Google
This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project
to make the world's books discoverable online.
It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject
to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books
are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.
Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the
publisher to a library and finally to you.
Usage guidelines
Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing tliis resource, we liave taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:
+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.
+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.
+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for in forming people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.
+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe.
About Google Book Search
Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web
at |http: //books .google .com/I
db,Google
I
db,Googlc
-J5
db,Google
I'/'k
b,Google
Diglizedb,ljOOgle
DEVIA CYPRIA
HOGARTH
db,Google
t>rf«th
db/G00g[c
Diglizedb,G00gle
Diglizedb,G00J^lC[
DEVIA CYPRIA
NOTES OF AN
ARCHAEOLOGICAL JOURNEY IN CYPRUS
IN 1S88
D?G?" HOGARTH, M.A.
FELLOW OV MAGDALEN COLLEGE, LATE CRAVEN FELLOV
WITH MJP AND ILLUSTRATIONS
£ondon
HENRY FROWDE, AMEN CORNER, E.G.
1889
[ All rights riservld \
db/Goog[e
Diglizedb,G00glC
PREFACE.
In December, 1887, while holding a Craven Travelling
Fellowship, from the University of Oxford, I was commissioned
with others by the Committee of the newly-formed Exploration
Fund to conduct researches in Cyprus, by excavation and
travel. As is now known to those interested in archaeological
matters, we pursued the former method for several months at
Leontari Vouno, Old Paphos and Amargetti, and results obtained
from these several undertakings have been already published.
But towards the end of May the heat and near approach of the
wheat-harvest made it expedient to defer further excavations
until the next autumn or winter, and my companions all left the
. island to return to Athens or England. We had made however
no surface exploration of any considerable part of the island,
and, being under no necessity to return to Oxford until October,
I embraced the opportunity of carrying out a plan, formed
some months previously, of exploring those districts of Cyprus
which had been less frequently or less systematically examined
by archaeologists, — to wit, the Papho district and the Carpass.
While there might be much of archaeological interest to be
discovered — inscriptions Cypriote or Greek, sites of cities yet
unidentified, stone monuments, native ^raditions^it would
certainly be useful to know once for all what there was and
was not existing in a district so open to Asiatic influences and
so little known as {for example) the Carpass ; and further, it -
was well to prospect future fields for the energies of the
186371
DigBeab,G00glC
vi Preface.
Exploration Fund. Five months of superintendence of lar^e
bodies of native diggers had enabled me to acquire not only a
tolerable knowledge of the vernacular of the island, but also
some experience of native habits and customs, some knowledge
of the obscure workings of the peasant's mind, of hjs grievances,
his standards of value, and the degree in which consciously or
unconsciously he uses speech to conceal his thoughts : while
the considerable scale on which we had conducted the Kuklia
excavations had given me a certain notoriety in the villages,
guaranteed my bona fides, and caused me to encounter a less
impenetrable crust of assumed stupidity than sometimes falls
to the lot of travellers in the Levant. Between the end of May
and the middle of August I explored thoroughly the west
and east of Cyprus, and saw in passing something of the
central portions, accompanied always by Gregorio Antoniou of
Lamaca, who had acted as our foreman at Kuklia, and to whose
intimat^ knowledge of his fellow-islanders (gained both legiti-
mately and illegitimately) and extraordinary intelligence I
largely owe my fortune in discovering as much as I did in so
well-worked a field as Cyprus. Native hospitality was always
extended to me, and the wilder the district and poorer the
peasants, the pleasanter is often my recollection. To many
a host who will never see this little book I should like to
tender hearty thanks ; and to those who may perhaps see it,
notably to English residents in Papho, Limassol, Lamaca and
Nicosia, I cannot offer gratitude commensurate with the kind-
ness which they extended to me.
This volume is intended to be a Report only of such objects
of archaeological interest as I saw in the course of the summer
months : incidents of travel, and moving accidents by flood and
field {if any there were), fill enough books of Levantine travel
without any addition being made to their number. The order of
relation must be in the main geographical, first in the Papho
district, then the Carpass, and finally in a short chapter which
gathers up the few odds and ends, worth recording, in the
rest of Cyprus. But even with the omission of the topics
db/Goog[e
Preface. vii
above mentioned, it remains a mere traveller's journal in
substance, if not entirely in form ; and as no more than that, as
not aiming for one moment to be exhaustive on any branch of
Cj-prian archaeology, I now offer it to any one interested
enough in Cyprus to peruse its pages.
Such being the unpretending character of the book, it would
be superfluous to enumerate a long list of authorities to whom
I am indebted : I trust that I "have used none without ac-
knowledgement, and references to Pococke, Engel, Sakellarios,
De la Mas Latrie (greatest of Cyprian chroniclers), Von
Hammer, Ross, and many others will often be found. From
Prof. A. H. Sayce I derived, if not the first impulse, at least
strong encouragement to travel in the Carpass, and to the
kindness and liberality of the Committee of the C3^rus
Exploration Fund I owe a debt of acknowledgement.
Dr. F. H. H. Guillemard and Mr. R. Elsey Smith have
allowed me to reproduce photographs taken by them, and the
last-named contributes an account of the Aschelia carvings
(p. 43)-
Lastly, but chiefly, to Prof W. M. Ramsay, of Aberdeen,
who has read the proofs throughout, I must record my in-
debtedness both for thorough and just criticism which has
revealed to me many errors, and for most valuable suggestions,
many of which I have noted particularly, but for many others
I must tender him only a general, but most grateful, acknow-
ledgement.
The major part of the cost of publication has been defrayed
by the Craven University Fund in accordance with a decree
of Convocation: without that assistance the book would
probably not have appeared, and I must tender my thanks
especially to Mr. H. F. Pelham, and also to others who were
concerned in obtaining and administering the grant.
D. G. H.
Magdalen College,
August 30/A, 1889.
db/Goog[e
db,Googlc
DEVIA CYPRIA.
CHAPTER I.
THE PAPHO DISTRICT.
Among the independent kingdoms and dynasties into which Tkr king-
Cyprus was partitioned from the earliest period until the '^p^^L
close of the fourth century before our era, PaphoB must have
ranked at all times, whether in extent of territory, in wealth
or fame, second only to Salamis. Nature has defined it
so clearly that we can hardly mistake the boundaries in spite
of the absence of written authority: on the north and west
lies the sea : upon the east the mass of Troodos, continued in
the rugged Forest Range to Cape Poumo, interposes a huge
barrier between the west and east of the island, which even
under Evagoras the kingdom of Salamis appears not to have
passed. At the northern end of this barrier the kingdom of
Paphos marched with that of Soli, Lastly upon the south
the tremendous cleft, cut by the Kostithes river up to Mount
Troodos, bounds the kingdom of Curium, which comprised
the broad uplands and deep fertile valleys as far as the Epis-
copi river.
The kingdom of Paphos was therefore an oblong, about
thirty miles from north to south, and twenty from east to west ;
and with the exception of a strip along the coast from Old to
New Paphos, and a triangular tract running inland for four
miles from the Bay of Arsinoe, entirely mountainous, ridge after
■ ridge starting up from the depression which runs below the
Troodos and Forest ranges, and declining to the sea. Through
this mountain mass five rivers have cut channels of tremendous
ii
Diglizedb,G00gle
2 Devia Cypria.
depth, the descent and ascent of whose sides makes travelling
in the interior so tedious, that few visitors to this part of the
island leave the coast-road.
But the Papho hills are by no means unproductive ; and
sterile tracts of rock and scrub are to be found indeed in the
Akamas or Oridhes, but hardly anywhere else. The billowy
ridges are diversified by large cultivated tracts, and countless
flocks graze on their sides : in the south-eastern comer of the
old kingdom, round the villages of Arses, Vasa, and Omodhos,
lie the best vineyards in C3'prus : the equable temperature of
the uplands is more favourable to the mulberry than in any
other part of the island ; and the rapid fall of the rivers renders
easy the irrigation of the valleys. Moreover, Troodos acts
as a screen against those northerly and easterly winds which
parch the Mesaorea, and thus arises a common Cypriote say-
ing, that when Papho is full the rest of Cyprus is hungry.
The poverty and barbarism of the modern Paphiti are due
therefore not to the niggardliness of the soil, but to isolation
from those parts of the island where communication is easy, and
whither civilisation and commerce have been attracted since the
Middle Ages ; but when the port of New Paphos was still one
of the very best, if not absolutely the best, in the island {as must
have been the case in the days of small craft) the condition of
the district to which it affords a ready outlet was probably very
different. The great extent of the ruins of New Paphos itself
speaks to its former greatness; to the south the richest of
Aphrodite's shrines (according to Pausanias) attracted pilgrims
from all parts of the Mediterranean ; in the north lay Arsinoe,
a place of much wealth if we may judge from the character of
its lately discovered necropolis ; and inland are many relics of
better times, contrasting markedly with the poverty-stricken
villages of to-day. Letymbou with its dozen churches ; Amar-
getti and Drimu, seats of Apollo ; Polemi and Kathikas, whose
ancient tombs alone attest the existence of forgotten settlements ;
Limni, Lyso, and Istingio, where old adits and slag-heaps remind
us of the ancient fame of the copper-island ; and acres of ruin at
Cape Drepano, Agios Konon, and Lipati, prove that the AkS-
mas was not always the uninhabited forest region that it is at
present.
