[39]. It is reasonable to conjecture that the first ruin of the Mausoleum was due to the earthquakes of the first and second centuries A.D., to which we have already alluded.
We must, however, add that the measurements of the height and tread of the blocks of marble believed to have been the steps of the pyramid, formed an essential feature of the calculation. The results arrived at were mainly due to the ingenuity and mathematical knowledge of Lieut. Smith, R.E., who was also able to distribute Pliny’s 36 columns over a circumference of 412 feet, so as to preserve a uniform intercolumniation on each side of the building.
STEPS OF THE PYRAMID.
The difficulty of Lieutenant Smith’s theory is that so large a space from the centres of the columns to the walls of the cella is left unsupported; but the plan of support he has suggested occurs in other and nearly contemporaneous structures, as, for instance, in a tomb at Mylasa. Again the great height, 65 feet, between the bases of the columns and the ground, is found to agree with the proportions of other tombs, as in Lycia and at Souma in Algeria. In all probability, this lofty basement was ornamented by one or more friezes, while the lions, of which Mr. Newton found remains of no less than fourteen, may have stood between the columns or at the corners, looking out on the plain. Since their arrival in England, great skill has been shown in uniting the innumerable fragments into which some of the slabs and statues had been broken; and visitors to the British Museum are now able to form a good idea of the grandeur and beauty of the equestrian or Amazonian figure, whose costume resembles that of the Persians on the temple of the Wingless Victory at Athens; and of the two great statues it has been agreed to call Mausolus and Artemisia. In the same room, there may, also, now be seen the whole of the frieze that has been recovered; and it is interesting to observe how much less injured are the portions excavated by Mr. Newton, than those which, built into the castle wall, have for four centuries, at least, been exposed to the corroding action of the sea-breezes.
We take next Cnidus, at the S.W. end of Asia Minor, and, after Halicarnassus, the most celebrated city of Caria. The description of its position by Strabo and Pausanias coincides exactly with the observations of modern travellers. Thus, Strabo speaks of its two ports, one of which can be closed; and of an island (now Cape Krio) in front of the city, lofty, in the form of a theatre, and joined by a causeway to the mainland; both of which statements are completely confirmed by Beaufort and Hamilton. Pausanias adds that the island was connected by a bridge. The whole district is covered by ruins, the northern wall being, according to Hamilton, nearly perfect: he adds, that “there is a round tower of great beauty at the extremity of the peninsula, near the northern harbour” (ii. 40). Some of the most important architectural features of the town may be seen in the “Ionian Antiquities.”
Cnidus is noticed first in the Homeric hymns, and later as a Lacedæmonian colony, and as a member of the Dorian Hexapolis, or assembly of six cities, whose place of meeting was the temple of the Triopian Apollo, on Cape Krio.[[40]] As a population, the Cnidians were great traders, combining with this a love for, and a high sense of, art. Thus we find them at a remote period in Egypt (Herod. ii. 178), and possessing a treasury at Delphi, while Lipara, near Sicily, was one of their colonies. In the various wars of the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., we find the Cnidians sometimes on one side and sometimes on the other. Thus, they submitted to Harpagus, the general of Cyrus;[[41]] then supported Athens, then deserted her after her losses in Sicily,[[42]] and then, again, in Roman times, were, generally, on the side of Rome.[[43]] The Cnidians derived much fame from their patronage of art. Thus, the famous painting of Polygnotus in the Lesche at Delphi was their gift;[[44]] as were also a statue of Jupiter at Olympia, and one at Delphi, of their founder, Triopas; with other statues of Leto, of Apollo, and of Artemis shooting arrows at Tityus. The most famous art-possession of Cnidus was the naked statue by Praxiteles so well known as the Cnidian Venus,[[45]] of which abundant notices are extant, especially in Lucian. It stood in a chamber with two doors, so that it could be seen all round, and many people visited Cnidus solely for this purpose. So proud were the Cnidians of this statue that, when Nicomedes offered to pay the whole public debt of Cnidus in return for the statue, they preferred keeping their statue and their debts. This statue, justly considered the fittest representation of the “Regina Cnidi Paphique,” continued long uninjured, and is mentioned by Philostratus in his life of Apollonius of Tyana; but, in the reign of Theodosius, having been removed to Constantinople, it was totally destroyed by fire in the palace of Lausus, about A.D. 475. There were also preserved at Cnidus two statues by Bryaxis and Scopas, two of the sculptors of the Mausoleum. Cnidus was also famous for her pottery, well known in ancient times by the name of “Κεράμια Κνίδια.”[[46]]
[40]. Near this temple the Cnidians held their assemblies and the games (αγῶνες τοῦ Τριοπίου Ἀπόλλωνος, Herod. i. 144, or Ἀγὡν Δώριος, Arist. ap. Schol. Theocr. Idyll. xvii. 69). The officer in charge of these games was called δαμιουργὸς (Leake, p. 227).
[41]. The Cnidians wished to cut through the narrow neck of land between their two harbours; but the Delphic oracle replied that, had Jupiter intended Cape Krio should have been an island, he would have made it so:—
Ζεὺς γὰρ κ’ ἔθηκε νῆσον εἴ κ’ ἐβούλετο—Herod. i. 174.