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.
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![RHAMNUS.—RmNIASSA. 2S5 face was polished. The interior is rough and the joints loosely constructed. No cement appears to have been used. Round the walls below the soil, within the area of the building, a number of iron nails were discovered, whence it would seem that they were originally cased with wood. A chair of white marble was placed in the portico on each side of the entrance. The front was pedimented ; two Dorick co- lumns; pilasters at the corners; the chairs between the pillars and pilasters; the statue of the goddess in the centre. The chairs are represented, chap. vii. pi. 4. Rheims Among other Roman remains are an amphitheatre; a trium- phal arch, and three city gates, called still by the names of the Sun, Mars, and Ceres. Rhetian Promontory (presumed the Portus Ach(Eorum, Troad). A tumulus, supposed with reason, that of Ajax. The shrine itself, concealed from external view only by a light covering of earth, remains to this day. Clarhe, iii. po. 107. Rhiniassa (supposed Elatria, near Camarina^ Greece). The ruins stand fully exposed to view in the curvature of a grand ascent upon two levels, or spacious paral- lelograms of rock, one above the other, and surrounded by ancient walls, which remain in a very extraordinary state of preservation. Their circuit may be traced for the dis- tance of five or six miles in their full extent, enclosing a space within, sufficient to contain probably 100,000 inhabitants. This is covered with the vestiges of public edifices and private dwellings, the remains of which for the most part retain several layers of stone above the foundations. The citadel appears to have stood on the west side, and to have been admirably fortified. Its walls remain to the height of 15 or 20 feet, excellently constructed in a very ancient Pseudo-Cyclopean style. A postern gateway remains quite entire, exhibiting a fine specimen of the circular arch, in a style of architecture decidedly Grecian. In this specimen, as in the gallery of Tiryns, the arch is formed by cutting away the interior surfaces of large parallel blocks of stone. With this method of construction, it must be evident that no arches of a large span could possibly be erected. [This Arch is engraved in the Vignette of chapt. xiii. vol. ii. 32b.] In the interior of the citadel is a very fine subterranean apartment, to which we are conducted by a narrow passage, almost twenty yards in length. This remain is nearly square, being 9 feet 9 inches by 9 feet 6 inches. Its ceiling is arched, like a fine alcove, and, as well as the walls, covered over with a stucco, as smooth as polished marble, divided elegantly into compartments, with rich cornices and mouldings. There is a very fine theatre, which, according to the plan (p. 340), has the proscenium re- maining of this form ^1 T There is a rich prospect from the coilon. On a rocky height to the north-north-west of the theatre stands one of the principal gateways in a high state of preservation. In descending from the theatre in a south-east direc- tion through the city, are remains of a large building, whose walls of fine Cyclopean masonry yet exist about a yard in height. Its length is 110 feet, and its breadth 100, but nothing is left which can give rise to a conjecture respecting its use and appropria- tion. There is a peribolus of another 90 feet by 30. Near to it on the opposite side of the street is a large oblong edifice, which was fronted with columns, whose bases are still standing. The plan of this city appears to have been laid out with considerable regularity, most of the streets running parallel to each other from east to west and crossed by others at right angles from north to south. They varied in breadth from 10 to 15 or 18 feet, one of these large dimensions being the broadest. It appeared to be a main street of great length running from north to south. The private houses seem to have been very small. Some of the largest were only 45 feet by 32, and 44](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22012035_0341.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
