Goodisson, William: A historical and topographical essay upon the islands of Corfu, Leucadia, Cephalonia, Ithaka and Zante: with remarks upon the character manners and customs of the Ionian Greeks : descriptions of the scenery and remains of antiquity discovered therein, and reflections upon the Cyclopian ruins, illustrated by maps and sketches (London: Thomas and George Underwood, 1822)

151

description of the siege and capture of this place,
corresponds so accurately with every object in the
scenery, as it now presents itself to the traveller,
as to be extremely interesting.
The Samians, according to Livy (book 38. c. 28.)
held out against the Romans under M. Fulvius for
four months. “ Quatuor menses obsidionem Same
sustinuit, quum ex paucis quotidie aliqui eorum ca-
derent, aut vulnerarentur, et qui superarent, fessi et
corporibus, et animis essent; Romani nocteper arcem,
quam Cyatidem vocant, (nam urbs, in mare devexa, in
occidentem vergit) muro superato, in forum super-
venerunt. Samaei, postquam captam urbis partem
ab hostibus senserunt, cum conjugibus ac liberis in
majorem refugerunt arcem, inde postero die dediti,
direpta urbe, sub corona omnes venerunt.”
The greater part of the cyclopean wall surrounding
the apex of the hill is yet to be traced ; the ruins are
of a much superior style of building to others of the
same description, and probably of the same era; the
stones are mostly squared and laid in courses, and
perpendicular joints, as uniformly as buildings of the
present day, which would seem to imply that they are
of later date, or that, in those ages, the Greeks used
the regular masonry, but did not adopt it in all
places, perhaps, on account of the great labour and
expense attending such works : hence, possibly may
be accounted for, the different descriptions of build-
ing, not only in the same city, but in the same wall.