Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/355

 MESSENE. MESSENE, 339 picturesque structures of this class in I The northera i^.ate, leadinEj to Mecjalopolis in Ar- I cadii (Paub iv 33 i^3) ib one cf the fine t sjeti PLAN OF THE RUINS OF MESSENE. A. Arcadian or Megalopolitan Gate, mens of Greek mihtary architecture in existence. I The road still leads through this pate into the circuit Its form is seen in the preceding plan. It is a small of the ancient city. The ruins of the towers, with fortress, containing double gates opposite to one i the interjacent curtains, close to the gate on the .slope another, and connected by a circular court of 62 of Jlount Ithome, show this part of the fortification:,! feet in diameter. In front of the outer gate on either side is a strong rectangular tower. Upon entering the court through the outer gate, there is a niche on each side for a statue, with an inscription over it. The one on the left hand is still legible, and mentions Quintus Plotius Euphemion as the re- storer (Bockh, Jnsci: No. 1460). Pausanias (iv. 33. §3) notices in this gate a Hermes in the Attic style, which may possibly have stood in one of these niches. Leake observes that the interior masonry of the circular court is the most exact and beautiful he ever saw. The lower course is a row of stones, each about 5^ in length and half as much in height; upon this is placed another course of stones of e<jual length and of half the height, the joints of which are precisely over the centre of each stone in the lower course. The upper part of the walls has fallen to have resembled a chain of strong redoubts, each tower constituting a fortress of itself. " A flight of steps behind the curtain led to a door in the flank of the tower at half its height. The upper apartment, which was entered by the door, had a range of loop- holes, or embrasures, on a line with the door, looking along the parapet of the curtain, and was lighted by two windows above. The embrasures, of which there are some in each face of the towers, have an opening of 7 inches within, and of 3 feet 9 inches without, so that, with a small opening, their scope is very great. The windows appear to be too high for any jiurpose but to give light. Both the curtains and towers in this part of the walls arc constructed entirely of large squared blocks, without rubble or cement. The curtains are 9 feet thick. The inner face of the towers has neither door nor window. The tower nine courses are the most that remain. Neither j next to the gate of Megalopolis has had all the stones gateway retains its covering, but the flat architrave ! disjointed, like those of the Pmpylaea at Athens, of the inner one lies in an oblique position upon the I probably by an eartliquakc." The towers are in ge- ruins of the wall by which it was formerly supported; I neral about 25 feet square, projecting about 14 feet it measures 18 feet 8 inches in length by 4 feet 2 j from a curtain varying in length according to the inches in breadth, and 2 feet 10 inches in thickness. 1 nature of the gruund, and 8 or 10 feet in thickness. z 2