CHAPTER XVII. Departure for an Excursion into Thesprotia-Scenery-Greek Chapels, &c.-Ruins of an ancient City-Theatre and Walls—Conjectures on its Site-Village of Dramisus-Mountain Roads-Devitzianà―Heavy Rains-Miseries of an Albanian Cottage-Flute of an Eagle's Wing— Adventure at the Acheron-Return towards Ioannina-Village of Vareatis-Manner of killing Fowls-Scenery of Epirus-Molossian DogsArrival at Ioannina-Combat in the Streets-Visit the Vizir in his Albanian Room—Visit Mouchtar and Mahmet Pasha—Mr. Cockerell departs for Athens-Accompany him over the Lake-Cold of the Winter— Great Scarcity of Fuel-Game at Chess-Visit to a Greek-Dinner at the French Consul's-Letter from Mr. Cockerell, dated Livadia, and Extract from it. JANUARY 16.---The sun beamed bright upon the minarets of Ioannina as we departed on our Thesprotian expedition. A considerable concourse of people was drawn together by curiosity to see us, and several of our Greek acquaintance shook their heads at the idea of an Epirotian tour undertaken at this time of the year. Being preceded by Mustafà and an Albanian guide, whom Mouchtar Pasha had sent according to his promise, we advanced across the great plain in a direction S. S. W., and from thence diverged into the recesses of its mountain barriers. We soon arrived at some very beautiful scenery, and were particularly struck with the romantic sites of many pretty villages, as well as solitary Greek chapels, situated upon the tops of eminences and surrounded by umbrageous groves of venerable oaks or spreading beech trees. These chapels generally contain the picture of a saint to whom they are dedicated, and afford a place of resort to the 486 RUINS OF AN ANCIENT CITY. peasantry on the anniversary of their patron, where they assemble to amuse themselves in various sports after mass has been performed, or to dance beneath the shade, where each rustic nymph may listen to the accents of her admiring swain*. The whole of this savours strongly of antiquity. Stat vetus et densa prænubilus arbore lucus. Aspice! concedas numen inesse loco. Ov. Amor. 1. iii. El. 13, We soon saw before us the fine mountain Olitzika, which bounds the western side of the plain of Dramisus, rearing its two central peaks aloft into the air. After a ride of about four hours we arrived at the ruins of an old Epirotic city, affording one of the best and most perfect specimens of the ancient military architecture that we had hitherto beheld. Nor is it interesting on this account only, since it exhibits also in a very high state of preservation the largest theatre which has yet been discovered in Greece. Its form is the segment of a circle larger than a semicircle, whose diameter is 430 feet: the breadth of the orchestra is 130 feet, and its depth seventy-threet. It has two diazomata or corridors, but the upper gallery, as in all other instances, no longer exists it has twelve radiating flights of steps from the orchestra to the higher circle, and the length of these radii, as near as we could measure it, is 150 feet. We counted very easily fifty-four rows of seats, though from the convulsion of earthquakes such a disorder is produced as prevents an accurate determination as to the whole number. I should conjecture that there were at least sixty. We traced distinctly Festa dies Veneremque vocat cantusque merumque. Ov. Am. 1. ni. El. x. + We took these measures with considerable accuracy, having carried out a graduated tape roller from England. the foundations of the proscenium and the scene, of which enough remains to enable a good architect, who had time for its investigation, to restore the plan. This theatre commands a fine view of the rich plain towards the south-east, with the grand outline of Mount Olitzika: it was partly cut out of a rocky eminence, and partly constructed of fine hewn stones in the style called isodomon, of which the reader will see a specimen in the subjoined plan of the city. The great mass of ruins which it presents to the eye is very picturesque. The city to which this magnificent appendage was annexed is divided into two parts of nearly equal dimensions; the one defended by fortifications of great strength, the other merely surrounded by a wall of moderate size. The plan here given was taken by myself with great care, whilst Mr. Cockerell was engaged in sketching the ruins of the theatre. B 100000 The walls of the northern division, which is upon a moderate eminence, remain very perfect to the height of fifteen and in many places twenty feet they are built in a fine style of Pseudo-Cyclopéan masonry, and some of the blocks used are of great magnitude. The towers, bastions, 488 CONJECTURES ON ITS SITE. and gateways appear to have been constructed with very considerable skill; the space between the two flanking towers of the principal entrance* is eleven feet. We found scarcely any traces of edifices in the interior, except a subterranean reservoir supported by two pillars, in the acropolis, and the bases of several columns in the lower city, which from their situation appear to have once belonged to a temple. I had the curiosity to measure the circuit of these walls as accurately as could be done by stepping or pacing it, and found that of the citadel