Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

thousand feet in extent, with many seats remaining. At the west end is a wide vaulted passage, designed for the horses and chariots; about one hundred and forty feet long. The entrance from without is choked up, except a small aperture, at which a glimmering light enters; and the soil has risen above the imposts of the interior arch. This has an inscription on the mouldings, in large characters, in Greek, which may be thus translated, "To the emperor Titus Cæsar Augustus Vespasian, seven times consul, son of the emperor the god Vespasian; and to the people. Nicostratus the son of Lycius, son of Nicostratus, dedicated at his own expense; Nicostratus, having completed what remained of the work, and Marcus Ulpius Trajanus the proconsul having consecrated it.”* The seventh consulate of Vespasian falls on the seventy-ninth year of the Christian era, and the consulship of Trajan on the eighty-second. Twelve years were consumed in perfecting

the structure.

[ocr errors]

younger

his heir

By another ruin is a pedestal, with an inscription, which will illustrate that on the arch. It relates to the same family, and to the two benefactors. "The senate and people have honoured Tatia, daughter of Nicostratus, son of Pericles, a new heroine, both on account of the magistracies, and ministries, and public works of her father, and on account of her great uncle Nicostratus, who lately, besides his other benefactions, was priest of the city, and changed the stadium into an amphitheatre." The city increasing, the stadium, it should seem, was not sufficiently capacious; but Nicostratus enlarged, or lengthened it, and converted it into an amphi

[blocks in formation]

theatre, like that at Nysa. A structure of so vast a circumference, when filled with the Laodiceans sitting in rows, must itself have been a very glorious and striking spectacle.

On the north side of the amphitheatre, toward the east end, is the ruin of a most ample edifice. It consists of many piers and arches of stone, with pedestals and marble fragments. At the west end lies a large stone, with an inscription; the city or people" has erected Ased, a man of sanctity and piety, and recorder for life, on account of his services to his country." This fabric was perhaps the repository of the laws, and contained the senate-house, the money-exchange, and public offices. It has been remarked, that the waters of Laodicea, though drinkable, had a petrifying quality; and, at the east end of this ruin, is a mass of incrustation, formed by the current, which was conveyed to it in earthen pipes, by the duct before mentioned.

From this ruin you see the odéum, which fronted southward. The seats remain in the side of the hill. The materials of the front lie in a confused heap. The whole was of marble. Sculpture had been lavished on it, and the style savoured less of Grecian taste than Roman magnificence.

Beyond the odéum are some marble arches standing, with pieces of massive wall; the ruin, as we conjectured, of a gymnasium. This fabric, with one at a small distance, appeared to have been re-edified, probably after an earthquake, to which calamity Laodicea was remarkably subject. Westward from it are three marble arches crossing a dry valley, as a bridge. Many traces of the city-wall may be seen, with broken columns and pieces of marble used in its later repairs. Within, the whole surface is strewed with pedestals. and fragments. The luxury of the citizens may be inferred

from their other sumptuous buildings, and from two capacious theatres in the side of the hill, fronting northward and westward; each with its seats still rising in numerous rows one above another. The travellers in 1705 found a maimed statue at the entrance of the former, and on one of the seats the word ΖΗΝΩΝΟΣ of Zeno.

The hill of Laodicea consists of dry, impalpable soil, porous, with many cavities, resembling the bore of a pipe; as may be seen on the sides, which are bare. It resounded beneath our horses feet. The stones are mostly masses of pebbles, or of gravel consolidated, and as light as pumicestone. We had occasion to dig, and found the earth as hard as any cement. Beneath, on the north, are stone coffins, broken, subverted, or sunk in the ground.

The two streams, which united by our tent, were the Lycus and the Caprus. The Lycus flows from a mountain called Cadmus, above Laodicea, or to the east. It is seen in the plain, north of the hill, and was now shallow, and about two yards over. After its junction with the Caprus, on the northwest, it becomes a sizeable river. The Caprus* descends on the west, through a narrow valley, in which are four tall piers of a bridge once crossing it, and leading to a gate of the city. These rivers are represented on medals. The Asopus, which ran on the opposite side, was dry. Laodicea, with Colossæ, its neighbour, was enriched by sheep, which produced fleeces exceeding Milesian in softness, and the jetty raven in colour. The river Xanthus, or Scamander, was supposed the author

* Called Giumiskioi. The rivulet washing the eastern side of the hill, called Hosolous. The Lycus, which flows not far off in the plain beneath, called Dickbounar. Picenini.

of the yellow hue observable in the Troad. This region was said to be indebted to the Lycus. The breed perhaps has been neglected. Some shepherds came with their flocks to the ruins, and in the evening to the water by our tent. I remarked only one or two, which were very black and glossy..

Laodicea was often damaged by earthquakes, and restored by its own opulence, or by the munificence of the Roman emperors. These resources failed, and the city, it is probable, became early a scene of ruin. About the year 1097 it was possessed by the Turks, and submitted to Ducas, general of the emperor Alexis. In 1120 the Turks sacked some of the cities of Phrygia, by the Mæander, but were defeated by the emperor John Comnenus, who took Laodicea, and built anew, or repaired the walls. About 1161 it was again unfortified. Many of the inhabitants were then killed, with their bishop, or carried with their cattle into captivity by the Turks. In 1190, the German emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, going by Laodicea with his army toward Syria on a crusade, was received so kindly, that he prayed on his knees for the prosperity of the people. About 1196, this region, with Caria, was dreadfully ravaged by the Turks. The sultan, on the invasion of the Tartars in 1255, gave Laodicea to the Romans; but they were unable to defend it, and it soon returned to the Turks. We saw no traces either of houses, churches, or mosques. All was silence and solitude. Several strings of camels passed eastward over the hill ; but a fox, which we first discovered by his ears, peeping over. a brow, was the only inhabitant of Laodicea..

CHAP. LXVIII.

We set out for Pambouk, or Hierapolis-Stopped-Behaviour of an aga-The cliff, &c.-Quality of the soil about the Maander-Hot waters of Hierapolis-Another cliff-Poetical account of the cliff.

A PORTION of Messogis, opposite to Laodicea, appears as a white lofty cliff. We supposed it to be chalk. Pambouk, or the ruined city Hierapolis,* which we could see, is seated upon it, beneath the summits of the mountain. The distance was one hour and a half, north-north-eastward. The aga, with whom we had lately been embroiled, told the janizary, that he commanded at Pambouk, the aga of the district being absent, and that we had nothing to fear there, as we were under his protection. We relied on his assurances, and left Laodicea, on the 30th of April, in the afternoon; crossing the plain toward Pambouk.

We passed the Lycus on the west of Laodicea, near an ordinary bridge, and, in about three quarters of an hour, the Mæander; which here had two beams laid across it, with planks; the water deep in its bed, muddy, as usual, and rapid. Some men, who were digging a trench in the plain, left off, and waited our approach. They were headed by a chiaush, or the messenger of an aga, who commanded in a small village to the west of Pambouk. He stopped us at a narrow pass, seizing the bridles of the horses which were fore

* Laodicea was six miles from Hierapolis. Antonin. Itir.

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »