THESSALONICA. 445 
oi Greece, its wretched aspect within is forcibly chap. 
contrasted with the beauty of the external ■. ^ 
In some parts, the distauce between the antient and modern walU 
of the city is very small : the circuit therefore of Thessalonica, for- 
merly, may not have been much greater than it is now ; about six 
miles. A third of the town is occupied by the Jews ; and in their 
quarter are seen five Corinthian columns supporting an entablature, 
over wliich are majiy figures in alto-relievo. At the southeast end of 
the town is the site of the Hippodrome. Some of the Christian 
churches, as those of Santa Sophia and San' Demetrius, have been 
converted into mosques : the number of Greek churches is now sixteen. 
Besides the Jews, who amount to 20,000, there are 12,000 Turks, 
10,000 Greeks, and some Bulgarians. 
"Near the city walls, by the sea-shore, is a sarcophagus, now used 
as a reservoir for water. This is one remaining out of the many 
monuments of this kind, with which the city formerly abounded ; and 
which were converted by the inhabitants of Thessalonica, in the tenth 
century, to the following use. — * To defend the part of the city open 
to the sea from the attack of the enemy, (says Cameniates, who wrote 
an account of the destruction of this city,) sarcophagi were thrown 
into the water; or, to use his own words, tombs cut out of one single 
itone, in which the Greeks antiently deposited their dead ; '£« ^«v«x<Va* 
yiyXv/ifiivsi rvfijiei, I'v ois •nat.a.i tov; iavru-j vsn^ihi itZTXipia^ov 'EXXxt!;. 
These were covered by the sea ; and placed at small distances, to 
prevent the enemies' ships ajiproaching.' 
" Perhaps the sarcophagus we saw was one brought to the sea-side 
for the purjiose just mentioned ; or it may have been recovered from 
the sea. On one side of it is a Greek Inscription, in hexameter 
verse, cut in letters of a low age. The four following are tlie conclud- 
ing lines, written with that simplicity so characteristic of the Greek 
compusitiixis of this kind: 
TETSKAETONAETA*0N*IAI02n02I2ETTP0n02ATTHI 
OITATTnniETOni20ENOnn2EXOIAMn.\TE20Ar 
STNOIAIHISTNnSAAOXniKEKAnSMENONATTfll 
TEPME2IAnNBIOTOrAATTOI2TnONHMA2IMOIPnN. 
" UEH 
