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HISTOBT OE THE MAUSOLEUM. 73

an epigram, from which it may be inferred that up
to that period it had never been plundered. It is
also mentioned by a contemporary of Gregory,
Mcetas of Cappadocia.b

In the tenth century it is noticed by Constantine
Porphyrogenitus,0 with the expression j'Spurai,which
shows that it was standing when he wrote; and
two centuries later, Eustathiusd in his Commentary
on the Iliad, says of the Mausoleum, that " it was
and is a wonder;" from which it may be presumed
that the main features of the design still retained
their original beauty.

The preservation of the Mausoleum to so late a
period of tbe Byzantine Empire, is, perhaps, due to
the fact that, having been a tomb and not a temple,
it may on this ground have been spared by the
Iconoclasts. At what time it first fell into ruin
is not known; but, from the extreme solidity of
the structure, it may be presumed that the down-
fall of the upper part of the monument was due to
an earthquake.

In the year 1402,c the Knights of St. John took

b See this passage apud Phil. Byzant. de Speet. ed. Orell. Lips.
1816, p. 144.

c De Them. i. 14.

d Comment, ad II. ed. Lips. 1829, p. 1298. Km 6 iievtov Mav-
aw\ov uaXa woWog rcKpog axpuc; irEpisipyaarat, Kal dav/ia teal i]v ml
ianv. The statement of Eudocia (Tw^ta, Yilloison, Anec. Gra2ca,
p. 286), that the Mausoleum was built on a mound in a marshy-
lake, iv yufiari kcu iv \i\iva^nva^ Xijxvrj, is altogether unworthy
of credit.

e For this date I have followed Ste. Croix (p. 569 of the
Memoir already quoted), in preference to Bosio.
 
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