384 C. T. Newton, Esq. [June 3, 



EXTRA EVENING MEETING, 



Monday, June 3, 1861. 



The Duke op Northumberland, K.G. President, in the Chair. 



C. T. Newton, Esq. 



KEErBE OF CLASSICAL ANTIQUITIES AT THE BRITISH MUSEUH. 



On the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus. 



The Mausoleum was originally constructed about the year b.c. 353, 

 in honour of her husband Mausolus and as his tomb, by Artemisia, 

 Queen of Halicarnassus. Two Greek architects, Satyrus and Phiteus, 

 were employed on its erection ; the most renowned sculptors of the age, 

 Bryaxis, Timotheus, Leochares, and Scopas, were chosen to adorn its 

 four sides with sculpture ; while a fifth, Pythis, executed the marble 

 quadriga which surmounted it. Several authors of antiquity have left 

 records of the general character of this building. Thus, Pliny states 

 that it was, in shape, a parallelogram, the northern and southern sides 

 of which were, respectively, 63 feet long, while those to east and west 

 were somewhat shorter ; that it was surrounded by 36 columns, the 

 support of a pyramid of 24 steps, which tapered towards the top ; and 

 that its total altitude was 140 feet. In Martial, it is described as 

 hanging in the air, in allusion, probably, to its peculiar structure ; a 

 description which recalls to memory the tale of the Hanging Gardens 

 of Babylon. Lucian, in one of his Dialogues, introduces Mausolus, 

 who speaks of his tomb as rich in sculpture of men and horses of the 

 choicest workmanship and material ; and lastly, Pausanias dwells 

 upon the fact of its great size, and declares that the Romans admired 

 it so much, that they called all subsequent great tombs after its name, 

 Mav^olea. 



It is clear, then, that it was of old regarded as an edifice of singular 

 magnificence. Subsequently to the fall of the Roman empire, there 

 are but scanty notices of it, yet these are enough to show that it still 

 existed intact. Thus, in the fourth century, Gregory of Nazianzus 

 alludes to it, as do also Constantinus Porphyro-Gennetus, and Eudocia 

 in the tenth and eleventh ; till, finally, in the twelfth, Eustathius says 

 of it, '^ It was and is a wonder : " from which we may reasonably infer 

 that it was at that time standing. From this period there is no record 

 of it for some centuries, nor any means of ascertaining how far it had 

 become a ruin, or when, indeed, the earthquake, to which its final 

 overthrow may be most probably attributed, took place. In a.d. 1399, 

 however, the Christian knights of Rhodes took "possession of Ilalicar- 



