bers serving as places of burial for their relatives, according to rank; while the two large side-chapels, with collateral rooms, might have been appropriated to the religious rites of the goddess Hecate, as is rendered probable by the crescents which ornament various parts of the place. Whatever was its destination, like all the cemeteries of Egypt, it has been ransacked at some remote period, and the bodies of its tenants removed.

Like all the distinguished nations of antiquity, Egypt, after a lengthened period of civil power, military glory, and dignified learning, suffered a series of reverses of fortune, and finally sunk into a state of poverty and barbaric ignorance. Modern Cairo rose from the ruins of Alexandrea, and has been enriched with its spoils; for thither has been conveyed, at various times, not less than forty thousand columns of granite, porphyry, and marble, to be employed in private dwellings and mosques. Its decay was gradual; but fifteen centuries of decline strikingly evince its ancient opulence and grandeur.

In respect to its modern condition, among heaps of rubbish, and fine gardens planted with palms, oranges, and citrons, are seen a few churches, mosques, and monasteries, with three small clusters of dwellings.

ANTIOCH.

THERE are few cities whose immediate origin we know so well as that of Antioch.

Antigonus had built a city at a small distance from the spot on which Antioch was afterward erected, and this he called after his own name, Antigonia. After his death, Seleucus, having made himself master of Upper Syria, determined on founding a city. He, in consequence, demolished the one VOL. I.-E

*

Antigonus had built, and employed its materials in constructing his own." This he named after his son, Antiochus. He afterward transplanted the citizens to his new capital, which he adorned with all the beauty and elegance of Grecian architecture.

Seleucus built several other cities in the same direction, among which may be particularly noticed Apamea, which he named after his wife, the daughter of Arbazus the Persian; and Laodicea, which he called after his mother. Apamea was situated on the same river as Antioch, and Laodicea in the southern part of the same quarter. What is rather remarkable is, that in these cities he allowed the Jews the same privileges and immunities as were enjoyed by the Greeks and Macedonians; more especially at Antioch, where that people settled in such numbers, that at length they possessed as large a portion of the city as their countrymen enjoyed at Alexandrea.

In Christian times it became the see of the chief patriarch of Asia. It is often mentioned in the Acts of the Apostles; and particularly where it is said that the disciples of Christ were here first called Christians; and in the river Orontes, according to tradition, St. Paul is said to have been baptized. This city suffered severely from the rage of bigotry and superstition in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, when the spirit of religious enthusiasm induced the powers of Europe to attempt the reduction of Syria and the Holy Land.

Antioch has at different times been subjected to the violence of earthquakes. When Chosroes invaded Syria, disdaining the offer of an easy capitulation, it was taken by storm, the inhabitants slaughtered with unrelenting fury, and the city itself delivered to the flames. It recovered, however, after a time, but was again visited by earthquake and the

* A.M. 3604, B.C. 300.

sword of the conqueror. It was taken by the Crusaders in 1098; and in 1262 all its glory terminated, having fallen into the hands of Bybaris, sultan of Egypt.

It is now a ruinous town, the houses of which are built of mud and straw, and exhibit every appearance of poverty and wretchedness. The walls, however, of each quarter, as well as those which surrounded the whole, are still remaining; but, as the houses are destroyed, the four quarters appear like so many enclosed fields.

It is said that this city, which was about four miles in circumference, was built at four different periods; and that it consisted in a manner of four cities, divided from one another by walls. The first, as we have already stated, was built by Seleucus Nicator; the second, by those who flocked thither after the building of the first; the third, by Seleucus Callinicus; and the fourth, by Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria. The present town, which is a mile in circumference, stands in the plain, on the northwest part of the old city, all the parts within the walls being converted into gardens. The walls, which still exist, though much ruined, mark the ancient boundaries of Antioch. They were built after the introduction of Christianity, the form of them being nearly a rectangle.

There are, as we have already mentioned, very few remains of ancient buildings. The principal works still left are the aqueducts, and some grottoes cut in the mountain. There were once two temples of great celebrity; one dedicated to Apollo, and the other to the Moon. At this moment not a vestige of these is to be discovered. Formerly," says Lord Sandwich, "it had a port of considerable importance on the north bank of the Orontes and on the shores of the Levant; but the harbour is choked up, and not a single inhabitant remains. The sun of Antioch is set. The present city is a

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miserable place, extending four hundred yards from the side of the river to the bottom of a mountain, on the summit of which, and round the town, the Crusaders, during their being in possession of Syria, built a strong wall. Nothing remains of its ancient grandeur besides some stupendous causeways and massy gateways of hewn stone."

At a distance of about four or five miles was a place called Daphne. There Seleucus planted a grove; and in the midst of it he erected a temple, which he consecrated to Apollo and Diana. To this place the inhabitants of Antioch resorted for pleasure and diversion, till at last it became so infamous, that “to live after the manner of Daphne” was used proverbially to express the most voluptuous and dissolute mode of living.

Antioch is said to have been once larger than Rome itself; but, often partially destroyed, and finally razed by the Mamelukes, it is now only a small town, known by the name of Antakia. Its climate is delicious. Mr. Robinson, in his tour in Palestine and Syria, thus speaks of it: "For the breadth and brilliancy of the Eastern landscape, there is no architecture equal to the Oriental. The solemnity and grandeur of the Gothic are suited to our climate of cloud and tempest. The severe or even the florid beauty of Greek architecture belongs to a country where the spectator sees it under the lights and shadows of a sky as picturesque as the hills and valleys that it covers. But the magnitude, strong colourings, and yet fantastic finish of Eastern architecture are made to be seen across its vast plains, under the unclouded sky, and with the powerful splendour with which the rising and the setting sun less illumine than inflame the horizon. At a distance it has the dreamlike beauty which we habitually attach to the edifices of the Arabian Nights."

ARGOS.

ARGOS was founded 1856 years before the Christian era; that is, in the time of Abraham. Its founder was Inachus. Euripides, however, says that this city was built by the Cyclops, who came from Syria. After flourishing for about 550 years, it was united to the crown of Mycena. According to Herodotus, Argos was the most famous of all the states comprehended under the general name of Greece. For a long time it was the most flourishing city in Greece, and this chiefly from its being enriched by the commerce of Assyria and Egypt. Its early history is resplendent with illustrious names and shining achievements. Its inhabitants conceived a hope of obtaining the sovereignty of all Peloponnesus; but they became at length enfeebled, and finally ruined, by intestine divisions.

There are many events exceedingly interesting in the history of Argos, among which we may mention a few. A war broke out in the reign of Theopompus, between the Argives and Lacedæmonians, on account of a little country called Thyrea, that lay upon the confines of the two states, and to which each of them pretended to have a right. When the two armies were ready to engage, it was agreed, in order to spare the effusion of blood, that the quarrel should be decided by three hundred of the bravest men on each side, and that the land in question should become the property of the victors. To leave the combatants more room to engage, the two armies retired at some distance. These generous champions, who had all the courage of two mighty armies, boldly advanced towards each other, and fought with so much desperation and fury, that all except three, two on the side of the Argives and one on that of the Lacedæmonians, lay dead on the