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retire into the country, from whence our host, who had been apprized of our coming, was recently arrived. We visited the archbishop, his son, a young man with a thick black beard; and saw the church, which is decorated, as usual, with portraits of saints. The extreme heat, with some other circumstances, rendered us impatient to get away; and prevented us from ascending to the Acrocorinthus, in which are a few inhabitants, as in the citadel of Athens. Wheler relates, that from the top he enjoyed one of the most agreeable prospects, which this world can afford. He guessed the walls to be about two miles in compass, inclosing mosques, with houses and churches mostly in ruins. An hour was consumed in going up on horseback. It was a mile to the foot of the hill; and from thence the way was very steep, with many traverses. The families living below were much infested by corsairs, and on every alarm flocked up to the castle. Our felucca was at anchor in the port still called Cenchreæ, now as little frequented as the Piræus. I was assured that nothing remained there, but a statue found in digging and much mutilated.

Corinth has preserved but few monuments of its Greek or Roman citizens. The chief remains are at the southwest corner of the town, and above the bazar or market, eleven columns supporting their architraves, of the Doric order, fluted, and wanting in height near half the common proportion to the diameter. Within them, toward the western end, is one taller, though not entire, which, it is likely, contributed to sustain the roof. They have been found to be stone, not marble; and appear brown, perhaps from a crust formed on the outside. The ruin is probably of very remote antiquity, and a portion of a fabric erected not only before the Greek

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city was destroyed, but before the Doric order had attained to maturity. I suspect it to have been the Sisyphéum mentioned by Strabo. North of the bazar stands a large mass of brick-work, a remnant, it may be conjectured, of a bath or of a gymnasium.

CHAP. LVIII.

Of the Isthmus-The place where vessels were drawn over-Attempts to unite the two seas-A wall erected across-The temple of Isthmian Neptune-The site.

THE Corinthians related that Neptune and the Sun had contended for their country; that the latter obtained the Acrocorinthus, and yielded the possession of it to Venus; and that Neptune had continued proprietor of the Isthmus, which divided the Corinthian from the Saronic Gulf, and united the Peloponnesus with the continent.

The root of Mount Oneius, extending along the Isthmus, rendered the Corinthian territory, which was not rich in soil, browy and uneven, with hollows. On the side of the Corinthian Gulf the beach receded toward that of Schoenus, which was opposite. There the neck was most narrow, the interval between the two seas being only forty stadia, or five miles; and there was the diolcos, or drawing-place, at which it was usual to convey light vessels across on machines. The same practice prevailed in the wars of the Turks and Venetians.

Various attempts have been made to open a communication, between the Ionian and the Egean seas, by a navigable cut through the Isthmus. The project was adopted by De

metrius Poliocertes, but his surveyors found the water in the Corinthian Gulf much higher than before Cenchreæ, and were of opinion, that Ægina and the neighbouring islands would be flooded, and the canal unserviceable. It was revived by Julius Cæsar, and by Caligula. Nero commenced a fosse from Lechæum, and advanced about four stadia, or half a mile. Atticus Herodes was ambitious of engaging in it, but as Nero had failed, was afraid of offending the emperor by asking his permission. "All those," says Pausanias, “who have endeavoured to render the Peloponnesus an island, have been prevented while labouring to divide the Isthmus. It is manifest where they began digging, and the rock is untouched. As it was made originally it remains, and is now continent. So difficult is it for man to force nature." The vestiges of these fruitless efforts, which he saw, are still ex

tant.

The wall erected by the Peloponnesians from sea to sea, reaching forty stadia, or five miles, crossed the Isthmus where most narrow. It was restored, or another was built, to prevent hostile incursions, under the Greek emperors. Constantine, despot, or lord of Lacedæmon, repaired this wall, which, with a town within it, was called Hexmillia, because the Isthmus there was six miles over. Sultan Morat advanced against it in the year 1447, and the despot assembled all the people of the Morea for its defence. The Turkish army ranged in equal extent on the side of the fosse, and, after mutual cannonading, made a general assault on the seventh day, which succeeded. Mahomet the second in 1451 ordered that the wall should be demolished. In the war of the Turks and Venetians in 1463 the first care of the Greeks and Albanians of the Morea was to render it again tenable, and

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