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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![broad road ran quite across the city to the neck of Ortygia, lined on each side by strong walls and flanked by towers. Hughes, i. 8o. ^ 3* Tycha, Some large sepulchres cut in the rock, one of which had a front resem- bling a Doric portico. The other remains are only the channels of aqueducts, the deep indentures of chariot wheels, and the mouldering ruins of the city walls. Thus Hushes, i. 83. Swinburne’s account is as follows: Ihe outermost wall, erected by Dionysius the elder, is visible without interruption for some miles, following all the sinuosities of the hill from Scala Grccca, through which Swinburne entered this ancient inclosure. At a small distance from this place he came to a second gate, of which a great part is yet standing. From hence he traced a street, by the marks of wheels deeply worn in the rock, and by the holes in the middle, where the beasts which drew the carriages placed their feet. This indicates that vehicles in common use were drawn by horses yoked one before another. [This is believed to be quite.modern ; he has probably mistaken the track of a single horse.} The same marks were visible wherever any traces of streets could be discovered. The fields within and near the walls are covered with immense heaps of stones thrown con- fusedly together. Sivinh. ii. 335. The walls were evidently of the Cyclopean style, so common in Italy, viz. hewn ob- long squares laid without cement. See Denon, 341. The greatest curiosity of Tycha w'as the subterraneous aqueducts, for conveying water from street to street and house to house. Each of these had little wells bored like a cannon, and the channels were in many places carried over each other to the height of three ranges without any perforation above the surface of the rock. Id. 340. See Epipolce hereafter. Hexapylon, an admirable ancient fortress, constructed with consummate skill. It consisted of large subterraneous passages, from whence both infantry and cavalry might sally and retreat again under protection of the fort. 'I’here were large square towers of solid masonry ; a gateway e?ccellently contrived for every purpose of defence; and parapets, consisting of vast blocks bored with grooves, by which melted lead was poured down upon the assailants. The walls were constructed of immense blocks without cement, varied in thickness according as the situation required. Where nature her- self had assisted in forming the rampart they measured from seven to nine feet in breadth, but in more unguarded parts they were fifteen, of that species of building which the ancients called Emplecton. [See Plin. xxxvii. 22.] Hughes. See the next article. 4. Neapolis, Olympucum, Temple of Jupiter Olympiiis, or Olympian Suburb, Little now remains, except the mutilated shafts of two fluted columns, standing at a considerable distance from each other. They are 19 feet 6 inches round at the bot- tom, and have only sixteen fiutings ; they rest upon a plinth of two steps, each eighteen inches high. In the last century, seven columns were still entire; they belonged to the Temple of Olympian Jove, which Gelo enriched with the spoils of the Carthagi- nians, about 2,500 years ago. Thus Swinburne (344). The columns have no capitals, and the fiutings do not descend quite to the bottom, but leave a small socle of seven inches. Hughes says, a plain narrow fascia. Each column consists of three immense blocks. Denon, 35S, 359- Hughes, 90. Anapus river. Fragments of an ancient temple of Cyane in the fine circular basin. Hughes, 93* Neapolis. The theatre is the chief object. As Swinburne says, (p. 337,) the](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22012035_0376.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
