82 
CHAP. 
II. 
Taman • 
Ruins of 
Ptuinago- 
ria. 
FROM THE CIRCASSIAN FRONTIER, 
might be better employed. The natural boun- 
daries offered by the Black Sea, the Sea of Azof, 
and the Don, with a cordon from that river to 
Astrachan, would much better answer the pur- 
poses of strength and dominion. 
Arriving at Taman, we were lodged in the 
house of ail officer who had been lately dismissed 
the service ; through whose attention, and that 
of General Vandenmjde, the commander of 
engineers, we were enabled to rescue from 
destruction some of the antiquities condemned to 
serve as materials in constructing the fortress 1 . 
The General conducted us to the ruins, whence 
they derive masses of marble for this purpose ; 
and called them, as they really appeared to be, 
“ The Ruins of the City of Phanagoiua." 
They extend over all the suburbs of Taman', 
the ground being covered with foundations of 
antient buildings; frequently containing blocks 
of marble, fragments of sculpture, and antient 
medals. Of the medals procured by us upon 
either side the Bosporus, few are common in 
cabinets. One especially, found in or near 
(l) As these have been already described in the account published 
of the Greek Marbles, deposited, since our return, in the Vestibule of 
the Public Library of the University of Cambridge, it is only necessary 
now to refer to that work ; and to say, that the articles described in 
Nos. I. IV. V. Vt. XXIV. in pages 1, 4, 46, came from this place. 
