At Ragusa Vecchia I found an intelligent peasant, who took me round to show me all the old stones that were known of in the place; and as others of the Ragusa Vecchian inhabitants showed a good-natured readiness to aid my search, and nobody minded my entering their abode, I had soon seen quite a museum of Roman antiquities scattered among old walls and cottage yards, and was so far successful as to come upon some inscriptions that have not been hitherto described,[322] and at least one piece of sculpture on which the antiquary’s eye had never gazed. There were two antique bas-reliefs walled into the houses of the quay—a Cupid, and a female figure, by a chariot, perhaps intended for Amphitritè, but very badly executed. On a column in another part of the town was a comic head of good workmanship; and walled into a cottage yard a very fine effigy of a Roman Signifer, holding an ensign, and coifed in a lion-skin cap, like many standard-bearers on Trajan’s Column, which this figure much recalled. Our soldier was shod in curious sandals, and wore at his side a short sword with a curved handle, much resembling a modern Dalmatian knife.
On the peninsula I also saw nine more or less perfect Roman inscriptions, one of considerable interest, as it bore witness to the existence here of an Ordo decurionatus or municipal senate. Other inscriptions were to be seen on the mainland towards the village of Sveti Ivan, and the owner of some oliveyards here showed me some mortuary inscriptions engraved on the huge scattered blocks with which the heights, which here rise above the sea, are everywhere strewn. How terrible is the nakedness of this land, where monuments stand ready for the graver!
Sculpture of Roman Standard-Bearer at Ragusa.
Overlooking the bay of St. Ivan, and the peninsula of Ragusa Vecchia, rises a rocky hill known as the Colle San Giorgio, up which I ascended to investigate a monument which had accidentally been found there, not long since, by a party of sailors belonging to the Greek communion. The way in which in which it was discovered is interesting, as it was due to the not altogether chance coincidence of two superstitions. Just below the hill to the east is a Greek church, duly oriented; and the sailors, standing against the wall at the west end, were gazing idly at the hill in front, when a curious rock facing due east caught their eye; and climbing up to examine it more closely, they found that an ancient bas-relief was sculptured on it, which they presently laid completely bare by pulling away some rocks which had fallen against it. Nobody could give me a clearer account of the design than that it represented a man and a bull; but on arriving at the spot, I found that it was, as I expected, a Mithraic monument of a not unfrequent kind. The carving on the slab, which was much mutilated and of very inferior art, represented Mithra, in flowing mantle and tunic, sacrificing a bull, on which he was kneeling in the usual attitude. To the left and right of this central subject was an attendant—he to the left holding out one arm, apparently to hold the bull’s horn. Below this device the slab seemed hollowed out, and though the rocks in front were too large to remove without artificial aid, it seemed quite possible that there might be a Mithraic cavern underneath.
From this hill were pointed out to me the traces of the ancient aqueduct of Epidaurus, which ran right across the plain to the limestone mountain beyond. Here out of the rock gushes a glacier-cool underground stream, one of the effluents, it is supposed, of the Trebinjštica, which the aqueduct once conveyed to the Greco-Roman city. The plain through which it ran is still known as Canali from this Roman work, and this whole district was known to its early Sclavonic conquerors as the Župa Canawlovska. Some remains of this work are to be seen where it abuts on the rocky peninsula of Ragusa Vecchia, but there is nothing here to remind one of the soaring arches of Salona.
The point where the aqueduct abuts on the rock of Ragusa Vecchia is, however, remarkable for other reasons. It is just about here that quantities of antique gems have been discovered, and one would suppose that this was the lapidaries’ quarter of ancient Epidaurus. I have looked through a great number of these, and have been so fortunate as to obtain many, some here and some at Ragusa. It is remarkable that the habit of wearing engraved gems has survived among the peasants who occupy the modern site of Epidaurus. The Ragusa-Vecchians and Canalese take the ancient intaglios that they from time to time pick up, and exchange them with the jewellers of Ragusa for new gems of coarse Italian fabric! The engraved stones found here are mostly carnelian, agate, sard, bloodstone, onyx, and a few carbuncles. They are of various qualities and dates; some, as can be told not only from their execution, but from the Greek letters which appear on them, dating back to the Hellenic period of Epidaurus; but most are Roman, and of inferior workmanship.
Nor, as I have already pointed out, does Epidaurus stand alone in this fecundity of gems. The same phenomenon, to a greater or less extent, characterises the remains of all the Roman sites in Illyria with which I am acquainted. The sites of the ancient Narona, Salona, and Ænona are equally prolific. From Salona there is a fine selection in the museum at Spalato, and the Direttore, Signor Glavinich, showed me one there which he believes to represent an early king of Illyria.
Yet, as stones adapted for these ornamental purposes are not to be found on the Dalmatian shores, it seems difficult to account for their abundance on the Roman sites of the coast-land. Whence were they derived?
The clue towards solving the mystery is, I think, to be found in the abundance, in the interior of Bosnia and the Herzegovina, of just the same stones engraved as Turkish amulets and talismans, to which attention has been called already. In parts of the Herzegovina these stones are accounted so cheap that they are worn for merely ornamental purposes. Some of the rayah women, who had taken refuge in Ragusa from Nevešinje and the neighbouring districts of the Herzegovina, wore broad belts studded like ephods with suchlike stones. These were mostly, like the antique gems of Epidaurus, carnelian and agate, but I also noticed a few amethysts and one or two roots-of-emerald; they were rudely cut, and none, as far as I saw, engraved. On enquiring whence they came, the women told me that they picked them up in their own country, especially in a valley near Nevešinje. Here, it seems to me, is the true clue to the origin of the Roman intaglios. The raw material must have been gathered in these inland valleys, and thence carried to Narona, Epidaurus, and the other great coast cities, there to be engraved with the elegant designs of classical mythology. That there was a regular manufacture of such bijouterie in the Roman cities of Dalmatia seems to be proved not only by the great abundance of these gems on their sites, but also by the fact that a very large proportion of these had evidently never been set in rings and other articles of jewellery, which would certainly be their ultimate destination. In those found near the head of the aqueduct in Ragusa Vecchia, we have doubtless the stock-in-trade of some lapidary, probably lost during one of the earthquakes from which the ancient city suffered; and Signor Glavinich told me that he was convinced that Salona had been the seat of a regular manufacture of Roman gems.[323] Doubtless, were there sufficient evidence forthcoming, it would be found that Roman Dalmatia was the seat of an export trade in such articles with other provinces of the empire.