Taken from Mr.
Pullan’s notes of a journey in 1866.
. . . From
Kulakli (nowadays Gülpinar1) to Assos there is a road
over wild mountainous country; covered with brushwood for 2 hrs. The
village of Bourgas is here reached. Thence county improves in
character, and the scenery in grandeur. In front is a plain about 200
feet above the level of the sea, dotted with trees, and bordered on the
left by low mountains, on the right by the sea, from which rise –
black with olive plantations – the highest mountains of the island of
Mitylene, so near, that the positions of the villages on their side can
be distinguished by the naked eye. Beyond the plains, and bordering the
sea, towers the isolated rock on which was situated the acropolis of
Assos – the most conspicuous object in the landscape. In 2 h. the
village of Behram, adjoining the ruins, is reached.
Behram(Assos)
4 hours. The
description of the ruins by Mr. Abbot, of the Foreign Office, who
visited Assos subsequently to Mr. Pullan, is so complete that we give it
in full: -
‘
“L’on peut étudier dans ses murailles le plus belle exemple de
construction hellénique que les siècles nous aient conservé,” –
Texier, “Asie Mineure,” p. 201, ed. 1862. “ The ruins of Assos
give perhaps the most perfect idea of a Greek city that anywhere now
exists.” – Leake, “Journal of a Tour in Asia Minor,” ed. 1824,
pp. 128, 129.
‘The
town is said by Strabo (“Geog.” lib. xiii. c. 1) to have been a
colony from Methymne (Molivo). The Æolian cities enjoyed a peculiar
system of self-government, forming together a kind of Hanseatic League.
Their rulers, elected either for life or for a term of years, were
called Æsymnetæ. After the establishment of the Persian empire, Assos
was named to supply the Persian monarchs with wheat. During the
confusion which proceeded the overthrow of the Persian monarchy, Assos
for a short time regained its independence (B.C.350), - see Strabo, “Geog.”
lib. xiii.c.1 – and an Eunuch named Hermeias obtained the rulership.
He invited the philosophers Xenocrates and Aristotle to reside at his
court, and gave his niece in a marriage to the latter. The Persians,
however, succeeded in regaining possession of Assos, and Hermeias was
put to death. The philosophers escaped to Greece. After the death of
Alexander, Assos formed part of the kingdom of Lysimachus, from whose
rule it passed to the Kings of Pergamus; and, finally, at the death of
King Attalus III., was incorporated in the Roman empire, B.C.130.
St. Paul and St. Luke visited it on their way
from Alexandria Troas to Mitylene (Acts xx.13). Assos was one of the
earliest Greek colonies to receive Christianity. Maximus, Bishop of
Assos, was present at the Third General Council at Ephesus A.D.431).
After this the name of Assos disappears from the page of history. Its
name of Behram is said probably be derived from one of the generals of
the conqueror Orkhan, who ravaged this part of Asia Minor. The date of
the Byzantine, or mediæval towers on the acropolis is unknown. Strabo
speaks of Assos as celebrated for its fortifications and school of
philosophy (“Geog.” lib. xiii.c.1): Assos is fortified and well
walled, having a steep and long ascent from the sea and harbour, so that
the musician Stratomius seems naturally to have said of it, ‘Come to
Assos, so as the quicker to attain the summit of destruction.’”
‘The
harbour is furnished with a large mole. The Stoic philosopher Cleanthes
was born here, who succeeded to the school of Zeno of Citium, and who
submitted it to Chrysippus of Soleus.
‘The
line of Stratomius is a parody on the verse of the “Iliad,” lib vi.
ver. 143, and the pun a good example of a Greek joke: -
‘The term sarcophagus is derived from a stone which was found
in the neighborhood of Assos, Pliny, “Nat. History,” lib. xxxvi. c.
27. – “At Assos in the Troad the sarcophagus stone is quarried from
an easily split vein of rock. The bodies of the dead being buried in it
are said to be consumed within forty days, all except the teeth.
