COMPENDIOUS HISTORY OF SYRACUSE.

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almost equal munificence, the Rhodians, plunged into misery by that terrible earthquake which overthrew their colossus these inquiries would trespass too far upon the province of history, and exceed the limit assigned to this memoir.

From the height of its glory, Syracuse fell at once beneath the sword of conquering Rome, that leviathan of the ancient world. From this epoch the city dates its decay: its treasures plundered, its laws and liberty destroyed, its arts agriculture and commerce neglected, the population decreased gradually with the means of subsistence, and the contracted walls soon left behind them a desert upon that ground which once smiled with the habitations of man: still it was impossible to destroy in a moment a power which had been concentrated and perfected by the revolution of ages: it retained the shadow of its former glory under the oppression of Rome, and the degeneracy of the Byzantine empire, till the convulsion of earthquakes and the fanatic fury of Saracenic invaders, rendered it a scene of desolation, and reduced its inhabitants to the limits of the first settlers in the little island of Ortygia. At this time Syracuse lost its title of capital of the island; for the Arabs who first landed in Sicily A. D. 827*, and conquered Syracuse near the end of that century, transferred the seat of government to Palermo, which they made the residence of their emir, and divided the island into three districts, the Val Demone, the Val di Mazzara, and the Val di Noto. Ortygia, even then and for some time afterwards, retained a population of near 100,000 souls; but this has dwindled away gradually under a succession of weak or tyrannical

* Syracuse was captured by the Saracens (or 'Ayapivot, as they are called in the Byzantine historians) whilst Basil sat upon the throne of Constantinople, the succours sent by that emperor under Adrian being detained at Hierax, a port of Monembasia in the Morea. Whilst the fleet lay there, near a spot called "Exos, from the dark overshadowing woods by which it was surrounded, Cedrenus relates that certain shepherds, in the night, heard the demons conversing with each other concerning the capture of Syracuse; and that the report coming to the ears of Adrian, he went himself and listened to their denunciation of its downfall, which turned out to have happened on the very day and hour which the devils mentioned (Cedr. Hist. Comp. p. 385). The frequent occurrence of these personages in the historians of the middle ages, will perhaps account for their introduction into the splendid pages of Tasso.

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COMPENDIOUS HISTORY OF SYRACUSE.

princes, derived from almost every royal house in Europe, till it has sunk into its present state of decrepitude, under the most feeble branch of the house of Bourbon. At the present period it is reckoned to contain 12,000 inhabitants, seven parish churches, besides the cathedral, ten convents of monks, and seven of nuns, a seminary for the priesthood, and a college for general studies. Its streets are narrow and dirty, its nobles poor, its commonalty ignorant, superstitious, idle, and addicted to festivals; much of its fertile land is become a pestilential marsh, and that commerce which once filled the finest port in Europe with the vessels of Italy, Rhodes, Alexandria, Carthage, and every other maritime power of the Mediterranean, is confined to a petty trade carried on by a few small trabaccole. Such is modern Syracuse! Yet the sky which canopies it is still brilliant and serene; the golden grain is still ready to spring almost spontaneously from its fields; the blue waves still beat against its walls to send its navies over the main; nature is still prompt to pour forth her bounties with a prodigal hand: but man, alas! is changed; his liberty is lost; and with that the genius and prosperity of a nation rises, sinks, and is extinguished.

Site of Acradina-Cicero's Description-Temple of Jupiter-ForumPrytaneum-Plunder of the fine Arts in Syracuse by the RomansSmall Harbour and Vestiges of Buildings-House of ArchimedesCapuchin Convent-Beautiful Gardens in a Lautomia or ancient Stone Quarry-Church of Santa Lucia-Shrine and Image of the SaintSupposed Ruins of the Hexacontaclinos, and Construction of a curious Arch-Baths excavated by the Cavaliere Landolina-Traces of the principal Street of Acradina-Church of St. John-Sepulchre of St. Marcian-Votive Offerings-Descent into the Catacombs-Illumination of ditto-General Remarks upon ditto-Return to Syracuse— Second Visit to Acradina-Circuit of the Walls-Gateways-Broad Street of Separation between Acradina and the upper City-Turris Galeagra-Return again to Syracuse-Visit to Signor CapodieciExpedition to Tycha-Temenites-Apollo and Diana-Ancient Sepulchres-Few Remains of Antiquity in Tycha-Athenian Wall of

