The Long Wall of Salona and the Ruined Cities of Pharia and Gelsa di Lesina Author(s): R. F. Burton Source: The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 5 (1876), pp. 252-300 Published by: Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2840891 . Accessed: 15/06/2014 22:28 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 22:28:14 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 252 Capt. R. F. BURTON.-On the From the AUTHOR.-IllustratedCatalogue of the Canterbury Museum. By JohnBrent, F.S.A. From Mrs. JACxSON.-Ethnology and Phrenology. Second edition. By the late J. W. Jackson. The followingpaper was read by the author: ThteLONG WALL of SALONA and the RUINED CITIES of PIIARIA andi GELSA Di LESINA. By Captain R. F. BURTON, H.M. Consul at Trieste. [With Plates xii. and xiii. and woodcuts.] INTRODUCTION. ALLOWme to begin by expressing the great satisfactionwith whichI findmyself once morein this room,and permittedto offeryou the results of three years' work. The specimenson the table will show you the nature of that work, and, before proceedingto the papers announcedfor this evening,I may, perhaps,be allowed brieflyto introducethem to you. The two sketches (P1. xiii. figs.1 and 2) representthe only flintimplements as yet foundin Dalmatia; and I have added the requisitedetails. They were shown to me by my learned friend,Prof. Glavinicof Spalato. I would proposehim and Dr. Lanza di Casalanza as correspondingmembers of our Society; and I will answerfor their value. The skull and the accompanyingbones were found near Bolliunz, a valley about fivemiles south-eastof Trieste. Here the Romans cut an aqueductin the live rock-a troughwhich supplied Tergestewith the best water. I have no doubt that someof the caves whichnow appear naturalwere hand-worked formortuary purposes; and, though I will not answer for the skull being Roman, or, indeed,of any great antiquity,I think that it may be a relic of the ancientrace, and, as such,I have brought it home for the collection of our learned associate, Dr. J. Barnard Davis. The collectionof potteryand the models of stoneimplements are intended for the admirable collection of our President, Col. A. Lane Fox. They are gatheredfrom the Castellieriof Istria, concerningwhich I lately published a paper,with many regretsfor the mode in whichit was published,and a heartfelt resolutionnot to do it again. The potteryis submittedto the judgment of experts. To an amateurit appears of different epochs,but I can answerfor the fact of its being an authentic find-most of it was dug up in my presence. It occursin the black earth. This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 22:28:14 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Long Wiallof Salonat. 253 PART I.-TH-E LONG WALL OF SALONA. Salonawants but few words of introduction. She was in turn theRespublica Salonae (inscribed on leadentube of aqueduct); the Conventusand Coloniaof Pliny (iii. 22), and a hostof writers;the Roman metropolis of Dalmatia Felix, that fair and fertilesection of the land betweenthe Nestus or Tilurus (mod. Cettina)and the Naro (Narenta)rivers; a Proefectura et Pratura (FarlatiIllyria Sacra i. 27), with a Proepositus thesaurorum;a Procuratorginaeciorum; a Procuratorbaphi- orum(of thedyeing establishments); and a PraesesDalmatim (orFunctionarius perfectissimus). She was thegreat emporium of thecoast, the 6rtvetov, or naval arsenal(Strabo, vii. 5); and the "Totius DalmatimCaput" (Const.Porphyr. de Admin. Imperii, cap. xxx.) which, under Augustus,included a part of WesternPannonia. Virgil (Genethliacum,Ecl. iv.) sangthe birth of a " Saloninus,"and theglories of the paternal triumph:Horace (ii. 1) immortalisedthe honoursof lDalmatic or Delmatic victory. Here "Duke Bato" (A.D. 6, Dion Cassius,lib. lx., and Vell. Paterculus,lib. ii.) foughtfor libertyagainst the predatoryand oppressivemasters of the world; hereS. Domnius(S. Doimoor Dojmo)was sent, accord- ing to old tradition,by SaintPeter; and hereTitus, by order of SaintPaul (Tim.ii. 4-10) preachedthe gospel to Dalmatia. The remainsof what an Englishnovelist called the " smallbut prosperoustown of Salona" (?), thoughseldom visited, are, accordingto Prof.Steinbuchel, some of themost interesting of classicalruins. Finally, a highlyadvantageous position has made Spalato, its modern ournmtenens, the natural, whilst Zara is the artificialand