similar edifices were afterward denominated.* The whole coast of Asia Minor, from the Triopian promontory to the confines of Syria, remarkable for some of the most interesting ruins of Greece, is almost unknown. Until the period at which this journal was written, when the British fleet found anchorage in the spacious and beautiful bay of Marmorice, no map or chart indicated such a harbour † yet there is no part of the coast, where a gulph, bay, river, or promontory, can be pointed out, on which some vestige of former ages may not be discerned; many of these are of the remotest antiquity; and all of them are calculated to throw light upon passages in ancient history. After losing sight of the ruins of Cnidus, we sailed in view of Syme and of Rhodes; an eminence, called the Table Mountain, first appearing upon the latter, and seeming itself insular, as if separated from the rest of the island. Toward the south, midway between the islands of Crete and Rhodes, we saw the Carpathian Isles, at a prodigious distance, and quite surprising, considering the distinct prospect we had of the largest, now called Scarpanto. We had favourable breezes the whole night, and the next morning entered the old port of Rhodes, between the two piers, on which it is fancifully asserted, by some mo dern writers, that the feet of the celebrated Colossus formerly rested. The mouth of this harbour is so choked with ruins, that small vessels alone are able to enter: even our little bark ran aground before she came to her anchor. * Upon the coast, or in the port of Cnidus, was decided the memorable naval combat, considered by Polybius as marking the era when the Spartans lost the command of the sea, obtained by their victory over the Athenians in the Hellespont. Although above two thousand years have passed, since the squadrons of Persia, from all the ports of Asia, crowded the Dorian shores, the modern traveller may recognize, in the vessels of the country, the simple mode of construction, and the style of navigation, displayed by the armament of Conon, and the galleys of Pisander. Placed within the theatre of the city, surrounded by so many objects calculated to awaken the memory of past events, he might imagine himself carried back to the age in which they were accomplished; neither would he find in any part of the country a scene where the memorials of ancient Greece have been less altered. Yet the place is now scarcely known. The journals of Mr. Morritt, and of Mr. Walpole, contain much valuable information concerning the interior of Asia Minor, of which I have not availed myself; both as they relate to objects too far from the route here described, and because these gentlemen, much better qualified to do justice to their own valuable observations, will, it is hoped, present them to the public. It is somewhat remarkable, that this circumstance, neither mentioned by Strabo nor by Pliny, both of whom described the statue, continues erroneously propagated. CHAP. VIII. FROM RHODES TO THE GULPH OF GLAUCUS, IN ASIA MINOR. Pa Rhodes Climate-Antiquities—Lindus- Inscriptionsgan Ceremony-Divers of Syme and Nisyrus-Gulph of Glaucus Grandeur of the Seenery-Malaria-Genoese Island-Ruins of Telmessus-Theatre-Oracular Cave-Sepulchres of the Telmessensians-Tomb of Helen, daughter of Jason Other Soroi-Mausoleum-Monolithal Sepulchres -Ruins at Koynûcky-Turbulent State of the CountryConduct of the Natives upon the Coast-New discovered Plants-Isle of Abercrombie. RHODES is a most delightful spot. The air of the place is healthy, and its gardens are filled with delicious fruit. Here, as iu Cos, every gale is scented with powerful fragrance wafted from groves of orange and citron trees. Numberless aromatic herbs exhale at the same time such profuse odour, that the whole atmosphere seems impregnated with a spicy perfume. The present inhabitants of the island confirm the ancient history of its climate, maintaining that hardly a day passes, throughout the year, wherein the sun is not visible. Pagan writers describe it as so peculiarly favoured, that Jupiter is fabled to have poured down upon it a golden shower. The winds are liable to little variation; they are north, or northwest, during almost every month; but these blow with great violence. From