Читать книгу: «Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2)», страница 31

The buildings were spacious and magnificent; above all, the temples of Jupiter, Hercules, and Astarte. These were built by Huram. The walls were one hundred and fifty feet high, proportionably broad, and firmly built of large blocks of stone, bound together with white plaster.

When the conqueror had satiated his vengeance, he rebuilt it, and planted it anew with people, drawn from the neighbouring parts; chiefly that he might, in future times, be called the founder of Tyre.

In the year 313 B. C. this new city sustained a siege against Antigonus; for soon after the death of Eumenes, Antigonus formed designs against Tyre, Joppa, and Gaza. The two last soon submitted; but Tyre gave him great trouble. Being master of all the other ports on the Phœnician coasts, he caused a vast number of trees to be cut down on Mount Libanus, – cedars and cypress trees of great height and beauty; and these were conveyed to the different ports, where he commanded a number of ships to be built, and where he employed in that object several thousand men. With these, and other ships he received from Rhodes, Cyprus, and other places, he made himself master of the sea. Tyre was, therefore, reduced to great extremities. The fleet of Antigonus cut off all communication of provisions, and the city was soon after compelled to capitulate. It was no longer than nineteen years before this event, that Alexander had destroyed this city in a manner as made it natural to believe it would require whole ages to re-establish it; and yet, in so short a time as that we speak of, it became capable of sustaining this new siege, which lasted more than as long again as that of Alexander. This circumstance discovers the great resources derived from commerce; for this was the only expedient by which Tyre rose out of its ruins, and recovered most of its former splendour.

Isaiah had foretold that Tyre should lie in obscurity and oblivion for seventy years³⁰². This term being expired, it recovered its former credit; and, at the same time, recovered again its former vices. At length, according to another passage in the same prophecy³⁰³, converted by the preaching of the Christians, it became a holy and religious city.

After this period it belonged to several masters, till the time when it was taken possession of by Antiochus the Great, B. C. 218.

Afterwards it became subject to the Seleucidæ. It was then sold to a Roman, named Marion, whose wealth was so great, that he was enabled to purchase the whole principality. It was still in repute in the time of Christ, and is, therefore, several times mentioned in the New Testament.

“Woe unto thee, Chorazin! Woe unto thee, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the day of judgment than for you.” —Matthew, ch. xi. ver. 21.

“And from Jerusalem, and from Idumea, and from beyond Jordan; and they about Tyre and Sidon, a great multitude, when they had heard what great things he did, came to him.” —Mark, ch. iii. ver. 8. Luke, ch. vi. ver. 17.

“And Herod was highly displeased with them of Tyre and Sidon; but they came with one accord to him, and having made Blastus, the king’s chamberlain, their friend, desired peace, because their country was nourished by the king’s country.” —Acts, ch. xi. ver. 20.

Tyre, in the time of Pliny: – “Tyrus, in the olden time an island, lying almost three quarters of a mile within the deep sea; but now, through the skill and labour of Alexander at the siege of it, joined to the main land. It is greatly renowned; for out of it have come three other cities of ancient name; – viz., Leptis, Utica, and that great Carthage, which so long strove with the empire of Rome, for the monarchy and dominion of the whole world. Not only these, but the Gades, divided, as it were, from the rest of the earth, were peopled from thence. Now, all its glory and reputation arise out of its dye purple and crimson colours. The compass of it is nineteen miles, if Palæ-tyrus be included in it.”

There was a style of architecture called Tyrian; and of this order Sir C. Wren supposes was the theatre; by the fall of which, Samson made so great a slaughter of the Philistines. “In considering what this fabric must be,” says he³⁰⁴, “that could at one pull be demolished, I conceive it an oval amphitheatre, the scene in the middle, where a vast roof of cedar-beams, resting round upon the walls, centered all upon one short architrave, that united two cedar pillars in the middle. One pillar would not be sufficient to unite the ends of at least one hundred beams that tended to a centre; therefore, I say, there must be a short architrave resting upon two pillars, upon which all the beams tending to the centre of the amphitheatre might be supported. Now, if Samson, by his miraculous strength, pressing upon one of these pillars, moved it from its basis, the whole roof must of necessity fall.” The most observable monument of the Tyrian style is the sepulchre of Absalom, over against Jerusalem, in the valley of Jehosaphat.

