LYCIAN ANTIQUITIES.

LYCIAN ROOM.

THE monuments in the Lycian Room, like those we have described in other parts of the Museum, admit of being grouped under a certain number of general heads, which will facilitate the description of these antiquities, and will enable the student to pursue his investigations in a more connected manner. We therefore propose the following general heads as useful for general reference, without, as we have previously stated in the case of the collections in the Elgin Room, pretending to any scientific arrangement. The present arrangement, indeed, of the room itself precludes a regular and orderly description of the objects contained in it, no one subject or structure being together, and fragments of different ages being placed in inharmonious connection the one with the other: some, too, of the sculptures (as, for instance, those on the tops of the rocktombs) are indistinctly seen, owing to their height above the basement-floor.

We propose the following heads as a rough division of the objects in the Lycian Room :

I. SCULPTURES FROM AND CONNECTED WITH THE XANTHIAN MONUMENT.

II. MISCELLANEOUS RELIEFS.

III. TOMBS AND SARCOPHAGI.

IV. INSCRIPTIONS.

V. MISCELLANEOUS FRAGMENTS OF SCULPTURE.

VI. ARCHITECTURAL FRAGMENTS.

Previous, however, to our giving a description of the monuments themselves, we must say a few words on the subject of their discovery.*

The sculptures in the Lycian Room, the very large proportion of which came from one town-Xanthus, together with casts from some other places, as Myra, Cadyanda, and Antiphellus, were discovered by Sir Charles Fellows, during a tour he made through the S.W. of Asia Minor in the year 1838. On his return to England, his representations induced the English Government to fit out two expeditions in the years 1841-2, and 1843-4, over both of which Sir Charles Fellows presided; the first time assisted by Mr. G. Scharf, jun.; and the second time by Mr. Scharf and Mr. Rohde Hawkins. The sculptures in this room are the results of those expeditions. They consist of monuments of various date, from the earliest Greek period down to that of the Byzantine Empire, and are of great value as links in the chain of the history of Greek art.

Xanthus, the city from which they have nearly all been procured, appears in ancient times to have undergone great vicissitudes of fortune, and the subjects of the sculptures, no less than the character of their workmanship, indicate certain distinct periods of its history. It may not be uninteresting to mention briefly what we know of this ancient place, as such a notice may tend to put more vividly before the eye of the spectator the course of the monumental records he is inspecting. The real history of Xanthus is much intermixed with the Mythic legends. It would seem to have been originally founded by a Cretan colony, and to have been subsequently augmented by one from Attica. In the Iliad, Sarpedon and Glaucus appear as leaders of the Lycians in the Trojan army, and the former is slain by Patroclus, and his body conveyed by Sleep and Death to Lycia, to be honoured with a stele and tomb. Pandarus, too, the celebrated archer, is believed to have led a tribe of Lycians to the same celebrated contest. From the Trojan War to the time of Croesus, the Lycians were probably independent, and their people chiefly aborigines, with the addition of some Greek settlers: the Lydian monarch is stated to have brought them, as well as the other nations West of the Halys, under his dominion. On the advance of Cyrus into Western Asia, Sardis fell, and with it the empire of Croesus; and a division of the Persian army was sent, under Harpagus, to conquer Lycia, his force consisting of Persians, Dorians, and Ionians. The Ionians had, in their contest with Cyrus, chosen the Glaucidæ, or Royal family of Lycia, for their leaders, and hence Lycia became in an especial manner the object of the hostility of that conqueror. The expedition of Harpagus happened about B.C. 546. The resistance of the natives of the S. W. part of Asia Minor was not of long endurance; the people of Pidarus and Xanthus alone

held out for any time; the former were reduced by blockade, the latter made a memorable defence of the city. It is said that, when driven from the plain by the united forces of the allied enemy, the Xanthians took refuge in their citadel, collected in it their wives, children, and treasure, and then burnt themselves, preferring this fate to submission to the invaders. Of the whole population, eighty families alone, whom chance had placed beyond the limits of the city, escaped this calamity, and hence, though Xanthus recovered soon after some portion of its original consequence and power, the majority of the subsequent inhabitants were new comers, settlers perhaps implanted by the Persians, who most likely distributed the lands among their Æolian and Ionian subjects.

During the Persian invasion of Greece, about sixty years later, we find that the Xanthians sent fifty ships to aid Xerxes against the Greeks, and continued to pay an annual tax, the amount of which proves that they formed one of the wealthiest divisions of the Persian empire, while they retained the free government for which they had devoted their lives, and had their own Monarchs for Satraps. During the contest between Alexander and Dareius, Alexander descended into Lycia in the depth of winter, and, having taken Patara, is said to have met with an obstinate though unsuccessful resistance from the Xanthians. In the wars of Alexander's successors, the Lycians appear to have taken the part of Antigonus; hence the assault and capture by Ptolemy of the city, as a garrisontown manned by the forces of his rival. During the Civil War between Brutus and the Triumvirs, the former entered Lycia with the intention of levying a contribution, and a bloody attack and siege of Xanthus was the consequence. The Roman general, aided by the people of Ænanda, laid siege to it in a regular manner. By the stratagem of feigning a careless watch, he induced the Xanthians to make a sortie, and the besiegers rushed in along with the besieged, who had been driven back from the Roman lines; the gates were then lowered, and a large body of Romans were shut up in the town and seized the Sarpedonion; their comrades from without, urged on by the people of Enanda, scaled the walls, and the Xanthians then gave a third instance of their love of liberty, destroying themselves, their wives, and their children, and few surviving the capture.

