Age of Homer.

a share in the empire. Being murdered soon after, together with his son Herocles, and dying with the title of Augustus, his widow Zenobia took upon herself the government of the East, iu right of her son Waballathus, then a minor, and managed it to admiration. Gallienus being soon after murdered, she seized upon the government of Egypt, and held it during the short reign of the Emperor Claudius Gothicus. But when Aurelian was advanced to the imperial dignity, he refused to allow Waballathus to bear the title of Augustus, though he permitted him to continue his authority under the name of Vice Cæsaris. But Zenobia refusing to accept of any thing less than a participation of the empire, Aureliau marched against her, defeated her forces, and shut her up and besieged her in Palmyra. The city speedily surrendered, Zenobia and her sou flying were taken, and the celebrated Longinus, her minister, was put to death. Aurelian spared the city, and leaving a small garrison in it, marched back to Rome. But the inhabitants, believing he would not again return, murdered the garrison, and set up for themselves. Aurelian, though by this time he had got into Europe, marched directly back, collected an army on his way, besieged the city, took it by storm, and gave it up to be plundered by his troops.

The city never recovered this disaster. For though Aurelian does not appear to have burnt it, but merely to have demolished its walls, yet it never afterwards made any figure in history. When it was finally destroyed we do not know; though it might probably be during the wars of the Saracens. The destruction seems to have been sudden and complete. At present it is inhabited by about 40 families, who occupy sorry huts within the precincts of the ancient palaces no better than pig-sties. The ruins have remained without much dilapidation, except what proceeded from the superstition of the Mahometans, because it is too far off from every other city to make it worth while to carry off the stones for building. As to the description of the ruins, which appear to be very fine, we refer the reader to the papers in the Transactions,* and to various books of travels in which they are particularly described and figured.

3. The oldest profane poets in existence are Hesiod and Homer, who are generally considered as nearly contemporaries, though Hesiod is allowed to have the precedence in point of antiquity by a few years. Homer's poems were unknown in Greece till they were brought to Athens by Solon, who seems to have met with them in some of the Grecian cities of Asia. We are informed by Cicero, that it was Pisistratus who first arranged the writings of Homer in the order in which we find them at present. Now Pisistratus, according to Scaliger, seized the chief government of Athens in the 50th Olympiad, or 577 years before the commencement of the Christian æra. The Oxford marble places the commencement of his reign at 557 years before Christ, a date which agrees well

* Phil. Trans. 1695. Vol. XIX. p. 83, 129, and 100

with the account given by Plutarch. In what year he digested the poems of Homer we do not know; but it certainly was not before that period, as Solon did not return to Athens till Pisistratus was preparing to assume the government. of the city. Thus it appears that the period when Homer became known as a poet in Greece was not earlier than 557 years before the commencement of the Christian æra. Homer himself certainly lived before that period, and a circumstance related by Laertius would lead us to believe that he preceded it a considerable time. According to that writer, Solon made use of the following lines of Homer, to prove that the Athenians had a right to the island of Salamis

Αίας δ' ἐκ Σαλαμῖνος ἀγεν δυοκαίδεκα νέας,

Στῆσε δ ̓ ἀγων, ἵν ̓ Αθηναίων ίσταντο φάλαγγες.

Now it is not consistent with common sense, to suppose that he would bring such a proof from the writings of a contemporary poet: or that it would have been listened to with patience, if he had.