When Tyre fell into the hands of the Romans, it did not cease to be a flourishing city. It was made the metropolis of a province by the emperor Hadrian, who repaired its fortifications, and gave it all the advantages of a Roman colony.

About A. D. 639, it fell from the dominion of Rome into the hands of the Saracens, who remained a considerable time in possession of it.

On this capture most of the inhabitants emigrated to Acre. It still remains, we are told by Mr. Addison, in nearly the same state in which they abandoned it, with the addition of about a hundred new stone buildings, occupying a small space to the north of the peninsula contiguous to the port. Many parts of the double wall, which encompassed the island, are still visible, and attest the strength of its ancient foundations. The isthmus is so completely covered with sand, washed up by the sea, on either side, that none but those, acquainted with the history of Tyre, would suppose it to be the work of man. The peninsula is about a mile long, and half a mile broad; and its surface is covered with the foundations of buildings, now nearly all in ruins. On the western side, where the ground is somewhat more elevated than the rest, is a citadel, which Mr. Addison naturally supposes, occupies the site of the ancient one. On the eastern side, he goes on to observe, are the remains of a Gothic church, built by the crusaders, of materials belonging to the temple of Jupiter Olympus, which was destroyed by Constantine the Great, or that of Hercules, the tutelary deity of the ancient Tyrians. Of this only part of the choir remains. The interior is divided into three aisles, separated by rows of columns of red granite; of a kind nowhere else known in Syria. At the extremities of the two branches of the cross were two towers, the ascent to which was by a spiral staircase, which still remains entire. Djezzar, who stripped all this country to ornament his mosque at Acre, wished to carry them away; but his engineers were not able even to move them. This is supposed to have been the cathedral, of which Eusebius speaks, calling it the most magnificent temple in Phœnicia, and in which the famous William of Tyre was the first archbishop.

In the second century, it became a bishop’s see; and St. Jerome says, that in his time it was not only the most famous and beautiful city of Phœnicia, but a mart for all the nations of the world. It was dependent upon the patriarch of Antioch; but the see had no less than fourteen suffragans.

In 1112, Tyre was besieged by the crusaders; also again in 1124. It was successfully attacked by Saladin, in 1192; but in 1291, Kabil, sultan of the Mamelukes, obtained it by capitulation, and rased its forts.

Tyre is now called Sur or Sour. For this name several explanations have been given. We shall select the most probable, and these are by Volney, and Dr. Shaw. “In the name Sour,” says Volney, “we recognise that of Tyre, which we receive from the Latin; but if we recollect, that the y was formerly pronounced ou; and observe, that the Latins have substituted the t for θ of the Greeks, and that the θ had the sound of th, in the word think, we shall be less surprised at the alteration. This has not happened among the Orientals, who have always called this place ‘Tsour,’ and ‘Sour.’”

Dr. Shaw gives a different interpretation: – “All the nations of the Levant call Tyre by its ancient name Sur, from whence the Latins seem to have borrowed their Sarra. Sur, I find, layeth claim to a double interpretation, each of them very natural; though its rocky situation will prevail, I am persuaded, with every person who seeth this peninsula, beyond the Sar, or purple fish, for which it might afterwards be in such esteem. The purple fish (the method, at least, of extracting the tincture,) hath been wanting for many ages; however, amongst a variety of other shells, the Purpura of Rondeletius is very common upon the sea shore.”

“The Arabians,” says Mr. Drummond, “have always called Tyre Al Sur, the palm-tree. (Gol. in voce.) Hence, perhaps, the Greeks gave the name of Phœnix to this tree, as being the natural production of Phœnice; and as being the common emblem both of the Phœnicians and of their colonists. It may have happened, then, that ancient Tyre, which was situated in a plain, may have been called Al Sur, as the place where the palm-tree flourished.”

Perhaps another explanation may be still more probable. Sanchoniathon, as reported by Philo Byllius, tells us that Tyre was first inhabited by Hyp-sour-anios, and that it then consisted of sheds, built up with canes, rushes, and papyri. From the middle of this, perhaps, comes the present name, Hyp-sour-anois.

