Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/1135

 TAURICA CIIERSONESUS. was at first called Megarice, apparently from the circumstance that Sleeara was the mother city of the Pontic Heracleots. From these settlers the little peninsula we have just described obtained the name of the Chersonesus Heracleotica, or Heracleotic Chersonese, sometimes also called " the small Cher- sonesus " (Ji /xiKpd, Strab. I. c), by way of distinction frjm the great, or Tauric, peninsula. The original city of Chersonesus seems to have been founded at the westernmost point of the penin- sula, close to the present Cape Fanai'y. The date and occasion of its foundation are not ascertained ; but Neumann conjectures that it may have been built about the middle of the fifth century b.c. (Die Eellenen, (/-c. p. 383). Considerable remains of the ancient city were visible so late as the end of the last century (Clarke, Trav. ii. pp. 292, seq.; Pallas, ii. pp. 70, seq); but every trace of them had vanished when Muiawiew Apcstol visited the spot {Reise (lurch Taurien, p. 62). They were destroyed by a certain Lieut. Kruse, who used the stones for build- ing and converted the ground into a vineyard (Du- bois de Montperreiis, Voyages, §-c. vi. p. 133). The ancient Chersonesus, however, had fallen into decay before the time of Strabo ; but the new town was flourishing and appears from the ruins to have been .seated on the W. side of what is now the Quarantine Harbour of Sehastopol (Neumann, p. 392). The place was much damaged towards the end of the fourteenth century by Olgierd, sovereign of Lithuania, since which time it has been gradually falling into ruins (Karamsin, Russ. Gesch. v. 13. Germ. tr.). The Turks carried away many of its sculptures and columns to adorn Constantinople. Nevertheless, the town, although almost entirely deserted, remained for three centuries in so perfect a state that a plan might have been drawn of it at the time when it came into the possession of the Russians ; but its ruin was soon completed by its new masters, who blew up the walls and destroyed the graves and temples. (Clarke, ii. p. 207.) Pliny (iv. 12. s. 2G) gives the circumference iif its walls at 5 miles ; but their outline could still be traced in 1820, and according to Dubois de Mont- jierreux (vi. 138), was only about a quarter of that size. It is probable that Pliny may have confounded the town walls with the wall or rampart which ex- tended across the isthmus, which, as we have already scon, Strabo describes as being 40 stadia, or .5 miles, broad. The same writer speaks of it in another place (p. 312) as being fortified with a wall. This wall ran from Ctenus, at the E. extremity of the harbour of Sebastopol to Symbolon {Balaclava^ on the S. co;ist, and appears to have been made by the Bos- porun kings as a defence against the Scythians. An account of its remaining vestiges is given by Clarke (ii. p. 28.5, .seq.; cf. Seymour, p. 149.). The whole enclosure was anciently covered with gardens and villas, and the foundations of houses and of the boun- dary walls of fields and gardens may still be traced, as well as many remains of the town on the promon- tory between Quarantine Bay and Streletska Bay. Vestiges of the principal street show it to have been 20 feet broad. Tlie town wall on the land side was near 2 miles long, built of limestone, and 5 or 6 feet thick, with 3 towers (Seymour, p. 150). ]Iany antiquities and coins have been found in the ruins of Chersonesus. In the neighbourhood are graves of the most simple kind, hewn in the rock. They are easy of access, and present in this respect a remarkable contrast to those at Panticapaeum ; but, from this cause, nothing but bones have been TAURICA CHERSONESUS. 1111 found in them, whilst those at Panticapaeum have yielded valuable antiquities. According to Clarke (ii. 201, 210), the town of Eupatorium stood close to Chersonesus, though others have identified it with Inkerman. About the latter place, the ancient Ctenus, the rock is pierced all over with the subter- ranean dwellings of the ancient Tauri. On the top are the rains of the castle built by Diophantes, general of Mithridates, to defend the Chersonese against the Tauro-Scythians. These caverns or crypts are now rapidly falling in. (Seymour, p. 140.) Similar caves are found in other parts of the peninsula. The Heracleotic Chersonese was noted as the seat of the savage worship of Diana Tauropolis. The natives, or Tauri, themselves had a worship of a similar kind [Tauri] ; but whether it was indige- nous among them, or whether they borrowed it from the Dorian Heracleots who settled here, cannot be a.scertained. The account of the Tauri themselves, that their virgin goddess was Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon, would seem to lead to the latter con- clusion ; though it is well known that the nations of pagan antiquity readily adopted one another's deities when any similarity was observable in their rights and attributes; and from the account of Herodotus (iv. 103) it might perhaps be inferred that this horrible worship existed among the Tauri before the arrival of the Greeks. Artemis was a peculiarly Dorian deity, and was worshipped in several parts of Greece with human sacrifices. There was a tradi- tion that the town of Chersonesus was founded by Artemis herself. The Heracleot Chersonites erected a famous temple on a headland which took the name of Parthenium from it. Strabo however merely calls the Parthenium " the temple of the virgin, a certain daemon" (p. 308), and does not mention Artemis. Opinions vary as to which is the real promontory of Parthenium. Many seek it at cape Fanury or Clitrsonese. which .seems too near the town of Cher- sonesus, as Strabo places the temple at the distance of 100 stadia from the town, though Fanary awnvievs to his description in other respects. Clarke and Pallas identify it with iQ Aia Barun or " Sacred Promontory'' (Clarke, ii. p. 286, and note), between Cape Fiolenteimi Balaclava,yiK, besides its name, has also a ruin to recommend it ; though the latter claim to notice is shared by C. Fiolente. Dubois de Montperreux (vi. p. 194, sq.) thinks that the temple may have stood on the spot now occupied by the monastery of St. George ; whilst Neumann, again places it on the headland a little to the NW. of C. Fiolente. It will be seen that these opinions rest on little more than conjecture. On the coins of the Heracleotic Chersonese the image of Artemis occurs by far the most frequently. She sometimes appears with Apollo, sometimes with Hercules, the patron hero of the mother city, but more generally alone, and always as the goddess of the chase, never as Selene (Von Kohne. in the Memoirs of the Ar- chaeolog. and Nnmism. Society of St. Petersbvrg, vol. ii. ap. Neumann, p. 420). On other coins a fish is frequently seen ; and one has a plough on the obverse, and an ear of corn between two fishes on the reverse (/i.). The bays of the Heracleotic penin- sula abound with fish, which formed a great part of the riches of the country. Of the history of the Heracleotic Chersonesus we know but little, but it may perhaps be in- ferred from the Inscription of Agasicles that its constitution was republican. It w.as impor- 4 B 4