. The ruins of Aiasaluck are those of a town, built in great part, if not entirely, of Ephesian ruins; and it may be supposed, by the Mahometan potentate, Mantakhia, who conquered Ephesus and all Caria, in the year 1313.

The site of Ephesus is to be sought for in the way from Aiasaluck to a square tower of white marble, which stands on a ridge, projecting from the chain of Corissus, the southern boundary of the plain of the Cayster. For about half a mile from the village the route is over a flat, interspersed with thickets of tamarinds, agnus-castus, and other shrubs; it then arrives at a low round hill which extends to the north-east from the high range of Corissus. All the inhabitants of the once famous Ephesus, the chief of this part of Asia, as the mistress governing the rest, by the residence of the proconsul here, amount now not to above forty or fifty families of Turks, living in poor thatched cottages, without, says Wheler, one Christian among them. They lie in a knot together, on the south side of the castle. "Within the gate, on the castle wall," continues he, "we saw a marble, whereon is cut a face, representing the moon, with two snakes; one on one side of the head, and the other on the other; joining their heads in the middle of the crown, and their tails pointing outwards; with each of them a circle in such shape, they both represent a bow. This was to represent the deity Hecate triformis; the moon in the heavens, represented by the large round visage; Proserpine in h.e.l.l, represented by the snakes; and Diana upon earth by the bow."

All the princ.i.p.al part of the ruins are on the side of the hill, lately mentioned, and in a flat recess between the west side of it and the high mountains. On the slope of the hill which is called Pion, or Prion (sometimes Lepre Acte), is a large arch of white marble, built, like the aqueduct before mentioned, from ancient ruins. On another part of the hill are two arches and vestiges of a theatre. This was, doubtless, the theatre into which the people rushed, shouting, "Great is Diana!" when St. Paul, by his preaching, produced a tumult at Ephesus. In both wings of this theatre, the seats and the ruins of the proscenium of which are removed, are several architectural fragments; and over an arch, once one of the avenues, is an inscription, enjoining the reader: "_If he did not think proper to approach the festive scene, at least to be pleased with the skill of the architect, who had saved a vast circle of the theatre; all-conquering time having yielded to the succour he had contrived._"

Coming to a narrow valley, broken columns and pieces of marble are observed, with vestiges of an Odeum, or music-room; this is stripped of the seats, and is naked. Beyond this are the remains of a large edifice, greatly resembling the one with an arcade at Troas. The top of one of the niches is painted with waves and fishes; and amongst the fragments lying in the front are two trunks of statues, of great size, without heads and almost buried; the drapery of which is both the same, alike remarkable. This was the gymnasium. "We pitched our tents," says Dr.

Chandler, "among the ruins of this huge building, when we arrived from Claros, and employed on it three days in taking a plan and view. We found the area green with corn, and the site in general overrun with fennel, in seed, the stalks strong and tall."

At the entrance from Aiasaluck is a street, and from the remains still existing, it must have been a n.o.ble one. The edifices must have been, also, ample ones, with colonnades. There are many bases and pedestals of columns; and the vaulted substructions of the fabrics are still entire.

Turning towards the sea, the traveller is greeted with the sight of a prostrate heap, once forming a temple. The cell, or nave, was constructed of large, coa.r.s.e stones. This temple had four columns between the antae. Their diameter is about four feet six inches; their length about thirty-two feet; but, including the base and capital, forty-six feet and about seven inches. Though the dimensions of these pillars was so great, the shafts are fluted. The most entire of them, however, are broken into two pieces. The ornaments were rich; but "of inferior taste, and the mouldings ill proportioned[248]." This temple is supposed to be the remains of that erected at Ephesus, by permission of Augustus, to the G.o.d Julius. Some, however, have imagined that it might have been that dedicated to Claudius Caesar on his apotheosis.

About a mile from this are the remnants of a sumptuous edifice; among the bushes beneath which are altars of white marble. These stand upon an eminence; and from that is beheld a lovely prospect of the river Cayster, which there crosses the plain from near Gellesus, into a small but full stream, and with many luxuriant windings.

Mount Prion, according to Chandler, is among the curiosities of Ionia enumerated by Pausanias. It has served as an inexhaustible magazine of marble, and contributed largely to the magnificence of the city. "The Ephesians, it is related, when they first resolved to provide an edifice worthy of Diana, met to agree on importing materials. The quarries, then in use, were remote, and the expense, it was foreseen, would be prodigious. At this time a shepherd happened to be feeding his flock on mount Prion[249], and two rams fighting, one of them missed his antagonist, and, striking the rock with his horn, broke off a crust of very white marble. He ran into the city with this specimen, which was received with excess of joy. He was highly honoured for this accidental discovery; the Ephesians changing his name from Pixodorus to Evangelus, _the good messenger_, and enjoining their chief magistrate, under a penalty, to visit the spot, and to sacrifice to him monthly." This custom continued to be observed, even so late as the time of Augustus Caesar.