This sight of Magnesia was our employment before diner, but in the afternoon we all attempted to ascend the castle hill on foot; which we quickly found to be a more difficult and painful task, than we at first imagined. The way was inexpressibly steep and craggy, and cost us an hour’s labour, though we made all possible speed; nor after our return could we blame the discretion of one of our companions, who thought fit to retire about the midway. However having at length conquered the ascent, our toil was well rewarded with the surprizing prospect of the city, and adjacent plain; in the latter of which we could distinguish the whole course of the Hermus for many miles together, as also the places where the Amnis Phrygius, or Hyllus, joins it[13].
The fabric of the whole castle is very strong, and the advantage of a hill, which is on all sides a mile high, must have rendered it impregnable, in an age which knew not the use of gunpowder. It was formerly fortified with a considerable number of great guns, which are now removed to the new castle, which defends the bay of Smyrna. Two only remain on a bastion, that fronts the city; on both which we were sorry to see the eagles of the Roman empire. No other apartment of the castle is now kept locked, except a dungeon, in which there were twelve prisoners, lately sent thither by Osmánogli. A sight of these miserable wretches we desired of the agá, nor was he so scrupulous as to deny it us. The same agá likewise shewed us within the precincts of the castle a poor Christian church, dedicated to the memory of St. John; where the Greeks meet upon the day of his feast, and are at the constant charge of two lamps, which burn there throughout the year. We had read and heard of a collection of Roman arms, reserved somewhere in this castle; tho being upon the place, nothing of this nature occurred to us. But Solymán effendi, a most courteous and obliging person, whom we visited this evening, as being the next neighbour, as well as brother of our landlord, assured us, that having many years since had the curiosity to ascend the castle hill, he then saw under ground the collection which we spake of, consisting of headpieces, breastplates, shields, and the like.
The mountainous parts about Magnesia were antiently famous for the production of the loadstone[14]; tho indeed it is disparaged by Pliny[15], and accounted less attractive, than that of other places. However this probably was the city, from whence, as Lucretius says, that stone took the name of magnet[16]; as from the whole country of Lydia the touchstone likewise was called lapis Lydius[17]. This hint gave us the curiosity to carry a sea compass up the castle hill, where we had the satisfaction to see it point to different quarters, as we then placed it upon different stones, and quickly after intirely to lose its whole virtue; two effects which are natural to the magnetic needle, when injured by the nearness of other bodies impregnated with the same quality.
Late in the evening we were now preparing for repose, and endeavouring to forget the fatigue of the castle hill; when Solymán effendi, having laid aside the badges of his character, and put on a more familiar temper, returned our visit. We doubted not from the change of his habit, and the unseasonableness of the hour, but he came to break a Mahometan commandment, and steal his kief (as the Turks pleasantly express it) in the juice of the forbidden grape[18]. This was a tedious and ungrateful task, with which nevertheless, by reason of his own and his brother’s great civility, some of our company were forced to comply. Nor had the wine he freely drank its desired effect, till towards two a clock in the morning.
April xxv.
We begin to rise by five this morning, and after dispatching our baggage take leave of Mahomet effendi, to whose singular humanity and hospitality we had hitherto been so much obliged. As we were riding thro the city, it was pleasant to recollect something of the ancient history of this place, whose present state we had seen the day before. It there occurred to us, that this was that Magnesia, which of all the Asian cities[19] made the first submission to the Roman arms, after the defeat of Antiochus by Scipio. This likewise was that Magnesia, which entered into a league offensive and defensive with the city of Smyrna in the reign of Seleucus son of Antiochus Theus, whereby the inhabitants of the one were mutually made free of the other city; and whereas public monuments of this confederacy were by agreement of both parties to be erected in different places, one of them, which was set up by the Smyrneans, is now to be seen in the gallery at Oxford, inscribed on a large flat marble pillar[20].
There now scarce occur any reliques of antiquity in Magnesia, except that we observed several Ionic and Corinthian pillars in the court of an old mosque, held in great veneration by the Turks for the burial of Hasánogli, a person famous in the history of that nation. Over one of the entrances into the same court there is to be seen a broken inscription of an antient heathen temple, tho too high to be now legible; and on a stone step, placed before the principal mosque of the city, we could read among other decayed words ΚΑΙΣΑΡΙ ΣΕΒΑΣΤΩ. The following inscription likewise is of no contemptible antiquity, which we found on a stone now lying in the staircase of the abovementioned Solymán effendi.
ΣΤΑΤΙΩ ΚΩΔΡΑΤΩ ΑΝΘΥΠΑΤΩ[21] ΑΛΕΞΑΝΔΡΟΣ ΔΙΟ-
ΓΝΙΤΟΥ ΕΠΕΣΚΕΥΑΣΕ ΤΟ ΜΝΗΜΕΙΟΝ ΕΑΥΤΩ ΚΑΙ ΤΟΙΣ
ΙΔΙΟΙΣ ΕΚΓΟΝΟΙΣ ΜΗΔΕΝΙ ΔΕ ΕΞΕΣΤΩ ΑΠΑΛΛΟΤΡΙΩΣΑΙ