Some Ruined Cities of Asia Minor 



8 49 



among places where the reed and cat-tail 

 grow to the near Maeander. 



Unlike Ephesus, Hierapolis, and Lao- 

 dicea, Magnesia is not a place where one 

 cares long to tarry by the way. There 

 hangs over the spot a spell which is 

 fraught with desolation, and fever lingers 

 in the nooks of ruin. And yet there once 

 was life in that inanimate mass, wherein 

 culture, art, and learning sat enthroned. 

 If these scattered heaps could but tell 

 their stories, and fill up the gap of cen- 

 turies ! Sad havoc time has with that 

 city made, and the intervening years 

 since last it was the abode of man have 

 cast over it a cloud of gloom and mystery. 



The peasants, Turk and Greek alike, 

 shun the site with superstitious dread, 

 for from that quagmire ghost-like phan- 

 toms rise at midnight and hover about 

 the temple. Such, at least, are the stories 

 "told by the country people, and as they 

 are an exceedingly superstitious lot, it is 

 easy to account for their fears concern- 

 ing the ruins of Magnesia. And even 

 the stranger is glad when he has turned 

 his back forever upon this scene of deso- 

 lation. Only the gipsy seems to thrive 

 near it. 



MII^TUS 



Ancient Miletus stood at the point 

 where the River Maeander flowed into the 

 sea, and, like Ephesus and Smyrna, it 

 formed one of the chief gateways of com- 

 munication between Greece and Rome 

 with the interior of Asia Minor. So 

 favorable was the situation of the city 

 and such the genius and energy of the 

 people that the commerce of Miletus soon 

 extended to remote regions ; even in the 

 earliest days of Ionian history the navi- 

 gators of this town, in quest of trade, 

 sought the Euxine Sea, the Propontis, 

 Egvpt, and the confines of Greece and 

 Ttalv. 



Merchants and travelers from abroad 

 were in turn eager to visit its shores and 

 enjoy the splendid hospitality of its citi- 

 zens. It became celebrated for luxury, 

 art, and learning', and there grew up 

 within its precincts a great school of his- 

 torians and philosophers. Its sons were 



renowned in war, and as the head of the 

 Ionian Union it bore the brunt of the on- 

 slaughts of Darius and Alexander. The 

 women were noted for their beauty and 

 wit. The fame of its theater and tem- 

 ples were proverbial in the ancient world. 



One of the finest sights in the whole 

 of Asia Minor is the gigantic theater of 

 Miletus. Those who admire the Coli- 

 seum at Rome should go to Miletus and 

 see its equal. Unquestionably nothing 

 like it in the shape of a theater exists 

 anywhere else in the world. The length 

 of the stage alone is 140 meters (459.31 

 feet) and the upper semicircle of seats is 

 no less than one-half a kilometer (1640.41 

 feet) in semi-circumference. Immense 

 staircases ascend up through the en- 

 trances of the wings and sides, while 

 huge arched corridors lead to the stage, 

 pit, and upper galleries. We have be- 

 fore us here one of the grandest heritages 

 of antiquity. The storms of war which 

 have burst and spent themselves upon 

 this theater during the past two thousand 

 five hundred years have have left it 

 scarred and weather-beaten, to be sure, 

 yet only the more solemn and imposing 

 on that account. 



In Miletus philosophic thought and 

 culture first took root, and the Ionian 

 school, if I may so term it, maintained 

 an intellectual supremacy over the world 

 at large for a period of more than one 

 thousand years. The dominating phi- 

 losophy of the ancient world was the 

 Grecian, to which the Ionian cities con- 

 tributed an important part. It began in 

 the sixth century B. C. and ended in the 

 sixth century A. D. It had its birth in 

 the same period as the ascendancy of the 

 Persian Empire, and its last school ceased 

 to exist with the downfall of the western 

 Roman Empire. A peculiar fate decreed 

 that some of the first Grecian philos- 

 ophers were compelled to flee from Per- 

 sian persecution when the storm clouds 

 began to gather about the Ionian cities, 

 and after the lapse of a thousand years 

 the last of the philosophers of Greece 

 were forced to seek refuge with the Per- 

 sian kings after an edict of a Christian 

 emperor evicted them from Athens. 