So long as this district was ruled by an independent king, its
capital was the older Paphos, later distinguished as fJaXaiSi
fldi^QS, or fJaXaiiraipos, from the city ten miles to the north-west
db/G00g[c
The Papho District 3
which had originally served as its port. In an uncommercial
age, when strength of position was chiefly desired, the Kuklia
hill, connected only by a narrow isthmus with the ridge behind,
was the more natural site for a royal city and a great shrine ;
but the distance dividing the site from any good harbour, and
its defective water-supply, tended rapidly to diminish its import-
ance as compared with that of New Paphos, when the Cyprian
towns were no longer dangerous to one another but united in
subjection to the Ptolemies ; and still more when all the Levant
owned in Rome a common mistress. The history of the earliest
capital and of the independent kingdom is indissolubly connected
with that of the shrine of the Paphian Aphrodite, whose high
priests the kings successively were ; and upon this and upon
the antiquities of its modem representative, Kuklia, it is un-
necessary to touch after the full treatment that they have
received in the Journal of Hellenic Studies {vol. ix), more
especially in the paper contributed by Mr. M, R. James {p. 175).
Sufficient to say here that the foundation of the kingdom is lost
in the mists of antiquity, for it appears probable that, even before
the Cinyrad dynasty was established (which cannot be much
later than the tenth century), an older royal family had existed,
that of the Cihcian Tamiradae (Tac. Hist. ii. 3: Hesych. s. v.
Ta/itpaSai). In the seventh century a Paphian king paid tribute
to AssjTia, and from this period until the extinction of the mon-
archy by Ptolemy Lagus we have the names of twelve kings,
who, with others unknown, carried down the Cinyrad dynasty
in unbroken succession : and, even when" no longer royal, in-
scriptions of Paphos show the 'Ap^os t^v KiwpaSwv or Kivvpap^os
to have been a high dignitary, who discharged the actual duties
of the temple under the nominal high priest, the orpaT-ijyos r^r
v-fitTov. That the power of these kings extended far inland is
proved by the existence of inscriptions of a Nicocles in the
Cypriote character at Agia Moni on the Panagia hill close to
the skirt of the Forest'. After the last Nicocles had hanged
himself in his palace, Palaepaphus ceased to be distinguished by
anjiihing but the sanctity and wealth of its shrine, of which the
trrpaTTjyol r^s v^<rov continued, like its old kings, to be nominal
high priests * But they seem to have resided ordinarily at Sala-
mis, and Palaepaphus could have been no more than the pro-
vincial capital of this end of the island ; while even this inferior
' Infra, p. 3a.
" J. H. S., voL ix, Inscriptions of Paphos, No*, a, 11, ra, etc.
db/Goog[e
4 Devia Cypria.
position had been yielded to its port before the first Century
of our era, when St. Paul found the proconsul temporarily
established at the latter. But the wealth, magnificence, and
dignity of the great shrine of Aphrodite was not thereby
impaired, for Cato, on taking over the island for Rome,
considered its priesthood the best equivalent for royal power
which he could offer to the last Ptolemy; and more than a
century later it attracted Titus by its fame and splendour.
But from the Roman period the city of Agapenor, formerly
known as Erythra \ usurped the political headship, and when
the district had been converted by the labours of St. Epaphras
and his successors, became the seat of the first bishop of
Paphos, whose cathedral is perhaps represented by the ruins
immediately to the north-west of the church of St. Geoi^e.
Under the Lusignan princes it became in 1196 a Latin throne,
and by the Concordia of 1222 the Greek prelate, although
recognised, was banished to Arsos in the extreme south-east
of the district, retaining however his former title. The territory
of Paphos was incorporated in the Domain Royal, and as such
granted by Guy in 1193 to Amaury, the ex-constable of Jeru-
salem : but the town by the sea-shore had already been super-
seded by a new settlement on the bluffs, not quite a mile inland,
which has survived through Venetian and Turkish times to
be the present administrative capital of the district. Whether
the decay of New Paphos proper was due to the unhealthiness
of its marshy site, or to the Arab incursions which began in
the reign of Heraclius and culminated in the revenge wreaked
on Cyprus by Haroun al Raschid, and which drove Carpasia,
Lapethus, Aphrodisium and other towns inland, is uncertain,
but it seems to be clear that Ktima was already flourishing
when Richard of England landed. The old town still retained
some importance, and was adorned by the Franks with churches
and public buildings, the remains of which are still to be seen :
but it occupied only the eastern half of its former site, as does
the village of Baffo at this day.
The allusions of ancient authors to this city will be found in
Engel (vol. i. pp. 140-144), Sakellarios (KvirpiaKd, vol. i. pp.
100-106), and the Dictionary of Classical Geography (sub voce).
The frequent uncertainty as to which Paphos is intended
makes it impossible to be sure as to the features of the Port
' .Steph. Byz., s,v. Eustatb. in Horn., 11. ii. 499.
idt,Googlc
The Papho District. 5
Town ; Strabo tells us that it had a harbour and Uph. tC Kan-
vK€va<rfieya, and one of the latter was in all probability dedicated
to Aphrodite. Tradition points at this day to a mound close to
the north-west side of the harbour as the site of such a temple ;
at a rough estimate its summit measures 200 ft. from north to
south by 250 ft. east to west: fragments of about twenty
monolithic columns of grey granite, 22 inches in diameter,
lie on the surface, protrude from the sides, or are built into
fences hard by, and from these native exaggeration has given
to the mound the name Zc^ayra'koXSwts. No other remains
lie above the surface, but three holes have been sunk into the
mound whereby massive foundations and substructures have
been exposed: that on the south reveals a vaulted chamber
12 feet high, the southern wall of which has fallen away;
to the east of this a narrow stairway runs down from the
surface of the mound to a doorway choked with earth ; a
massive wall can be traced for some feet further, the re-
turning wall being also visible on the east of the mound.
In the centre of the summit a shaft has been sunk into
similar substructures of a very massive order, and there
is evidently a labyrinth of staircases, vaults, and passages
underlying the whole mound and awaiting a persevering
explorer. As to the date of some portions at any rate of the
Temple of which they formed the basement, indications are
afforded by the Roman granite columns, already mentioned,
and coarse plaster which may be picked up in quantities ; but
the existence of blocks with a raised panel in the centre and
chisel-draft round the edges, similar to those in the lower
courses of the Parthenon basement and in pre-Roman work
of the second period at Old Paphos, suggest an earlier date
for the original building erected on this mound '. If it be really
true that this is the site of a temple of Aphrodite, (and its com-
manding position beside the harbour tends to corroborate such
a tradition), it might be worth while to explore it more
thoroughly with the help of pick and shovel.
The ruins of the city have been often described, notably
by Pococke (vol. i. pp. 225 foil.) ; by Von Hammer (Topo-
graphische Ansichten, pp. 134 foil.) ; by Engel (loc. cit. chiefly
from Von Hammer's account); by Sakellarios (loc. cit.); by
M. de la Mas Latrie (L'lle de Chypre, pp. 24, 25); by
* This fashion of stone-dressing was, however, in vogue in Roman limes also.
db,Google
6 Devia Cypria.
General di Cesnola (pp. 222 foil); and by Prof. A. H. Sayce
in a letter to the Academy, March 1888; but nevertheless I
venture to record the main features again, as my oppor-
tunities of making repeated visits to the site sometimes in
the company of residents at Ktima who knew the place
thoroughly, sometimes with native companions, enabled me to
see a good deal which, hidden away in gardens or courtyards,
escapes the passing traveller.
The city wall may be traced, by actual remains or by the
rock-beds in which the stones have lain, from point to point
round the whole circuit, beginning from the breakwater on
which the castle now stands, continued round the sea-shore
into the northern bay, and then along the cliff top past the
modem light-house for a short distance inland. This gives
two sides of the quadrangle, which now turns sharply to the
south-west. Indeed soon after passing the lighthouse, the
tracks have already become very interesting : for 150 feet every
' step ' is clearly defined, the wall having been from six to eight
feet broad where the cliff is low, and three feet where it is high.
