Leander, Mr. Ekenhead, and I did.
Don Juan, Cant. ii. 105.
[4]. The average breadth of the Hellespont was about three miles—rather narrow for Homer’s πλατὑς, “the broad.” He, probably, however, looked on it rather as a mighty river; to which, indeed, his epithets of ἀγάῤῥοος and ἀπείρων (“strong-flowing,” and “boundless”) well enough apply. Herodotus calls it δολερὁς and ἀλμυρὁς ποταμός, “a treacherous and unsavoury river” (vii. 35).
Leander’s labour, however, was greater than that of the poet or his companion, in that he swam against the stream to reach Sestus, the current being often so powerful that a well-manned boat cannot be pulled straight across it.
A little further down the coast, and facing nearly due south, is Assus, a site which has been visited by many travellers, as Walpole, Choiseul-Gouffier, Raoul-Rochette, Fellows, and Pullan. The most ancient monuments of Greek art in the Louvre at Paris were removed thence. The position of the chief buildings is very grand; indeed, in Strabo’s time, Assus was considered as a fortress almost inaccessible.[[5]] Its ruins are still remarkably perfect, one gate at least, of triangular construction, resembling those at Mycenæ and Arpinum. There are, also, vestiges of a hexastyle Doric temple, showing some analogy with those at Pæstum. Seventeen large fragments from the metopes and two façades of the Temple were ultimately removed to France by Capt. Chaigneau, together with a Doric capital. They were found scattered over the slope of the hill, and must have been removed at some time or the other, probably for building purposes; indeed, fragments of similar pieces were also noticed in some of the neighbouring houses. In character of workmanship, the sculptures resemble the Æginetan marbles now at the British Museum. But their execution is not so effective, the material of which they are made being the coarse red stone of the neighbourhood. To the same cause is, perhaps, due the fact that they had not been carried away long ago. Had they been of fine marble, they would have been valuable plunder. Sir Charles Fellows, speaking of Assus, says, “After depositing my baggage, I took the most intelligent Turk in the place as my cicerone.... Immediately around me were the ruins, extending for miles, undisturbed by any living creature except the goats and kids. On every side lay columns, triglyphs and friezes, of beautiful sculpture, every object speaking of the grandeur of this ancient city. In one place I saw thirty Doric capitals placed up in a line for a fence.” Sir Charles Fellows gives a drawing of one of the friezes now in Paris, and adds, “I then entered the Via Sacra, or Street of Tombs, extending for miles. Some of these tombs still stand in their original beautiful forms, but most have been opened, and the lids are lying near the walls they covered, curiosity or avarice having been satisfied by displacing them.... These ruins are on a considerably larger scale than those of the Roman city, and many of the remains are equally perfect. Several are highly ornamented and have inscriptions; others are as large as a temple, being twenty to thirty feet square; the usual height of the sarcophagus is from ten to twelve feet.”[[6]]
[5]. The character of the position of Assus led to a joke of the musician Stratonicus, who applied to it a line of Homer (Il. vii. 144), playing on the meaning of the word Ἆσσον, viz.
Ἅσσον ἴθ’, ὡς κεν θᾶσσον ὀλέθρου πείραθ’ ἵκηαι,
Come more quickly (or come to Assus), “that ye may the more quickly come to utter destruction.” At Assus, St. Luke, and other companions of St. Paul, rejoined him with their ship, the Apostle having walked on foot from Alexandria Troas (Acts xx. 13).
[6]. The popular story of the “Lapis Assius,” with its supposed power of destroying the flesh of bodies buried in it (whence the name sarkophagus, or “flesh-consuming,”) is noticed by Dioskorides and Pliny. But this Greek word is rarely used for a tomb, the more usual word being σορός (soros). By the Romans, however, it was used, as in Juv. x. 170. Colonel Leake observes of the ruins of Assos, “The whole gives, perhaps, the most perfect idea of a Greek city that anywhere exists” (Asia Minor, p. 128). See also R. P. Pullan, “Ruins of Asia Minor,” p. 19.
Palæ-Scepsis is interesting for the native tradition, that it was once the capital of Æneas’s dominions. It appears to have been situated near the source of the Æsepus—high up on Mount Ida—the later Scepsis being about sixty stadia (7½ miles) lower down (Strabo, xiii. 607). Dr. Colquhoun[[7]] states that a village in the neighbourhood still bears the name of Eski Skisepje, which, as Eski means “old” in Turkish, corresponds with Palæ-Scepsis; Dr. Colquhoun at the same time quotes the words of its discoverer, the distinguished Oriental scholar, Dr. Mordtmann. “I did discover,” says Dr. Mordtmann, “a most ancient city with its acropolis, towers and walls built of hewn stone, and furnished with four gates. The antiquity of the place was manifested by an oak having fixed its roots in the wall, and by its trunk having grown to a girth of 530 centimètres (about 17 feet). On reference to Strabo, I first became aware that I had discovered, probably, the most ancient ruin in Asia Minor, for I hold that this can be no other than Palæ-Scepsis.” The evidence adduced by Drs. Mordtmann and Colquhoun confirms the accuracy of Strabo. The later town of Scepsis is memorable for the discovery there, during the time of Sylla, of the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus, which had been buried by the illiterate relations of one Neleus (a pupil of Aristotle and friend of Theophrastus), lest they should be carried off by Attalus, then founding his library at Pergamus. It appears from Strabo, that though preserved from utter ruin, the precious MSS. had suffered much from damp and worms; but they suffered still more by the injudicious efforts of their purchaser, Apellicon of Teos, a well-meaning person, though wholly incompetent to supply the gaps he found.