Ruins of Ancient Cities Part 33

[178] Polybius acquaints us, that the ratification of the articles of agreement between the Romans and the Carthaginians, was performed in this manner: the Carthaginians swore by the G.o.ds of their country; and the Romans, after their ancient custom, swore by a stone, and then by Mars. They swore by a stone thus:--

"If I keep my faith, may the G.o.ds vouchsafe their a.s.sistance, and give me success; if, on the contrary, I violate it, then may the other party be entirely safe, and preserved in their country, in their laws, in their possessions, and, in a word, in all their rights and liberties; and may I perish and fall alone, as now this stone does:" and then he lets the stone fall out of his hands.

Livy's account of the like ceremony is something more particular; yet differs little in substance, only that he says the herald's concluding clause was, "otherwise may Jove strike the Roman people, as I do this hog;" and accordingly he killed a hog that stood ready by, with the stone which he held in his hand.--KENNETT.

[179] M. Manilius and L. Marcius Censorinus.

[180] Rollin.

[181] Harmonies of Nature.

[182] Gibbon.

[183] Clarke.

[184] "A company, formed at Paris, for exploring the ruins of Carthage, has already met with great success. A large house has been discovered on the margin of the sea, near Bourj-Jedid. Paintings in fresco, similar to those at Pompeii, adorn many of the rooms, and beautiful mosaics, representing men, women, and nymphs, fishes of various kinds, tigers, gazelles, &c. have been found. Fifteen cases with these precious relics have arrived at Toulon."--_Literary Gazette, May 19, 1838._

[185] Polybius; Livy; Cicero; Justin; Rollin; Kennett; Gibbon; Montague; Chateaubriand; Clarke; Sir George Temple.

[186] Swinburne; Brydone; Malte Brun; Encyclop. Londinensis.

[187] By Pliny, Strabo, and Tacitus.

[188] Quercus.

[189] Zonaras, apud Gyll.

[190] Julian; Barthelemy; Gibbon; Poc.o.c.ke; Clarke.

[191] The _sacred_ battalion was famous in history. It consisted of a body of young warriors, brought up together, at the public expense, in the citadel. Their exercises and even their amus.e.m.e.nts were regulated by the sounds of the flute, and in order to prevent their courage from degenerating into blind fury, care was taken to inspire them with the n.o.blest and most animated sentiments. Each warrior chose from the band a friend to whom he remained inseparably united. These three hundred warriors were anciently distributed in troops at the head of the different divisions of the army.

Philip destroyed this cohort at the battle of Chaeronea, and the prince seeing these young Thebans stretched on the field of battle covered with honourable wounds, and lying side by side on the ground on which they had been stationed, could not restrain his tears.--BARTHELEMY.

[192] Dodwell.

[193] Ibid.

[194] Rollin; Barthelemy; Leland; Hobhouse; Dodwell; Leland.

[195] Obubea changed its name to Porcuna; and this, it is supposed, from the circ.u.mstance of a sow having had thirty pigs at one litter; in memory of which her figure was cut in stone with the following inscription underneath:--

C. CORNELIVS. C. F.

C. N. GAL. CAESO.

AED. FLAMEN. II. VIR.

MVNICIPII. PONTIF.

C. CORN. CAESO. F.

SACERDOS. GENT. MVNICIPII.

SCROFAM. c.u.m. PORCIS. x.x.x.

IMPENSA. IPSORVM.

D. D.

[196] Jose.

[197] Thucydides; Rollin; Wheler; Dodwell; Williams.

[198] Rollin.

[199] Rollin.

[200]

Demens! qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen, aere et cornipedum cursu simularet squorum.--VIRG.

[201] Kennet.

[202] History of the Turks.

[203] Dodwell.

[204] Herodotus; Pliny the Nat.; Du Loir; Rollin; Kennet; Knowles; Wheler; Chandler; Barthelemy; Stuart; Dodwell; Quin; Turner.

[205] The story of the maid of Corinth may be found in Pliny, lib.

x.x.xv.; and in Athenagoras, with this additional circ.u.mstance, that the lover, while his outlines were taken, is described to have been asleep.

[206] Gibbon.

[207] The royal ca.n.a.l (Nahar-Malcha) might be successively restored, altered, divided, &c. (Cellarius Geograph. Antiq. tom. ii. p. 453): and these changes may serve to explain the seeming contradictions of antiquity. In the time of Julian, it must have fallen into the Euphrates, _below_ Ctesiphon.

[208] These works were erected by Orodes, one of the Arsacidaean kings.

[209] "I suspect," says Mr. Gibbon, "that the extravagant numbers of Elmacin may be the error, not of the text, but of the version. The best translators from the Greek, for instance, I find to be very poor arithmeticians."

[210] Selman the Pure.

[211] Rollin; Gibbon; Porter; Buckingham.

[212] Williams.

[213] Dodwell.

[214] Rollin; Barthelemi; Chandler; Clarke; Dodwell; Williams.

[215] In Judith, Dejoces is called Arphaxad:--"1. In the twelfth of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, who reigned in Nineveh, the great city; in the days of Arphaxad, which reigned over the Medes in Ecbatana.

2. And built in Ecbatana walls round about of stones hewn, three cubits broad and six cubits long, and made the height of the walls seventy cubits, and the breadth thereof fifty cubits.

3. And set the towers thereof upon the gates of it, an hundred cubits high, and the breadth thereof in the foundation thereof three score cubits.

4. And he made the gates thereof, even gates that were raised to the height of seventy cubits, and the breadth of them was forty cubits, for the going forth of his mighty armies, and for the setting in array of his footmen."