A gutter runs along the seaward side. At regular intervals
occur sally-ports, — square shafts sunk through the rock and
emerging in the plain below ; and traces of a gate are apparent
leading to a well still in use. A more interesting gate occurs
at the end of these 150 feet of wall ; it seems to have been
flanked by towers, and a sloping way adapted from a natural spur
of the rock leads down into the plain. This approach is eight
feet in width and curves northwards ; at the lower end are rock-
cut steps, which suggest that the sea which is now some 50
yards distant, once washed over the stretch of salt marsh up to
the cliffs (whose appearance is certainly waterworn) and that
this entrance was a water-gate, the steps at the lower end of the
approach being cut for the convenience of boats. But if this
is fanciful, then the gate leads to the Tombs with which the
plain is honeycombed as far as Palaeocastro.
North of the gate the wall can be easily traced for some 400
feet, when it turns at an acute angle south-westward, and
presently descends into the low ground and is lost for a while.
At the angle the remains of a massive bastion and tower can be
seen, and a well, descending for a tremendous distance into
darkness, has been sunk in the rock itself so that the tower
might still be supplied even if the low parts of the city were in
hostile hands. The line of the wall may be picked out at
:db/G00g[e
The Papho District. 7
intervals along the eastern side of the town, turning westwards
at last on a high bluff which still carries remains of masonry,
and running straight down to the Harbour a little to the north
of the church of St. George where are ' St. Paul's pillars,' and
which accordingly stood outside the enceinte. On this side the
ground is low, and the remains of a portion of the wall, which
exist in a field near the port, show it to have been of great
thickness (from 12 to 15 feet), and constructed of a core of
cemented rubble, faced with squared stone.
Within the city the most interesting remains are those of the
northern breakwater formed like the wall of a rough cemented
core, and faced with massive blocks clamped together with
metal. This is probably of early origin, for the existence of
such a work must have been essential at all times to the
security of the harbour; at its base stands a castle which
appears to be of Turkish construction. The harbour itself is
spacious and sheltered, and much frequented by small craft at
this day : it is however only shallow, and, being bottomed with
solid rock, cannot readily be improved. Two hundred yards to
the north has been hollowed out in the earth a very small
amphitheatre, whose arena is not more than 250 feet in circum-
ference : no trace of its stone or marble seating is visible. The
same is true of a small theatre in the hill-side, south of the light-
house, and not far north of the ^a.(>avTa KoXSyves. In this
portion of the site the lines of two streets are clearly defined,
one leading from the Amphitheatre and the other from the
Harbour, and converging at a circular ruin, perhaps that of a
fountain, where a marble Cupid of Graeco-Roman workman-
ship was found a few years ago.
This northern half of the site is not now built over, but
presents a hillocky waste of stone squared and unsquared,
granite shafts, fragments of marble mosaic and concrete, and
miscellaneous dsbris of a late period. The southern half is
covered by modem buildings and enclosures, out of which rise
the ruins of a large building, probably a church, of the Lusignan
epoch on the north of the new road, and in the vaults under
this structure a number of stone escutcheons have been found,
certain of which are now built into a bath at Ktima. Another
church, apparently Latin, stands a hundred yards further south,
and close to the city wall west of this two plain granite
shafts, apparently in situ, project from the soil about 20 feet
apart, and an immense number of similar columns are built
db/Goog[c
8 Devia Cypria.
into walls or peep out of the ground in this neighbour-
hood. A mediaeval stone lion lies on the top of a fence
hard by.
Immediately without the wall lie the foundations of the early
Greek cathedral (?) already mentioned, and under the church of
Agios Giorgios, must be the remains of the temple of which
four massive granite shafts stand in situ, deeply buried in the
soft earth which covers the whole site ; General di Cesnola has
made some attempt to clear the bases of those two with which
St. Paul's name is connected by tradition, the apostle being
reputed to have been tied to the northernmost and flogged, and
to have left, some twelve feet up, the mark of his blood (which
runs red on St. John's day I). The south-eastern angle of the
peribolus wall of this temple is seen under the fences of the
modern enclosure. A second temple seems to have stood
where the easternmost church on the site, Agios Antonios, now
lies in ruins : and about the tiny churches of Agia Marina and
Phaneromene to the north, and indeed over all the space
between that and Agios Giorgios, is a network of massive
foundations, showing that a large suburb existed outside the
wall on this side. The tombs are for the most part on the
north and east of the city, only two isolated groups, remarkable
for their Cypriote inscriptions, being found about a quarter of a
mile to the south. These have been described in the article
' Tombs ' in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol. ix. pp. 267 foil.,
and the more remarkable of the tombs at Palaeocastro by
General di Cesnola {p. 223) and others. The bluffs of Ktima are
also full of graves, pertaining to New Paphos, but so thorough
has been the search for treasure in past ages that it would be
probably impossible to find a single unrifled tomb, nor has any
tradition of the character of the spoil survived. The following
inscriptions, not previously published, I found at one time or
another on this site.
1. Pedestal of grey limestone in four fragments, now in Hadji
lanniko's garden, broken top and a good deal chipped: a
considerable piece gone on the left.
£3 I u Y fc I /• I n I M « I u I I n I I £l//////.i t A 4)/////
OYOYEIMOYTOVrTPATHr h/////A N T S
ZEPAPXElASKAIAEYKrOYOY E /////■//■// Y
PATOYl/'il PATPnN I TOKO INONTO/ZZ/YPPI flN
db/G00g[c
The Papko District. 9
ra(]a){?) OUCK'u^ Ma{/)oi')%(?) 7f [<i]5tX0[^
. . . OhiiKiov roG trrpanjyr^a-ytvros
T^S KvtTp{a\s iirap'^tiai xai AfVKiov O^eTiXnou
ToD avdvyrdrov t^ iraTpmvt rb KOtpbv ri [^Kymptmi'.
This inscription adds another to the meagre list of Roman
governors of Cyprus ^.
The cognomina of the three brothers being identical, the
lapicide has not repeated them. It is certainly curious to find
the legatus pro praetore placed before the proconsul. The
third brother had probably represented the island at Rome in
some matter, while his brothers were in command in Cj^irus
itself— a curious instance of the farming of a province among a
family.
2. Cut in large letters on a split column of grey limestone in
the same garden.
n A 4) r nd<pov.
8. On a fragment of white marble lying not far from the
church of St. George.
Q . DES : AIT : L'AME.
4. On a split column of white marble found in the same
neighbourhood.
+ ICI GIST : HARIOR(?)
BEDOUIN : E SON PE-
RE : S : P . DE BEDOUIN
QUE : DIEUS : AIT L
ARME :
5. To these inscriptions may be added a scarabaeus shown
to me in Ktima by M, Cleoboulos, assessor of the District Court.
It is said to have been found near Chrysochou, and is beauti-
fully engraved with a group of Heracles, armed with bow,
quiver, and skin, wrestling with a lion, while behind him stands
a draped female figure, without any distinguishing attributes.
Over the group are cut the following characters :—
-T X :k ^ ^^^^ ^ uy
' See the end of this volume for an enuroerstion of all Che pro-consular governor
whose names are bnown to me. The Itsl is as complete as I can make it, but the source
of evidence are so scattered that I tannot be sure of having exhausted all possibilities.
db/Goog[e
10 Devia Cypria.
i.e. ^iffiQiiiiFoi, genitive of the name AiftCBiju^vihich occurs
in the twenty-first line of the bronze tablet of Dali (Sammlung
der griech. dialekt-Inschr. i. p. 28).' I was unable to take an
impression of the scarab, or to examine it satisfactorily ; but
I should judge the lettering to be of the fourth century b. c.
Between New Paphos and Cape Drepano lies a fertile strip
of coastland, abounding in villages, and destitute only of an-
tiquities ; but at a line drawn from the latter cape to the mouth
of the Poll river begins the wild forest-tract of the Ak<tmas, so-
called from the ancient name of its extreme northern point,
which, except for two or three villages on the summit and east
of the central ridge and hardly to be included in the district
at all, is devoid of human habitation other than isolated tchifliks
or huts inhabited only in summer. It is a sterile corner of
C3T)rus, thickly covered with scrub, abounding in deep gullies
and bold rock formations, the central spine being broken into
bold peaks or miniature table mountains ; here and there in a
tiny valley is a cultivated patch, but nine-tenths of the district
produces nothing but game.
Its ancient remains proved less interesting than I had been
led to expect, but they sufficiently prove that the district was
once much more thickly inhabited than now. The headland
of Drepano is covered with the ruins of a Roman town ; no
village exists very near to it, and the structures seem to have
been thrown down by only natural agencies ; the walls range
from I to ai feet thick, but so far as can be seen among the piles
of grey stone and the dense forest of ' schinia,' the buildings
were quite small — mostly dwelling-houses. In the centre of the
low ridge, on the top and south of which the town was situated,
are remains of a small amphitheatre, and near it massive ruins
of a large church. Fragments of cornice are frequent, but
nothing on the site speaks of great antiquity; and the plain
marble shafts which stand at the west end of the little church
of St. George, as well as the marble Byzantine altar (shaped
like an hour-glass), are quite late. In the top of the cliff to the
north have been cut several cisterns, and in the seaward face
two remarkable tiers of graves, one above the other, the divid-
ing floor being so thin that in several places it has either given
way of itself, or been easily broken through by rvfi^wpv^ot.
