454 REMARKS ON THE AMYCL^AN MARBLES. 



of learned disquisition.* For their full detection I refer you to the 

 work of Mr. Knight. 



Having now stated what these marbles certainly are not, we may 

 proceed to enquire into their real nature and probable destination. 

 The small and ruinous Greek chapel in which they were fixed, is 

 near to the village of Slavochori. There seems no reason to doubt 

 that this village, such as it is, was the situation of the antient 

 Amy else ; its position relatively with that of Sparta accords perfectly 

 with the accounts of Greek writers f ; and if further proofs were 

 requisite, it might be afforded by the circumstance of my having 

 discovered in the course of conducting some excavations, several 

 inscriptions, on one of which were the letters AMTFCA . The precise 

 spot on which the temple of Apollo stood cannot now be ascertained 

 from an inspection of the ground alone, and in the endeavours which I 

 made in two or three places, by means of digging, no satisfactory in- 

 formation was obtained ; indeed few of the remains appeared to be 

 of an antiquity prior to the Roman conquest. 



This temple is described by Pausanias as one of the most ancient 

 and most celebrated in the Peloponnesus. The statue of the god was 

 a curious specimen of early sculpture by some unknown artist; it 

 was more than forty feet high, and of the rudest workmanship, re- 

 sembling in some measure a column of bronze, to which a head, 

 feet, and hands had been affixed. He mentions several of the votive 

 offerings, and in common with other writers, he contributes to give 

 a high notion of the magnificence and extent of the building. J 



The question which now arises for our consideration, is, whether 

 the marbles formerly belonged to this temple, or were in any degree 

 connected with it ; to which I am inclined to answer in the negative, 

 and principally for this reason : — The subjects of the sculpture, as 

 you will observe, are for the most part articles of female dress or 

 ornament; combs, bodkins, mirrors, paint-boxes, &c. Round the 



* Memoires de PAcademie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, torn. vii. xv. xvi. xxiii. 

 t Polyb. lib. v. c. 1 9. The place is still also KoiKXthvlpoTurog xa) x«XXixap7roVaTOf. 

 \ Pausan. Lacon. 