about 770 yards, whilst the lower division did not exceed 650+. In every other ancient city, whose ruins I have observed, or seen described, the acropolis was very small in comparison with the rest. No doubt the reader will be struck, as we ourselves were, with the extraordinary circumstance that a theatre of such vast dimensions should have been attached to so diminutive a city. No rational explanation of this suggests itself, unless it be supposed that the theatre in fact did not belong so much to this particular city as to the Epirotian tribes in common, or even to some one tribe who dwelt in villages amidst their native mountains in the ancient pastoral simplicity, (xarà xas) assembling at certain seasons in full conclave within the spacious boundaries of this common theatre, for the enjoyment of public amusements or the dispatch of public business: hence probably it was that the building was erected, contrary to general custom, outside the city walls, but under the close protection of its fortress. I am not unwilling to subscribe to their opinion who fix upon Cassopæa (otherwise called Cassope, Cassiope, Cassiopea) as the ancient city which occupied this site. It was, we know, a mediterranean city, distinct from that Cassiope on the sea-coast near Butrotum, which gave its name to the Portus Cassiopaus: this was the capital of *See its plan in the plate above. + This measurement was taken in the interior. CONJECTURES ON ITS SITE. 489 a small tribe whose territories extended from hence to the Glykys Limen or mouth of the Acheron, comprehending the Suliot mountains and the cities of Buchetium, Pandosia, and Elatria, within their limits. (Strabo, 1. vii.) And I am strengthened in this idea by Stephen of Byzantium, who says that Cassope was a city of the Molossi, which gave its name to the Cassopian district, and more especially by Scylax, who observes μετὰ δὲ Κασσωπίαν Μολοττόι εἰσιν ἔθνος. Now the situa tion of these ruins does appear to be upon the very borders of Molossia. Nothing however is more difficult than to identify the ancient cities of Epirus and Illyria, since the accurate Pausanias here deserts or at least only casually enlightens us, and we are left to the careless incomplete details of Strabo, or of historians who have given us very rarely any topographical remarks to assist us in our researches *. In conformity with the plan I proposed, and have endeavoured to follow, of keeping topographical details as much as possible out of the text, I have here thrown together a few short remarks in form of a note, respecting the divisions of ancient Epirus, a country of which the old historians and geographers, being more than usually ignorant of it, have left us a most deficient and perplexed detail. The whole country was bounded on the west by the Ionian sea, on the south by the Ambracian gulf and Acarnania, on the east by the great mountain chains of Pindus, and on the north by wild Illyrian tribes whose southern boundary extended from the Acroceraunian mountains to Macedonia. According to the account of Strabo, who cites Theopompus for his authority, the Epirotic nations were fourteen in number, but he does not take the trouble to distinguish them all by name or even assign their relative situation to those which he does condescend to mention. We are left therefore to collect these particulars from other sources, and to form our opinion by a comparison of authorities. One thing however is learned from Strabo and confirmed by others, that the three great and principal divisions of Epirus were, Chaonia, Thesprotia, and Molossis. We will begin then with-I. The Chaonians. Their country commenced at the Acroceraunian mountains, and comprised the modern canton of Kimarra with part of that of Delvino. The bravery of this people has always been noted both in ancient and modern times. II. The Thesprotians, inhabiting the southern part of Delvino, the district of Tzamourià, comprehending the territories of Philates, Margariti, and Parga. It is very difficult to determine its boundaries, which vary with almost every author who treats upon them. Pausanias even includes Ambracia in this division (Eliac. c. xxiii. 1.) It seems itself to have had a set of inferior divisions: (vid. Steph. Byzant. in voce Xavvor) III. The Cassopaans, whose narrow strip of land extended from the mouth of the Acheron or Glykys Limen into the interior, till it joined that of the Molossi, and comprehended the cities of Elatria, Buchetium, Pandosia, Batiæ (now Paramithia), Suli, and the capital called Cassopæa. (Strabo, 1. vii. Demost. Orat. de Haloneso, p. 84, ed. Reisk. Diod. Sic. 1. xiv. &c.) IV. The Molossi, who seem to have possessed a large territory, comprising the pashalic of Arta and part of Ioannina, running along the Ambracian gulf and extending northward to the Lake of Ioannina, adjoining on the west to the country of the Cassopæi. Ambracia, like many other cities, was a Grecian colony settled in the midst of semi-barbarous tribes: most authors ascribe it to Molossis, though Pausanias and Steph. Byzantinus both refer it to Thesprotia. V. The Dolopes, who appear to have inhabited a tract north of Amphilochian Argos: they are by many ascribed to the Thessa3 R VOL. I. |