Chap. III.
GRECIAN.
73
battles in which they afterwards engaged; and the inhabitants of Ithome were obliged toseek refuge at Argos, Sicyon , and Arcadia, or Eleusis, and the Spartans razed the citadelto its foundation.
The Messenians, after being continually harassed, at last settled at Rhegium , on that partof the Italian coast opposite to Messina. Tins event happened about 723 years before Christ.Anaxilas, one of their leaders, took possession of the territory belonging to the Zancla?i inSicily , where he built a city, and strongly fortified it; and the new inhabitants turned theirattention towards maritime affairs. Such, Pausanias tells us, was the end of the wanderings 'of the Messenians . We can account for the construction and systems adopted for the defenceof the cities in Sicily, resembling those met with in Greece , when we learn that their builderswere driven out from among the people who occupied the latter country : when they fled,they carried with them a knowledge of the arts, and laid the foundation for their promul-gation throughout the new settlement.
The circular court remaining at Messene forms the northern entrance to the city, fromwhence the route to Megalopolis took its departure. On each side of the entrance arethe foundations of twotowers which defendedthis approach.
Around the walls ofthe circle are two nichesor recesses, with squareheads, and slightly de-corated. The diameterof the circle is 63 feet,and the largest apertureby which it is entered,
23 feet: the other, about17 feet, was covered bya lintel, the dimensionsof which were 18 feet 10inches by 3 feet 4 incheshigh, and 4 feet wide:such dimensions re rquired some supportfrom beneath, or the
weight should have Fig messene.
been discharged from
above, that the lintel might have rested securely, without danger of fracture.
After passing the gates, theroad, formed of large blocks ofstone, conducts to the city ; theseblocks are not polygonal, but ob-long in their form.
Tlie walls which remain atMessene are of regular blocksof stone, and at every 7 feetor more, there were cross wallsat right angles to tie in the twofaces, the thickness being toomuch for any other kind of bond.
These walls, as restored, exhibitan arch over the principal en-trance, for which there is no au-thority, although there can belittle doubt but that such anarrangement was made over thewide entrances of the Greekcities.
If we are right with regard tothe time when the arch was usedby the Egyptians, we may cer-tainly suppose its adoption by apeople who borrowed greatlyfrom their inventions: we tracetire embrasure and battlements
j; mi
111
1-- J--U
!
Fig. 78.