BOOK III, GISTS AND Greek soldiers. Many of these peculiarities are also seen in the larger frieze, and also in the style of the lions and statues. The form of the building, which alone I can reconcile with the remains, is a Carian monument of the Ionic order. Bearing in mind all these points, I am strongly inclined to attribute this work to the mercenaries from Æolia and Ionia, brought down by HARPAGUS to conquer the inhabitants of Xanthus, whom they are said to have utterly destroyed. This monument may have been the tomb of a chief, or erected as a memorial of the conquest of the city by HARPAGUS. No inscription has been found, or it might probably have thrown some light upon the date of this work. In the immediate neighbourhood were found the other friezes, representing hunting-scenes, a battle, offerings of various kinds and by different nations, funeral feasts, and several statues which are of the same date.' Sir Charles then concludes thus:— The whole of the remaining works now to be traced amidst the ruins of Xanthus are decidedly of a late date; scarcely any are to be attributed to a period preceding the Christian era, and to that age I cannot conceive the works just noticed to have belonged. A triumphal arch or gateway of the city at the foot of the cliff of which I have spoken has upon it a Greek inscription, showing it to have been erected in the reign of VESPASIAN, A.D. 80: from this arch are the metopes and triglyphs now in the Museum. Travels and Through this is a pavement of flagstones leading towards the theatre. To this age I should attribute the theatre, agora, and most of the buildings which I have called Greek, and which are marked red upon the plan. To this people belong the immense quantity of mosaic pavements which have existed in all parts of the city. Almost all the small pebbles in the fields are the débris of these works. In many Researches in Asia Minor, pp. 429, 430 1852). places we have found patterns remaining which are of Book III, coarse execution, but Greek in design.' Chap. IV. ARCHEOLO EXPLORERS. THE MARBLES OF HALICAR The not a whit less interesting discoveries at Halicar- GISTS AND nassus and elsewhere, made chiefly in the years 1856, 1857, and 1858, by Mr. Charles NEWTON, now claim attention, but my present notice of them can be but very inadequate to the worth of the subject. They as richly deserve a full record as do the explorations of LAYARD or those of FELLOWS. The earliest, in arrival, of the Halicarnassian Marbles were procured by our Ambassador at Constantinople (then Sir Stratford CANNING, now) Lord STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE. These first-received marbles comprise twelve slabs, sculptured with the combats of Greeks and Amazons in low-relief; and were removed from the walls of the mediæval castle of Budrum, in the year 1846, with the permission, of course, of the Sublime Porte. It is a tribute all the stronger to the energy of Lord STRATFORD to find another man of energy writing, in 1841: 'I would not have been a party to the asking what to all who have seen them' (namely, the Marbles of Halicarnassus, built into the inner walls of Budrum Castle)—' must be considered as an unreasonable request.' It took, it is true, five years Lord STRATFORD to overcome the obstacle which to Mr. FELLOWS seemed, in 1841, quite insuperable. CNIDUS, AND CHIDE. Travels and for Researches in Asia Minor, pp. 429, 430 (1852). MISSION TO THE LEVANT OF MR.CHARLYS In 1856, and expressly in order to a thorough explora- THE tion of the site of Halicarnassus, and of other promising parts of the Levant, Mr. Charles NEWTON, then one of the ablest of the officers of the Department of Antiquities NEWTON. (whose loss at the Museum, even for three or four years, was not very easily replaceable), accepted the office of British Vice-Consul at Mitylene. In 1857, he discovered 1856-58. BOOK III, ANOTHER GISTS AND four additional slabs (similar to those received from the Ambassador), on the site of the world-famous mausoleum ARCHE LO itself; several colossal statues, and portions of such; together with a multitude of architectural fragments of almost every conceivable kind; columns-mostly broken into many portions-with their bases, capitals, and entablatures, in sufficient quantity and diversity to warrant a faithful restoration of the ancient building by a competent hand. THE TOMB From Didyme (near Miletus), from Cnidus, and from Branchidæ, many fine archaic figures in the round; some colossal lions; and an enormous number of fragments both of sculpture and of architecture; with many minor antiquities, various in character and in material, were successively sent to England. Mr. Charles NEWTON's narrative of his adventures at Budrum, and at several of the other places of his sojourn and excavations, is very graphic. Some portions of it are worthy to be placed side by side with the best chapters of the earlier narrative of the explorations and travelling experiences of