Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

over to the opposite coast of the bay, where are vestiges of the city.

In Salamis, says Pausanias, on this side is a temple of Diana, and on that has stood a trophy for the victory obtained by Themistocles, and there is the temple of Cychreus. The trophy was probably a column adorned with arms, which had been thrown down before his time. The remnants on Cynosura, it has been supposed, belonged to this monument; and the defeat of the Barbarians, as those enemies of Greece were styled, may have given rise to the name Punto Barbaro, by which the cape is now distinguished. The church of St. Nicholas perhaps occupies the site of the temple of Cycreus. A serpent, which was seen in the Athenian ships while engaging the Medes, was believed, on the authority of Apollo, to have been this hero.

The city of Salamis was demolished by the Athenians, because in the war with Cassander it surrendered to the Macedonians, from disaffection. In the second century, when it was visited by Pausanias, some ruins of the agora or marketplace remained, with a temple and image of Ajax; and not far from the port was shewn a stone, on which they related, Telamon sate to view the Salaminian ships on their departure to join the Grecian fleet at Aulis. The walls may still be traced, and, it has been conjectured, were about four miles in circumference. The level space within them was now covered with green corn. The port is choked with mud, and was partly dry. Among the scattered marbles are some with inscriptions. One is of great antiquity, before the introduction of the Ionic alphabet. On another, near the port, the name of Solon occurs. This renowned law-giver was a native of Salamis, and a statue of him was erected in the

market-place, with one hand covered by his vest, the modest attitude in which he was accustomed to address the people of Athens. An inscription on black marble was also copied in 1676 near the ruin of a temple, probably that of Ajax.

The island of Salamis is now inhabited by a few Albanians who till the ground. Their village is called Ampelaki, the Vineyard, and is at a distance from the port, standing more inland. In the church are marble fragments and some inscriptions which I copied. Our hotel was a cottage without a chimney. We were almost blinded with the smoke. At night the mud-floor, on which we lay, was covered with men, women, and children; and under the same roof was the poultry, and live-stock belonging to the family.

I mounted an ass and went at break of day, with an Albanian on foot, to examine a stone in a ruinous church an hour distant, but found on it only rude sculpture which had been mistaken for letters. Near it were falling cottages, the remains of a deserted village; and, farther on, the place where we landed from Ægina. It is likely, there was the site of the more ancient city of Salamis, which was toward that island and the south. A river was called Bocarus, afterwards Bocalias. It was remarked, that the harvest commenced more early than about Athens.

The botanical traveller may be amused with searching for a flower, which as the Salaminians related, was first observed on the death of Ajax. It is described as white, inclining to red, the leaves less than in a lily, and bearing the letters, which are on the hyacinth.

CHAP. XLVII.

An ancient oracle-The battle of Salamis-Flight of the Persian fleet.

HERODOTUS has recorded an ancient oracle, which was to be fulfilled, when ships should form a bridge between the sea-washed Cynosura, and the sacred shore of Diana, or across the mouth of the bay of Salamis. This term was believed to have been accomplished in the first year of the seventy-fifth Olympiad, when that portion of the strait became the scene of the famous battle, which delivered Greece from the incursions of the Medes.

*

Xerxes, after reducing the citadel of Athens, repaired to Phalerum, where his fleet lay. It was agreed in council to attack the Grecian fleet, which had assembled in the bay of Salamis. The ships approached the island. A report that the Greeks intended to fly toward the isthmus was credited, and the Medes determined to prevent their escape. At midnight the leading squadron moved silently on, circling in toward Salamis; and the ships about Ceos, probably the islet next to the Piræus, and about Cynosura likewise advancing, the whole strait was occupied, quite from Munychia. A body of Persians was stationed on Psyttalia to assist the men, and disabled vessels, which should swim or float thither, or to destroy them, if enemies. The morning dawned, and the The Corinthian admiral,

Greeks advanced from Salamis.

In the year before Christ, 478.

who was irresolute, sailed away with his squadron, as far as the temple of Minerva Sciras, which was in the out-skirts of Salamis, and returned. The Athenians were opposite to the Phoenicians, who were on the right of the Persian line; and the Lacedæmonians to the Ionians, who were on the left.* The Barbarians fled toward Phalerum. The Æginetans intercepted them at the mouth of the strait, and during the confusion, a party from Salamis landing on Psyttalia cut the Persians there in pieces. The number, according to Pausanias, was four hundred. Xerxes was a spectator of this action, sitting on Mount Ægeleos; and, as one author relates, above the Heracleum. Another has placed him on Kerata, but that mountain is too remote to be even a probable station. The silver-footed chair, which he used, was preserved for many ages among the Persian spoils in the acropolis.

Xerxes, after his defeat, gave orders as if he designed to renew the fight, and to pass his army over into the island; preparing to join it to the continent by a mole, where the strait was only two stadia wide. His fleet abandoned Phalerum in the night, and hastened back to the Hellespont to secure his retreat into Asia. Mistaking the small capes and islets by the promontory Zoster for ships, it fled with all possible speed.

* Diodorus places the Athenians and Lacedæmonians on the left of the Greek line, opposite to the Phoenicians; the Æginetans and Megarensians on the right; the other Greeks in the centre, p. 417.

CHAP. XLVIII.

Intended route from Athens-Prepare for our departure-At the Piraus-Embark-Land on Munychia-Pass a haunted rock-Land on an islet-On Ægina.

A LETTER from Mr. Fauquier, which I received on the twenty-fifth of April, dated London, February the eleventh, 1766, contained directions from the Committee of Dilettanti to return, if it appeared safe and practicable, through the Morea, and by Corfu to Brindisi, and thence through Magna Grecia to Naples.

The cranes, which returned to Athens in the spring, and made their nests on the houses, chimneys, and ruins in the town, had reared their young, and were seen daily, as it were, exercising before their flight, high in the air, with continued gyrations; when we also began to prepare for our departure. We hired a small felucca of Hydre, with seven men and two boys, which waited for us in the Piræus. The marbles, which I had collected, with our provisions and baggage, were removed on horses to the sea-side, and put on board without being examined at the custom-house. This exemption was proffered to us as a token of regard by the vaiwode; but Lombardi required of me a number of piasters, which, he pretended, it was necessary to distribute, privately, among the farmers and officers of the revenue. The disdar had requested one of our ladders, which were much admired, and we sent it to him in the acropolis. We restored to the owners some of

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »