The god, in the time of Pausanias, retained his original splendour. The native offerings of crowns and chariots, and of charioteers, and horses, and oxen, in brass, the precious images of gold, ivory, or amber, and the curiosities consecrated in the temples, the treasuries, and other edifices, could not be viewed without astonishment. The number of statues within the grove, was itself an amazing spectacle. Many were the works of Myron, Lysippus, and the prime artists of Greece. Here kings and emperors were assembled; and Jupiter towered in brass from twelve to thirty feet high! Let the reader peruse the detail given by Pausanias, and imagine, if he can, the entertainment which Olympia must then have afforded to the antiquary, the connoisseur, and historian.
Of all splendour, the temple of Juno alone can be ascertained with any degree of certainty. The soil, which has been considerably elevated, covers the greater part of the ruin. The walls of the cella rise only two feet from the ground. “We employed,” says Mr. Dodwell, “some Turks to excavate; and we discovered some frusta of the Doric order, of which the flutings were thirteen inches wide, and the diameter of the whole column seven feet three inches. We found, also, part of a small column of Parian marble, which the intervals of the flutings show to have been of the Ionic or the Corinthian order. The work of ruin, however, is constantly going on; and lately the people of Lalla (a town in the neighbourhood) have even rooted up some of the foundations of this once celebrated sanctuary, in order to use the materials in the construction of their houses[44]”.
NO. IX.—PUTEOLI.
A maritime city of Campania, between Baiæ and Naples. It was founded by a colony from Cumæ. It was, in the first instance, called Dicæarchia, (“Just Power[45],”) and afterwards Puteoli, from the great number of wells that were in the neighbourhood.
It was delightfully situated on a point projecting into the sea, nearly in the centre of the bay of Puzzuoli. It was the sea-port of the inhabitants of Cannæ; and a rendezvous for merchants from Greece, Sicily, and all parts of Italy. The attractions of the town, also, on account of its hot baths and mineral waters, allured the more opulent citizens of Rome to its vicinity.
In the square of the town stands a beautiful marble pedestal, covered with bas-reliefs, representing the fourteen towns of Asia Minor, destroyed by an earthquake, and rebuilt by Tiberius. It supported a statue of that emperor, erected by the same cities as a monument of gratitude. The cathedral stands on the ruins of a temple, and is built chiefly of ancient materials.
A temple of Serapis offers many subjects of observation. Half of its buildings, however, are still buried under the earth thrown upon it by volcanic commotions, or accumulated by the windings of the hill. The inclosure is square, environed by buildings for priests, and baths for votaries; in the centre remains a circular platform, with four flights of steps up to it; vases for fire, a central altar, rings for victims, and other appendages of sacrifice, entire and not displaced; but the columns that held its roof have been removed to the new palace of Caserta. The temple itself was not discovered till A. D. 1750, on the removal of some rubbish and bushes, which had, till then, partly concealed it from observation.
Behind this place of worship, stand three pillars without capitals, part of the pronaos of a large temple. These are of Cipoline marble, and at the middle of their height, are full of holes eaten in them by the file-fish[46].