DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.11636#0152
224 TRAVELS IN UPPER
Egypt. But he could adduce no proof in support
of this assertion: wishing, nevertheless, to give cur-
rency to his idea, he was under the necessity, in the
view of persuading others of the truth of what he
had persuaded himself, to employ a little ingenious
fraud. I have the fact from a witness of undoubted
veracity. The sly Englishman had got one of his
people to introduce a small coin of the emperor
Adrian, in a spot agreed on, between the ground
on which this pillar rests, and its sous-base. He
afterwards repaired to the place, attended by a nu-
merous company, and, after affected researches, he
dextrdusly unearthed the coin with the blade of a
knife, and ostentatiously displayed it as an incon-
testable proof of the truth of his position. He sent
an account of the discovery to his own country,
where it did not meet with much credit, and indeed
hardly could, with persons who knew the column.
The Greeks, it is true, from the time of Adrian, had
diffused over Egypt the principles of a beautiful
architecture, and of elegance in all the arts. A
judgment may be formed of this from the remains
of the city which that very emperor had caused to
be built in the upper part of that country, in ho-
nour of Antinous, a young man celebrated in an-
cient history for his extraordinary beauty of person,
and his generous devotedness to a Roman who has
been more cried up than he deserves. The columns
which still subsist at Antinoe are cut with greater
delicacy,
Egypt. But he could adduce no proof in support
of this assertion: wishing, nevertheless, to give cur-
rency to his idea, he was under the necessity, in the
view of persuading others of the truth of what he
had persuaded himself, to employ a little ingenious
fraud. I have the fact from a witness of undoubted
veracity. The sly Englishman had got one of his
people to introduce a small coin of the emperor
Adrian, in a spot agreed on, between the ground
on which this pillar rests, and its sous-base. He
afterwards repaired to the place, attended by a nu-
merous company, and, after affected researches, he
dextrdusly unearthed the coin with the blade of a
knife, and ostentatiously displayed it as an incon-
testable proof of the truth of his position. He sent
an account of the discovery to his own country,
where it did not meet with much credit, and indeed
hardly could, with persons who knew the column.
The Greeks, it is true, from the time of Adrian, had
diffused over Egypt the principles of a beautiful
architecture, and of elegance in all the arts. A
judgment may be formed of this from the remains
of the city which that very emperor had caused to
be built in the upper part of that country, in ho-
nour of Antinous, a young man celebrated in an-
cient history for his extraordinary beauty of person,
and his generous devotedness to a Roman who has
been more cried up than he deserves. The columns
which still subsist at Antinoe are cut with greater
delicacy,