The upper tier contains large tombs with shallow arched /ic^-
pLara or sepulchral niches, each with a rock-bed, and lying
parallel to the side of the tomb itself, The tombs of the lower
db/Goog[c
The Papho District. ii
tier however have ^v^fiaia which radiate at right angles to the
central hall, and as the latter arrangement appears (see the
article 'Tombs' in J. H. S. p. 265) to be the older in Cyprus,
we may perhaps conclude that the two tiers are of different
periods. In a large tomb of the lower series measuring 17 feet
8 inches x 9 feet I found two names cut over /xy^/iara, one
6. B I K A P I Y BiKaptov
merely scratched, the other,
7. 4) I A A I O Y *iAa(W
N I K I Nik(o{v),
very deeply incised in letters six inches long. Other tombs are
scored with crosses showing that they had been sanctified a
second time for Christian uses.
Nearly a mile inland at a spot known as Meleti is another
group of ten tombs, arranged like the spokes of a wheel in
an isolated mass of rock, and all rifled long ago. Their chief
characteristics are spaciousness and abundance of rock-cut
mouldings; the doors have irp6&vpa sometimes flanked with
pilasters, and approached by from eight to fifteen steps, and
the fivf^fiara are few and elaborately ornamented, one having
a triple portico supported on square pilasters, giving access
to a recess containing the sepulchral bed. Over the centre
of this portico is a deep incision in the rock suggesting that
an inscription has been abstracted, as by Count de VogUe
from the Zw^Xaiof rrjf 'Prjyivijs at Kuklia. But I can find no
record of the finding here of any such text, Cypriote or Greek,
and the only inscription now to be seen in any of the group is
KAICY (Kai <rv) cut over a fivfiiia: a number of crosses prove
db/Goog[e
13 Devia Cypria.
that, whoever originally made these graves, they were certainly
used at some period by Christians.
Off the extremity of Drepano lies the island of St. George,
on which the Commissioner, Captain Thompson, assured me
that there were cisterns similar to those on the mainland ;
between the cape and the island runs a reef which may have
contributed to form a small natural harbour. To the ancient
name of this town there exists no kind of clue : Strabo only
mentions the 'AKa^iat between Paphos andArsinoe; Ptolemy
names Apivavov Hkpov but says nothing of a city. If there
were any ground whatever for asserting, as does Sakellarios
(vol. i. p. 109), that the Cyprian Alexandria, mentioned by
Eustathius, Stephen of Byzantium, and the Chronicon Pascale^
was situated Karh raOra Th fiept}, these might be its ruins, being
the most considerable of this district yet unidentified ; but the
name Capo de Alessandretta found in a Venetian map by
D'Anville, and in the Isolario of Porcacchi is attached to a
point of the coast beyond PoIi-tis-Chrysochou in which neigh-
bourhood was also the Lusignan cazal of Alexandretta, and
we are compelled to give the city on Cape Drepano the choice
of any one of the twenty unattached names recorded by Engel
(i. pp. 156 foil.) ^
The account given by General di Cesnola (p. 225) of this site
affords a good criterion whereby to judge that gentleman's
accuracy or power of observation : he says, ' At this place
(i. e. the village of Lemba) a peasant conducted me to the sea-
shore through a passage in a craggy ravine to see some rock-
cut tombs, which are near a headland called Drepano ; but there
are no remains of ancient habitations in the neighbourhood, though
the quantity of tombs there must have belonged to some ancient
town not far off. A few hundred yards east of these tombs are
the crumbhng walls of an early Greek church.' If the General
ever went to Drepano at all, how on earth did he miss this mass
of ruins, a quarter of a mile square, and situated close above
the tombs ? And why is the church, which is about fifty yards
from the tombs in a southerly direction, said to be ' a few hun-
dred yards east ' ?
' See Engel, vol i. p. 74.
' These are (excluding Acra and Cnidus, which t think that 1 have identified in the
Carpass) Acragas, Argos, Asine, Dionia, Elmaeum and Gerandrum (both probably
near Soh), Epidarum, Cinyreia, Cremaseia, Creaion, Cyrene, Lacedacmon, Myricae,
Panacniro, Seatus, Satrachus, Tegessus, Tyrra, Tharsis and a city ' Cyprus,' the two
last being very doubtfiil, Cf. Sakellarios, p. 107.
db,Google
The Papho District. 13
North of the cape the hills approach the sea, and the scenery
becomes more wild; the streams cut channels between lofty
cliffs, and, forking, leave precipitous masses of rock standing
out of their valleys. On such a precipitous plateau, dividing a
stream which flows down from Orodhes, are faint traces of an
ancient village — a few cippi, squared blocks, plain shafts and
caps, and opened tombs being all that remain. The rock is
very near the surface, and there is nothing to excavate but a
few late graves, and if General di Cesnola ever intended to send
workmen here (as one of his former overseers asserted to me) he
had been grievously misled. The place is now called Lipali,
and lies to the north of the spring of Agios Theodores; a
second spring rises higher up the valley.
From this point to the northern extremity of the peninsula,
Cape Amatlti, stretches unbroken forest ; for thirteen miles
there is no human habitation except the huts of salt-watchers
on Cape Lara and at Ger^-nisos, and shepherds' refuges here
and there on the hills, while such tracks as exist are most
difficult even for mules to traverse, and jagged gullies must be
continually crossed ; no road can be found along the sea-shore
against which a surf seems to beat even in the calmest weather.
But at a point marked on the Survey as Agios Konon and
Agios Giorgios, ten miles north of Lipati, are remains of an-
other large village, boasting a perennial holy spring; among
the debris are foundations of one of the smallest churches in
existence, the whole dimensions being only 14 feet x 7 feet ; a
much larger church, that called Agios Konon on the map, exists
a short distance to the north, and a curious shrine built on to
the mouth of a cave, and (to judge from the names cut and
scribbled on its frescoes) much frequented by inconsiderate
pilgrims, is that called Agios Giorgios •. All are mere shells
inhabited only by countless myriads of fleas, which swarmed
up our persons with exuberant joy after a Lenten abstention
probably of many months' duration. The ruins of the village
seem to be no older than the churches, and are probably By-
zantine. The most noticeable feature is an artificial cave near
the largest church, hewn nearly square, a rock pillar being left
in the centre to support the roof. As there are no sepulchral
niches it seems probable that it was constructed for a dwelling-
' Our native guide inverted these dedications, making tlie southern shrine that ot
Agios Konon.
db/Goog[e
14 Devia Cypria,
place, or to serve the purpose, which it has since fulfilled, of
a sheep-fold.
From this point the track crosses the ridge to the Agios
Nic6la tchiflik, and we were assured that we could not follow
the western coast any farther ; but by dint of riding along the
beach where there was any, and into the sea, where there was
none, we reached the point of Sykarona, the last before Amatlti
itself. Round its base, however, flowed deep water, and we had
perforce to turn inland and cross the neck of the cape by
ascendiiig a dry gully and descending a precipitous slope ; after
much difficulty we reached Cape ArnaQti and found the eastern
side of the peninsula less rugged than the western, and a fairly
level track led down to the shores of the beautiful bay of Poll,
Since leaving Agios Konon we had seen no antiquities, and
searched in vain near Cape ArnaQti for General di Cesnola's
'ruins of an ancient town between two curiously-shaped
conical peaks'; the place indicated must be the deep gap in
the central ridge above Agios Min&s, on either side of which
rise two hills, rather /xaoro- than KtavMi^tl^, but no trace of any
remains exists here, and indeed the only site which shows any
vestige of ancient ruins is that on the seashore below the Agios
Nic6la tchiflik and opposite to Kakoskalion-nisi which is pro-
bably the Stiria Isle of Pliny. Here are the faintest traces
of ancient foundations, and a considerable quarry from which
stone has probably been cut for transportation to Arsinoe : but
General di Cesnola could hardly have intended this, for, though
it lies under the (flat-topped) Pyrgo Mtlti, there is no corres-
ponding hill on the other side.