the number of appellations it bore at different periods, Rhodes might have at last received the name of the polyonoman island. Its antiquities are too interesting to be passed over without notice; but we were hastening to the coast of Egypt, and contented ourselves by taking the few inscriptions found within the town, or its immediate vicinity. The streets were * Ophiusa, from the number of its serpents; Stadia, or Desert; Telchinis, Corymbia, Trinacra, Ethrea, from its cloudless sky; Asteria, because at a distance the island appears as a star; Poessa, Atabyria, Oleessa, Macaria, and Pelagia. "Some are of opinion that Rhodes was first peopled by the descendants of Dodanim, the fourth son of Javan. Both the Septuagint and Samaritan translation of the Pentateuch (Egmont and Heyman, vol. 1. p. 269.) instead of Dodanim, always use Rodanim; and by this appellation the Greeks always named the Rhodians." The ancient history of Rhodes, collected by Savary from different authors, and contained in the twelfth letter of his Travels in Greece, may be considered the most filled with English sailors and soldiers, and all other considerations were absorbed in the great event of the expedition to Aboukir. A vessel had returned and put on shore a few of our wounded troops, who were taken to the hospital already prepa red for their reception; but these were men who fell in the first moments of landing, and could give but a very imperfect account of the success of an enterprise destined to crown with immortal honour the statesman by whom it was planned, and the armies by which it was achieved. All we could then learn was, that, after a severe conflict, the French had retreated toward Alexandria; and, having near relations and dear friends engaged in the enterprise, it is not necessary to describe our feelings upon the intillegence. The principal ruins at Rhodes are not of earlier date than the residence of the Knights of Malta.* The remains of their fine old fortress are sufficient to prove that the building has sustained little injury from tine or barbarians. It still exhibits a venerable moated castle, of great size and strength; so fortified as to seem almost impregnable. A drawing made from it might furnish one of our theatres with a most striking decoration. It appears a complete system of fortification; combining all the paraphernalia of dykes and draw bridges, battlements and bastions. The cells of the knights are yet entire, forming a street within the works: and near these cells is the cathedral, or chapel, whose wooden doors, curiously carved, aud said to have been wrought of an incorruptible kind of cedar, have been preserved in their original state. The arms of England and of France appear sculptured upon the walls. The Turks have converted the sanctuary into a magazine for military stores. Of Lindus, now called Lindo, the ancient capital of Rhodes, so little visited by travellers, so remarkable by its early claim to the notice of the historian,† and so dignified by the talents to which it gave birth,‡ we collected a few scattered observations favourable specimen of that author's talents, and perhaps the best account extant of the island. It is better to refer the reader to such a source, than to repeat what has been already so ably detailed. *In the year 1308, the emperor Emanuel, upon the expulsion of the knights from St. John d'Acri, made them a grant of this island, which they continued to possess until the year 1522, when, after a glorious resistance, the grand master, Villiers, was com pelled to surrender it to Solyman II. The knights then retired, first to Candia, and afterward to Sicily, where they continued till the year 1530, when Charles V. gave them the island of Malta." Egmont and Heyman, vol. I. p. 270 It was founded by Egyptians, under Danaus, fourteen hundred years before the Christian æra. It is one of the three cities alluded to by Homer, [I. B. 668. See also Strabo, lib. xiv.] Notice of it also occurs in the Parian Chronicle. It gave birth to Cleobulus, one of the seven sages; and to Chares and Laches, the artists who designed and completed the Colossus. A mistake highly characteristic of French authors, was committed by Voltaire, respecting this famous statue. It is One of the from the clergy and surgeons of the British fleet. former, chaplain of the admiral's ship, assured me that the antiquities he had seen there were very numerous. He spoke of the ruins of a temple, which may have stood on the site of the fane originally consecrated by the daughters of Danaus to the Lindian Minerva.