Having now devoted a considerable space to Halicarnassus and Cnidus, owing to their being, from recent researches, of such high importance, we must notice very briefly the other towns of Caria. The small town of Physcus is chiefly of interest for its magnificent bay and harbour, so well known to modern navigators (under the name of Marmorice), as one of the finest in the world for vessels of the largest size. Possibly it was this very character that led to its being so little noticed in antiquity, as ancient galleys did not value depth of water. The capacity of the bay of Marmorice will be best comprehended, when we remind our readers that Nelson anchored his whole fleet within it, just before the battle of the Nile. Not far from this was Caunus, the ancient capital of a population whom Herodotus held were not Carians; indeed, their coins and architecture seem to prove them Lycians. The site of Caunus has been identified, there being still considerable monumental remains and walls of so-called Cyclopean masonry. The Caunians were an active and high-spirited race, and made a gallant resistance to the Persians, a few years later joining with equal enthusiasm in the great Ionian revolt (Herod. v. 103). Towards the close of the Peloponnesian war we find Caunus constantly mentioned. Having been rejected by the Romans in a petition against Rhodes, they conceived against them the bitterest hatred, and hence carried out with great atrocity the massacre of the Romans planned by Mithradates (Appian, Mithr. c. 23). Caunus was so unhealthy in the summer that “pale-faced Caunians” became a proverb.
Stratonicea (now Eski-hissar), one of the chief inland towns of Caria and mainly built by Antiochus Soter, derived its name from his wife Stratonice. The great Mithradates married thence his wife Monima. Not far from the town was the famous temple of Jupiter Chrysaorius, the centre of the political union of the Carian states. Stratonicea has been much explored by travellers; and, so early as 1709, Mr. Consul Sherard presented to the Earl of Oxford a book of Greek inscriptions copied by him at various places in Asia Minor. This volume is now in the Harleian collection. The most important monument of the town is the celebrated edict of Diocletian—in Greek and Latin—the first copy of which, by Sherard, is in the volume just mentioned. The late Colonel Leake[[49]] has shown that its date is about A.D. 303, and its object to direct those engaged in the traffic of provisions not to exceed certain fixed prices in times of scarcity. Fellows states that the names of many of the articles of food enumerated therein are still used by the peasantry of Asia Minor. Inter alia, we learn that silken garments were in common use, as Ammianus[[50]] pointed out, seventy years later; as also the rough coat or birrhus, the caracallis, or hooded cloak (afterwards adopted by the monks), the Gallic breeches and socks. The late date of the inscription is shown by its barbarous Latinity, above all, by the reduced value of the drachma or denarius. Thus a denarius appears as the equivalent of a single oyster, or of the hundredth part of a lean goose! The names of the provisions recorded not only indicate the ordinary food of the people, but also the costly dainties of the epicure. Thus several kinds of honey, of hams, of sausages,[[51]] of salt and fresh-water fish, of asparagus and of beans, are noted. Gibbon has not failed to notice this inscription, though, in his day, it had been very imperfectly copied.
[49]. See Trans. Roy. Soc. of Literature, 1st series, 4to. vol. i. p. 181. 1826.
[50]. Ammianus was not acquainted with the true origin of silk. He still describes it, as did Virgil and Pliny, as a sort of woolly substance (lanugo) combed from a tree in China.
[51]. The derivation of the word “sausage” may not be generally known. “Icicium” means “minced meat”; “salsum icicium,” the same salted. From the latter comes the Italian salsiccio, the French saucisse, and the English sausage. So jecur ficatum (Greek, συκωτὸν), hog’s liver, derived from the fattening of geese with figs (“pinguibus et ficis pastum jecur anseris albi,” Horat. Satir. ii. 8, 88) is preserved in the Italian fegato and the modern Greek συκώτι, used for liver in general. It is curious to meet on a decree on the walls of a temple in Caria with pernæ Menapicæ, Westphalian hams.
Aphrodisias was a considerable place, and, at a very late period, as appears from Hierocles, the capital of Caria. It is but little mentioned in ancient history, but Tacitus records that, setting forth decrees of Cæsar and Augustus in its favour,[[52]] it pleaded before the Senate for the right of sanctuary attached to its temples, when Tiberius was wisely attempting to abridge these injurious immunities. Aphrodisias was chiefly famous for its magnificent Ionic temple of Venus, many columns of which are still standing. They may be seen in the third volume of the “Ionian Antiquities,” 1840,[[53]] and in Mr. Pullan’s work.
[52]. “Dictatoris Cæsaris ob vetusta in partes merita et recens Divi Augusti decretum” (Tacit. Ann. iii. 62). An inscription published by Chishull in his Antiq. Asiat. (p. 152), but, we believe, first copied by Sherard, confirms the statement of Tacitus.
[53]. The name of Aphrodisias was more than once changed. Thus when Christianity began to prevail, the first change was to Tauropolis (as is shown on an inscription copied by Fellows), and, again, to Stauropolis (or the city of the Cross). When, however, towards the end of the fifth century, the festivals of Venus were revived by Asclepiodotus of Alexandria, the ancient name was revived also.
Sir Charles Fellows has given an excellent description (Lycia, p. 32) of the state in which he found the ruins, with a beautiful drawing of the Ionic temple. “I never,” says he, “saw in one place so many perfect remains, although by no means of a good age of the arts”: he thinks, too, that the early city must have been in great measure destroyed. “These (the later) walls are,” he adds, “composed of the remains of temples, tombs, and theatres removed, although uninjured. The reversed inscriptions, and inverted bas-reliefs bear testimony to this change.” Sir Charles Fellows quotes one inscription as showing how carefully the owners of these tombs endeavoured to secure their preservation and sole occupancy. “But if,” says the legend, “contrary to these directions, anybody shall bury another (in this monument), let him be accursed, and besides pay into the most holy treasury 5,000 denarii, of which one-third is to be his who institutes the proceedings.” Inscriptions with similar curses are, indeed, common enough.
Mylasa and Labranda may be taken together, as from the former a Sacred Way led to Labranda. The former was, no doubt, in early times one of the chief places in Caria, before Halicarnassus was adopted as the royal residence; indeed, we find a proof of this in the fact that it had a temple to which Lydians and Mysians were alike admitted (Herod, i. 171). Physcus, to which we have already referred was considered as its port. Mylasa, in ancient times, as Strabo avers, a city of great beauty, owed much to its having been built close to a mountain of the finest white marble. It was, indeed, so close, that one of the provincial governors observed that the founder of the town ought to have been ashamed of his blunder, if not frightened.[[54]] It was, also, so full of sacred buildings, that when Stratonicus came there, thinking there were more temples than people, he exclaimed, in the middle of the forum, “Hear, oh ye temples”! (Athen. viii. p. 348).