The palaces of Tyre were for a long period supplanted by miserable hovels. Poor fishermen inhabited their vaulted cellars; where, in ancient times, the treasures of the world were stored. “This city,” says Maundrell, “standing in the sea upon a peninsula, promises, at a distance, something very magnificent. But when you come to it, you find no similitude of that glory, for which it was so renowned in ancient times. On the north side it has an old Turkish ungarrisoned castle; besides which, you see nothing here but a mere Babel, of broken walls, pillars, vaults, &c.: there not being so much as one entire house left. The present inhabitants are only a few poor wretches, harbouring themselves in the vaults, and chiefly subsisting upon fishing; who seem to be preserved, in this place by Divine Providence, as a visible argument, how God has fulfilled his word concerning Tyre.”

Sour, till lately, was a village in the pachalic of Saide or of Acre; situate on a peninsula, which projects from the shore, in the form of a mallet with an oval head. The isthmus which joins it to the continent is of pure sand. That part of the island which lies between the village and the sea, that is, the western side, was laid out in gardens, beset with weeds. The south side is sandy, and covered with rubbish. The whole village did not contain more than fifty families, having huts for houses, crumbling to pieces.

Dr. Shaw says, that in his time, notwithstanding Tyre was the chief maritime power of Syria, he could not perceive the least token of either Cothon or harbour, that could, at any time, have been of any extraordinary capacity. Coasting ships, indeed, says he, still find a tolerably good shelter from the northerly winds, under the southern shore; but they are obliged immediately to retire, when the winds change to the west or south; so there must, therefore, have been a better station than this for security and reception. In the N. N. E. part likewise of the city, are seen traces of a safe and commodious basin; but, at the same time, so small as not to exceed forty yards in diameter. Neither could it have enjoyed a larger area. Yet this port, small as it is at present, is notwithstanding so choked up with sand and rubbish, that even the boats of the poor fishermen, who visit this once renowned emporium, can be admitted only with great difficulty. The sea, however, which usually destroys solid structures, has not only spared, but enlarged and converted into a solid isthmus, the mound by which Alexander joined the isle of Tyre to the continent.

A recent traveller, however, says, “that in the angle on which was seated the royal palace, there are still to be seen a number of fallen granite pillars, and other vestiges of architectural grandeur; but of the temples of the Tyrian and the Thracian Hercules, of Saturn, of Apollo, and of their other deities, I am not aware that sufficient remains are to be traced to confirm the positions assigned to them. The causeway of Alexander is still perfect, and is become like a natural isthmus, by its being covered over with sand. The hill, on which is placed the temple of the Astrochitonian Hercules, is now occupied by a Mohammedan faqueer’s tomb, around which are no ruins that indicate a work of grandeur destroyed. The ruins of Palæ-tyrus, near to Ras-el-ain, were not observed by me, although we crossed the brook there; and the Syrian sepulchres, which are said to be to the northward of the town, I did not hear of. On approaching the modern Sour, whether from the hills, from the north or from the south, its appearance has nothing of magnificence. On entering the town, it is discovered to have been walled; the portion towards the isthmus still remaining, and being entered by an humble gate; while that on the north side is broken down, showing only detached fragments of circular towers, greatly dilapidated.” “They do not reach beyond the precincts of the present town; thus shutting out all the range to the northward of the harbour, which appears to have been composed of the ruins of former buildings.” “The tower to the south-east is not more than fifty feet square, and about the same height. It is turreted to the top, and has small windows and loop-holes on each of its sides. A flight of steps leads up to it from without, and its whole appearance is like that of the Saracenic buildings in the neighbourhood of Cairo.”

Sour has greatly risen of late years. It now contains eight hundred dwellings, substantially built of stone; most of which have courts, walls, and various conveniences, attached to them; besides smaller habitations for the poor. There are, also, one mosque, three Christian churches, three bazaars, and a bath. This intelligence is furnished by Mr. Buckingham, who was there in the earlier part of 1816. He adds also, that the population amounts, at the lowest computation, from five to six thousand; three-fourths of which are Arab catholics, and the remainder Turks and Arab moslems.

In Tyre was interred the well-known Frederic the First, surnamed Barbarossa (A. D. 1190)³⁰⁵.

NO. XLI. – VEII

The memory of Veii³⁰⁶ was almost obliterated in the time of Florus. The flock had fed in the streets, and the ploughshare had furrowed the sepulchres of the Veientes³⁰⁷.

