DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4324#0039
PRIENE. 17
Miletus and Priene; and this city had a wide plain before it. Afterwards it approached within
ten stadia, or a mile and a quarter, of Miletus; and the bays above that city were rendered firm
ground. The traveller, who shall ride along the foot of mount Latmus, eastward from Miletus,
will, I doubt not, discover the site of Heraclea; and the rivulet may direct him even now to the
cave of Endymion. Pyrrha has been mentioned as within land. The space between Priene and
Miletus was added, in no long time to the continent. The ports of this city ceased to be navigable ;
and, by degrees, Lade and Asteria, and the islets near them, were encircled with soil. Before this
happened, the water-course of Priene entered the sea, separate from the Masander.
Miletus, deprived by the Maeander of the principal advantages of its situation, experienced,
with the cities its neighbours, a gradual decay, which will end in total extinction, as it were, by a
natural death, after a lingering illness. The progress of the changes, as might be expected, were
unattended to in the barbarous ages, as not sudden ; or unnoticed, as not important. But we are
informed, that a place by the shore, where the river in the ninth century entered the sea, was
called the Gardens; and that the Greek emperor Manuel, finding the region well watered and
beautiful to the eye, resolved to refresh his army there, and to forget the toils of war in the pleasures
of the chace.
From the alterations already effected, we may infer, that the Maeander will still continue to
encroach; that the recent earth, now soft, will harden, and the present marshes be dry. The
shore will in time protrude so far, that the promontories, which now shelter it, will be seen inland.
It will unite with Samos, and in a series of years extend to remoter islands, if the soil, while fresh
and yielding, be not carried away by some current setting without the mountains. If this happen,
it will be distributed along the coast, or wafted elsewhere in the tide, and form new plains. Some
barren rock of the adjacent deep may be enriched with a fertile domain, and other cities rise and
flourish from the bounty of the Mzeander.
The story of Myus is remarkable, but not singular. A town by Pergamum had suffered in the
same manner. Myus originally was seated on a bay of the sea, not large, but abounding in fish.
Hence, this city was given to Themistocles to furnish that article for his table. The bay changed
into a lake, and became fresh. Myriads of gnats swarmed on it, and the town was devoured, as it
were, from the water. The Myusians retired from this enemy to Miletus, carrying away all their
moveables and the statues of their gods. They were incorporated with the Milesians, and sacrificed,
and gave their suffrage with them at the Panionian congress. A writer of the second century
relates, that nothing remained at Myus in his time, but a temple of Bacchus of white stone or
marble.
The site of Myus is as romantic as its fortune was extraordinary. The wall incloses a mass of
naked rocks rudely piled, of a dark dismal hue, with precipices and vast hollows, from which
perhaps stone has been cut. A few huts, inhabited by Turkish families, are of the same colour,
Miletus and Priene; and this city had a wide plain before it. Afterwards it approached within
ten stadia, or a mile and a quarter, of Miletus; and the bays above that city were rendered firm
ground. The traveller, who shall ride along the foot of mount Latmus, eastward from Miletus,
will, I doubt not, discover the site of Heraclea; and the rivulet may direct him even now to the
cave of Endymion. Pyrrha has been mentioned as within land. The space between Priene and
Miletus was added, in no long time to the continent. The ports of this city ceased to be navigable ;
and, by degrees, Lade and Asteria, and the islets near them, were encircled with soil. Before this
happened, the water-course of Priene entered the sea, separate from the Masander.
Miletus, deprived by the Maeander of the principal advantages of its situation, experienced,
with the cities its neighbours, a gradual decay, which will end in total extinction, as it were, by a
natural death, after a lingering illness. The progress of the changes, as might be expected, were
unattended to in the barbarous ages, as not sudden ; or unnoticed, as not important. But we are
informed, that a place by the shore, where the river in the ninth century entered the sea, was
called the Gardens; and that the Greek emperor Manuel, finding the region well watered and
beautiful to the eye, resolved to refresh his army there, and to forget the toils of war in the pleasures
of the chace.
From the alterations already effected, we may infer, that the Maeander will still continue to
encroach; that the recent earth, now soft, will harden, and the present marshes be dry. The
shore will in time protrude so far, that the promontories, which now shelter it, will be seen inland.
It will unite with Samos, and in a series of years extend to remoter islands, if the soil, while fresh
and yielding, be not carried away by some current setting without the mountains. If this happen,
it will be distributed along the coast, or wafted elsewhere in the tide, and form new plains. Some
barren rock of the adjacent deep may be enriched with a fertile domain, and other cities rise and
flourish from the bounty of the Mzeander.
The story of Myus is remarkable, but not singular. A town by Pergamum had suffered in the
same manner. Myus originally was seated on a bay of the sea, not large, but abounding in fish.
Hence, this city was given to Themistocles to furnish that article for his table. The bay changed
into a lake, and became fresh. Myriads of gnats swarmed on it, and the town was devoured, as it
were, from the water. The Myusians retired from this enemy to Miletus, carrying away all their
moveables and the statues of their gods. They were incorporated with the Milesians, and sacrificed,
and gave their suffrage with them at the Panionian congress. A writer of the second century
relates, that nothing remained at Myus in his time, but a temple of Bacchus of white stone or
marble.
The site of Myus is as romantic as its fortune was extraordinary. The wall incloses a mass of
naked rocks rudely piled, of a dark dismal hue, with precipices and vast hollows, from which
perhaps stone has been cut. A few huts, inhabited by Turkish families, are of the same colour,