* When our countrymen were there, many inscriptions were noticed; and of these, one may be here inserted, on account of the evidence it contains with regard to the real position of the ancient city. ΛΙΝΔΙΟΙ ΑΓΗΣΙΣΤΡΑΤΟΝ ΠΟΛΥΚΡΕΟΝΤΟΣ ΝΙΚΩΝΤΑΟΛΥΜΠΙΑ ΠΑΙΔΑΣΠΑΛΑΝ ΠΡΑΤΟΝΛΙΝΔΙΩΝ Many cities in Asia and Europe celebrated games in imitation of the four sacred games of Greece. Agesistratus, who is commemorated in this inscription, was the first of the Lindians who had overcome the boys in wrestling at the olympic games.‡ Some vases, of great antiquity, were also dug in a garden : of these, I procured one with upright handles.. Future travellers may therefore expect considerable gratification, and a fund of inquiry, in the due examination of this part of the island.Lindus is not more than one long day's journey from Rhodes, if the traveller makes use of mules for his conveyance. The inscriptions I noticed at Rhodes were principally upon marble altars. These exhibited the cylindrical form, adorned with sculptured wreaths and festoons, supported by rams' heads, common to all the altars of ancient Greece. The first was decorated with wreaths of laurel, and thus inscribed: ΛΥΣΑΝΔΡΟΥΛΥΣΑΝΔΡΟΥ ΧΑΛΚΗ ΤΑΚΑΙ ΤΑ ΣΓΥΝΑΙΚΟΣ It relates to Lysander and his wife Cleaenis. noticed by Mentelle, in a note to the article LINDOS, Encyclopedie Methodique. Voltaire having read Indian for Lindian, relates that the Colossus was cast by an indian. * “Ἱερὸν δὲ ἐστὶν ̓Αθηνᾶς Λίνδιας αὐτόθι ἐπιφανές, τῶν Δαναΐδων ἵδρυμα. "There," (at Lindus.) is a conspicuous temple of the Lindian Minerva, the work of the DaBaida." Strabon, Geogr. lib. xiv. p. 937. Ed. Oxon. Savary says the ruins of this edifice are still visible, on an eminence near the sea: Letters on Greece, p. 96. The inhabitants here consecrated the 7th Ode of Pindar's Olympics, by ascribing it in letters of gold: Ibid. Demetrius Triclinius. Lindus was the port resorted to by the feets of Egypt and of Tyre before the building of Rhodes. Ibid. See Recueil d'Antiq. tom. ii, p. 223; and also Corsini Diss. Quatuor, Agon. p. 20. παλάν N 2 Upon a second, with the rams' heads, appeared only the name of a person who had placed it as a vow. ΠΥΕΓΟΔ Upon a third, corresponding in its ornaments with the first, was the name of Polycleitus, the son of Polyaratus. ΠΟΛΥΚΛΕΙΤΟΣ From the classical simplicity and brevity used by the Greeks in their inscriptions, we might derive examples for the improvement of our taste in this respect. How much more impressive is the style pursued by them, than our mode of writing upon public monuments, where a long verbose superscription is introduced, relating to things whereof it concerns not posterity to be informed! In other ages, however, the Greeks of the Carpathian sea and coast of Caria had the custom of adding to such simple inscriptions an hexameter distich; of this I have seen many instances, but shall subjoin one as I found it on the pedestal of a marble columo at Rhodes: this had been hollowed, and placed over the mouth of a well in the inner basin of the principal harbour.* It it very interesting, as it relates to an artist of the country, Amphilochus the son of Lagus, who was probably an architect. ΑΜΦΙΛΟΧΟΥ ΗΚΕΙ ΚΑΙΝΕΙΛΟΥ ΠΡΟΧΟ ΑΣΚΑΙΕΣΧΑΤΟΝΙΝΔΟΝ "THE GREAT AND IMMORTAL GLORY OF THE ART OF AMPHILACHUS REACHES EVEN TO THE MOUTHS OF THE NILE AND TO THE UTMOST INDUS." Upon a block of marble, in the street before the Greek convent, * After my return to England, I was graitfied by finding that Egmont and Heyman, half a century before, had also noticed this inscription, (See Vol. I. p. 268) hecause their copy confirmed my own, as to the words ΛΑΓΟΥ and ΠΟΝΤΩ PEQE; while in other respects, it is so imperfect, as to be unintelligible without the assistance of the more correct reading here offered. The classical reader will be interested in remarking, that Aristophanes, in the Nepal, uses the expression of the Rhodian Poet; Ειν' ἄρα ΝΕΙΛΟΥ ΠΡΟΧΟΑΙΣ ὑδάτων. |