DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4327#0029
10. FRAGMENT OF A CAPITAL FROM THE TEMPLE OF ATHENE.1
Height 1 foot lOf indies, Width 5 feet. In the British Museum. From a photograph.
CHAPTEB I.
HISTORY OF PRIENE.
Among the most valuable results of the mission of Sir William Gell, in 1812, to the west coast of Asia
Minor was his survey of the plain of the Mseander, which showed for the first time the true outline of the
ancient coast, and corrected the errors of previous geographers.2
This survey shows that the arm of the sea known to the ancients as the Gulf of Latmos has been almost
entirely filled up by alluvial deposit from the river Maeander, all that now remains of the Latmic Gulf being a
small salt lake south of the present course of the river. The original coast line maybe traced by the cities
which were anciently ports on the gulf, and which Strabo describes in the following order; Miletos (now
Palatscha), Heraklea (Baffi), Pyrrha, Myus, Priene (Samsun). The sites of Miletos, Heraklea, and Priene
have been identified by extant ruins, those of Pyrrha and Myus have been approximately fixed by other
evidence.3
Priene is situated at the foot of the lofty range of mountains north of the Meander which was known to the
ancients as Mount Mykale, and is now called the Samsun Dagh. The natural features of the site are such as
would have commended it to Greek maritime adventurers seeking to gain a settlement on the coast.
A rock so steep as to form a natural citadel, and of which the height is calculated by Mr. Pullan at a
thousand feet, rises abruptly above lower rocky ground, which descending gradually to what was once the shore
afforded room for the construction of spacious terraces and platforms suitable for Greek architecture.
At the foot of this city must have been the port, the exact position and dimensions of which cannot now
be discerned.
It was probably inferior in size to the ports of Miletos and Myus, and though sheltered from the north by
the lofty range of Mykale could hardly have been sufficiently protected from the fierce gales so constantly
blowing from the south on this coast. This is probably the reason why we find no mention of the use of this
port in any of the naval operations which took place in the Latmic Gulf.4
Of the early history of Priene very little is known. Here, as at Ephesos and other parts of the same coast,
the leaders of the Ionian migration5 found the Karians established, and must have had to win territory from
them by degrees; first getting a footing on positions of natural strength commanding harbours. Aipytos, son
of Neleus, one of the leaders of the Ionian migration, is said to have founded Priene, which subsequently received
1 The eye of the volute is sunk, probably for the reception of a bronze ornament. I see no reason for doubting that a fillet of the same metal,
whatever it was, was placed above the ogee ornament of this capital. The sinking above it, is only rough hewn—as shown in the woodcut— and
could never, it appears to me, have been intended to be left in its present unfinished state.—J. F.
a Antiquities of Ionia of Soc. Dil. 1821, part i. ch. 1, pi. i. pp. 14-19 ; Rayet et Thomas, Milet et le Golfe Latmique, pll. i. ii.
3 Rayet, ibid. Textc, i. pp. 28, 29.
4 According to Scylax, Periplus, 97, Priene had two harbours, one of which was a closed harbour, doubtless, for ships of war. Rayet
remarks, Milet, p. 26, that Thucydides (viii. passim) while recording the successive movements of the Athenian and Lacedamionian fleets in the
gulf of Latmos, never once mentions the port of Priene, and thence concludes that it was already blocked up by alluvial deposit; but it may also
have been then reputed a " statio malefida carinis."
5 Herodot. i. 142.
u
Height 1 foot lOf indies, Width 5 feet. In the British Museum. From a photograph.
CHAPTEB I.
HISTORY OF PRIENE.
Among the most valuable results of the mission of Sir William Gell, in 1812, to the west coast of Asia
Minor was his survey of the plain of the Mseander, which showed for the first time the true outline of the
ancient coast, and corrected the errors of previous geographers.2
This survey shows that the arm of the sea known to the ancients as the Gulf of Latmos has been almost
entirely filled up by alluvial deposit from the river Maeander, all that now remains of the Latmic Gulf being a
small salt lake south of the present course of the river. The original coast line maybe traced by the cities
which were anciently ports on the gulf, and which Strabo describes in the following order; Miletos (now
Palatscha), Heraklea (Baffi), Pyrrha, Myus, Priene (Samsun). The sites of Miletos, Heraklea, and Priene
have been identified by extant ruins, those of Pyrrha and Myus have been approximately fixed by other
evidence.3
Priene is situated at the foot of the lofty range of mountains north of the Meander which was known to the
ancients as Mount Mykale, and is now called the Samsun Dagh. The natural features of the site are such as
would have commended it to Greek maritime adventurers seeking to gain a settlement on the coast.
A rock so steep as to form a natural citadel, and of which the height is calculated by Mr. Pullan at a
thousand feet, rises abruptly above lower rocky ground, which descending gradually to what was once the shore
afforded room for the construction of spacious terraces and platforms suitable for Greek architecture.
At the foot of this city must have been the port, the exact position and dimensions of which cannot now
be discerned.
It was probably inferior in size to the ports of Miletos and Myus, and though sheltered from the north by
the lofty range of Mykale could hardly have been sufficiently protected from the fierce gales so constantly
blowing from the south on this coast. This is probably the reason why we find no mention of the use of this
port in any of the naval operations which took place in the Latmic Gulf.4
Of the early history of Priene very little is known. Here, as at Ephesos and other parts of the same coast,
the leaders of the Ionian migration5 found the Karians established, and must have had to win territory from
them by degrees; first getting a footing on positions of natural strength commanding harbours. Aipytos, son
of Neleus, one of the leaders of the Ionian migration, is said to have founded Priene, which subsequently received
1 The eye of the volute is sunk, probably for the reception of a bronze ornament. I see no reason for doubting that a fillet of the same metal,
whatever it was, was placed above the ogee ornament of this capital. The sinking above it, is only rough hewn—as shown in the woodcut— and
could never, it appears to me, have been intended to be left in its present unfinished state.—J. F.
a Antiquities of Ionia of Soc. Dil. 1821, part i. ch. 1, pi. i. pp. 14-19 ; Rayet et Thomas, Milet et le Golfe Latmique, pll. i. ii.
3 Rayet, ibid. Textc, i. pp. 28, 29.
4 According to Scylax, Periplus, 97, Priene had two harbours, one of which was a closed harbour, doubtless, for ships of war. Rayet
remarks, Milet, p. 26, that Thucydides (viii. passim) while recording the successive movements of the Athenian and Lacedamionian fleets in the
gulf of Latmos, never once mentions the port of Priene, and thence concludes that it was already blocked up by alluvial deposit; but it may also
have been then reputed a " statio malefida carinis."
5 Herodot. i. 142.
u