I first visited Leptis in May, 1816, to examine into the possibility of embarking the numerous columns lying on its sands, which the Bashaw of Tripoly had offered to His Majesty. The ruins had a very interesting appearance, from the contrast of their fallen grandeur with the mud-built villages of Lebidah and Legatah, and the Nomadic tribes scattered around. The city, with its immediate suburb, occupies a space of about ten thousand yards, the principal part of which is covered by a fine white sand, that, drifting with the wind along the beach, has been arrested in its progress by the ruins, and struck me at the moment as having probably been the means of preserving many specimens of art, which, from the numerous pillars, capitals, cornices, and sculptured fragments strewed around, I could not but suppose to have been extremely valuable, more especially, since having been the birthplace of the Emperor Severus, he might have enriched it with presents; besides which it had been highly favoured for its adherence to the Roman interest during the Jugurthine war. In addition to these circumstances, the fact of Leptis once being sufficiently opulent to render in tribute a talent a day, prompted me, on my arrival at Malta, to recommend it as an eligible field for an extensive excavation.
On my return thither in January, 1817, I was surprised, on riding over the ruins, to find that many of the most valuable columns, which were standing in the preceding May, had either been removed, or were lying broken on the spot, and even most of those still remaining had had their astragal and torus chipped off. I discovered, on inquiry, that a report had been circulated by the Tschaouses on my former visit, of an intention to embark them for England; and as it had long been a quarry whence the Arabs supplied themselves with mill-stones, they had in the interval been busily employed in breaking up the columns for that purpose, providing not only for the present, but also for future supply. This extensive destruction was prompted by the peculiar construction of the Moorish oil-mills, they being built with a circular surface, having a gentle inclination towards the centre, round which a long stone traverses, formed by about one-third of a shaft.
On the 25th, however, having arranged my tents and instruments, I commenced an excavation near the centre of the city with a party of eight Arabs, whom I increased the following day to a hundred; and as they quickly gained the use of the English spade and mattock, the work proceeded with celerity. But I soon had the mortification of perceiving, from numerous local evidences, that Leptis had been completely ravaged in former times, and its public edifices demolished with diligent labour, owing perhaps to the furious bigotry of the Carthaginian bishops, who zealously destroyed the Pagan monuments in every place under their control. Or it might have been partly effected by the vengeance of the Barbarians for the memorable treachery of the Leptitani. From whatever cause it proceeded, the destruction is complete; most of the statues are either broken to pieces, or chipped into shapeless masses, the arabesque ornaments defaced, the acanthus leaves and volutes knocked off the fallen capitals, and even part of the pavements torn up; the massy shafts of the columns alone remaining entire.
With a view of gaining further information, I opened an extensive Necropolis, but with little success. There were neither vases nor lachrymatories, but only a coarse species of amphoræ and some pateræ, with a few coins, neither rare nor handsome, mostly brass, and principally of Severus, Pupienus, Alexander, Julia Mammea, Balbus, and Gordianus Pius. A number of intaglios of poor execution were picked up in different parts, as also some very common Carthaginian medals, but nothing indicating high antiquity or tasteful skill. Willing, however, to make as fair a trial as possible, I continued excavating until the 12th of February, when, having explored the principal Basilica, a triumphal arch, a circus, a peristyleum, and several minor structures, with only a strengthened conviction of the precarious chance of recovering any specimens of art worth the labour and expense of enlarged operations, I determined to desist.
In the course of the excavation I had an opportunity of observing, that the period of the principal grandeur of the city must have been posterior to the Augustan age, and when taste was on the decline; for notwithstanding the valuable materials with which it was constructed, it appears to have been overloaded with indifferent ornament, and several of the mutilated colossal statues I found, were in the very worst style of the Lower Empire. There are also many evidences of the city having been occupied after its first and violent destruction, from several of the walls and towers being built of various architectural fragments confusedly heaped together.
Although there are several exceedingly fine brick and cementitious edifices, most of the walls, arcades, and public buildings, are composed of massy blocks of freestone, and conglomerate, in layers, without cement, or at most with very little. The temples were constructed in a style of the utmost grandeur, adorned with immense columns of the most valuable granites and marbles, the shafts of which consisted of a single piece. Most of these noble ornaments were of the Corinthian order; but I also saw several enormous masses of architecture, ornamented with triglyphs, and two or three cyathiform capitals, which led me to suppose that a Doric temple, of anterior date, had existed there. On a triple plinth near them I observed a species of socte, used in some of these structures as the base of a column, with part of the walls of the Cella, surrounded by a columnar peristyle.
The city was encompassed by strong walls of solid masonry, pierced with magnificent gates, and was ornamented with spacious porticoes, sufficient portions of which still remain to prove their former splendour. It was divided from its principal suburb to the east by a river, the mouth of which forming a spacious basin, was the Cothon, defended at its narrow entrance by two stout fortifications; and branching out from them, may be observed, under water, the remains of two large moles. On the banks of this river, the bed of which is still occupied by a rivulet, are various ruins of aqueducts, and some large reservoirs in excellent preservation. Between the principal cisterns and the torrent to the westward of Leptis, some artificial mounds are constructed across the plain, by which the winter rains were conducted to the reservoirs, and carried clear of the city. On the east bank of the river are remains of a galley-port, and numerous baths, adjacent to a circus, formerly ornamented with obelisks and columns, and above which are vestiges of a theatre. Indeed the whole plain from the Mergip hills to the Cinyphus (now the river Kháhan) exhibits unequivocal proofs of its former population and opulence.
Thus ended my unsuccessful research; but though no works of art were recovered, many of the architectural fragments were moved during the summer down to the beach, by Colonel Warrington, where I called for and embarked them on board a store-ship for England, together with thirty-seven shafts, which formed the principal scope of the expedition, and they are now in the court of the British Museum. Still we were sorry to find that neither the raft-ports nor the hatchways of the Weymouth were capable of admitting three fine Cipolline columns of great magnitude, that, from their extreme beauty and perfection, we had been particularly anxious about.
On his return from a journey into the interior, in search of the ruins of Ghirza, (to which we shall hereafter allude) Captain Smyth observed three hills of moderate size in one of the branches of the Messellata range; which, from their number, appear to answer to the Hills of the Graces, considered by Herodotus as the source of the river Cinyphus. The distance of this range from the sea will not at all correspond (as we have already observed) with the 200 stadia mentioned by Herodotus as the distance of the Hills of the Graces from the coast; but, without relying too much upon their triple form, which might be equally peculiar to other hills, the circumstance of finding in these tumuli the source of the only stream which will answer to the position of the Cinyphus, should, we think, be esteemed as conclusive; and we may hereafter consider the measurements of Herodotus, as given in the passage which we have quoted above, to be decidedly (from whatever cause) erroneous. We may however observe, that we have had, at various times, so many opportunities of admiring the general accuracy of the father of history, that we should rather consider this error to have resulted from some mistake of the numbers, which may have occurred in transcribing the manuscript, than from any incorrectness on the part of Herodotus. We give the remarks of Captain Smyth on this subject in his own words.