Читать книгу: «Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2)», страница 4
NO. IX. – AMISUS
This city was founded by a colony from Miletus and Athens, who preserved their independence till they were conquered by the Persians. They succeeded in maintaining their liberties under Alexander.
During a war with Mithridates, king of Pontus, Lucullus, the Roman general, laid strong siege to this town; and while so engaged, his troops murmured against him: – "Our general," said they, "amuses himself with sieges, which, after all, are not worth the trouble he bestows upon them." When Lucullus heard this, he replied: "You accuse me of giving the enemy time to augment his army and regain his strength. That is just what I want. I act in this manner for no other purpose; in order that our enemy may take new courage, and assemble so numerous an army as may embolden him to expect us in the field, and no longer fly before us. Do you not observe, that he has behind him immense solitudes and infinite deserts in which it is impossible for us to come up with or pursue him? Armenia is but a few days march from these deserts. There Tigranes keeps his court, – that king of kings, whose power is so great, that he subdues the Parthians, transports whole cities of Greeks into the heart of Media, has made himself master of Syria and Palestine, exterminated the kings descended from Seleucus, and carried their wives and daughters into captivity. This powerful prince is the ally and son-in-law of Mithridates. Do you think, when he has him in his palaces, as a suppliant, that he will abandon himself, and not make war against us? Hence, in hastening to drive away Mithridates, we shall be in great danger of drawing Tigranes upon our hands, who has long sought pretexts for declaring against us, and who can never find one more specious, legitimate, and honourable, than that of assisting his father-in-law, and a king, reduced to the last extremity. Why, therefore, should we serve Mithridates against ourselves; or show him to whom he should have recourse for the means of supporting the war with us, by pushing him against his will, – and at a time, perhaps, when he looks upon such a step as unworthy his valour and greatness, – into the arms and protection of Tigranes? Is it not infinitely better, by giving him time to take courage and strengthen himself with his own forces, to have only upon our hands the troops of Colchis, the Tibarenians, and Cappadocians, whom we have so often defeated, than to expose ourselves to have the additional force of the Armenians and Medes to contend with?"
Lucullus soon after this marched against Mithridates, and in three engagements defeated him. Mithridates, however, escaped, and almost immediately after sent commands to his two sisters and his two wives, that they should die; he being in great fear that they would fall into the hands of the enemy. Their history is thus related: – When the officer, whose name was Bacchides, arrived where they were, and had signified to the princesses the orders of their king, which favoured them no further than to leave them at liberty to choose the kind of death they should think most gentle and immediate; Monima taking the diadem from her head, tied it round her neck, and hung herself with it. But that wreath not being strong enough, and breaking, she cried out – "Ah! fatal trifle, you might at least do me this mournful office." Then, throwing it away with indignation, she presented her neck to Bacchides. As for Berenice, she took a cup of poison; and as she was going to drink it, her mother, who was with her, desired to share it with her. They accordingly drank both together. The half of that cup sufficed to carry off the mother, worn out and feeble with age; but was not enough to surmount the strength and youth of Berenice. That princess, therefore, struggled long with death in the most violent agonies; till Bacchides, tired with waiting the effect of the poison, ordered her to be strangled. Of the two sisters, Roxana is said to have swallowed poison, venting reproaches and imprecations against Mithridates. Statira, on the contrary, was pleased with her brother, and thanked him, that being in so great a danger for his own person, he had not forgot them, and had taken care to supply them with the means of dying free, and of withdrawing from the indignities their enemies might else have made them undergo. Their deaths afflicted Lucullus very sensibly; for he was of a very gentle and humane disposition.
Lucullus, in the mean time, laid strong siege to Amisus. Mithridates had given the conduct of the place to Callimachus, who was esteemed the best engineer of his time. That officer held out for a long time very skilfully, and with the utmost gallantry; but finding at last that the town must surrender, he set fire to it, and escaped in a ship that waited for him. Lucullus did all he could to extinguish the flames; but, for the most part, in vain; and the whole city had undoubtedly been burned, had not a rain fallen so violently, that a considerable number of houses were thereby saved; and before he departed, the conqueror caused those that had been burned, to be rebuilt; but so inveterate were his soldiers, that all his efforts could not secure it from plunder.
