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.
374/470 page 266
![26ti. 1. Ortygia is now the only inhabited part of ancient Syracuse. It has but few remains. The most considerable is the Temple of Minerva, described by Cicero in Verrem. It is one of the most ancient in Sicily, and coeval with the first appearance there ot the Greeks. It is now converted into a church, and the spaces between the columns filled up by a modern wall. The order is Doric ; the columns originallv forty in number, are fluted. Some vestiges of the architrave and frieze are’still to be seen. The columns of the pronaos, contrary to the generality of Grecian temples are of greater diameter and height than those of the peristyles. Their capitals diflfer’con- siderably from the Grecian form, and are placed upon bases. (Wilh. Magn. Grec. —13-) The walls of the cella, says Swinburne (ii. 329), are thrown down%nd only as much left in pillars as is necessary to support the roof. This temple is built in the old Doric proportions, used in the rest of Sicily. The columns taper, have twenty flutings, and measure at the base 6 feet 5 inches, their height, including the capital, and a small socle, instead of base, is 32 feet 9 inches. The portico and frontispiece’ have been destroyed by an earthquake, and a new facade erected of the Corinthian order, absurdly enough. Of the Temple of Diana, two columns, with their capitals very much defaced appear, inserted in the wall of a house. They resemble those of the temple of Minerva, but their proportions are considerably larger. Wilk. 13. The famous fountain of Arethusa, ruined by earthquakes, is now a mere pond, fit only for washing, an oblong square, walled round, and descended by steps. See plate in Wilkins. Denon saw two fragments of Roman reticulated building, which he (p. 311) and Swinburne (ii. 330) say perhaps belonged to the palace of Verres. 2. Acradina (Syracuse). Only the Catacombs remain. They consist of one wide street or passage, which extends along the whole, and from it run many branches of smaller dimensions, whose sides are hollowed into cavities for the reception of bodies. Some of these are terminated by a kind of circular room, whose roof is formed into a dome, with an aperture at the top, which was intended eitiier for the descent of the bodies, or more probably for the admission of air. (Wilkins, Magn. Grec. p. l6‘.) Denon (p. 357) says, that there remain at Acradina fragments of mattoni and broken vases. Mr. Hughes, who has taken particular pains in investigating the remains of Syracuse, says of Acradina, that the church of San Giovanni is supposed to be the site of the temple of Jupiter. Some columns are presumed to be remains of the Pryta- neum, a place, of which the chief purpose was to afford a spot in which the Magistrates and others eminent for their public services might take their meals, and the perpetual fire of Vesta was kept burning. [Denon (395) says, that the only remains of the Pry- taneum are a prodigious quantity of marbles and large columns. Perhaps it was the palace of sixty beds, built by Agathocles.] There are also Latomice or stone quarries ; an extraordinary cavern similar to that in Neapolis, called the Ear of Dionysius ruins of a Bath (not the Hexatontactinos). One of its subterraneous chambers, in the vineyard of Vianisi, ha^ an arched roof singularly constructed. The interior of the vaulting is formed by parallel rows of cylindrical vessels, shaped like bottles [eight inches long and three broad, Denon, 347j5 and filled with strong cement. Each vessel is open at the bottom, where it receives tlie tapering point of the next, the central one being open at both ends, and forming as it were a keystone to the arch. The vault being thus completed, a thick coating of cement is spread over the whole, which re- ceives a layer of quarries or thick tiles, upon which another coating of cement is laid, and a second layer of quarries as before. The strength of this vaulting is incredible.](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22012035_0374.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
