Fifthly, Mr. Horneman says, “that the material of which the building is constructed, is a limestone, containing petrifactions of shells and small marine animals; and that such stone is to be found and dug up in the neighbourhood:” so too Strabo tells us, p. 49, that sea fossils and shells were spread on the Oasis of Ammon; κατὰτὴν μεσόγαιαν ὁρᾷται πολλαχου κόχλων καὶ ὀστρέων καὶ χηραμίδων πληθος, καὶ λιμνοθάλαττοι καθάπερ φησὶ περὶ τὸ ἱερον τοῦ Ἄμμωνος. Strabo, p. 50, further noticing the marine substances scattered on the Oasis of Ammon, cites Eratosthenes, supposing that the sea once reached to that interior spot of Africa, and supporting his conjecture by observing, that the oracle could not anciently, and in the first instance, have been so renowned and visited, if difficult of access, by being far inland. Casaubon’s version expresses it, “fortassis etiam Ammonis templum, aliquando in mari jacuisse, quod nunc maris effluxu sit in mediâ terrâ; ac conjicere se, oraculum illud optimâ ratione tam illustre ac celebre factum, esse quòd in mari esset situm, neque ejus gloriam probabile esse tantam potuisse existere, quanta nunc est, si tam longè fuisset a mari dissitum.” P. 50. The poet follows the geographer’s idea, and derives a fine sentiment for the mouth of Cato.
Numen · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
· · · · · · · · · · steriles nec legit arenas,
Ut caneret paucis, mersitque hoc pulvere verum.
Pharsal. lib. ix. v. 576.
Now, taking the simple fact, the stones with which the Temple of Ammon was built, might be supposed to contain fragments of marine animals and shells, such as those mentioned by Horneman. For the rest, Strabo’s (or rather Eratosthene’s) conjecture is scarcely admissible.
The Libyan Ammon had long been venerated in Greece, and throughout the then civilized world. A subordinate temple was consecrated to Ammon in Laconia, and the god was yet more anciently worshipped by the Aphytæi. Paus. Kuhn, p. 293. Another temple was raised to Ammon in Bœotia, and in which Pindar dedicated a statue of the god; and the same great poet wrote a hymn to the Lybian deity, and sent the copy to its priesthood in Africa. Bœotica, p. 741. So anciently and so highly as the oracle of Ammon was revered, and so much as it was resorted to by the most enlightened nations of Greece, Asia, and Egypt, the circumstance of its once having been situated on the coasts of the sea, could not have escaped tradition or direct historical account, if such had ever been the fact.
The above remarks are with deference submitted to the reader, as adding probability to the conjecture, that the ruins seen by Mr. Horneman, in the vicinity of Siwah, may be the actual remains of the ancient oracular temple of Ammon.
Having in the above comment cited a passage from the Pharsalia, not as authority, but for purpose of inference; and having further adverted to a sentiment attributed to the philosophic hero of the poem, in reference to the inland and sequestered situation of the temple of Ammon; the annotator is induced to close this essay with a version of the admirable speech of Cato at length, as deriving a peculiar interest from connection with the subject under discussion, appearing to terminate, (and leave as it were, in ruins,) the superstitions of the oracle, with the fabric of its temple.
Lucan tells us, that Cato approaching the Fane of Jupiter Ammon in Lybia, was requested by Labienus to demand of the oracle,—“What was to be the fate of Cæsar?—whether Rome was to be enslaved or free?—and in what consisted virtue, &c. &c.”