According to Mucianus, the mirrors also and strigils, clothes and shoes
placed with the corpses, become petrified. There are stones of the same
sort in Lycia and in the East, which, if bound onto the bodies of
persons, eat into the flesh.” And also, lib. ii. c. 98: “In the
neighborhood of Assos in the Troad, a stone is found which consumes all
substances.” This sarcophagus stone was said to be good for gout!
Pliny, lib. xxviii.c.37: “and there is another remedy for gout – old
oil mixed, beaten up with a sarcophagus stone, and with cinquefoil
bruised in wine, either with chalk or ashes;” and (lib.xxxvi.c.28):
”The briny Assos stone alleviates gout, the feet being put in a vessel
made of it.” Celsus also recommends (lib.iv.c.24) the use of “the
stone which eats into the flesh and which the Greeks call ‘sarcophagon.’”
What this stone was is, I believe, unknown.
‘These
passages from Strabo and Pliny comprise with Acts xx. 13,14 as far as I
am aware, all that is said of Assos by ancient writers.
‘When we were at Assos in November
1864, The Turk Government were employing a detachment of soldiers, under
the command of a bimbashi, in quarrying from the ruins all the largest
stones for shipment to Constantinople for the construction of the new
docks, at the arsenal there.
‘The remains at Assos may be divided
into three classes – buildings, walls, and tombs.
‘Buildings.
– The acropolis. Not a
vestige remains of the Doric temple which stood here, except some
capitals ranged in a line to form a fence. M. Texier removed the friezes
and all other stones of value; they are now in the Louvre. Now the very
site can hardly be distinguished. This temple was of a peculiar Egyptian
character, and is fully described by him1. On the north side,
on an artificial platform cut out of the rock, and overhanging the
village of Behram, stands a square building, with a low dome, now used
as a mosque; it was evidently previously a Byzantine church. The
inscription over the entrance is in barbarous characters, and is said to
be in commemoration of the building of the church by a bishop of
Scamandria, but this interpretation seems very unsatisfactory. It is not
given in Boeckh. Behind the mosque is a lofty square tower, loopholed,
in good preservation, and to the west of it another tower in ruins.
These towers are roughly built, and of comparatively modern date. Near
the towers are some arched vaults, probably of the same period. Some
antique remains – a part of a cornice, and broken portions of a column
– are let into the walls of the mosque; and some others lie scattered
about, but nothing of any interest. The view from the plateau of the
acropolis is very fine. In descending the path from the summit, the
traveller should notice the curiously contorted columnar shape of the
basalt.
On the
south or sea-side of the hill were situated the principal buildings, and
here has the work of the recent destruction been most active. There seem
to have been two terraces, one at the base of the acropolis, the other
lower down on the slope leading to the sea. The upper terrace is backed
by walls built against the rock, and may perhaps have had a corridor
forming one side of the agora. This line of wall is of beautiful
workmanship, with small apertures cut in it at regular distances,
probably for drainage, but having an ornamental effect. In front of the
walls are the remains of some large buildings, the size and oblong shape
of which is traceable in the foundations of huge blocks. At the east
gate of the principal building stood two monoliths, said to be the
largest in the place – one a column, and the other an immense square
block, leaning against it, as though having fallen from an entrance gate.