As to the exact period when Homer lived, nothing very satisfactory is known. Velleius Paterculus places him 920 years before the commencement of the Christian æra. Herodotus, a much older authority, places him four hundred years before his own time, or about 831 years before the Christian æra. Petavius places Homer 1000 years before the commencement of the Christian æra, and Sir Isaac Newton places Hesiod 879 years before the same æra, while Mr. Costard brings down Homer to within 557 years of the Christian æra, which seems too low, if we attend to the circumstances above mentioned. Sir Isaac Newton, and astronomical writers in general, have been led to fix upon the above period for the age of Hesiod, because in one of his poems he mentions that the star Arcturus rose achronically 60 days after the winter solstice. But several circumstances prevent this from marking a very precise period. The winter solsfice could not be very exactly known in Hesiod's time, and the difference of a day or two would make a very material alteration in the period to which Hesiod refers. By rising achronically must mean not strictly rising the instant the sun sets; because the stars are never visible at that period: it must mean rising at such an interval after sunset as will admit the stars to be seen. Now this gives such a latitude to the poet that we have no means of even guessing how long it might be. Upon the whole, the period assigned by Newton seems as likely to be correct as any other. At any rate we are certain that Homer lived before the year 557 before Christ, and that his poems have been known and admired ever since, or for a period of 2369 years. *

4. The famous pillar composed of a single mass of stone, usually called Pom-Pompey's Pil.

lar.

Visit to the written mountains.

pey's Pillar, situated about a mile from the walls of Alexandria, in Egypt, has been commonly considered as having been erected to the memory of Pompey. The remarks of Mr. Wortley Montague, proving this opinion to be inaccurate, therefore deserve to be noticed. The following are the measurements of the different parts of this immense pillar, as ascertained by Mr. Montague.

Mr. Montague was surprised to find the pedestal so inferior to the pillar itself. It was composed of small and great stones of different sorts, and was of bad and weak masonry. Taking out a stone he found that this pedestal was hollow, and after the labour of many days he made a hole in it large enough to let him in. He found that the pillar stood upon a reversed obelisk, 5 feet square, and 4 feet and 1 inch thick. This obelisk was covered with hieroglyphics reversed, a proof that it had been used for the purpose of supporting the pillar when these were no longer the sacred characters of Egypt.

Observing that the cement or mortar, which closes the small separation of the shaft from the base, was quite destroyed in one part, Mr. Montague was cu rious to see if any thing was made use of to fasten or tie the shaft to the base. He soon saw that there was something, and being desirous to know if it was lead, he introduced a pretty large hanger, in order if possible to cut off a part of the grapple. He then discovered a dark spot at the distance of more than a foot, within the circumference of the pillar, and by striking it with the hanger, he discovered that it was something stuck fast to the base. After striking it several times he detached it from its place, and found it to be a medal of Vespasian in fine order. On one side was this inscription ΑΛΤ. ΚΑΙΣ. ΣΕΒΑ. ΟΛΕΣΠ. The reverse is Victoria gradiens; dextra spicas, sinis. palmam. From this medal, which he conceived must have been placed where he found it at the time the pillar was erected, Mr. Montague concludes that it was erected during the time of Vespasian, and no doubt in honour of that emperor. This lateness of the erection accounts for the silence of Strabo, which would have been singular had the pillar been erected in memory of Pompey.*

5. Mr. Wortley Montague, whose singular character is well known, spent a great part of his time in eastern countries, and was as well acquainted with Hebrew, Arabic, and Persian, as with his own language. On that account his journey from Cairo to the written mountains, undertaken on purpose to trace the rout of the Israelites out of Egypt, deserves considerable attention. Few

* Phil. Trans. 1767. Vol. LVII. p. 438.

people were, by knowledge of the language, so well qualified for the task, and he seems to have been at the requisite pains. His account of his journey is somewhat confused; but such as it is we shall mention the most striking particulars which it contains.