From that time the people of Xanthus appear to have followed the destinies of the Roman empire, but to have suffered severely in two earthquakes which happened in the reigns of Tiberius and Antoninus Pius, respectively.

The town itself was seated on the left bank of the Silres or Silrus (called Xanthus, or the Yellow, by the Greeks), at about seventy stadia from the sea, on a plateau of elevated ground about 200 feet above the river, and in form was nearly rectangular. On its highest point was an Acropolis, within the Roman walls of which were discovered many of the most ancient remains, the seats and ornamental chairs of the Greek Theatre having been used in their construction. On the brow of the Acropolis stood the Harpy Tomb, and a very ancient theatre of Greek construction; while in another part of the city, to the Eastward, and farther from the river, was a miscellaneous collection of Greek and Roman buildings.

With this slight sketch of the history of the city of Xanthus we shall proceed to describe the sculptures themselves.

I.—SCULPTURES FROM THE IONIC TROPHY MONUMENT, OR

CONNECTED WITH IT.

The position of this monument was on the brow of the heights on the Eastern side of the city, in which locality the greater number of the works of fine Greek art were found. There can be no doubt that this part of the town, which was separated by a ravine from the Acropolis, was due to the colonists who settled at Xanthus subsequently to the Persian attack. The remains of statues and friezes discovered here are valuable materials for the history of Art, and exhibit marked peculiarities of style.

There has been some difference of opinion as to the purpose and the character of the original monument to which these sculptures belonged. Sir Charles Fellows has shown great ingenuity in constructing a model of what he believes it to have been when perfect, and has called it an "Ionic Trophy Monument." We think that on the whole he has succeeded in his endeavour, and that his restoration serves admirably for the purpose of bringing clearly before the eye the whole of the sculptures which have been found. Above all, it is an arrangement, and at present the only complete one which has been proposed.

Whatever then the original building was, Sir Charles Fellows discovered, in 1838, that it had been constructed of white marble upon a basement of solid blocks of gray Lycian marble; and that it had been completely thrown down, no doubt by the earthquakes we have mentioned. The whole of the separate pieces now in this room, and belonging to this monument, and from the study of which Sir Charles Fellows has made his model, were discovered during the

expeditions of 1841-2 and 1843-4, around the base of the monument itself, or below the cliff on which it had stood.

:

The sculptures may be arranged as follows:1.-Those of the Broader Frieze,-Nos. 34-49, which are believed to have been placed around its base. They represent a series of contests between warriors armed in the Greek manner, with

crested helmets, Argolic bucklers, thoraces, and greaves; and others more lightly armed, being simply clad in tunics, or naked, and wearing helmets. Sir C. Fellows recognises in many of the figures the loose-robed, bearded Lycians, with their peculiar arms, their bowcases, and their leaders or heralds with curtained shields. These scenes, he conceives, represent the brave resistance in the plains recorded by Herodotus, the Lycians being generally the vanquished party. On Nos. 39 and 46 it is certain that Asiatics are depicted; they wear the pointed cap called Cidaris, and are fighting against Greeks. On No. 45 is a warrior, to whose shield is attached the appendage or curtain called by Homer Aarhîov ('laisêion), and used to protect the legs against missiles.

2. Those of the Narrow Frieze, Nos. 50-68, which is supposed to have encircled the upper part of the base of the monument. Nos. 50, 51, 52, 53, indicate the attack upon the main gate of a city which may fairly be presumed to be that of Xanthus. The gate is defended by a low flanking-tower, with windows; the besiegers have planted a scaling-ladder, which two warriors hold firmly by their weight against the wall. Three armed warriors, who have taken off their sandals, are seen ascending the ladder; a fourth has already marched into the tower; while other troops, in the back-ground, advance rapidly to the attack. Nos. 55-59 represent a general combat, some of the warriors wearing heavy armour, and some only tunics. Nos. 60, 61, a walled city, within which are tombs and temples, and the heads of the besieged looking over the walls. On No. 62 is the Persian Satrap, seated, attended by his guards, and a slave holding over his head the umbrella, or symbol of sovereignty, receiving a deputation from the besieged city. On Nos. 65, 66, is apparently a sortie from the city, the garrison appearing on the walls, and the women throwing up their arms in despair.

No. 67, no doubt, indicates the retreat of the sortie, who have been driven back into the city. Sir Charles Fellows has, we think, justly estimated the nature of this frieze, and we agree with him in thinking that the buildings represented on it must refer to the town of Xanthus. The walls and battlements of a Lycian fortification are still recognisable, and within the walls is a stele, one of those