DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4324#0034
12 PRIENE.
Priene fell by accident into their route, and is mentioned as a village called Sansun, the name,
by which and Sansun-calesi it is still known. The antiquities noted by them are ruins in general,
a pillar, and a defaced inscription.* It is now a large and populous village.
The whole space within the walls, of which almost the entire circuit remains standing, and in
some parts several feet high, is strewed over with rubbish or scattered fragments of marble edifices.
The ruined churches are monuments of the piety of its more modern inhabitants; as the vestiges
of a theatre, of a stadium, and more particularly the splendid heap formed by the ruins of the
temple, are of the taste and magnificence of its more flourishing possessors. The acropolis was
on a flat above the precipice.
The view will furnish a much clearer idea of the situation and present state of the temple, than
it is in the power of words to convey. The capitals exquisitely worked, and the rich fragments
of ancient sculpture, afford equal matter of admiration and regret: nor can the trunks of the
maimed statues, or a long but defaced inscription, be viewed, without a wish to know what illus-
trious persons those represented, and what meritorious citizen, public treaty, or private compact,
this recorded.
In the article of Teos it is remarked, that Xerxes destroyed all the temples in Ionia except at
Ephesus. How soon the Prieneans after that fatal aera began to rebuild this, and what progress
they had made before Alexander's time, or whether it still lied in ruins when he entered upon his
expedition, is uncertain. But this mighty conqueror, who regarded Asia as his patrimony,-}- and
with this idea had prohibited the pillage on his first landing, was as studious to adorn, as the flying
Persian had been ready to deface it; not only founding new cities, but restoring the pristine
splendor of the old, and re-erecting the temples which the other had thrown down, extending his
pious care even to the devastation made at Babylon.J Priene also shared his favour, as is evinced
by the following valuable record, happily preserved to us by a stone, which belonged to one of the
antse, now lying at the east end of the heap, in large characters most beautifully formed and cut
BASIAETSAAEHANAPOS
r
ANE0HKETONNAON
A0HNAIHIPOAIAAI
KING ALEXANDER
DEDICATED THE TEMPLE
TO MINERVA CIVICA.
* Wheler, p. 268. piByB^Bt tb p$yi(f]os—tv\qv tqv vscov, uvrrBp xaci roc. ocXXx Upx roe,
-f- Patrimonium omne suum, quod in Macedonia, Euro- Bx&v\uvicov Sep^rjg xccjetncoL^iv, otb eic rvjg 'EXXzSos on/ru
paque habebat, amicis dividit, sibi Asiam sufficere prsefatus. avevo<rjvj(rsv. AKB^avSpog $s sv vu bi%bv xvottcoSopvetv —Emi Se
C. 5.—Inde hostetn petens, milites a populatione Asise prohi- airo(fl<x,v]og uvjv pccX^oMug ocvd-y^ocvlo tx epya, oig ravja. evi]ejpa7f]o'
buit, parcendum suis rebus preefatus, nee perdenda ea, quae oh tyi tfpajtu iroco-n sttbvobi to Boyov epyuo-curSott. Arrian. L. vii.
possessuri venerint. Justin, c. 6. P- 296. Ed. Gron.
£ 'O yap th B»iX» vBuq bv jJ,eo~v ti\ TroXet yv tuv Bac&vXwviuv,
Priene fell by accident into their route, and is mentioned as a village called Sansun, the name,
by which and Sansun-calesi it is still known. The antiquities noted by them are ruins in general,
a pillar, and a defaced inscription.* It is now a large and populous village.
The whole space within the walls, of which almost the entire circuit remains standing, and in
some parts several feet high, is strewed over with rubbish or scattered fragments of marble edifices.
The ruined churches are monuments of the piety of its more modern inhabitants; as the vestiges
of a theatre, of a stadium, and more particularly the splendid heap formed by the ruins of the
temple, are of the taste and magnificence of its more flourishing possessors. The acropolis was
on a flat above the precipice.
The view will furnish a much clearer idea of the situation and present state of the temple, than
it is in the power of words to convey. The capitals exquisitely worked, and the rich fragments
of ancient sculpture, afford equal matter of admiration and regret: nor can the trunks of the
maimed statues, or a long but defaced inscription, be viewed, without a wish to know what illus-
trious persons those represented, and what meritorious citizen, public treaty, or private compact,
this recorded.
In the article of Teos it is remarked, that Xerxes destroyed all the temples in Ionia except at
Ephesus. How soon the Prieneans after that fatal aera began to rebuild this, and what progress
they had made before Alexander's time, or whether it still lied in ruins when he entered upon his
expedition, is uncertain. But this mighty conqueror, who regarded Asia as his patrimony,-}- and
with this idea had prohibited the pillage on his first landing, was as studious to adorn, as the flying
Persian had been ready to deface it; not only founding new cities, but restoring the pristine
splendor of the old, and re-erecting the temples which the other had thrown down, extending his
pious care even to the devastation made at Babylon.J Priene also shared his favour, as is evinced
by the following valuable record, happily preserved to us by a stone, which belonged to one of the
antse, now lying at the east end of the heap, in large characters most beautifully formed and cut
BASIAETSAAEHANAPOS
r
ANE0HKETONNAON
A0HNAIHIPOAIAAI
KING ALEXANDER
DEDICATED THE TEMPLE
TO MINERVA CIVICA.
* Wheler, p. 268. piByB^Bt tb p$yi(f]os—tv\qv tqv vscov, uvrrBp xaci roc. ocXXx Upx roe,
-f- Patrimonium omne suum, quod in Macedonia, Euro- Bx&v\uvicov Sep^rjg xccjetncoL^iv, otb eic rvjg 'EXXzSos on/ru
paque habebat, amicis dividit, sibi Asiam sufficere prsefatus. avevo<rjvj(rsv. AKB^avSpog $s sv vu bi%bv xvottcoSopvetv —Emi Se
C. 5.—Inde hostetn petens, milites a populatione Asise prohi- airo(fl<x,v]og uvjv pccX^oMug ocvd-y^ocvlo tx epya, oig ravja. evi]ejpa7f]o'
buit, parcendum suis rebus preefatus, nee perdenda ea, quae oh tyi tfpajtu iroco-n sttbvobi to Boyov epyuo-curSott. Arrian. L. vii.
possessuri venerint. Justin, c. 6. P- 296. Ed. Gron.
£ 'O yap th B»iX» vBuq bv jJ,eo~v ti\ TroXet yv tuv Bac&vXwviuv,