Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2). Charles Bucke
yards square. From this a door, in the opposite side, leads to a larger hall, but the sand fills it up from the floor to the ceiling at the further end, so that its dimensions cannot be ascertained. Two small chambers, as before, are excavated on two sides of this also; in the right-hand one there is an opening in the wall, leading to a vast corridor, thirty-six feet long and twelve broad, half choked up, three wells in the roof having probably served to admit the rubbish. This leads to another fine apartment, with a portico on each of its four sides, three of which have pilasters and cornice, richly carved; the other parts of the wall are left quite plain, but there are lines traced on the vaulted ceiling, indicating that it was intended to have been cut into panels, with roses in the centres. From this chamber you enter a beautiful rotunda, on the left, which appears to be the principal object of the excavation; it is seven yards in diameter, and about five high; it is regularly ornamented with pilasters supporting a cornice, from which springs the cupola of the ceiling; nine tombs, decorated like those first described, are seen around it. The bottom is level with the sea; the water filters through, and is found a short distance below the floor. This place is quite free from sand, so that the whole of it can be seen; and the effect, when illuminated by many torches, the light of which is reflected from the cement, is very grand. The chamber preceding the rotunda also affords access to another corridor, leading to various apartments, presenting similar appearances to those already described. In one of them there is the springing of a brick-arch running round it, intended, apparently, to support a gallery; beneath is a hole, about half a yard square, which is the entrance to a winding passage; but it is impossible to penetrate it far on account of the sand and water. It is conjectured to have served for some religious mystery, or for some imposition of the priests on the common people. Through the centre portico of another chamber, similar to that before described, but left unfinished, like many other parts of this magnificent tomb, an apartment is entered, each side of which has three ranges of holes for the reception of embalmed bodies, and pits of various dimensions are dug in the floors of several of the rooms. There is a great symmetry in the arrangement of all the apartments, so that the plan of the excavation is regular. It was probably intended for a royal cemetery, the bodies of the sovereigns being deposited in the rotunda, and the other chambers serving as places of burial for their relatives, according to their rank; and two large side chapels, with collateral rooms, being appropriated to the religious rites of the Goddess Hecate; as is rendered probable by the crescents which ornament various parts of the place. Whatever was its destination, like all the other cemeteries of Egypt it has been ransacked at some remote period, and the bodies of its tenants removed.
Like all the other distinguished nations of antiquity, Egypt, after a lengthened period of civil power, military glory, and dignified learning, suffered a series of reverses of fortune, and finally sank into a state of poverty and barbaric ignorance. Modern Cairo rose upon the ruins of Alexandria, and has been enriched with its spoils; since thither have been conveyed, at various times, not fewer than forty thousand columns of granite, porphyry, and marble; erected in the private dwellings and mosques. Its decay doubtless was gradual, but fifteen centuries, during which it has declined, have evinced its ancient opulence by the slowness of its fall.
In respect to its modern condition, among heaps of rubbish, and among fine gardens, planted with palms, oranges, and citrons, are seen some churches, mosques, and monasteries, with three small clusters of dwellings30.
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
Diodorus Siculus; Quintilian; Ammianus Marcellinus; Abulfaragius; Prideaux; Rollin; Shaw; Harris; Gibbon; Johnson; Drake; Savary; Sonnini; Sandwich; Rees; Miot; Clarke; Wilkinson; Browne; Parker; Knight.