politicalcapital, and the most flourishing, indeedthe onlyprogressive port of the old "iRegnodi Dal- mazia," whichstill formsthe southernmostprovince of the extendedAustrian empire. lButmy business at presentis witha singlesection of Salona, the" Long Wall," ofdoubtful and debatedorigin. The celebratedAbate Alberto Fortis (Viaggio in Dalmazia, e.c.2 vols.,Alvise Milocco, Venice, 1774, translated into English (London,J. Robson,1777), and French," Voyageen Dalmatie, Berne,chez la SocieteTypographique, 1778 "),' whotravelled in A.D. 1770-1772, and whosemeritorious labours have been a mine copiouslyquarried by laterwriters, has no notice of the "1iMurazzo,"or long,wall, althoughhe gives a detailed descriptionof theruins of Salona,in his vol ii. p. 42 (French translation,ii. sec.iii. p. 56). * I shallgive in thesepages references to textaud Frenchtranslation for facility of reference. The book has becomesomewhat rare and costly. This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 22:28:14 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 254 Capt. R. F. BURTON.-On the On the otherhand, the late Mr. Paton, so well known as a traveller,and a writerof travels,and mentionedwith respect by the late Abate Carrara,visited Salona in 1846-7, and de- scribes this most interestingfeature in the followingremarks (vol. i. 363, "Highlands and Islands of the Adriatic,"by A. A. Paton, 2 vols. London: Chapmanand Hall, 1849): "To the westward of Salona is a remnantof an immense construction,the origin and destinationof whichis quite un- knownto the local antiquaries-a Cyclopeanrwall,* of regular quadrilateralstones, each from8 to 16 feetin length. At first sight, I imagined that it must have been the foundationof a temple; but, as it extends580 paces in length,I soon saw the fallacyof that opinion." The generic term, " Cyclopean," is given to the blocks 6 to 12 feet long by 2 to 5 high, at Tiryns, in Argolis, by Pausanias (KvcXrarcov. 6'pyovii. 25-7); but he also applies it to the hewn polygons of Mykenme,and even to the squaredmasonry of the Gate of the Lions. Euripides-repeat- edly adapts the same expressionto the walls of MIykeneand of Argos. Lactantius (vid. Stat. Theb. i. 252) explains it thus: " Arces Cyclopumautem, aut quas Cyclopesfecerunt, aut magni ac miri operis; nam quicquid magnitudinesua nobile est, Cyclopummanu diciturfabricatum." Of coursethe picturesque termwas seized upon by the imitativeRoman poets: Seneca, to mentionno other,says: Quid moror? Majus mihi, Bellum Mycenisrestat, ut Cyclopea Eversa manibussaxa nostrisconcidant. (Herc. Fur. iv. 996.) The firststep would be to smooththe joints, as in the artistic walls of Cosa, and the outer surface,as at Rusellke,after which the whole stonewould be hewn firstto the pseudo-isodom,and, lastly,to the isodomicform. Petit-Radel and Dennis (ii. 284) hold the polygonal structuresto be Pelasgic, and the former declares (Mem. Inst. iii. pp. 55-66) that theyhave been found as far southas Lucania and Apulia. Mr. Hamilton (" Arche- ologia") complicatesthe use of the wordby applyingit to four several formsof masonry,noting as manydifferent epochs. In the first,the gigantic,irregular blocks are of varioussizes, with smaller interstitialstones, but whollywithout mortar (Tiryns and a portionof the MAaltese " Torride' Giganti,"unhewn masses of coralline). The second shows masonry without courses, irregularpolygons whose sides fit closely (Mykenae,EBrurian * The italicsin thispassage, and in the quotationsfrom Sir GardnerWilkinson and the Abate Carrara,are mine. This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 22:28:14 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Long Wall of Salona. 25 Norba,Core, Arpino,Cosa, and Alatri; also Iulis (of Ceos) and Delphi; in the third,the strata are of the same height, but pseudo-isodomic,or unequal in lengthof stones(Boeotia, Argo- lis, and the Phocian cities); whilst, fourthlyand lastly, the blocks are of differentheights, but always rectangular(Attica). "Rectangular Cyclopean" sounds almost like an Irish bull. Perhaps we had better,with Dodwell (" Pelasgic Remains") and Sir William Gell (" Rome"), despiteBunsen (Ann. Inst., Rome, 1834), limit the term" Cyclopean" to masonrycomposed of irregularpolygons of large size, superimposedand fittedto- gether,more or less closely,with interstitial stones, but without mortaror cement. The