Proceedings of the expedition to explore the northern coast of Africa, from Tripoly eastward

by Frederick William Beechey; H. W. Beechey

The town appears to have been purposely destroyed, and the wreck of building with which it is incumbered renders the examination of the ground-plans very difficult and tedious, indeed for the most part impossible. Of the five principal buildings laid down in the plan of the city we contrived to obtain, with a good deal of trouble, some comparatively satisfactory measurements, (a) and (b) were unquestionably Christian churches; and must have been erected at great expense, from the costliness of the material employed for their columns (a species of marble somewhat resembling Tripoline).

The building marked (d) has been one of no ordinary importance, and seems to bear more resemblance to a Basilica than to any other public edifice. It will be observed that the semicircular part of this structure has a different aspect from those of the churches, both of which are at the eastern extremities where the altars appear to have been placed. The columns of the basilica (if so we may call it) are also composed of handsome coloured marble—we mean the shafts of the columns, for the capitals are of white marble. The remaining two, (c) and (e), appear to have been dwelling-houses of a superior description, (e) has had immediate communication with the turret close to which it is placed on the southern side of the town; and a long colonnade running parallel with the sea has been erected close to the other dwelling-house leading along the edge of the cliff towards the eastern church. On the south side of the town, without the walls, there is another large building (h), which seems to have been a fort and to have contained quarters for soldiers. A road, inclosed by large stones placed upright, has been purposely carried close along the eastern side of this structure, and turning short round it through an archway has led to the semicircular excavation opposite to the gate (l), one of the principal entrances to the city. We will not pretend to fix with any certainty the date of the buildings we have here alluded to; but we should consider them to be decidedly Roman, and the employment of Corinthian capitals and shafts of coloured marble would seem to favour this opinion. It is not improbable that the churches may have been erected in the time of Justinian, although we do not recollect that they are mentioned by Procopius in his account of the works of that emperor.

In the quarries which inclose the walls, serving, as we have already stated, the purpose of trenches, there are a good many excavated tombs; but they are all so much decayed that it was not worth while making plans of them, and those farther from the city are in no better state; some are filled with sand washed in by the sea, which has encroached considerably upon the land at Apollonia, and surrounds occasionally some very conspicuous tombs which form striking objects to the westward of the town.

On the two islands which are opposite the town there are some excavations and remains of building; but as we had no boat with us, and none is to be found in the neighbourhood, Apollonia, not being used in modern times as a port, we were unable to ascertain their precise nature. The islands are very small, but the town receives great protection from them in northerly gales, although the shelter which they afford is not sufficient, we should imagine, for vessels, even if there should be water enough inside them.

By the 20th June we had completed our plan of Apollonia, which, from the incumbered state of the ruins, was no easy task to accomplish, and we think that little more could be satisfactorily made out without removing the heavy blocks of stone which are everywhere scattered over the town: but this labour would probably be greater than the object appears to demand, since the ground-plans which remain are not of any great antiquity, and, with the exception of the churches, and perhaps the other buildings which we have given, do not seem to call for much more attention than we were able to bestow upon them. We must confess we should have liked to remain there a little longer to have excavated about the larger theatre, where statues would probably be found; we say the larger theatre, because a circular space within the town appears, as we have mentioned, to contain one of smaller dimensions, which must be cleared from the soil and vegetable matter with which it is covered before anything can be determined with certainty respecting it. If a theatre has stood here it must have been a very small one, of a circular form, and, unless appropriated to musical performances, appears, to be unfit for any other. Without the town, to the westward and southward, excavation would probably be interesting; and indeed there is hardly a spot in the habitable parts of the Pentapolis where objects of interest would not in all probability be found. In the space between Apollonia and Derna there are remains of several ancient villages and stations, where we could have very much wished to excavate; and in that between Apollonia and Cyrene there appears to be a great deal of matter for inquiry. The embarkation of heavy objects would be difficult at Apollonia on account of the little depth of water near the beach; it might, however, be managed, and would at any rate be preferable to the transport by land-carriage to Bengazi or Derna, which indeed may be said to be wholly impracticable on account of the frequent deep ravines and dangerous mountain-passes which intervene.

During the time, about a fortnight, of our absence from Cyrene, the changes which had taken place in the appearance of the country about it were very remarkable. We found the hills on our return covered with Arabs, their camels, flocks, and herds; the scarcity of water in the interior at this season having driven the Bedouins to the mountains, and particularly to Cyrene, where the springs afford at all times an abundant supply. The corn was all cut, and the high grass and luxuriant vegetation, which we had found it so difficult to wade through on former occasions, had been eaten down to the roots by the cattle: the whole face of the country was parched by the sun, and had assumed a deep brown and yellow tint instead of the rich green which it had worn on our first arrival; a hot wind was blowing, which had all the character of a sirocco, though coming from a north-west quarter, and the thermometer stood constantly at 97° in the shade, a degree of heat we had not before experienced at Cyrene.

