On Either Side Of The
Gateway Are Niches; And A Wall, Built Of Middling Sized Square Stones,
Which Runs For Some Distance, Parallel With The Street.
Among a heap of
stones lying under the gate I copied the following inscriptions:
From a broken stone:
[Greek].
The letters of the word OPNHA are five inches in length.
Upon another broken stone near it was this:
[Greek].
And close to the latter, upon the edge of a large stone, this:
[Greek].
Continuing along the main street, I came at (q), to a single column, and
then to two with entablatures, on the right; opposite to them, on the
left, are three single columns. Beyond the latter, for one hundred
paces, all the columns have fallen; I then came to an open rotunda (r),
with four entrances; around the inside of its wall are projecting
pedestals for statues; the entraces on the right
[p.261]and left, conduct into a street running at right angles to the
main street. I followed this cross street to my left, and found on the
right hand side of it three short Ionic pillars with their entablatures,
close to the rotunda. Proceeding in the same direction I soon reached a
quadrangle (s) of fine large Corinthian columns, the handsomest in the
town, next to those of the temple. To the right stand four with their
entablatures, and one single; formerly they were six in number, the
fifth is the deficient one: the first and sixth are heart-shaped, like
those in the area of the temple (a.) They are composed of more than a
dozen frusta, and what is remarkable in a place where stone is so
abundant, each frustum consists of two pieces; opposite to the two first
columns of the row just described are two columns with their
entablatures.
This colonnade stands in front of a theatre (t), to which it evidently
formed an appendage. This theatre is not calculated to hold so many
spectators as the one already described though its area is considerably
larger, being from forty-five to fifty paces in diameter. It has sixteen
rows of benches, with a tier of six boxes intervening between the tenth
and eleventh rows, reckoning from the top. Between every two boxes is a
niche, forming a very elegant ornament. This theatre was evidently
destined for purposes different from the other, probably for combats of
wild beasts, &c.; The area below the benches is more extensive, and
there is a suite of dark arched chambers under the lowest row of seats,
opening into the area near the chief entrance of the theatre, which is
from the south-east, in the direction by which I entered the colonnade
in front of the theatre. There seems formerly to have been a wall across
the diameter of the semi-circle, and between this wall and the colonnade
there is on both sides a short wall, with a large niche or apartment in
it; the colonnade stands upon lower ground than the theatre.
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