The history of Veii is too imperfect, to throw any light, prior to the existence of Rome. We are only informed, that Morrius, king of Veii, was descended, by Halæsius, from Neptune; and that there was a king Veius, a king Menalus, and lastly, in the time of Camillus, an elected king named Tolemarius.

Veii was a powerful city of Etruria; large enough to contend with Rome in the time of Servius Tullus; and Dionysius of Halicarnassus says, that it was equal in extent to Athens; and Sir W. Gell quotes a passage from a fragment of the same writer, published by Mai at Milan, 1816, in which he speaks thus of Veii and its territory: – “The city of Veii was not inferior to Rome itself in buildings, and possessed a large and fruitful territory, partly mountainous, and partly in the plain. The air was pure and healthy, the country being free from the vicinity of marshes, and without any river, which might render the morning air too rigid. Nevertheless, there was an abundance of water; not artificially conducted, but rising from natural springs, and good to drink.” (Lib. xii. frag. 21).

In the course of three hundred and fifty years it carried on no less than sixteen wars with Rome, but was at last taken and destroyed by Camillus, after a siege of ten years. This was the most important of the conquests of the infant republic. Its situation was so eligible, that the Romans, after the burning of their city by the Gauls, were long inclined to emigrate there, and totally abandon their homes; and this would have been carried into execution, but for the authority and eloquence of Camillus³⁰⁸.

“It is lamentable,” says Sir W. Gell, “that in a country so little cultivated, interesting traces of antiquity, tending to confirm the truth of history, should be suffered to disappear almost without record, for the sake of a miserable and narrow stripe of corn, and a few volcanic stones for mending the roads. The site of the citadel of Veii affords ample testimony to the accuracy of the description of Dionysius, who says it stood upon a high and precipitous rock. Not far from the road (from Rome) several large square blocks, concealed by soil and bushes, may easily be detected by persons accustomed to antiquarian researches. A heap of ruins are seen, supposed to have been a temple dedicated to Juno; and among these lay, in 1830, a piece of marble, relating to the family of Tarquitia, a race of celebrated Tuscan augurs, from whose books the soothsayers took their lessons, even so low down as the last war of the emperor Julian with the Persians.”

There exists, also, a large tumulus, supposed to be the tomb of Propertius, king of Etruria, founder of the city.

In a rock under the ancient wall are several niches, which have the appearance of places for urns, or votive offerings; not of Roman construction, but Etrurian. There are, also, evident traces of one or two bridges; and on the summit of a hill, at the distance of three miles, is another tumulus.

In another part the rugged extent of the rocks, with the bushes, and the difficulty of carrying away the blocks, have preserved portions of the ancient wall of the Etruscan Veii. These are ten or eleven feet in length, and some more than five feet in height. One of the most singular facts attending this wall, is a bed of three courses of bricks, each three feet in length, intervening between the lower course of the wall, and the rock upon which it is built. It requires only a very moderate knowledge of the subject to convince us, that the construction of this wall has no resemblance to anything remaining at Rome, nor yet at Nepi, Falerii, or Tarquinii, where the ramparts were in smaller blocks, and nearly regular. The style of the fortifications at Veii bespeak a much higher antiquity.

Added to what we have already stated, there are vestiges of ancient fortifications and aqueducts, and traces of roads; also fragments of an ancient citadel. There are, also, tombs in a glen near, and upon the rock, called Isola, exhibiting every kind of sepulchral excavation; caves, columbaria, and tombs without number. This was, no doubt, the metropolis of Veii.

There are, also, the remains of other tumuli, which appear to have been the common receptacle of those slain in battle, rather than of remarkable individuals. These all mark the date of Veii in the elder times; but a statue of Tiberius found here, of course denotes the age of the empire.

“The remains of this once populous Etruscan city,” says Sir William Gell, “have, in the course of the last ten years, suffered so lamentably from spoliations, perpetrated or permitted by the owners of the soil, that it is necessary to take particular notice of such relics as still attest the existence of a place of so much importance in the early history of Italy.”

This he has done, in his work entitled “The Topography of Rome, and its Vicinity;” and from that work we glean most that is stated in this abstract³⁰⁹.

THE END