army encamped by the river Hermus, which was twenty stadia, or two miles and a half, distant. He went up to the citadel, which was then fortified with a triple wall, and resolved to erect in it a temple and altar to Jupiter Olympius, on the site of the royal palace of the Lydians f.

Sardes under the Romans was a large city, and not inferior to any of its neighbours, until the terrible earthquake, which happened in the time of Tiberius Cæsar. Magnesia by Sipylus, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Ephesus, and several more cities partook largely in that calamity; but this place suffered prodigiously, and was much pitied. The munificence of the emperor was nobly exerted to repair the vari ous damages, and Sardes owed its recovery to Tiberius g.

The emperor Julian made Chrysanthius, a Sardian, of a senatorial family, pontiff of Lydia h. He attempted to restore the heathen worship; erecting temporary altars at Sardes, where none had been left, and repairing the temples, if any vestiges remained. In the year 400, the Goths, under Tribigild and Caianas, officers in the Roman pay, who had revolted from the emperor Arcadius, plundered the city. In the subsequent troubles in Asia, the natives in general were compelled to retire for safety to the hills and strong holds. At Sardes they permitted the Turks, on an incursion of the Tartars in 1304, to occupy a portion of the citadel separated by a strong wall with a gate, and afterwards murdered them in their sleep.

f Arrian, p. 36.

s Strabo, p. 579. 627. Tacitus, Ann. ii. c. 47. h Eunapius, p. 154.

The site of this once noble city was now green and flowery. Coming from the east, we had the ground-plot of the theatre at some distance on our left hand, with a small brook near us, running before it. The structure was in a brow, which unites with the hill of the citadel, and was called Prion. Some pieces of the vault, which supported seats, and completed the semicircle, remain.

It was on this side the effort was made, which gave Antiochus possession of Sardes. An officer had observed, that vultures and birds of prey gathered there about the offals and dead bodies thrown into the hollow by the besieged, and inferred that the wall, standing on the edge of the precipices, was neglected as secure from any attempt. He scaled it with a resolute party, while Antiochus called off the attention both of his own army and of the enemy by a feint; marching as if he intended to attack the Persian gate. Two thousand soldiers rushed in at the gate opened for them, and took their post at the theatre, when the town was plundered and burned i.

Going on, we passed by remnants of massive buildings; marble piers sustaining heavy fragments of arches of brick; and more indistinct ruins. These are in the plain before the hill of the citadel. On our right hand, near the road, was a portion of a large edifice, with a heap of ponderous materials before and behind it. The walls are standing of two large, lofty, and very long rooms, with a space between them, as of a passage. This remain, it has been conjectured, was the house of Croesus, once

Polybius, 1. vii. c. 4.

k See Peyssonnel's Travels.

appropriated by the Sardians, as a place of retirement, to superannuated citizens. It was called the Gerusia, and in it, as some Roman authors have remarked, was exemplified the extreme durability of the ancient brick1. The walls in this ruin have double arches beneath, and consist chiefly of that material, with layers of stone. The bricks are exceedingly fine and good, of various sizes, some flat, and broad. We employed a man to procure one entire, but the cement proved so very hard and tenacious, it was next to impossible. Both Croesus and Mausolus, neither of whom could be suspected of parsimony, used them in building their palaces. It was a substance insensible of decay; and it is asserted, if the walls were erected true to their perpendicular, would, without violence, last for ever.

The hill, on which the citadel stood, appears from the plain to be triangular. It is sandy, and the sides rough. The fortress is abandoned, but has a double wall, as in 1304, fronting the plain, besides outworks, in ruins . The eminence affords a fine prospect of the country, and in the walls are two or three fragments with inscriptions. Not far from the west end is the celebrated river Pactolus, which rises in the mountain behind, and once flowed through the middle of the market-place of Sardes in its way to the Hermus, bringing down from Tmolus bits of gold. Herodotus observes, that, except this one and the barrow of Alyattes, Lydia was not remarkable for wonders. The treasures of Croesus and of his ancestors were collected chiefly from the Pactolus;

1 Vitruvius, 1. ii. c. 8. Pliny, 1. xxxv. c. 14. m See a plan and view in Peyssonnel.

but in time that source failed".

After snow or rain

a torrent descends; but now the stream was very shallow; the bed sand or gravel, in colour inclining to a reddish yellow.

Beyond the supposed Gerusia, we turned from the road to the left. We passed the miserable village Sart, which stands, with a ruinous mosque, above the river, on a root or spur of the hill of the citadel, and crossing the Pactolus, pitched our tent in a flowery meadow. Not far from us were booths of the Turcomans, with their cattle feeding. Some of them joined us, and one or two wanted rakí or brandy, but were told we had none. A small gratuity was required for the aga of the village, which was opposite to our tent.

After resting a while, we were conducted toward Tmolus, and suddenly struck with the view of a ruin of a temple, near us, in a most retired situation, beyond the Pactolus, between the hill of the citadel and the mountain. Five columns are standing, one without the capital; and one with the capital awry to the south. The architrave was of two stones. A piece remains on one column, but moved southward; the other part, with the column, which contributed to its support, has fallen since the year 1699. One capital was then distorted, as was imagined, by an earthquake; and over the entrance of the naos, or cell, was a vast stone, which occasioned wonder by what art or power it could be raised. That fair and magnificent portal, as it is styled by the relater°, has since been destroyed; and in the heap lies that most huge and ponderous marble. Part of one of

n Strabo, p. 591. 625.

• Chishull's Travels, p. 16.

the antæ is seen about four feet high. The soil has accumulated round the ruin; and the bases, with a moiety of each column, are concealed; except one, which was cleared by Mr. Wood. The number in the front, when entire, was eight. The order is Ionic. The shafts are fluted, and the capitals designed and carved with exquisite taste and skill.

It is impossible to behold without deep regret this imperfect remnant of so beautiful and glorious an edifice; which however is, I believe, unnoticed by the ancient authors now extant. Herodotus mentions a temple dedicated to Cybebe, or Cybele, as damaged in the conflagration of Sardes by the Milesians. The same goddess is invoked in Sophocles P as inhabiting by the great Pactolus, abounding in gold. Croesus, king of Sardes, contributed to the building of the temple at Ephesus, where a similar mass of marble was placed over the entrance by Metagenes; and if this fabric be not coeval, it was perhaps planned and erected by some of the successors of that bold and enterprising architect.

CHAP. LXXVI.

THE ROAD TO EPHESUS-OF LARISSA-THE REGION CALLED ASIS HYPOPA-BIRGHE THE ROAD FROM PERGAMUM TO SARDES.

IN the preceding chapter we have mentioned an expedition of the Milesians against Sardes. The distance of this city from Ephesus was five hundred and forty stadia, or sixty-seven miles and a half;

P Philoctetes, v. 390.