Foreign topography; or, an encyclopedick account, alphabetically arranged, of the ancient remains in Africa, Asia, and Europe; forming a sequel to the Encyclopedia of antiquities / By the Rev. Thomas Dudley Fosbroke.
- Thomas Dudley Fosbroke
- Date:
- 1828
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Foreign topography; or, an encyclopedick account, alphabetically arranged, of the ancient remains in Africa, Asia, and Europe; forming a sequel to the Encyclopedia of antiquities / By the Rev. Thomas Dudley Fosbroke. Source: Wellcome Collection.
328/470 page 224
![PORTUS SYMBOLORUM.—PRASIA, di Porto Giulio, and the only monument of the walls are substructions, erected by Agrippa to form a harbour on the Lucrine lake. Eustace, ii. 393. PoRTUs Symbolorum (Chersoncsus). Now the harbour of Balaclava. Clarke, \u 2%^. PosiLLiPPO. See Pausilippo. PoFAMiA (Epirus). The deserted monastery of St. John is built within the peri- bolus of an ancient Greek temple of very fine Cyclopean masonry. Hughes, ii. 311. A specimen is engraved, vol. i. p. 214. Pr^neste (now Palestrina). Here are considerable remains of the famous tem- ple of Fortune, erected by Sylla, and repaired by Hadrian, [nearly perhaps rebuilt, for the workmanship has much resemblance to his mausoleum, the castle of S. Angelo. F.] The form has or had nothing in common with other temples. It consists of a series of oblong courts, raised upon platforms, the broad sides in front, and ascended by flights of steps, each court growing narrower, till it terminated in a building also oblong square, or three sides, but on the front cut out into a semi-circle; so the print in Montfaucon, ii. p. i. b. 2. c. 15. He adds, that the Cornelian and Emilian Basilicse, w'ere on one side. At the end of one court were the Faustinian school, and elsewhere the temple of Serapis [engraved in Miss Knight's Latium, p. 183]. The outer court had two large fish-ponds. Winckelman (Art. 65.) notes that the whole town of Pa- lestrina is built upon the ruins of the temple, which, properly speaking, was ascended by seven terraces, whose spacious floors reposed upon masses of cut stone, excepting that below, which was built of polished brick, and adorned with niches. Upon the floors of all these terraces were fine jfieces of water, and superb fountains, still to be seen. The fourth was the first peristyle of the temple, of which there still remains a large part of the facade, with some cippi, or demi-columns. The place in front now forms the market-place of Palestrina. The temple of Fortune was situated upon the last terrace, and this space is occupied by the seat of the prince Barberini. The pave- ment of the vestibule is the famous mosaic, said by Pliny to have been the first ever know'll in Italy, and made by order of Sylla. Winckelman observes, that they who ascribe it to the time of Hadrian, are only supported by their own conjectures. Montfaucon (Supplem. vol. iv. b. 7.) has several plates. To me it appears no more than a descriptive representation of the animals, vegetables, temples, boats, proces- sions, houses, &e. &c. of Egypt. The general opinion is, that it represents the arrival of Alexander the Great in Egypt; Barthelemy thinks the voyage of Hadrian thither; Winckelman, the adventures of Menelaus and Helen in Egypt, borrowed from Homer ; but according to the figures, the chest surmounted by a candelabrum cannot have been a bier, nor the seated figure holding a sceptre, surmounted by a bird, be Helen. It requires much study ; but some things are especially noticeable, a dog with a collar, a man riding like the modern Turks, with his knees parallel to the pommel, a pigeon- house, cylindrical turret, the roof conical, full of round holes in tiers, and a fisher- man, who first throws into the water a semi-circular pallisade, to prevent the escape of the fish. The table, or altar, upon which the lots were cast, is still preserved in a cellar, belonging to the seminary for young ecclesiasticks. In the court and garden are many vestiges of ancient walls, columns and cornices. There is also the iron which supported the light, suspended to the tower for the use of mariners. The famous pavement is about 26 feet by ifi. There are numerous vestiges of the temple in the town. Miss Knight's Latium, 183 —198. Prasia (Laconia). Ruins of the town, upon the shore near the Haven, now called Port Kaphto. There are the remains of a colossal statue, upon a pedestal 8 feet high, the statue once 12 feet, perhaps an Apollo; and on the other island, further in the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22012035_0328.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