On this side of the Akamas we enter a land of classical and
mediaeval romance ; for here, according to Cypriote tradition,
was the Fontana Amorosa of Ariosto, and a distinct and far
more beautiful Bp^ats Tmy 'Epwrmv, where the natives say that
Aphrodite wedded Acamas. There can be little doubt that
the two have probably but one origin, and that the real 'fount
of love ' is the present Bpvtris t&v 'Epmr&v, although the western
tradition has identified itself with a separate spring. The latter
rises at the foot of the cliff in a tiny bay half-an-hour's ride
north of Agios Nic6la, and is a prosaic little fount enough * ;
but the former, three and a half miles to the south, near
' The ruins of an old town, mentioiied by Engcl, i p. 73, as existing near here,
consist only of the remains ot a church.
Digtizedb/GoOgie
The Papha District. 15
the Potami tchiflik, has no rival in C3rprus. Approaching
from the sea the traveller follows a rushing stream up a
densely wooded ravine, barred at last by sombre cliffs,
whose top can scarcely be discerned through the arch of
boughs; spreading and shimmering over the slanting face
of the rock falls a mountain stream, until near the base the
cliff slopes inwards and the water falls from a forest of maiden-
hair fern in a thousand silver threads to the pool below : across
the threads here and there shoot stray shafb of sunlight,
penetrating the dense shade of a gigantic fig-tree, and three
separate springs rise on either side under the cliff and gurgle
down to join the pool. The traveller, whose eyes have seen
only the rock and scrub of waterless Cyprus, seems in an en-
chanted spot, not seeing from whence the water comes, and
he ceases to wonder that native fancy has peopled the spot
with legendary loves, and sailors carried westward vague reports
of its beauties to the ears of Ariosto ^.
Between the rival fountains and a little back from the coast
lies a mediaeval relic now known as Pyrgos, the 'Tower';
an arched gateway gives entrance to a small cloister of which
only the northern side is standing, the wall showing traces of
fresco. Round about are foundations of out-buildings, and
' Orlando Fur. xviii. stonz., 137 foil. Astolpbo and bis four companions (oucb at
Famagusta on their way from Damascus to France, and, tailing presently round the
south of Ihe island, reach Paphos, where they diaembark and wander inland ; —
Dal mar aei miglia o Bette a poca a poco
Si vB ealendo in verso il coUe omeno
Mirti e cedri e nsranci e lauri i] loco.
E mille altri soavi arbori han pieno^
Serpillo e pcrsa, e rose e gigli, e croco
Spargon dall' odorifero terreno
Lo (a ogni vento che da terra spire.
Da Itmpida fontana tutta quelta
Piaggia rigando va un ruscel secondo
' Ben si pu6 dir, che sia di Vener bella
II luogo dileltevole e giocondo ;
Che v' k ogni donna aifato, ogni donzella
Piacevol piii, ch' altrove sia oel mondo,
E fa la Dea che tutle ardon d' amore
Giovani e vecchie infino aU' ultime ore.
' Fontana Amorosa' is a misnomer; Ihe real Fontana Amorosa of Ariosto is the
magic spring in the Forest of Arden, twin with the fount of Hate (i, slanz. 76). The
Cyprian fount is rather the Fontana di Vcntn,
db,Google
i6 Devia Cypria.
disused paths lead through the brushwood : east of it is a little
spring and some fine pine-trees. There can be no doubt that
it was once a small monastery, or a ^eroyiji of a larger one.
The interior of the kingdom of Paphos is divided into five
distinct ridges^ by the deep valleys of the Poli river, the
Ezuza, the Xero, and the Dhiarrizos ; and we will describe
it in detail beginning with the northernmost division which
is bounded by the sea, the mountains, and the Poli river. The
remains of Arsinoe which lie at the mouth of the latter have
been explored recently by the representatives of the Cyprus
Exploration Fund, and their report will render it idle to attempt
any description here ; we will pass therefore from the Akamas
into the interior of the country, which has been (from an
archaeological point of view) little known hitherto. As has
been already remarked the difficult nature of these hills has
deterred most travellers from leaving the main track, which
from Arsinoe passes either directly across the western ridge
by Critoterra and Orodhes into the Papho plain, or follows
the Poli river for a few miles, and crosses by Stroumbi, Polemi,
and Tsada to Ktima. Now and then a traveller who, like
Pococke, has visited the monastery of Kykko, makes his way
by Chrysaorg;iatissa and the Ezuza valley to Papho, or coming
from Nicosia he may, like St. Barnabas, take the route of the
Marathasa valley under Chionistra, and follow the Dhiarrizos
' This convenient natural division was for some reason nej^ecCed by the Lusignan
princes in the partition of the Domain Royal in the Papho district, although the
bailiwicks were five in number. For example, in the bailiwick of Chrysochou was
Akourdalia, west of the Poli river. That of Emba included Tremithousia in the
Chrysochou section, but not Ktima, for the latter pertained to that of Aschelia
(I'Echelle of the Hospitallera), which comprised both slopes of the Ezuia valley. The
upper part of the Dhiarrizos valley, together with a ' Critu,' which must be Kritou
Marottou, fell to Mammonia ; while the lower valley, with Lapithiou on the left bank of
the Eiuza, and Helia on the right (11 pertained to the bailiwick of Covucho or Kuldia.
Altogether the villages are strangely jumbled together, and must have owed their
dependence to other considerations than geographical, perhaps to a classification of
their products, or more probably to the fact that, after the whole island had been given
away in fiets by Guy de Lusignan, his successor Amaury only resumed a portion of
these through the generosity of his vassals, and stray fiefs no doubt continuing to fall in
subsequently were attached at random to various bailiwicks ; had the Domain Royal
been determined once for all on the first assumption of the Seigno^y of Cyprus by Guy,
we should no doubt have had a more rational classification. The Commissioner of the
district has pointed out to me that this division into bailiwicks has partly survived in the
distribution of the lands of the great Tchitliks. On the fie& see the list in Mas Latrie,
L'lle de Chypre, pp. 403 folt. ; and for the constituents of the bailiwicks the Italian
Catalogue, printed in the Siune author's Hist, de Chypre, voL iii. pp. 504 folL
db,Google
The Papho District. 17
down to Old Paphos. But no one visits the villages which lie
up on the hill-sides, and accordingly there is no single complete
account, either archaeological or otherwise, of this fine district,
known intimately by the Papho officials alone. Pococke only
passed down the Ezuza valley : Engel says nothing of it,
finding no data in his main authority, Von Hammer; Sakellarios
seems to have travelled by Yiolou to Ktima and thence by
Chrysaorgiatissa to Kykko, and to have seen nothing in the
Papho villages: General di Cesnola is silent on the subject,
although he marks two routes on his map of 'Travels and
Explorations' which would imply that he had twice visited
Chrysaorgiatissa. His foreman, Besh-besh, did a little digging
in tiiese hills, notably at Drimu, but this the General does
not mention.
In the western foothills of the Forest Range more extensive Andmt
evidence of ancient copper-mining may be seen than in any ^^^
other part of the island : three miles to the east of Arsinoe,
where the lately defunct Cyprus Copper-mining Company has
been working for three years, huge mounds may be seen com-
posed entirely of old slags, and adits have been found running
for hundreds of yards into the hill-side and communicating with
a labyrinth of workings now filled with water ', Tombs of the
miners have been found near the adits themselves, and others
may be seen on the hill to the west, in and about the village of
Pelathousa. The vein seems to have run southwards, for great
heaps of slag are to be seen again near Istingio, not far from
the right bank of the Poli river : a considerable village has
surrounded the workings here, the remains of which may be
seen on a knoll on the left of the track to Melathia, and a
number of empty rock-tombs yawn on the sides of the same
knoll. A long block of stone now lying in front of the village
mosque has had a piece excised from it, which the villagers
declare bore an inscription : it was found in a tomb, conveyed
to its present situation, and the lettered portion was cut out
fay a passing \6pSos. Of course my Turkish informants had
no idea of the character of this lettering, but if their story is
' It 13 this vast accumulation of water which has frustrated the hopes of the modern
miners, added to which expert evidence has recently declared that the percentage of
copper in the ore, even if it could be ever easily worlced, would not repay outlay in
these times, whatever may have been tts value in the days of slave-labour and greater
rarity of the metal. These works are those of which Pococke heard as existing near
' Bole ' (Poli). Travels, ii. p. 335.
db,Google
1 8 Devia Cypria.
true, we may conjecture that it was Cj'priote and that perhaps
Besh-besh was the abstractor, as he appears to have been in
another case at Lassa on the other side of the river, and
possibly both texts are among those published by General di
Cesnola, and ascribed vaguely to Paphos'. At Melathia and
Lyso are more rock-tombs, which probably belong to the same
mining-population, and at the latter, which lies on the ridge
midway between the two ancient mines, two stone escutcheons
are built over the north and south doors of the church, and
inside is a fine screen of similar (though inferior) work to that
at Aschelia, The village is not mentioned by M. de la Mas
Latrie as being either a fief or a part of the Domain Royal in
the Lusignan period, but the presence of late rock-tombs, and
early woodwork in the church point to its being a village of
some antiquity. However, there is no saying from how great
a distance such stones as these might not have been carried
by zealous builders or restorers.