It was afterwards the favourite residence of Pompey the Great, who rebuilt the city, and restored the inhabitants to their liberties, which were confirmed by Cæsar and Augustus. In subsequent times it was included in the dominions of the Commeni emperors of Trebisond; and finally subdued by the Turks in the reign of Mahomet the Second.
It is now surrounded by a decayed wall. Towards the sea may be traced the remains of another wall; the ruins of these, in many parts, are almost buried under the waves31.
NO. X. – ANTIOCH
There are few cities whose immediate origin we know so well as that of Antioch.
Antigonus had built a city at a small distance from the spot on which Antioch was afterwards erected, and this he called after his own name, Antigonia. After his death Seleucus, having made himself master of Upper Syria, determined on founding a city. He, in consequence, demolished the one Antigonus had built, and employed its materials in constructing his own32. This he named after his son, Antiochus. He afterwards transplanted all the citizens to the new capital; and he adorned it with all the beauty and elegance of Grecian architecture.
Seleucus built several other cities in the same direction, amongst which may be particularly noticed Apamea, which he named after his wife, the daughter of Arbazus the Persian; and Laodicea, which he called after his mother. Apamea was situated on the same river as Antioch, and Laodicea in the southern part of the same quarter. What is rather remarkable is, that in these cities he allowed the Jews the same privileges and immunities as were enjoyed by the Greeks and Macedonians; more especially at Antioch, where that people settled in such numbers that at length they possessed as large a portion of the city as their countrymen enjoyed at Alexandria.
In the Christian times it was the see of the chief patriarch of Asia. It is often mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles, and particularly wherein it is said, that the disciples of Christ were here first called Christians; and in the river Orontes, according to tradition, St. Paul is said to have been baptised. The city, at various times, has suffered severely from the rage of bigotry and superstition, inseparably attached to the zealots of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the spirit of enthusiasm, roused by designing priests, induced the powers of Europe to attempt the reduction of Syria and the Holy Land.
Antioch has several times been subjected to the violence of earthquakes, and several times been afflicted with great famine; and when Chosroes invaded Syria, the city, disdaining the offers of an easy capitulation, was taken by storm, the inhabitants slaughtered with unrelenting fury, and the city itself delivered to the flames. It recovered, however, after a time, and was again visited by earthquake, and the sword of the conqueror. It was taken by the Crusaders A. D. 1098; and in 1262 all its glory terminated; having been taken possession of by Bybaris, sultan of Egypt.
It is now a ruinous town, the houses of which are built of mud and straw, and exhibit every appearance of poverty and wretchedness. The walls, however, of each quarter, as well as those which surrounded the whole, are still remaining; but as the houses are destroyed, the four quarters appear like so many inclosed fields.
It is said that this city, which was about four miles in circumference, was built at four different times, and consisted in a manner of four cities, divided from one another by walls. The first, as we have already stated, was built by Seleucus Nicator; the second by those who flocked thither after the building of the first; the third by Seleucus Callinicus; and the fourth by Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria. The present town, which is a mile in circumference, stands in the plain, on the north-west part of the old city; all the parts within the walls being converted into gardens. The walls, which now exist, though much ruined, mark the ancient boundaries of Antioch. They were built since the introduction of Christianity; the form of them being nearly of a rectangular figure.
There are, as we have already stated, very few remains within the city of any ancient buildings. The principal works are the aqueducts, and some grottoes cut in the mountain. There were once two temples of great celebrity, one of which was dedicated to Apollo and the other to the Moon. At this moment not a vestige of these is to be discovered. "Formerly," says Lord Sandwich, "it had a port of considerable importance on the north bank of the Orontes, and on the shores of the Levant; but the harbour is choked up, and not a single inhabitant remains. The sun of Antioch is set. The present city is a miserable place, extending four hundred yards from the side of the river to the bottom of a mountain, on the summit of which, and round the town, the crusaders, during their being in possession of Syria, built a strong wall. Nothing remains of its ancient grandeur besides some stupendous causeways and massy gateways of hewn stone."
At a distance of about four or five miles was a place called Daphne. There Seleucus planted a grove, and in the midst of it he erected a temple, which he consecrated to Apollo and Diana. To this place the inhabitants of Antioch resorted for their pleasures and diversions, till at last it became so infamous, that "to live after the manner of Daphne" was used proverbially to express the most voluptuous and dissolute mode of living.