The scorching quality of the north-westerly gale may probably be attributed to the heat of the ground in the hollows about the place, for we did not experience any great degree of heat at Apollonia (we mean, not from the wind, for the sun was very powerful) where the same breeze came to us immediately from the sea. The excessive dryness of the atmosphere of Cyrene at this time may be readily conjectured from the indication of a very good hygrometer which we had with us, which showed 55 during the period in question, an extreme which we had never before seen it mark.

We found afterwards that at Malta, on the same days, they had experienced a strong sirocco wind, and had had the thermometer at 95°. It may be remarked generally of the heat of northern Africa that it has not often that oppressive quality so much complained of in other hot latitudes; and it does not appear to be at all unhealthy, as we often find it to be in damp climates. The sun, however, is uncommonly powerful, and it is necessary for those not accustomed to its influence to keep the head well covered if they would avoid a coup-de-soleil. The force of habit will at the same time enable Europeans to encounter much more heat than they would venture to subject themselves to on first arriving from more temperate regions: we found that we could walk about the whole of the day (which we were obliged to do in making our plans) without feeling more than what may be termed inconvenience; and the greatest annoyance was the reflection from the ground on our eyes and lips, which the masses of white stone among which we had to scramble, in examining and taking measurements of the ruins, made stronger than is felt in cultivated places: these become so hot from ten or eleven o’clock till sunset that the atmosphere about them is like that of an oven; the heat which is reflected from them absolutely scorches, and the eyes of persons long exposed to its influence would probably suffer materially. For the rest, the heat may be borne without prejudice (especially through the folds of an ample turban) unless a greater freedom of diet be indulged in than is prudent in any hot climate. We saw very few serpents in the Pentapolis, and very few scorpions, even among the ruins, where they are generally fond of hiding themselves; but the grass land, at Cyrene in particular, is much infested by a dark-coloured centiped, almost black, with red feelers and legs; we usually found half a dozen of them in taking up the mats in our tents, and had great difficulty in killing them. Any part which chanced to be separated from the rest of the body would continue to run about as if nothing had happened, and were the reptile even divided into twenty pieces each part would travel about, as if in search of the others, without any of them seeming to be the worse. The only mode by which we could kill them at once was by crushing the head, which effectually destroyed life in every other part instantaneously.

On arriving at Cyrene we immediately resumed our examination of the antiquities of the place, and were able to make out the ground plans much better than on former occasions; in consequence of finding the grass eaten up by the cattle and sheep of the Bedouins, whom the scarcity of water, as we have already mentioned, had driven to the heights where the fountains are situated.

At the conclusion of the sixteenth chapter we have noticed two theatres, near which our tents were pitched, and shall proceed to give some description of them. We found them both so much incumbered with the soil which had accumulated about them, in which the grass springs up to a considerable height, that, had it not been for the semicircular shape of the green masses which presented themselves to our view, we should not have suspected them to have been theatres. The columns which once ornamented the back of the scene in the largest of these buildings had been thrown (for they could scarcely have fallen) from the basement on which they formerly stood, and crossed our track in various places along the whole length of the range: among them were several statues, which appeared to have been portraits, executed with great freedom and taste, and beyond were the Corinthian capitals of the columns which had rolled, in their fall, to some distance from the shafts. These, as well as the bases, were composed of a fine white marble, the polish of which was in many cases very perfect; and the shafts (of coloured marble) were formed of single pieces, which added considerably to the effect produced by the costliness of the material. From these circumstances, as well as from the resemblance of the draperies in which the statues were wrapt to the toga, it seems probable that this theatre was Roman; but the execution of the capitals and bases have none of that degeneracy of style which characterizes the works of the lower empire; and we should be disposed to attribute them to the time of Augustus or of Hadrian, when Roman art was undoubtedly entitled to our respect, and (we may also say), in various instances, to our admiration. The whole depth of the theatre, including the seats, the orchestra and the stage, appears to have been about one hundred and fifty English feet, and the length of the scene about the same. The porticoes at the back of the seats are two hundred and fifty feet in length, and the space between these and the colonnade at the back of the scene is of equal extent. The whole building would thus appear to have been included in a square of two hundred and fifty feet, not including the depth of the portico behind the subsellia, which is at present rather uncertain. The theatre has been built, like many of the Greek theatres, against the side of a hill, which forms the support of the subsellia; and the highest range of seats appears to have been upon a level with the platform from which it was approached at the back. On this level also are the porticoes behind the seats; which would seem to prove, if other evidence were wanting, that the cunei were not approached by internal passages, of which there are no indications, but from the platform just mentioned (on a level with the highest range of seats) from which the spectators descended to the lower ranges. There appears to have been a row of columns, inclosing the uppermost range of seats; and as we found several statues in the orchestra, close under the subsellia, it may perhaps be supposed that the upper part of the theatre was decorated with these ornaments, the place of which was probably between the columns of the peristyle in question, since the statues appear to have fallen from some place above the level of the seats; and we know of no situation more appropriate for them than along the colonnade we have mentioned.