Even with the kind assistance of officials of the British
Museum I have been unable to identify the coats of arms, and
must leave the problem to specialists in foreign heraldry.
' The feet that the General has ascribed two inscriptions of Amargetli to Old Paphos
(w. J. H. S, vol ix. p. a63) proves that he had very little knowledge of the provenance
of flie antiquities collected by Besh-besh, who held a roving commission, and was the
db/Goog[c
The Papho District. 19
In the other villages of this section, Myrmikoph, Steni,
Peristerona, Agios Isidoros, Magounda, Kynousa, Melandra,
Zakharia, Philousa, Tremithousa, Evretou and Sarami, there is
nothing worthy of record : and with a passing reference to the
ruined monastery of Khrysolakkona above Myrmikoph, of
which nothing remains but the shell of a large church with
triple apse, some traces of a cloister at its west end, and
foundations of out-buildings, we may pass the Poli river and
ascend the lofty ridge which divides it from the Ezuza. It is
this ridge which, cur\'ing northwards, runs out at last into the
Akimas, but having already described this extremity, we begin
with the villages which lie just within or south of the line
drawn from Cape Drepano to the mouth of the Poll river, which
we have assumed to be the Umit of the Akamas proper.
The first ruins that are met with lie to the east of Pano- Pano-
Orodhes on the right of the path leading from thence to °™'*"
Yiolou ; but these are mere heaps of unsquared stone, among
which can be traced the foundations of a church and a circular
tower, and can be of no great antiquity. A mile further east
some small rock tombs are cut in the slope of a round hill,
and at Miliou which lies deep down in the wooded valley of
the western fork of the Poli river a few traces of ancient
habitation are to be seen, to wit fragments of small columns,
large squared blocks, and concrete pavement, but nothing of
res] discoverer of the treasures now in New York. So much has been written and
said since the pubiicalion of General di Ceanola'a book as to numerous inaccuracies and
misstatements contained therein, that I almost owe an apology for flogging a dead
hoTse : but several conversations with those who had worked for him shed a (to me)
new light on the subject, and showed me the genesis of much that seems mythical in
the book. The truth of the matter seems to be that the General seldom directed his
eicavations in person, and was not present when the treasures were found ; he under-
took some rapid tours about the island, stopping for instance ofte day otiiy at Old Paphos
(cf. his book, p. ao6, • I superintended excavations there in 1869 for stverai months'),
but his collection was amassed by the labours of his dragoman Besh-besh, both by
excavation, and by purchase in the villages and in the bazaars of the towns. Thus,
for example, no mention is made of Drimu in the General's book, although all the
villagers aver that Besh-besh found a number of things there. The ridiculous depths
to which excavations are said to have been carried, e. g, forty-one feet at Old Paphos
(p. 369) in a spot at which solid rock lies only two or three feet below the surface,
and forty to fifty-five feet at Amathus Cp. »55) where a tomb twenty feet in depth is quite
exceptional, appear to be inventions of Besh-besh's, who spent so much of his patron's
money on mastica and other things unarchaeological, that he was obhgod to manufacture
satisfactory explanations of his targe expenditure. When General di Cesnola travelled
in person he knew nothing of the necessity for keeping accurate notes ; in proof of this
I will only call attention to his short account of the Carpass on p. 903, a most ex-
traordinary attempt to supply the wont of any certain knowledge by such vague
~ !9 as might have been picked up from merchants in the bazaar of Lamaca.
C 2
db/Goog[e
20 Devia Cypria.
much interest. Nor has the little monastery of Agii Anargyri
below the village anything to show except a hideous iconostasis
painted sky-blue ! 1 was entertained here by the OUopSfios of the
see of Papho who, after doing justice to his own cheer, proceeded
to toast no less a person than Aphrodite Paphia, whose personal
charms and freedom of manners he described in glowing terms.
I believe that he has hopes of the episcopal throne.
Mrmehfh. But on the west side of Pano-Orodhes, a mile and a half down
the slope, and two miles above the Lipati site, described on
page 13, is a unique specimen of the irerpai rpwrj/ityai or
pierced monoliths, whose origin has been so much disputed.
It is simply a rough mass of rock, about seven feet square, not
shaped in any way by art, but pierced by the usual oblong
aperture, 2 feet 10 inches in height, by i foot 2 inches at the
lower end, which is clean-cut, and i foot 9 inches at the upper
end which is left rough. The block has been split by natural
agency, for another part lies near displaying a section of the
same aperture. On the other side of a rivulet immediately
opposite to this stone are remains of a small group of buildings,
and a late tomb has been opened close to them ; I will reserve
further remarks on this variety of a large class until the
description of the interior is completed, and we come to the two
examples which stand upon the sea-shore below Old Paphos ;
but it may be said at once that this Orodhes stone seems to
supply a distinct step in the evolution of the ordinary type.
The ruined monastery of Agios Savas hard by has no features
of interest, and I was told that a few years ago a \6pSoi dug
there and at a spot nearer to the stones, but found nothing.
Ctmtttnes. Ancient tombs have been found in various localities on this
ridge ; at Karydhi between Orodhes and Beyia ; on the north
of the village of Kathikas, and also on the west, in the latter
case in considerable numbers, plain sarcophagi, cippi, local
pottery, gold ornaments and glass having been unearthed by
the villagers ^ Again near Stroumbi a sarcophagus has been
unearthed; an accidental landslip near Tsada revealed some
poor earth graves, and the road-makers discovered others at a
point north of Callepia. In none of these cases could I find
any traces of a site to account for the tombs. At Polemi how-
' Among the glass found here was a phisl in which some hquid had crystalliied, leaving
rings of various colours on the inner side of the gloss. The peasant who found this esteemed
it ao great a treasure that he proposed to present it to the Queen. His loyal enthusiasm
was not encouraged, and what became of the phial I never learnt, nor did 1 ever see it
db,Google
The Papho District. 21
ever, where two or three series of graves have been discovered
from time to time in a rising ground to the south-west, faint
traces remain of an ancient village on the crown of the rise :
from the narrowness of the Sp6/ioi of these graves, the fragments
of coarse red pottery lying near, and some jars which 1 saw in
the houses of Polemi villagers, I had no difficulty in assigning
the site to the Roman period, to which the Kathikas graves and
the others above mentioned also belong : and they afford
interesting evidence of the numerous population of these
uplands in the days of the commercial greatness of New
Paphos.
In a deep valley on the western slope of this ridge lies the si.Neophy
famous monastery of St, Neophytus, founded in the last years '"^'
of the twelfth century, almost contemporaneously with the esta-
blishment of Frank rule. In sanctity it ranks in Cyprus after
Kykko, Chrysaorgiatissa, and Machaeras, but in the west is the
best known of all Cypriote foundations, thanks to the publication
of the TvTTiK^ AiaS-^Kt] of its saintly founder in 1777 at Venice,
and in 1881 in the Archaeologia (vol. xlvii) from a MS. in Edin-
burgh, To the latter the reader is referred both for the history
of the founder, and the character and circumstances of his
foundation : no more instructive record exists of the original
constitution of an Orthodox monastic establishment.
The present monastery buildings are situated in a little para-
dise of running water and deep groves of olive, pomegranate,
and lemon-trees, immediately to the south of the cave in which
the saint first took refuge. The latter, carved by the hands of
Neophytus himself, into a dwelling room and a small chapel, is
still the goal of pious pilgrimage : and except for the frescoes
which have been daubed over walls and roof, remains much as
its first tenant left it. In the little room, 11 ft. x 8 ft. at its
largest, are his coffin-shaped bed, excavated in a recess of the
rock (into which the faithful sick still climb, and turn round
thrice), a little rock-cut table and seat, and over the latter a
modern cupboard filled with the skulls of the hermit's earliest
followers. On the seat was standing, when we visited the place,
a small icon of an angel, painted on wood, certainly not in the
usual Greek style, but strongly suggestive of Italian sixteenth
century art ; but whence it had come no monk could tell us ^
' There is an Italian icon, painted on canvas, in the church of Hierostipou, two
miles east of New Paphos, and not more than four miles from this monasteiy. A
beautiful iconoatasis of Italian workmanship exists at AschelJa, two miles from
db/Google
22 Devia Cypria.
A door leads into the tiny sanctuary divided by a rock screen
from the rest of the little chapel, die whole being 30 ft. long
X II ft, broad. The roof is covered with late frescoes, the most
gorgeous marking the spot where the saint upheld the falling
rock with his hand. A modern porch and staircase of masonry
are built on to the face of the cliff, whereby the faithful may
approach this holy spot, and a second small cave has been
hollowed out to the right, perhaps by one of the saint's dis-
ciples. At the foot of the cliff rises a holy spring, where
tradition has it that the Vii^in appeared to Neophytus.