LAYARD. Of the most famous trophy of Mr. NEWTON's first mission to the East-the mausoleum built by Queen ARTEMISIA— the discoverer has himself more recently given this brief and striking descriptive account: This monument, writes Mr. NEWTON, in 1869, was erected to contain the remains of MAUSOLUS, Prince of Caria, about B.C. 352. It consisted of a lofty basement, on which stood an oblong Ionic edifice, surrounded by thirty-six Ionic columns, and surmounted by a pyramid of twenty-four steps. The whole structure, a hundred and Guide to the forty feet in height, was crowned by a chariot-group in white marble, in which probably stood MAUSOLUS himself, represented after his translation to the world of demigods Department of Antiquities, &c., pp. 74, 75. Chap. IV. GROUP OF ARCHEOLO. EXPLORERS. and heroes. The peristyle edifice which supported the BOOK III, pyramids was encircled by a frieze, richly sculptured in high- ANOTHER relief,' and so on. The frieze thus mentioned is that of which the twelve slabs were, as already mentioned, given by Lord STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE in 1846, four exhumed by NEWTON himself in 1857, and one more purchased from the Marchese SERRA, of Genoa, in 1865. This piecemeal acquisition of the principal frieze, by dint of researches spread over twenty years, is not the least curious of the facts pertaining to the story. But the annals of the Museum comprise ten or twelve similar instances of ultimate reunion, after long scattering, of the parts of one whole. They tell of manuscripts (made perfect after the lapse of a century, it may be) as well as of sculptures, thus toilsomely recovered. But the Greco-Amazonian battle-frieze was not the only frieze of the famous mausoleum. The external walls of the cella' had two other friezes, of which Mr. NEWTON SUCceeded in recovering several fragments, some of them of much interest. And the mausoleum was profusely adorned with sculptures in the round as well as with the richly carved figures in relief, both high and low, which encircled (in all probability) the very basement, as well as the peristyle and the cella portions of this marvellous structure. Lions in watchful attitudes (lions guardant,' in heraldic phrase) stood here and there, and the fragments of these which have been recovered testify to their variety of scale, as well as to their number. The names of five famous sculptors of the later Athenian school-SCOPAS, LEOCHARES, BRYAXIS, TIMOTHEUS, PYTHIOS-who were employed upon the decoration of the tomb itself, or upon the chariot-group, have been recorded, and it would seem that each of four of these had one side of the tomb specially assigned to him. 'The material of the sculpture was Parian marble, and the BOOK III, GROUP OF Newton, in Guide, Travels and Discoveries in the Levant, vol. ii, and passim. THE EX OF NATHAN DAVIS AT whole structure was richly ornamented with colour. The tomb of MAUSOLUS was of the class called by the Greeks heröon, and so greatly excelled all other sepulchral monuments in size, beauty of design, and richness of decoration, that it was reckoned one of the "Seven Wonders of the World."" While LAYARD was unearthing Nineveh; FELLOWS bringing into the light of day the long-lost cities of Lycia; pp. 108-137; and Charles NEWTON restoring, before men's eyes, this funereal marvel of the ancient world, which had long been PLORATIONS known (in effect) only by dim memories and traditions; Dr. Nathan DAVIS, in his turn, was exhuming Carthage AND UTICA. and Utica. All these distinguished men were labouring, in common, for the enrichment of our National Museum, within a period of some twenty years. Three of them may be said to have been busied (in one way or other) with their self-denying tasks contemporaneously.* If we take into the account the variety, as well as the intrinsic worth, of the additions thus made to human knowledge; above all, if we duly estimate the value of those links of connection * I shall not, I trust, be suspected of a want of gratitude for the eminent and most praiseworthy efforts of Mr. Davis—one of the many Americans who have returned, with liberal profuseness, the reciprocal obligations which all Americans owe to Britain (for their ancestry, and also for the noble interchange of benefits between parent and offspring, prior to 1776; if for nought else), if I venture to remark that the abovewritten passage in the text has been inserted somewhat hesitatingly, as far as it concerns the date of the Carthaginian explorations. No index; no summary; no marginal dates; conflicting and obscure dates, when any dates appear anywhere; no introduction, which introduces anything; scarcely any divarication of personal knowledge and experiences, from borrowed knowledge and experiences; such are some of the difficulties which await the student of Carthage and her Remains. Yet the book is full of deep interest; its author is, none the less, a benefactor to Britain, and to the world. |