David George Hogarth

“ Jebel el-Akabah is much more barren than Jebel Akhdar, and the desert comes right down to the sea in Marmarica, whose few inhabitants are more concerned with salt-collecting and sponge fishing than with agriculture. They have, however, the only good ports on the whole coast, Bomba and Tobruk. Much might be made of Cyrenaica by judicious colonization. All kinds of trees grow well, from the date palm to the oak; and there are over 200,000 wild olives in the country. The conditions in general are very like those of central Italy, and there is ample room for new settlers. ”

“ The remains of Cyrene itself are enclosed by a wall having a circuit of about 4 m., of which little remains but the foundations and fragments of two towers; but tombs and isolated structures extend far outside this area. The local Arabs say it takes them six camel-hours to go from one end to the other of the ruins, which they call generally “Grenna” (i.e. Kyrenna) . Within the city itself not very much is now to be seen. Below the Apollo fountain on the N. lie a great theatre and the substructures of the main temple of Apollo, both included now in the Senussi convent garden. ”

“ The view from the summit is very beautiful and of great historical interest. In front is Lesbos, one of whose towns, Methymna, is said to have sent forth the founders of Assus, as early, perhaps, as 1000 or 900 B.C. The whole south coast-line of the Troad is seen, and in the south-east the ancient territory of Pergamum, from whose masters the possession of Assus passed to Rome by the bequest of Attalus III. (133 B.C.) . The great heights of Ida rise in the east. Northward the Tuzla is seen winding through a rich valley. ”

“ The city seems to have been more than once under tyrannical rule in the early Ionian period; and it fell thereafter first to Croesus of Lydia, and then to Cyrus, the Persian, and when the Ionian revolt against Persia broke out in the year 500 B.C. under the lead of Miletus, the city remained submissive to Persian rule. When Xerxes returned from the march against Greece, he honoured the temple of Artemis, although he sacked other Ionian shrines, and even left his children behind at Ephesus for safety’s sake. ”

“ In the 5th century B.C. Halicarnassus and other Dorian cities of Asia were to some extent absorbed by the Delian League, but the peace of Antalcidas in 387 made them subservient to Persia; and it was under Mausolus, a Persian satrap who assumed independent authority, that Halicarnassus attained its highest prosperity. Struck by the natural strength and beauty of its position, Mausolus removed to Halicarnassus from Mylasa, increasing the population of the city by the inhabitants of six towns of the Leleges. ”

“ It is picturesquely situated in a theatre of lofty, abrupt rocks, on the right bank of the western Euphrates, which is crossed by a wooden bridge. The stone houses stand in terraced gardens and orchards, and the streets are mere rock ladders. ”

“ Mainly unnavigable and of little use for irrigation, the Orontes derives its historical importance solely from the convenience of its valley for traffic from N. to S. Roads from N. and N.E., converging at Antioch, follow the course of the stream up to Homs, where they fork to Damascus and to Coele-Syria and the S.; and along its valley have passed the armies and traffic bound to and from Egypt in all ages. ”

“ After all N. Africa had passed to Rome, and Cyrenaica itself, bequeathed by Apion, the last Ptolemaic sovereign, was become (in combination with Crete) a Roman province (after 96 B.C.) , this competition told more severely than ever, and the Greek colonists, grown weaker, found themselves less able to hold their own against the Libyan population. A great revolt of the Jewish settlers in the time of Trajan settled the fate of Cyrene and Barca ”

“ The nearest port is Kalamaki, whence a tedious ride of three to four hours round the edge of the great marsh of the Eshen Chai brings the traveller to Xanthus. The whole plan of the city with its walls and gates can be discerned. ”

“ On the W. a fine fragment of a tower, the fortifications of the acropolis, and a pedestal sculptured on four sides in good 3rd century style, are the only things worth seeing. The Cretan occupation is fast obliterating other traces. The great spectacle, however, which distinguishes the site of Cyrene, is provided by its cemeteries, which for extent, variety and preservation are unparalleled in the classic lands. ”