How the monastic buildings came to be erected on the
opposite bank of the rivulet, which runs down from this spring,
is told us in the Aia&^Ktj, ch. xx. No church was built at first,
and for some time the little rock-chapel, described above, served
the purposes of the monks. The present edifice appears to be
not earlier than the sixteenth century, and contains nothing
whatever of interest : together with the rest of the monastery
it suffered severely after the Greek rising in the early part of
the present century, its books were burnt, and its frescoes
defaced ; but the offerings of the faithful in Greece and Russia
have sufficed to restore the fabric, daub it with the usual series
of frescoes, fill its screen with icons, and enrich it with silver-
bound service books, and startling embroideries in gold and
silver thread. The living rooms are built on opposite sides of
a square, separated by a garden, and opening on to pleasant
corridors which command a matchless view down the strait
wooded glen to the sea nearly a thousand feet below. Blessed
with a perennial spring of pure water, and with abundant shade,
it is becoming a favourite summer resort of the wealthier Paphiti,
and few lovelier spots could be found : but, as a monastery, it
appears to be decaying fast. The Hegoumenus is non-resident,
the Oeconomus is (or was) of dubious repute, the monks are very
few in number, unusually rude and ignorant, and by no means
observant of the rules of the Founder, especially with regard to
women. (See the AiaS^Kt], ch, xix.) Having no considerable
endowment, it will fall more rapidly than Kykko, Chrysaorgia-
tissa, or Machaeras, into the state of desolation and desuetude
which has overtaken all but half-a-dozen of the Cypriote
monasteries: religious fervour is dead, and the Bishops have
a direct interest in promoting the break-up of monastic
db/Goog[e
• I
S i
i I
db,Google
db,Google
The Papho District. 23
establishments whose revenues will fall to the See; so the
buildings are left to tumble into ruin, only the church and a
residence for an iwiTponos being kept in any repair. Nor can
this fate be altogether regretted, melancholy as it is to witness
the decline of ancient and once honourable foundations, and
grateful as every traveller in the East must feel towards those
who have so often entertained him. In a barbarous age the
monasteries afforded a ready refuge to the persecuted, and
sustenance to many outcasts and foundlings: in a night of
ignorance and cruelty they kept alive a little flame of learning
and piety : they constituted a rallying-point for the subjects of
an alien power, and, inhabited for the most part by devout, if
ignorant, men, maintained at least a fair name before the world.
But now their day is past and the monks, knowing this, grumble
at the trifling abstinence and self-denial which the rules, if pro-
perly enforced, impose upon them ; their political uses are no
longer beneficial, and they tend to foment intrigue : they have
ceased to shine in edifying contrast among an ignorant and
superstitious peasantry, for without any assistance from the
monasteries the latter have in many districts progressed more
than they; and, having no religious enthusiasm, the idle in-
habitants of the remote cloisters give a handle to those evil
reports, which weaken day by day the authority of the Orthodox
Church in Cyprus.
South of this monastery the ridge begins to trend inland,
and on the slopes of the bend lie a number of prosperous
villages, many (e.g. Mesoyi), to judge from the rock-tombs,
fragments of mouldings and so forth, to be seen in them,
standing on the sites of ancient dependencies of the neighbour-
ing New Paphos. Twenty minutes' ride above Armou lies Armou.
what appears to be the site of an outlying villa, with some
opened tombs, but chiefly remarkable for the finding of a
limestone trough, shaped at one end into the semblance of
a dolphin's head. The trough itself is 2 ft. 8 ins. x i ft.
II ins.; but the head lengthens the whole to 4 ft. 5 ins.
The basin is i ft. 9 ins. deep, and the whole stands 2 ft.
in height. It is of very careful workmanship, the snout, ears,
and crest of the dolphin being well executed, and it is probably
of the Roman period. The present possessor is one Philippos
of Tsada, a village on the top of the ridge three miles from
Armou, and not far above the Neophytus monastery.
A mile to the south-east in a volcanic-looking valley, lies the thol^'da.
db/Goog[e
24 Devia Cyprm,
Christlanvillage of Marathounda, surrounded by ruined churches.
In the only perfect one— that actually in the village — is a little
limestone altar, i ft. 3 ins. high, x 7i ins. x 7I ins. inscribed
in half-inch letters of the later Ptolemaic period :
A no A Ar^. N 1
^ATti\\<i>vi
M YP TATHI
MvpTdrg
Z A r c
n<i{p0)[os
YPEPoNASA
iTTip 'Ovaffo.
BO |£ KOY
BotlTKOV.
The name 'OvaffS,^ occurs in a Cypriote inscription of New
Paphos (Sammlung, No. 30) and elsewhere (cp. Pape s. v.), and
BSitTKos twice on pedestals found by us at Old Paphos (J. H, S.
vol. ix, 57, 99), This designation of Apollo is new, and recalls
in form the best known Cyprian epithet of the god, rXarijs.
A third epithet — Melanthius — was found at Amargetti, about
five miles distant from this point, and I conjectured in the
Journal of Hellenic Studies (ix. pp. 171 foil.) that it embodied
a village name. I should prefer however to revoke that con-
jecture now, and place the two epithets Melanthius and Myrtates
on the same basis without giving them any local signification.
It will be noticed that all these three epithets of Apollo sug-
gest a reference to the vegetable kingdom. Apollo iXarijj is
Apollo ' of the grove ' ; Apollo iLvpTdrtjs may be he of the
myrtle ; and Apollo /liXdvSioi recalls the medicinal attributes
of the herb fifXdfdioy, a species of poppy, known to botanists
as nigella sativa. The close connection of trees and plants
with the Greek divinities is well known, and several were often
associated with a single god, for example the ivy and vine
with Dionysus, and the myrtle, apple, poppy and rose with
Aphrodite : and in a few cases they have supplied distinctive
appellations for their patrons;— the tamarisk gave Apollo the
epithet (wpiKoios in Lesbos and the Thessalian Corope, and the
mjTtle itself that of fivpr&os in Cyrene ^. A very curious ex-
ample occurs in Cyprus itself, tending to prove that the custom
of so naming obtained in the island, to wit the Aphrodite
fiVKrjpoSt? 'of the almond tree,' commemorated in an inscription
of Melusha published by General di Cesnola {p. 423, no. 23).
The healing powers ascribed to Apollo would account for the
■ The authorities for these epithets are quoted in Ritter and Prcller, Gricch. Mytho-
logie, p. 29a, 4th ed.
db,Google
The Papho District. 25
bestowal of such epithets as /nXdvBios and fivprd-nji, if they are
really derived from the melanthium and myrtle. The virtues
of the former and of its oil are set forth by Dioscorides {iii. 92 ;
1.46); it appears to have been accounted potent against an
amazing variety of disorders, such as headache, toothache,
the itch, eye complaints, tumours, worms, bites of spiders,
difficulty of breathing and affections of the urinary organs.
The properties of the myrtle are described by the same author
(i. 133) in almost identical terms, eye complaints, headache
(after wine), spider bites and urinary affections all appearing
once more ; and it is worthy of remark in connection with the
last class of disorders that many of the objects found at the
seat of Apollo fifXdvSios (Amargetti) displayed conspicuous
phalli, either on statuettes or cones. In one case we found
a bronze representation of the complete organs. But yet these
were not so much ithyphallic or exaggerated as faithful
attempts to reproduce the membra ; and I am inclined to believe
that they were ex voto offerings dedicated, after cure by the
virtues of the [i€\dv0iov, in a shrine of Apollo the Healer'.
It is quite to the point to compare'' with the epithet the
names MtXas and MtXavevs, given to a son of Apollo, king of
the Dryopians, by Pherecydes (Schol. Soph. Trach. 354) and
Pausanias (iv. 2. 2) respectively ; but these names must be
themselves explained before they can be used to elucidate the
meaning of ft^XduSiov, and they may very well be due to the
medicinal virtues of some black berry, similar to that of the
■ Cyprian herb. But at any rate they tend further to show that
lii\&v6ios is not a local epithet, but is the outcome of a connection
of Apollo with black colour.
It seems probable then that the Cyprian Apollo was es-
sentially the physician. His cult in the island was not very
important ; beside these two villages of Amargetti and
Marathounda, we hear of it in ancient times at Tembrus,
Erystheia, and Amamassus^ obscure townships probably in
the neighbourhood of Curium, and of course at Curium * itself
the fountain-head of the worship. Here it was located at a spot
known as Hyle, a town according to Stephen of Byzantium,
but probably only a sacred grove, where arose a temple, iden-
> Compare with this the cult of ApoUo Lermenus on the Upper Maeander (J. R. S.
