Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present ConditionBucke, Charles
History
Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 1 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition
Bucke, Charles
Cities and towns, Ancient
Chandler describes the site of Megara as covered with rubbish, amongst
which were standing some ruinous churches; some pieces of ancient wall,
on which a modern fortress has been erected. The village consisting of
low, mean cottages, pleasantly situated on the slope of an eminence,
indented in the middle. Nearly the whole site of the ancient city he
found green with corn, and marked by heaps of stones, and the rubbish of
buildings. A few inscriptions, too, were seen: one of which relates to
Herodes Atticus, signalising the gratitude of the Megareans, for his
benefactions and good will. There was another on a stone:--"_This, too,
is the work of the most magnificent Count Diogenes, the son of
Archelaus, who, regarding the Grecian cities as his own family, has
bestowed on that of the Megarensians 100 pieces of gold towards the
building of their towers; and also 150 more, with 2200 feet of marble,
toward re-edifying the bath; deeming nothing more honourable than to do
good to the Greeks, and to restore their cities._"
The person here signalised was one of the generals of the emperor
Anastasius, who employed him on a rebellion in Isauria, A.D. 494.
Wheler also gives an inscription in "honour of Callimachus, Scribe and
Gymnasiarch," and several others. Dr. Clarke also saw one, setting forth
that, "_under the care of Julius, the proconsul, and the prætorship of
Aiscron, this (monument or statue) is raised by the Adrianidæ to
Adrian_."
Several other inscriptions have been found; one in honour of the Empress
Sabina; and others in praise of Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus. There
is another, too, in honour of a person, who had been several times
conqueror in almost all the public games in Greece and Italy. There was,
also (formerly), another inscription, still more honourable. This was on
the tomb of a person named Choræbus, in which was related, in elegiac
verse, the history of his having devoted himself to death, in order to
free his native country (Thebes) from the evils of a pestilence[354].
The Earl of Sandwich mentions two statues of women, about eight feet
high, without heads; and having no attributes to show for what they were
designed.
Clarke says, that Ionic and Doric capitals, some of which are of
limestone, and others of marble, lie scattered among the ruins, and in
the courts of some of the houses. He procured, also, a few fragments of
terra-cotta, of a bright red hue, beautifully fluted.
Chandler speaks of the remains of a temple of Minerva, near a large
basin of water; on the sides of which are the remains of a bath,
remarkable for its size and ornaments, and for the number of its
columns.
The stone of Megara was of a kind unknown any where else in Hellas; very
white, and consisting entirely of cockle shells; which, not being hard,
may be reckoned among the causes of the destruction of Megara.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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