Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography Volume II.djvu/553

 PALMYRA. indeed, lie fjrantcd a pardon, with permission to repair and inhabit their ruined city, and especially discovered much solicitude for the restoration of the Temple of the Sun. But the effects of the blow were too heavy to be retrieved. From this period (a.d. 273) Palmyra gradually dwindled into an insignificant town, and at length became only a place of refuge for a few families of wandering Arabs. It served indeed for some years as a Eoman military station; and Diocletian partially restored some of its buildings, as appears from an inscription preserved by Wood. About the year 400 the first lUyrian legion was quartered there {Not. Imp.); and Procopius tells us that it was fortified by Justinian (Je Aed. ii. 2). But this is the last that we hear of Palmyra under the Romans; and the sinking for- tunes of their empire probably soon led them to abandon it. The remains of the buildings of Palmyra are chiefly of the Corinthian order, which was the favourite style of architecture during the two or three centuries which preceded Diocletian; whence we may infer that the splendour which it once ex- hibited was chiefly owing to Odenathus and Zenobia. For many centuries even the site of Palmyra re- mained totally unknown except to the roving Arabs of the desert, whose magnificent accounts of its ruins at length excited the curiosity of the English mer- cliants settled at Aleppo. Under the auspices of the Levant Company, an expedition started in 1678 for the purpose of exploring them; but the persons who composed it were robbed and ill-treated by the Arabs, and compelled to return without having ac- complished their object. In 1691 the expedition was renewed with better success, and an account of tlie discoveries then made was published in the transactions of the Royal Society. (Sellers, Antiqui- ties of Palmyra, Pref.) Subsequently Palmyra was visited in 1751 by Woid and Dawkins, who pub- lished the results of their journey in a large folio Volume with magnificent engravings. The account ill Vohiey (vol. ii.) is chiefly taken from this work. Among the more recent descriptions may be men- tioned that of Lby and Mangles {Travels, ch. v.), who visited Palmyra in 1816. According to these travellers the plates of Wood and Dawkins have done more than justice to the subject; and althougli the view of the ruins from a distance, with their line of dazzling white columns extending between one and two miles, and relieved by the contrast of the yellow sand of the desert, is very striking, yet, when examined in detail, they excite but little interest. Taken separately, not a single column or architectural member is worthy of admiration. None of the former exceed 40 feet in height and 4 feet in diameter, and in the boasted avenue they are little more than 30 feet high. The remains of the Tem- ple of the Sun fonn the most magnificent object, and being of the Ionic order, relieve the monotony of the prevailing Corinthian style. These columns, which are 40 feel high and 4 feet in diameter, are fluted, and formed of only three or four pieces of stone ; and in former times were surmounted by brazen Ionic capitals. The fa9ade of the portico consists of 12 columns, like that of the temple of Baalbec, besides which there are other points of resemblance. On the whole, however, the ruins are far inferior to those at Baalbec. At the time of Jlessrs. Irby and Mangles' visit the jjeristyle court of the Temple of the Sun was occupied by the Arabian village of Tadmor; but with this exception, and the Turkish PAMPHIA. 537 bui'ial ground, the space was unencumbered, and there was nothing to obsti'uct the researches of the antiquary. In some places the linej of the streets and the foundations of the houses were distinctly visible. The sculptures are uniformly coar.-e and bad; the stone is of a perishable description, and scarcely deserves the name of marble. The sepul- chres outside the walls formed perhaps the most interesting part of the remains. These consist of square towers, from three to five stories high, form- ing sepulchral chambers, with recesses for the recep- tion of the bodies. In these tombs mummies and mummy cloths are found, prepared very much after the Egyptian manner; but there are no paintings, and on the whole they are far from being so in- teresting as the Egyptian sepulchres. There was a sculptured tablet in bas-relief, with seven or eight figures standing and clothed in long robes, supposed to represent priests. Several Greek and Palmyrene inscriptions, and two or three in Latin and Hebrew, have been discovered at Palmyra. They will be found in Wood's Ruins of Palmyra, and the fol- lowing works may also be consulted : Bernard and Smith, Inscriptiones Graecae Palmyrenorum, Utrecht, 1698; Giorgi, De Jnscriptionibus Palmy- renis quae in 3Iusaeo C'ajjitolino adservantur interpretandis Epistola, Rome, 1782; Barthe'lemy, in Mem de V Academic des /nscr. torn, xxi v. ; and Swinton, in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xlviii. With regard to the general history and antiquities of Pahnyra, besides the works already cited in this article, the following may be consulted : Seller, Antiquities of Palmyra, London, 1696; Huntington in the Philosophical Transactions, vol. xix. Nos. 217, 218; a Dissertation by Dr. Halley in the same work; Gibbon's Decline and Fall. ch. xi.; St. Mart. Hist, de Pahnyre, Paris, 1 823 ; Addison's Damascus and Palmyra; Richter, Wallfahrt; Cassas, Voyage Pittoresque de la Syrie; Laborde, Voyage en Orient; &c. [T.H.D.] PALMYRE'NE {UaXfivp-nvfi, Ptol. v. 15. § 24), a district of Syria, so named after the city of Pal- mvra, and which extended S. froin Chalvbonitis into the desert. (Cf. Plin. v. 24. s. 21.) [T. H. D.] PALORUM PORTUS. [Mallus and M.- GAIISA.] PALTUS {UdTos: Eth. UaKTriv6s), a town of Syria upon the coast, subject to the island of Aradus, which was at no great distance from it. According to some accounts Memnon was buried in the neigh- bourhood of Paltus. Pococke places it at Boklo ; Shaw at the ruins at the mouth of the Mdleck, miles from Jebilee, the ancient Gabala. (Strab. xv pp. 728, 735; Ptol. V. 15. § 3; Cic. ad Fam. xii. 13; Plin. v. 20. s. 18; Mela, i. 12; Steph. B..'!. v.; Pococke, vol. i. p. 199; Shaw, p. 324, Uxf. 1738.) PAMBO'TIS LACUS. [Dodona, p. 784.] PAMISUS {ndfiKTos). 1. The chief river of Messcnia. [See Vol. IL pp. 341, 342.J 2. A river in Laconia, forming the ancient boun- dary between Messcnia and Laconia. (Strab. viii. p. 361.) Strabo speaks of this river as near Leuc- trum. but it flows into the sea at Pcphnus, about 3 miles S. of Leuctruni. [Pki-iinu.s.] 3. A tributary of the Peneiiis in Thessaly, pro- bably tl;e modern Bliuri or Piliuri. (Herod, vii. 129; Phn. iv. 8. .s. 15; Lcakf:, Nor thtm Greece, vol. iv. pp. 512, 514.) PA'MPHIA {Uan<pi.a). a village of Aetolia, on the road from Metapa to Therniuni, and distant 30