Antioch is said to have been once greater than Rome itself; but often ruined, and finally razed by the Mamelukes, it is now only a small town, known by the name of Antakia. Its climate is so agreeable, that we may cite some observations, made in regard to it in a passage in Mr. Robinson's tour in Palestine and Syria. "For the breadth and brilliancy of the eastern landscape, there is no architecture equal to the Oriental. The solemnity and grandeur of the Gothic are suited to our climate of cloud and tempest. The severe or even the florid beauty of Greek architecture belongs to a country where the spectator sees it under the lights and shadows of a sky as picturesque as the hills and valleys that it covers. But the magnitude, strong colourings, and yet fantastic finish of Eastern architecture are made to be seen across its vast plains under the unclouded sky; and glowing with the powerful splendour with which the rising and the setting sun less illumine than inflame the horizon. At a distance it has the dream-like beauty which we habitually attach to the edifices of the Arabian Nights33."
NO. XI. – ARGOS
Argos was founded in the 1856th year before the Christian era; that is, in the time of Abraham. Its founder was Inachus. Euripides, however, says, that the city was built by the Cyclops, who came from Syria. After flourishing for about 550 years, it was united to the crown of Mycenæ. According to Herodotus, Argos was the most famous of all the states, comprehended under the general name of Greece. For a long time it was the most flourishing city in Greece; and this chiefly from its being enriched by the commerce of Assyria and Egypt. Its early history is resplendent with illustrious names and shining achievements. Its inhabitants conceived a hope of obtaining the sovereignty of all Peloponnesus; but they became at length enfeebled and at last ruined by intestine divisions.
There are many events exceedingly interesting in the history of Argos; amongst which, these. A war broke out, in the reign of Theopompus34, between the Argives and Lacedemonians, on account of a little country called Thyrea, that lay upon the confines of the two states, and to which each of them pretended a right. When the two armies were ready to engage, it was agreed, in order to spare the effusion of blood, that the quarrel should be decided by three hundred of the bravest men on both sides; and that the land in question should become the property of the victors. To leave the combatants more room to engage, the two armies retired to some distance. Those generous champions then, who had all the courage of two mighty armies, boldly advanced towards each other, and fought with so much resolution and fury, that the whole number, except three men, two on the side of the Argives, and one on the side of the Lacedemonians, lay dead on the spot; and only the night parted them. The two Argives, looking upon themselves as the conquerors, made what haste they could to Argos to carry the news; the single Lacedemonian, Othryades by name, instead of retiring, stripped the dead bodies of the Argives, and carrying their arms into the Lacedemonian camp, continued in his post. The next day the two armies returned to the field of battle. Both sides laid equal claim to the victory. The Argives, because they had more of their champions left alive than the enemy had; the Lacedemonians, because the two Argives that remained alive had fled; whereas their single soldier had remained master of the field of battle, and had carried off the spoils of the enemy: in short, they could not determine the dispute without coming to another engagement. Then fortune declared in favour of the Lacedemonians, and the little territory of Thyrea was the prize of their victory. But Othryades, not able to bear the thoughts of surviving his brave companions, or of enduring the sight of Sparta after their death, killed himself on the same field of battle where they had fought, resolving to have one fate and tomb with them.