He set out from Cairo by the road known by the name of Tauriche Beni Israel, Road of the Children of Israel. After about 20 hours travelling at the rate of three miles an hour, he passed by an opening in the mountains on the right hand, the mountains Maxatree. There are two roads, one to the northward of this, which the Mecca pilgrims go; and one to the south between the mountains. But this last road is seldom travelled, because it does not lead to Suez. The children of Israel are said to have taken the most northerly road. From Suez, Mr. Montague went to Tor, by sea. At Suez the tide flows six feet, at spring tides nine feet, and sometimes, when the south wind blows strong, twelve feet. It is high water when the moon is in the meridian. The Egyptian shore of the red sea, from Badeah to opposite Tor, is all mountainous and steep, and at Elim, the northernmost point of the bay of Tor, ends the ridge of mountains which begin on the eastern shore of this western branch at Karondel. From this place Mr. Montague crossed the plain in about eight hours, and entered the mountains of Sinai. They are, he says, of granite of different colours. He observed some writings upon the mountains which he did not examine particularly, conceiving them to be, comparatively speaking, modern. He gives us an account of the print of the foot of Mahomet's camel observed on the mountain, so famous among the Mahometans. It is, he says, a very curious lusus naturæ, and bears evident marks of having never been touched by man. For the coat of granite is entire and unbroken in every part. What he means by the coat of granite it is difficult to say. But surely it is not inconceivable that a piece of granite cut above 1200 years ago, and exposed ever since to the action of the weather, may have acquired the very same appearance as any other part of the mountain.

He never,

Mr. Montague next describes Meribah, the place where Moses smote the rock, and procured water for the Israelites. He says it is surprisingly striking. He examined the lips of its mouths, and found that no chissel had ever worked there. The channel is plainly worn by the course of the water, and the bare inspection of it is sufficient to convince any one that it is not the work of man. he says, met with any thing like this, except that at Jerusalem, and the two cracks in the rock which Moses struck twice. Mr. Montague, from his enquiries and observations, considers it as certain that the present Sharme is the Midian of the Old Testament, and Meenah El Dzahab, Eziongeber.

There are two roads from Mount Sinai to Jerusalem; the one through Pharan; the other by the way of Dzahab. The first is eleven days' journey; but the second is longer, because it is more mountainous. He set out from Mount

Sinai, by the way of

t'atacombs of Rome.

Scheich Salem, and after passing Mahomet's stone, came to a beautiful valley. Here, he says, he discovered the manna upon which the children of Israel fed. Soon after he came to the rock which Moses struck twice, and from which proceeds a river. This river runs by a number of ruins which Mr. Montague considers as the ancient Kadesh Barnea. This is the river which Eratosthenes supposed to be formed by the Arabian lakes, not being acquainted with its miraculous source.

From this place Mr. Montague went down a large valley to the west towards the sea, and passed the head of a valley, a part of the Desert of Sin, which separates the mountains of Pharan from those which run along the coast, and the same plain which they had passed from Tor. Here they came to the written mountains. On examining the characters which covered these mountains, he was greatly disappointed at finding them every where interspersed with figures of men and beasts, which convinced him that they were not written by the Israelites. Neither could they have been written by the Mahometans. For the religious opinions of both prevent them from making figures of men or animals. He thinks it probable that they were engraven by the first Jewish converts to Christianity, when probably pilgrimages from Jerusalem to Mount Sinai were fashionable and frequent. The characters he conceives to be those that were used by the Jews at the time of our Saviour. There are a few Greek, Arabic, and Saracen, inscriptions on the same mountains, which merely say such a one was here at such a time. Probably the others, which cannot be made out, allude to the same thing. So that they are in reality not worth the trouble of decyphering.

From the appearance of the country, and from the names of the places, which all allude to the wonderful event; as, Tauriche Beni Israel, road of the children of Israel; Attacah, deliverance; Badeah, new thing or miracle; Bachorel Polsum, sea of destruction; Mr. Montague is convinced that the Israelites entered the sea at Badeah, and no where else. The current too sets from this place, where he encamped, towards the opposite shore into the pool Birque Pharaone, Pool of Pharaoh, where the tradition is that his host was drowned; a current formed, he supposes, by the falling and rushing of one watery wall on the other, and driving it down.*

6. The catacombs at Rome and Naples have long been the admiration of antiquarians. They are long galleries under ground, extending an immense way, from which others proceed, some of them merely niches, others in the form of small rooms or chapels. We have an account of the catacombs at Rome in an early volume of the Transactions, by Mr. John Monro. From his description it would appear that they extended a great many miles, and that the

Phil. Trans. 1766. Vol. LVI, p. 40.