Circumvallation-Wall of Dionysius-Fortress of Hexapylon-Marcellus weeping over Syracuse-Reflections thereon-Battle with a Snake -Labdalus-Ancient Masonry-Species called Emplecton-Castle of Euryelus upon Epipola-Difference of Generalship between Nicias and Marcellus-Tremila and Villa of Timoleon-His Character, &c.— Lysimelia-Olympiaum-Jupiter Urios-River Anapus and Fountain Cyane-Papyrus-Syracusan Festival-Visit to Neapolis-Lautomia called “Il Paradiso"-Ear of Dionysius Character of that Prince misrepresented by the Ancients-Great Theatre-Street of the Tombs— Tomb of Archimedes-Ancient Aqueduct - Amphitheatre - Pollian Wine-Dangerous Ascent to the Chamber of Dionysius-Reflections on the Antiquities of Syracuse-Departure.

—

FROM the contemplation of present misery, we gladly turned to inspect the remains of former splendor. In the morning, therefore, we rose with the sun, and having mounted the best mules which Syracuse afforded, execrable cattle! all the flesh upon whose bones would not have made a meal for half a dozen dogs, we advanced through the fortifications into the deserted site of Acradina, being preceded by a consequential little cicerone, upon a mule as big as a camel: the animals on which we rode stumbled nearly at every step, so that we had the prospect of a delightful excursion over one continued platform of rugged rock: my friend, however, had the only fall, which occurred in the street, and was occasioned by the slippery pavement in that totalité de la rue, which is so agreeable to our continental neighbours. The quarter of Acradina is called by Cicero "The second City, containing a spacious forum, a beautiful portico, an ornamented prytaneum, a commodious senate-house*, and a magnificent temple of Olympian Jupiter, its different parts being connected by a broad

* Curia Syracusis, quem locum illi Buleuterium vocant.-Cic Act. ii. in Ver.

TEMPLE OF JUPITER-FORUM-PRYTANEUM.

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street, running completely across it, intersected by many oblique ones." This is, however, but a small part of the ancient magnificence of Acradina-merely as much as the orator had occasion to mention. Vast and massive as these edifices once were, scarcely a trace now remains to mark the spot on which they stood. The temple of Jupiter, built by Hiero, in which he suspended the Gallic and Illyrian spoils presented to him by the Roman senate, is supposed to have adorned the site of the present church of San Giovanni. The forum was probably upon or very near to the isthmus, for the mutual convenience of the two quarters of the city first built; indeed we have the authority of Cicero in placing it near the great harbour, who, in his oration against Verres, severely upbraids that effeminate prætor, for allowing a piratical corsair to sail with impunity into the port and penetrate even up to the very forum (Act. ii. I. v. c. 37). At a little distance from the isthmus we observed some columns which had lately been discovered, and placed upright upon their pedestals. These, it is thought, belonged to that Prytaneum †, from whose ornaments Verres stole an inimitable statue of Sappho, the chef d'œuvre of Silanion, which left the Syracusans inconsolable for their loss. The despair of the unfortunate inhabitants at this cruel spoliation of their city, is strongly marked by that characteristic sensibility which distinguished the Greeks, and is described in very affecting terms by Cicero. Their public mystagogi sighed as they conducted foreigners to view, not the superb monuments of their city, but the vacant places from whence they had been torn by sacrilegious hands; those monuments, the only solace of their servitude, to which they were

We may conjecture this from Livy, 1. xxiv. "Luce prima, patefactis Insulæ portis, in Forum Acradinæ venit." This was the grand forum of Syracuse, but it rests upon more than mere conjecture, that each quarter had also a forum of its own.

+ The chief purpose of a prytaneum was to afford a place in which the magistrates and others eminent for their public services might take their meals; and the perpetual fire of Vesta was kept therein. Livy, lib. xli. observes, "Cyzici in Prytaneum (id est penetrale urbis) ubi publicè, quibus is honos est, vescuntur."