At35 a subsequent period, the inhabitants of Argos despatched ambassadors to Pyrrhus and Antigonus to entreat them to withdraw their troops, and not reduce their city into subjection to either of them, but to allow it to continue in a state of friendship with both. Antigonus readily consented, and sent his son as a hostage to the Argives. Pyrrhus, also, promised to retire; but as he offered no security for the fulfilment of his word, they began to suspect his sincerity; and, indeed, with sufficient reason: for as soon as night appeared, he advanced to the walls, and having found a door left open by Aristæus, he had time to force his Gauls into the city; and so seize it without being perceived. But when he would have introduced his elephants, he found the gates too low; which obliged him to cause the towers to be taken down from their backs, and replaced there when those animals had entered the city. All this could not be effected amidst the darkness without much trouble, noise, and confusion, which caused them to be discovered. The Argives, when they beheld the enemy in the city, fled to the citadel, and to those places that were most advantageous in their defence, and sent a deputation to Antigonus, to press his speedy advance to their assistance. He accordingly marched that moment, and caused his son, with the other officers, to enter the city at the head of his best troops. In this very juncture of time, King Areus also arrived at Argos, with a thousand Cretans, and as many Spartans as were capable of coming. These troops, when they had all joined each other, charged the Gauls with the utmost fury, and put them into disorder. Pyrrhus hastened, on his part, to sustain them; but the darkness and confusion was then so great, that it was impossible for him to be either obeyed or heard. When day appeared, he was not a little surprised to see the citadel full of enemies; and as he then imagined all was lost, he thought of nothing but a timely retreat. But as he had some apprehension with respect to the city gates, which were much too narrow, he sent orders to his son, Helenus, whom he had left without with the greatest part of the army, to demolish part of the wall, that his troops might have a free passage out of the city. The person to whom Pyrrhus gave this order in great haste, having misunderstood his meaning, delivered a quite contrary message; in consequence of which, Helenus drew out his best infantry, with all the elephants he had left, and then advanced into the city to assist his father, who was preparing to retire, the moment the other entered the place.
Pyrrhus, as long as the place afforded him a sufficient extent of ground, appeared with a resolute mien, and frequently faced about and repulsed those who pursued him; but when he found himself engaged in a narrow street, which ended at the gate, the confusion, which already was very great, became infinitely increased by the arrival of the troops his son brought to his assistance. He frequently called aloud to them to withdraw, in order to clear the streets, but in vain; for as it was impossible for his voice to be heard, they still continued to advance; and to complete the calamity in which they were involved, one of the largest elephants sank down in the middle of the gate, and filled the whole extent in such a manner, that the troops could neither advance nor retire. The confusion occasioned by this accident became then inextricable.
Pyrrhus observing the disorder of his men, who broke forward and were driven back, took off the glittering crest, which distinguished his helmet, and caused him to be known, and then, confiding in the goodness of his horse, he sprang into the throng of his enemies who pursued him; and while he was fighting with an air of desperation, one of the adverse party advanced up to him, and pierced his cuirass with a javelin. The wound, however, was neither great nor dangerous, and Pyrrhus immediately turned upon the man from whom he had received it, and who happened to be only a private soldier, the son of a poor woman at Argos: the mother beholding the contest from the top of a house, where she stood with several other women. The moment she saw her son engaged with Pyrrhus, she almost lost her senses, and chilled with horror at the danger to which she beheld him exposed. Amidst the impressions of her agony, she caught up a large tile, and threw it down upon Pyrrhus. The mass fell directly upon his head, and his helmet being too weak to ward off the blow, his hands dropped the reins, and he sank down from his horse without being observed. But he was soon discovered by a soldier, who put an end to his life, by cutting off his head.
There is another circumstance related of Argos, which it gives us great pleasure in remarking. When Solon was at the court of Crœsus, the king asked him – "Who, of all those he had seen, was the next in felicity to Tellus." Solon answered, 'Cleobis and Biton of Argos, two brothers, who had left behind them a perfect pattern of fraternal affection, and of the respect due from children to their parents. Upon a solemn festival, when their mother, a priestess of Juno, was to go to the temple, the oxen that were to draw her not being ready, the two sons put themselves to the yoke, and drew their mother's chariot thither, which was above five miles distant. All the mothers of the place, ravished with admiration, congratulated the priestess on the piety of her sons. She, in the transports of her joy and thankfulness, earnestly entreated the goddess to reward her children with the best thing that Heaven can give to man. Her prayers were heard. When the sacrifice was over, her two sons fell asleep in the very temple, and there died in a soft and peaceful slumber. In honour of their piety, the people of Argos consecrated statues to them in the temple of Delphos.
