Chap. III. TERRACES.-TEMPLE OF ESCULAPIUS.

47

ground, and the tradition of the Arabs points it out as the place where the last battle was fought between the Christian inhabitants and the Moslem invaders.

On riding up the eastern hill from the fountain, one finds it formed of a series of terraces, partly natural and partly artificial, with a broad plateau overlooking the street of Battus on the summit. On one of these terraces, the form of the ground and the beautiful site induced me at first to suppose some ruins I found to be those of a theatre; but the ground in these hills so often takes a semicircular form, and the remains of masonry were so few, that, on further examination of the spot, I was inclined to believe that the appearance was accidental. A winding road led from the plateau to the agora, and steps cut in the rock afforded a shorter cut for pedestrians. In the sides of the terraces are many excavations, which, judging from the disposition of the interiors, must have formed parts of private houses, and some of them, if cleared out, would form commodious enough adjuncts to an encampment. On the summit are the remains of several buildings, one with five arches still appearing above the ground, and there are others of not inconsiderable size. Further to the east are several hillocks, two of them covered with the ruins of temples; one of them, called by the Arabs Kasr' Sharkyeh, is supposed by Barthe to be the temple of Escu

lapius, the treasury of the state. It is evidently of early date, and still shows traces of the colonnade which surrounded it. On a terrace below, a little to the north-west, a small stream issues from a cave, most picturesquely overgrown with maiden-hair and mosses; into this cave the water filtrates from narrow rents in the rock. Here, as in all similar cases, the industrious hand of man is visible; a second passage is cut in the rock to increase the flow of water, but this is now dry, and one narrow stream trickles only from the natural passage. In front there are remains of a reservoir built to collect the water. From this point, near which there are remains of a tower, the city walls are distinctly traceable in a large circuit to the deep ravine, which forms the boundary on the west. A group of rocks rising from the soil near Kasr' Sharkyeh seems to have been in some way connected with the sanctuary, as they are cut into niches, small chambers, and seats, and having been thrown from their original position, probably by some natural convulsion, they now present a most singular appearance of elfish disorder. Proceeding southwards, and passing a small temple, whose longer axis runs perpendicularly to that of Esculapius, we see the stadium a little to the right. Long parallel lines closed at one end by a curve, mark its form most perfectly; in a few places the seats may be traced, but in the long

traces of the spina or goals. The city wall is, in its lower courses of masonry, well preserved from a point immediately east of Kasr' Sharkyeh, where it makes a right angle, flanked with two square towers. Others succeed at short intervals along the line which runs to the west, but they are not placed at any regular distances; the rock in general forms the lower course in the walls, and in one place it has been built into it to a height of twelve feet, being cut away on both sides to the thickness of the wall. This continues to run in a westerly direction till it reaches a gigantic rectangular reservoir, of the most solid construction, but apparently never finished. Three massive arched conduits seem destined to distribute the water, and the vastness of the design and solidity of the execution render it worthy to be ranked with the greatest of the Roman aqueducts. In the arches, where the cement has fallen away, are to be seen on the stones letters deeply carved. They are the builders' marks, and here are all Greek characters, though the lying on its side (D), and the (Y) look strange. Among the most frequent are THO¶YE. The stones were doubtless thus marked in the quarry where they were cut in the curve of the arch, and the characters appear in a certain symmetry.

The wall from this point continues to run westwards

D

for some space, then, turning towards the north, it follows the edge of the western valley (Wady Bil Ghadir) up to a point where the perpendicular rocks render no artificial defence necessary, and here it terminates in a lofty tower. Beyond it I remarked two small reservoirs; a building of a large size, of the Roman epoch, having a central chamber terminated in an apsis; and near this another, evidently a stronghold of Byzantine, if not Arab, times. Many other smaller ruins lie beyond the walls on this side; among them a small temple, with fallen Ionic columns.

Without riding on to the tall tower which overhangs the steep rock of the Wady, we turn to the right, entering the strongly-fortified gate on the old Barca road. After passing the indications of many small buildings, fragments of marble and substructions, the most extensive ruin remaining in Cyrene presents itself. This is an immense quadrangle, whose northwest side is broken to inclose a small and very perfect theatre, which still shows three of the five vaulted entrances which gave admittance to its interior. The larger area, whose entrance gate is still entire, is supposed to have been a forum of the Ptolemaic or Roman time. Excavations have laid bare a number of small chambers and a reservoir, along the eastern side, besides a large building in the centre. No inscription

Chap. III. CYRENE'S HISTORY UNKNOWN.

51

is at present visible; but there remains enough of the old decorations to show that the interior and the exterior, at least on the south-east, were decorated with colonnades. Continuing down-hill, to re-enter the street of Battus, we find, near the temple of Juno, another large monument, having many columns, with marble capitals; this was probably a palace. On the exterior of the north-east side are the remains of a series of vaulted chambers, ingeniously conjectured to have been coach-houses-a necessary convenience in the land of chariots.

There are very many small buildings to be traced on the sites I have endeavoured to describe, but they are in general only quadrangular foundations, in great part overgrown with grass; and in our ignorance of those details of Cyrenean life or history, which lend an interest to every spot in Athens and Rome, it would be tedious and, in truth, impossible to particularise them. The muse of history has not deigned to notice the vicissitudes of her prosperous commerce, and scarcely mentions the bloody factions of her pampered citizens. None of the great scenes which influence the world's destiny were acted within her walls. Her sons were nurtured in wealth and luxury, and though among them were numbered physicians, philosophers, grammarians, and arithmeticians, history records not that other arts than those of the fancy-the charioteers,