The column was the only one left standing in the place. The Turks had
commenced digging a trench round it, and hoped to have it prostrate in a
few days. To the eastward are the remains of a small building supposed
to have been a nymphæum. It consists of two chambers; part of
the wall on three sides of the larger one still remain. Built into the
back wall of the principal chamber is a semi-circular slab, and on the
ground lay a large stone, hollowed out as though to receive water. There
are remains also of other buildings, but there appears to have been a
land-slip from the overhanging precipice, and the ruins left are a mere
chaotic heap. The lower terrace is a heap of ruins, the purposes to
which the buildings on it were put quite indistinguishable. From this
lower terrace one looks down to the theatre. Leake speaks of it as being
“in perfect preservation.” Texier
says: “Un vaste théâtre, dont les sièges sont encore en place; mais
le proscénium est en grande partie écroulé. » It is now nothing but an enormous quarry, the seats piled
upon one another in indescribable confusion, from the attempts made to
carry off the stones. I only noticed two seats in situ, and two
small arches, which seemed to have supported the steps leading from tier
to tier; the proscenium is clearly marked out, but covered with earth
and overgrown with grass and weeds.From the theatre a rude path conducts
to the scala, or landing-place, where there is a small fishing
village and breakwater. The ancient mole mentioned by Strabo was E. of
this. Some traces of it are visible from the sea. Retracing our steps to
the upper terrace, on the west side, and just within the principal gate,
stood the Doric temple of Augustus. The blocks which formed the
architrave were lying, ranged side by side, on the path leading to the
sea, ready for shipment.
‘On
another block of somewhat larger proportions, we found one-half of the
inscription given by Leake, engraved in small characters and much
defaced. This reads as follows, and is supposed to have stood over a
gateway: (This part of the temple) “was repaired out of the rent of
the lands which Kleostratos, a son of the city, and by birth of the race
of Apellikon left for the repair of the city.” (for Apellikon, see
Strabo.)
‘Walls.
– The most interesting and best-preserved remains at Assos are the
walls. They afford one of the most perfect examples extant of the mode
of fortification adopted by the ancient Greeks. The line of walls was so
arranged as to take advantage of the strength of the position, and
divided the town into two parts, between stands the acropolis. The
partition wall is of less strength than the outer walls. The walls are
constructed of the local granite of trachyte, and are finished, with
great care, of bevelled blocks of great size. No cement or mortar is
used. The western walls are in the best preservation. We found the
best-preserved wall, that near the tombs, to be, as nearly as we could
measure it, 27 ft. 10 in. high, exclusive of coping. The towers are all
square, with one exception. For a description of this round tower and
its adjoining bastion, see Texier. He supposes it to be Pelasgic. It
looked to me, however, quite as probable that its rude construction may
date from as late as a prehistoric period. The walls appear to have had
a double facing, and the interspace filled up with rough blocks forming
a path along the top. Texier estimates the circumference at 3,103 mètres.
‘Gates.
- These are the most
remarkable of the remains at Assos, and bear in their construction
evidence of the very highest antiquity, presenting examples of the
horizontal arc in use by the Greeks, previous to the introduction of the
true or key-stone arch. The principal gates are three, one in the
partition wall and two leading to the open country. They are all close
together.
‘The
principal entrance gate, engraved by Texier, had just been destroyed by
the Turks, previously to our arrival. The principle of the Greek
pseudo-arch was, that it was formed by cutting, as it were, the shape
out of the wall instead of building it up by stones supporting each
other. This pseudo-arch is used in the well-known lion gateway at Mycenæ,
and forms a kind of frame to the sculptured lions. I noticed a similar
arch at the recent excavations near Bounarbashi. There are
other examples, at the tomb of Tantalus and elsewhere. The use of
the horizontal arch is, on all hands, allowed to be a proof
of great antiquity. Texier
says: “Supposer que ses murailles ne remontent plus au-delà
du cinquième siècle avant J.-C., c’est leur assigner la limite la
plus rapprochée qu’il soit possible.”
‘Tombs.
– The tombs of the ordinary Greek sarcophagus shape, decorated with
sculptured wreaths, are nearly all in ruins. The following are the
measurements of the most perfect one: - Length, 12ft.; width, 4 ft. 11
in.; height, 5 ft. 10 ½ in..; thickness of the stone, 7 ½ in.
‘The
inscriptions we saw were in Greek characters, but much defaced. I am not
aware of any Latin inscriptions having been found at Assos. This would
seem to show that the town retained its Greek character to the last.’
To return, take the road to Cape Baba . . .
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