"If Athens," says Dr. Clarke, "by arts, by military talents, and by costly solemnities, became one of the eyes of Greece, there was in the humanity of Argos, and in the good feeling displayed by its inhabitants, a distinction which comes nearer to the heart. Something characteristic of the people may be observed even in a name given to one of their divinities; for they worshipped a 'God of Meekness.' It may be said, perhaps, of the Argive character, that it was less splendid than the Athenian, and less rigid than the Lacedæmonian; but it was less artificial, and the contrast it exhibited, when opposed to the infamous profligacy of Corinth, where the manners of the people, corrupted by wealth and luxury, were further vitiated by the great influx of foreigners, rendered Argos, in the days of her prosperity, one of the most enviable cities of Greece. The stranger, who visited Athens, might, indeed, regard, with an eager curiosity, the innumerable trophies every where suspended of victors in her splendid games; might admire her extensive porticoes crowded with philosophers; might gaze with wonder at the productions of her artists; might revere her magnificent temples: but feelings more affecting were drawn forth in beholding the numerous monuments of the Argives, destined to perpetuate the memory of individuals who had rendered themselves illustrious by their virtues."
Argos was taken, A. D. 1397, by Bajazet. It was then totally deserted, and its walls destroyed. It was rebuilt by the Venetians, from whom, in 1463, it was taken by the Turks; and after being retaken by the Venetians, it was again recovered by the Turks in the same year.
"But where is Argos?" inquires La Martine; "a vast naked plain, intersected with marshes extending in a circular form at the bottom of the gulf. It is bounded on every side by chains of grey mountains; at the end of the plain, about two leagues inland, we perceive a mound, with some fortified walls on its summit, and which protects, by its shade, a small town in ruins – this is Argos. Close by is the tomb of Agamemnon."
The antiquities of Argos, once so numerous, may now be comprised within a very short list. Those seen by Pausanias were the temples of Apollo, of Fortuna, of Jupiter, and of Minerva; sepulchres and cenotaphs; a theatre, a forum, a gymnasium, a stadium, a subterranean edifice, &c., formed of earth.
Of these now remaining36, are the ruins of the theatre37, which was a remarkable structure, having been entirely an excavation in the rock, and having the appearance of three theatres instead of one. Opposite to this are the remains of a large edifice, built entirely of tiles. Above the theatre are those of the Hieron of Venus, within whose temple was a statue of the poetess Telesilla, who, at the head of a band of heroines, repulsed from the walls the enemies of her country, when it was attacked by the Lacedæmonians. She was represented, says Pausanias, standing upon a pillar, with the books of her poetry scattered at her feet, in the act of regarding her helmet, which she was about to put upon her head.
On the sides and lower part of the modern fortress are still seen the remains of Cyclopian architecture, as ancient as the citadel of Tiryns, and built in the same style38.
"This structure," says Dr. Clarke, "is mentioned by Pausanias39, where he states that the inhabitants of Mycenæ were unable to demolish the walls of the Argives, built, like those of Tiryns, by the Cyclops. These Cyclopian walls, as well as the towers of Argos, are noticed by Euripides, Polybius, Seneca, Strabo, and Statius. They are also hinted at by Virgil. At the front of the Acropolis, we found one of the most curious tell-tale remains, yet discovered among the thirty temples of pagan priestcraft. It was nothing less than one of the oracular shrines of Argos, alluded to by Pausanias, laid open to inspection like the toy a child has broken, in order that he may see the contrivance whereby it was made to speak. A more interesting sight for modern curiosity can hardly be conceived to exist among the ruins of any Grecian city. In its original state, it has been a temple; the farther part from the entrance where the altar was, being an excavation of the rock, and the front and roof constructed of baked tiles. The altar yet remains, and part of the fictile superstructure; but the most remarkable part of the whole is a secret subterraneous passage, terminating behind the altar, its entrance being at a considerable distance towards the right of a person facing the altar, and so cunningly contrived, as to have a small aperture easily concealed, and level with the surface of the rock. This was barely large enough to admit the entrance of a single person, who, having descended in the narrow passage, might creep along until he arrived immediately behind the centre of the altar; where being hid by some colossal statue, or other screen, the sound of his voice would produce a most imposing effect among the humble votaries prostrate beneath, who were listening in silence upon the floor of the sanctuary."
There was also in Argos a statue of Jupiter, which had three eyes, one of which was in the middle of the forehead. It is not impossible but this statue may, one day, be found among the ruins under the soil.
Argos was consecrated to Juno40; it was subject to different forms of government; its people were brave; they cultivated the arts, but neglected the sciences. Their memory may well be cherished; for they were, both in precept and in practice, the kindest and most humane of all the citizens of Greece41.