“ Mithradates extended them to a bowshot from the temple in all directions, and Mark Antony imprudently allowed them to take in part of the city, which part thus became free of all law, and a haunt of thieves and villains. Augustus, while leaving the right of asylum untouched, diminished the space to which the privilege belonged, and built round it a wall, which still surrounds the ruins of the temple at the distance of about a quarter of a mile, bearing an inscription in Greek and Latin, which states that it was erected in the proconsulship of Asinius Gallus, out of the revenues of the temple. ”

“ Alexander, as soon as he had reduced Ionia, summoned Halicarnassus, where Memnon, the paramount satrap of Asia Minor, had taken refuge with the Persian fleet, to surrender; and on its refusal took the city after hard fighting and devastated it, but not being able to reduce the citadel, was forced to leave it blockaded. He handed the government of the city back to the family of Mausolus, as represented by Ada, sister of the latter. Not long afterwards we find the citizens receiving the present of a gymnasium from Ptolemy, and building in his honour a stoa or portico ”

“ No ruins of earlier period than the late Roman and early Arab seem to be visible on the site. The latter lies, like Cyrene, about ten miles from the coast on the crest of Jebel Akhdar, here sunk to a low downland. It owed its early prosperity to its easy access to the sea, and to the fact that natural conditions in Cyrenaica and the Sahara behind it, tend to divert trade to the west of the district—a fact which is exemplified by the final survival of Berenice (mod. Bengazi) . Merj stands in a rich but ill-cultivated stretch of red soil. ”

“ In 1869 Ali Riza Pasha of Tripoli tried to induce settlers to go to Bomba and Tobruk; and in 1888 an abortive effort was made to introduce Kurds. To protect the Cretans the Ottoman government has extended the civil administration and created several small garrisoned posts. The district is accordingly safer for Europeans than it was; but these still find themselves ill received. The Ottoman officials discourage travel in the interior, partly from fear of the Senussites, partly from suspicions, excited by the lively interest manifested by Italy in Cyrenaica. ”

“ The work done by the Austrians enables a good idea to be obtained of the appearance presented by a great Graeco-Roman city of Asia in the last days of its prosperity. It may be realized better there than anywhere how much architectural splendour was concentrated in the public quarters. But the restriction of the clearance to the upper stratum of deposit has prevented the acquisition of much further knowledge. Both the Hellenistic and, still more, the original Ionian cities remain for the most part unexplored. ”

“ They found some fifty families of Cretan refugees established at Ain Shahat and a mudir with a small guard on the spot: but no inhabited houses, except the Senussi convent and the mudiria. Cretans and Arabs live in the ancient rock-tombs. An Italian senator, Chev. G. de Martino, with two Italian residents at Derna, passed through the place in 1907, and found it in Bedouin hands.
The site lies on the crest of the highland of Jebel Akhdar (about 1800 ft.) and 10 m. from the sea. The ground slopes very gradually south, and being entirely denuded of trees, makes good corn land. ”

“ Ephesus was very prosperous during the Hellenistic period, and is conspicuous both then and later for the abundance of its coinage, which gives us a more complete list of magistrates’ names than we have for any other Ionian city. The Roman coinage is remarkable for the great variety and importance of its types. After the defeat of Antiochus the Great, king of Syria, by the Romans, Ephesus was handed over by the conquerors to Eumenes, king of Pergamum, whose successor, Attalus Philadelphus, unintentionally worked the city irremediable harm. ”

“ The scenes are agonistic, i.e. represent funeral games, in which both white and black persons take part, the latter doubtless Libyan perioeci: but all wear Greek garments. Several tombs are inscribed and on some external paintings are still faintly visible. The commonest type of grave is a simple pit covered by a gabled lid. These occur by hundreds. But not all the sepulchres are rock-cut: altar tombs and other forms of heroa are found built upon plinths of rock. ”