Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present ConditionBucke, Charles
History
Ruins of Ancient Cities (Vol. 2 of 2): With General and Particular Accounts of Their Rise, Fall, and Present Condition
Bucke, Charles
Cities and towns, Ancient
Pergamus gave birth to Apollodorus, the preceptor of Augustus; and
Galen, next to Hippocrates the greatest physician that ever adorned the
annals of medical science. It is also remarkable for having been alluded
to by Tiberius, in one of his hypocritical speeches to the Roman senate,
as reported in Tacitus. “I know very well,” said he, “that many men will
condemn me for suffering Asia to build me a temple, as Spain at present
would do: but I will give you a reason for what I have done, and declare
my resolution for the future. The divine Augustus, whose actions and
words are so many inviolable laws to me, having consented that the
people of _Pergamus_ should dedicate a temple to him and the city of
Rome, I thought I might follow so great an example; so much the rather,
since the honour, intended me, was joined with the veneration paid to
the senate. But as on the one hand it might have been too great a piece
of severity to have denied it for once; so on the other, doubtless, it
would be too great a vanity and folly, to suffer one’s self to be adored
as a God, through all the provinces of the empire. Besides, it cannot
but be a great diminution to the glory of Augustus, to communicate it
indifferently to all the world. For my own part, I am mortal, and
subject to human infirmities; I am contented with being a prince here,
without being raised to the throne of a God. I protest to you, I desire
this testimony may be given of me to posterity. It will be glory enough
for me to be thought worthy of my ancestors; a vigilant prince, one who
is insensible of fear, when the commonwealth is in danger. These are the
temples and monuments which I desire to erect in your breasts: for works
of marble and brass, raised to the glory of princes, are contemned by
posterity as so many naked sepulchres, when their memory is condemned. I
entreat heaven to give me a serenity of mind, and a spirit to discern
and judge uprightly of the laws of God and man; and after my decease, I
confide, my fellow-citizens and allies will preserve my memory with
their blessings and praises.”
Mr. Turner found several ancient inscriptions at Pergamus. He ascended
the ancient Acropolis, which is built on a mount of about two hundred
feet height, overhanging the town: on the top are extensive remains of
the walls both of the Roman and Venetian city. Part of the walls are
built with large fluted columns, laid length-ways. Among the Roman ruins
are several immense arched caves under ground, about sixty feet deep. At
the top of the hill lay a large Corinthian capital, and half way down
the hill a small marble column, on which is a Greek inscription, now
illegible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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