MERGE TO GYRENE. 
515 
structure has a different aspect from those of the churches, both of 
which are at the eastern extremities where the altars appear to have 
been placed. The columns of the basilica (if so we may call it) are 
also composed of handsome coloured marble— we mean the shafts of 
the columns, for the capitals are of white marble. The remaining 
two, (c) and (e), appear to have been dwelling-houses of a superior 
description, (e) has had immediate communication with the turret 
close to which it is placed on the southern side of the town ; and a 
long colonnade running parallel with the sea has been erected close 
to the other dwelling-house leading along the edge of the cliff 
towards the eastern church. On the south side of the town, without 
the walls, there is another large building (h), which seems to have 
been a fort and to have contained quarters for soldiers. A road, 
inclosed by large stones placed upright, has been purposely carried 
close along the eastern side of this structure, and turning short round 
it through an archway has led to the semicircular excavation opposite 
to the gate (1), one of the principal entrances to the city. We will 
not pretend to fix with any certainty the date of the buildings we 
have here alluded to ; but we should consider them to be decidedly 
Eoman, and the employment of Corinthian capitals and shafts of 
coloured marble would seem to favour this opinion. It is not 
improbable that the churches may have been erected in the time of 
Justinian, although we do not recollect that they are mentioned by 
Procopius in his account of the works of that emperor. 
In the quarries which inclose the walls, serving, as we have already 
stated, the purpose of trenches, there are a good many excavated 
.3 u 2 
