A copy of Bruce’s sketch is selected for the vignette on the cover of this work. The building has been so frequently delineated that it was hardly worth while giving a facsimile of the drawing.
There is a very large building of the Corinthian order to the east of this; part of the wall is still remaining.
The columns were of different . . . . . .[293] as in the above Ionic, which seems to have been a part of it, for the north, which seems to be the vestige of the temple, behind and immediately connected with it, does not seem of itself to have merited a portico so large and magnificent as this; but all is so destroyed that nothing but conjecture can be alleged either in support or the contrary. What remains could be recovered are in the King’s Collection, with all the parts that could be found.[294]
Bruce’s account of Ptolometa is very obscure, and in some places hardly legible. Pacho, in describing the same ruins, says:—‘The only ones that have resisted the ravages of time are at some distance from the sea, and on the last slopes of the mountain. One of the most important is a Roman barrack, surrounded by a wide ditch, and having a double enceinte. In the interior exist, still in perfect preservation, the fireplaces which served for the domestic use of the soldiers. On the façade of this edifice are three immense blocks of freestone, on which is a very long Greek inscription,[295] but so dilapidated, that one of our most celebrated philologists, M. Letronne, affirms that a complete rendering of it is, if not impossible, at least very difficult. The little that it tells us increases our regrets, as it contains a rescript of Anastasius I., relative to divers subjects of public administration, and notably to military service. Not far from this barrack, and almost in the centre of the town, are the remains of a pronaos, with three columns erect, the sole remains of a Roman temple, below which is a great vault, divided into nine corridors, coated with cement, and certainly intended to serve as a reservoir. Lastly, at the extreme west of the ruins are two great massive constructions, a sort of Pylon, sloped in the Egyptian style, which appears to have formed the entrance to the town.’[296]
Beechey thus alludes to these ruins in his description of the Cyrenaica and Pentapolis, published in 1828:—
‘The remains marked (a) are the same as those which Bruce describes as those of an Ionic temple; there is nothing however, (that we can perceive), in the disposition of what still exists of their plan to authorise such a conclusion; and we have considered them the remains of a palace or other residence of more than ordinary importance. The three remaining columns appear to have formed part of a colonnade extending itself round the courtyard, which has already been described as situated above an extensive range of cisterns; remains of tesselated pavement are still observable in the court-yard, and the walls which inclose it are very decided; the columns have been raised on a basement of several feet in height, as will be seen in the vignette in which they are represented.
‘Without these, to the northward, are ranges of fallen columns of much larger dimensions than those we have just mentioned.’
Hamilton also has figured the Ionic columns, which he considers as dating from a late epoch when not a tradition of true beauty remained. He stigmatises them as clumsy and badly chiselled, and he did not see in the whole place any fragments of sculpture or architecture in a good style of art.[297]
Bruce’s drawing contains only the three columns, without accessories of any kind. To return to his narrative:—
The Welled Urfa, a clan of no great consequence in force, but rich in cattle, who occasionally pitch their tents there for the sake of the grass, if it can be so called, are masters of Ptolometa. From this neighbourhood, west to Bengazi, by Tochara, Byrsus, &c., are the Ouagheer, of no great force either. On the other side of the mountains to the east are Dursha, a thievish tribe, consisting of about 800 foot and 200 horse. Thieves from these Moors kept us in alarm all night, but, not having time to increase their numbers, they proceeded only so far as to attempt to rob our horses. In the forenoon we decamped about eleven, having taken our measurements and designs, and took refuge with the Ouagheer. Great rains having fallen for nine days, the grass in and about Ptolometa was nearly a foot high, but the corn had not yet appeared.