of the Grceco-Roman Era in certain ancient Sites of Asia Minor. 121 



length in Prideaux's volume.* The characters are certainly sufficiently antique 

 to countenance this, or even the supposition of an earlier date : but beyond con- 

 jecture we have no data for proceeding. 



Its allusions however, general as they are, cannot fail of inspiring much 

 interest. In the hope of eliciting something more definite, I searched, in com- 

 pany with a gentleman of Smyrna, who most kindly attended me through the 

 city, in every accessible quarter of the building, for the remainder of the monu- 

 ment, but without success. The rude hands of the semi-barbarous constructors 

 of the fortress had, in all probability, consigned it to perpetual obscurity in 

 laying the under-courses of the masonry. The portion which they had placed 

 within sight, had been so chipped and otherwise defaced in the progress of the 

 work, that it is probable, had the expeditious process of copying it been resorted 

 to, the result would have exhibited an unintelligible mass of confusion. 



There was some degree of inconvenience attendant on the study in situ, as 

 the marble was at least five-and-twenty feet above the street-level, and I was 

 obliged to employ a ladder placed against one of the buttresses, in order to obtain 

 a sufficiently close inspection of its contents. This was in a densely inhabited 

 quarter of the town, next the market-place ; and in a very short time I had 

 more company with me than I could have desired. The generally received idea 

 amongst the Turkish population is, that we explorers of ancient monuments can 

 have no other object in encountering so much trouble for the sake of such ob- 

 solete reminiscences, than a vague notion that they point to some hidden 

 treasure. Their cupidity is accordingly, still more than their curiosity, aroused ; 

 and this has proved a fruitful source of the injury done by the Mahommedans to 

 the finest treasures of the classical period : 



« Hoc fonte derivata clades 

 In veterum monumenta fluxit." 



My collection of inscriptions commenced, as I have said, at Ephesus. When 

 I first reached Smyrna, having been limited by my diocesan, the Lord Primate, 

 to an absence of but six months, it was my intention to visit the Apocalyptic 

 sites alone, and that being effected, to return straight home. A period of sojourn 



• Marraor. Oxon. p. 4, § 94, 95. 



Q 2 



