teworthy tomb, just as he compares the dance worked by Hephaestus on the shield of Achilles to a dance made by Daedalus, because he had never seen more clever workmanship.
I know many wonderful graves, and will mention two of them, the one at Halicarnassus and one in the land of the Hebrews. The one at Halicarnassus was made for Mausolus, king of the city, and it is of such vast size, and so notable for all its ornament, that the Romans in their great admiration of it call remarkable tombs in tHalicarnassus was made for Mausolus, king of the city, and it is of such vast size, and so notable for all its ornament, that the Romans in their great admiration of it call remarkable tombs in their country “Mausolea.”
The Hebrews have a grave, that of Helen, a native woman, in the city of Jerusalem, which the Roman Emperor razed to the ground. There is a contrivance in the grave whereby the door, which like all the grave is of stone, does not open until the year brings back the same day and the same hour. Then the mechanism, unaided, opens the door, which, after a short interval, shuts itself. This happens at that time, but should you at any other try to open the door you cannot do s
and the Athenians, who took it for the squadron which they were watching for
from Caunus, and hastily put out against it with part only of their twenty
vessels,
and attacking immediately sank three ships and disabled others, and had the
advantage in the action until the main body of the fleet unexpectedly hove
in sight, when they were surrounded on every side.
Upon this they took to flight, and after losing six ships, with the rest
escaped to Teutlussa or Beet Island, and from thence to Halicarnassus.
After this the Peloponnesians put into Cnidus, and being joined by the
twenty-seven ships from Caunus, sailed all together and set up a trophy in
Syme, and then returned to anchor at Cnidus.
Flavius Josephus, Against Apion (ed. William Whiston, A.M.), BOOK I, section 161 (search)
philosophy. Nor was our nation
unknown of old to several of the Grecian cities, and indeed was thought
worthy of imitation by some of them. This is declared by Theophrastus,
in his writings concerning laws; for he says that "the laws of the
Tyrians forbid men to swear foreign oaths." Among which he enumerates
some others, and particularly that called Corban: which oath can
only be found among the Jews, and declares what a man may call "A
thing devoted to God." Nor indeed was Herodotus of Halicarnassus unacquainted
with our nation, but mentions it after a way of his own, when he saith
thus, in the second book concerning the Colchians. His words are these:
"The only people who were circumcised in their privy members originally,
were the Colchians, the Egyptians, and the Ethiopians; but the Phoenicians
and those Syrians that are in Palestine confess that they learned it from
the Egyptians. And for those Syrians who live about the rivers Thermodon
and Parthenius, and their neighbors the M
But after he arrived in Asia,—why should I enumerate the dinners, the suppers, the
horses, and the presents which marked that progress? I am not going to say anything
against Verres for everyday crimes. I say that he carried off by force some most
beautiful statues from Chios; also from
Erythrae; also from Halicarnassus. From
Tenedos (I pass over the money which
he seized) he carried off Tenes himself,
who among the Tenedians is considered a most holy god, who is said to have founded
that city, after whose name it is called Tenedos. This very Tenes, I
say, most admirably wrought, which you have seen It was allowed
to the aediles, and it was not uncommon for them to borrow of the cities of the
allies celebrated and beautiful statues to adorn the shows in the games which they
orn the aedileship of Varro and Murena.
10. Then there is the house of Croesus which the people of Sardis have set apart as a place of repose for their fellow-citizens in the retirement of age,—a “Gerousia” for the guild of the elder men. At Halicarnassus, the house of that most potent king Mausolus, though decorated throughout with Proconnesian marble, has walls built of brick which are to this day of extraordinary strength, and are covered with stucco so highly polished that they seem to bed not use brick from poverty; for he was choke-full of revenues, being ruler of all Caria.
11. As for his skill and ingenuity as a builder, they may be seen from what follows. He was born at Melassa, but recognizing the natural advantages of Halicarnassus as a fortress, and seeing that it was suitable as a trading centre and that it had a good harbour, he fixed his residence there. The place had a curvature like that of the seats in a theatre. On the lowest tier, along the harbour, was built t<