™i- pp. 376 foil.) where the god is the healer after he has taken vengeance on impurity.
' As Dr. Deecke ItLndly suggested to me,
' Sleph. Byz. s. w., Nonnus Dionys. xiil 445. < Strabo, 683 c
db,Google
a6 Devia Cypria.
tified by General di Cesnola with a spot now called ' Apellon '
some hundreds of yards inland from Curium itself. Julian ^
alludes vaguely to C3T)rian altars dedicated to Helios and Zeus,
but seems to distinguish the former from Apollo, On coins the
god appears at Curium, Paphos (Nicocles 11), Salamis (Ni-
cocreon) and Soli', but except in the first case (?) not before
the fourth century. As for inscriptions, a cave now known as
iXoivta Tov iirtcTK&TTOv is dedicated to Apollo Hylates near New
Paphos, and two dedications have been found to the same god
at Drimu. General di Cesnola found several dedications in
Cypriote to him at Athieno * ; a sanctuary of Apollo was revealed
near Voni in the district of Kythrea, five years ago*, and a
fragment of a bowl was found near Tamassus in 1887
bearing portions of the words dvf6r)Kf ^Ait6XX(opi on the lip.
An interesting variety occurs in a Cj^riote inscription of
Pyla * — Apollo fiaylpios.
It is noteworthy that in none of these localities is there any
sure evidence of a very early cult : the coins and inscriptions
referring to Apollo are not earlier than the fifth century, and
many, e.g. the New Paphos dedications, are of the fourth : and
this accords with the inference to be drawn from the long ex-
clusion of the Greek alphabet from Cyprus, to wit, that western
influence was hardly felt in the island at all until the fifth
century. Western settlements there were, such as Marium,
and perhaps Salamis, but they affected the general condition
of the island as little as did the Phoenicians of Citium and
Idalium. As research has tended more and more to minimise
the part played by the latter in Cyprian economy, and to reject
their claim to be the importers even of the great goddess of the
island, or the founders of her temples *, so western influence
must be relegated to the days of Evagoras. Not until the end
of the fourth century do we find the ^rsi Cyprian inscription
in Ionian letters.
^ Or. iv. p. 135, Spanh., quoted by Engel, p. 664.
* Head, HtsL Num. pp. 69a folL
' Samtnlung, Nos. ^a, 75, 77, 78.
' M. O. Kichter in Mitth. des deutsch. arch. Inst. ix.
* Sammlung, No. lao, and aho Moriz Schmidt Die Inscbr. von Idallon, p. 98.
■ It will be remembered that we found mo Phoenician relics at Old Paphos at all ;
.nor have any been found at Amathus, Salamis, Lapethus, or indeed (except isolated
instances) anywhere but at Cilium and Idalium. Has the Phoenician question been
revised since the days of £ngel. when the Cypriote script was supposed to be Phoenician t
If the latter people did so much in Cyprus how came its script to survive I and why
should not the goddess have come originally from the same source as the script?
db/Goog[e
The Papho District. 27
Of the character of the cult we are only told that all who
touched the altar near Curium were hurled from the cliffs;
but certain other facts should be noticed as throwing a side-
light : — Apollo /ivprdrrts, if he be ' of the myrtle/ encroaches on
the domain of Aphrodite, to whom that tree was especially
sacred. Among the objects found at the seat of Apollo at
Amargetti were a great number of doves or of statuettes holding
doves, the bird of the Paphian queen ; and it certainly appears
that Apollo chose for his chief abodes in Cyprus the preserves
of the latter, the Western or Paphian district, and the neigh-
bourhood of Golgoi (Athieno?) the predecessor of Paphos
according to Pausanias. Was he then partly confused after his
introduction into Cyprus with that type of masculine beauty
which accompanies the Asiatic Goddess in all her wanderings,
either as son, lover, or slave, under the names of Adonis,,
Linus, Tammuz^, Cins^ras, Attis, and so forth? Indeed it
would have been very difficult to keep the two types of beau-
tiful form apart in a semi-oriental island. If this were so it
would reasonably explain two perplexing points about the
Amai^etti antiquities : iirstly, the mixed character of the
emblems unearthed — doves, phalli, cones, bunches of grapes or
berries ; and secondly, the strange dedication Arrdovi fnXay&uo
found in twelve out of fifteen inscriptions from the site ; for
this might well be Apollo in the part of servant or inseparable
attendant on the Paphian queen whose shrine is only twelve
miles away. He would thus combine the Greek attribute of
healing, to which perhaps the phalli belong, with those of
fertility (the cones on the one hand, and the grapes on the
other), and procreation {the doves ?) belonging more peculiarly
to the Asiatic Goddess *.
I venture therefore to put forward the view that Apollo,
pvpTdTTji and /ifXdy0ios, is the Healer by the virtues of herbs,
rather than the vague shepherds' god which I proposed in
explanation of the Amargetti problem. It precludes also the
necessity of inscribing on the map of ancient Cyprus two
villages, Mytie and Melanthus, for which no other authority
whatsoever exists. If ancient names must be found from Engel's
* Note the occurrence of his name at Tairtassus, perhaps the city of Tammuz. That
Apollo and Tammuzwere identified in Cyprus is, I believe, the view ofHerrM. O. Richter.
' If Engel's conjecture (ii. p. 668) that it waa the Argive Apollo iflBiot, who was
introduced into Curium, and that he is identical with the Rhodian ifiBipitn, ' the averter
of blight,' be ever substantiated, it will fit in with this Amargetti cult of the Healing-
fertilizer very well.
db/Goog[e
aS Devia Cyptia.
list, perhaps Mvpixai, a x'^'P^"" l^P^" according to Hesychius, and
recalling the Lesbian Apollo /ivpiKaTos, and fldvaKpov {Nonnus
xiii. 446 " rififvoi ^aOijSfvSpov Sptcra-avXoio PavaKpov " : and Steph.
Byz. s, V.) suit two seats of Apollo better than any others not
yet attached, but which should be given to which, I will not
pretend to conjecture.
A winding track, descending for two miles among the eastern
spurs of the ridge, leads to Episcopi ^, a village on the Ezuza
itself Late Roman remains are all that are to be seen here :
on the summit of a cliff which overhangs the village are the
foundations of a group of buildings, proved by the presence
of oil-receptacles and a mill-stone of black basalt ^ to be those
of a farm. South of the church of Agios Archangelos in the
village itself two plain marble columns of i ft. 2 in. diameter
project five feet from the ground, but are evidently not in situ :
and in Ktima I was shown by M, Cleoboulos a bronze figurine
from this village, similar to those found by us at Amargetti. As
no ancient remains are visible at Marathounda, it is possible
that the Apollo Myrtates altar, described above, has come from
Episcopi.
We have now fairly rounded the elbow, and can follow the
ridge inland up the right bank of the Ezuza. Once more as-
cending the long slope to a point near Tsada, and passing the
disestablished monastery of Stavros Mythas (where MM.
Beaudouin and Pottier appear to have found a Cypriote text,
published in the Bulletin de Corresp. Hell^nique, vol. iii.p. 350,
but which I failed to see), we come to the pretty village of
Callepia, half hidden among groves of pomegranate, acacia,
olive, and arbutus- The church has both the reputation and
the appearance of great age, and was formerly dependent on a
monastery whose ruins are to be seen north-east of the village :
the massive walls and narrow deep-set windows speak of a
different period to that of most Cypriote churches, and I
searched among the piles of mouldy service books rotting in
the comers, with some hope of lighting upon MSS., but could
' Distinguished in Lusignan times as Episcopi Cordechu (or Cordudu) from the larger
village nine miles west of Limassol (Mas Latrie, Hist, de Chypre, iii. p. 507). It was
part of the Domain Royal, and pertained to the bailiwick of Aschelia.
' Precisely similar to that figured by M. RSnan, Mission en PhSnicie, PI. V, No. i.
Another specimen lies between Amargetti and Limona ; and a receptacle in which
such stones worked may be seen at Limnia, near Salamis. There is no reason to
suppose that any of these or H. R<!naii's example are of an early period, or purely
Phoenician, but the coincidence on the two coasts is interesting.
db,Google
The Papho District. 29
only find a few tattered leaves of a fifteenth century Mtji/ata.
However, seated upon the top of the apse outside is a much
older relic, a headless limestone statue, unearthed somewhere
and brought here, no one .could tell me when. The statue, in
its sitting posture and without the head, is two feet high, draped
and apparently female, though so much weathered as to show
very little indication of sex : the right arm from the elbow rests
on the right thigh, the hand lying palm downwards on the knee
while the left hand rests between the breasts. This latter feature
recalls the well-known attitude of the Asiatic goddess clasping
her breasts with both hands, and it is possible that the Callepia
figure is that of the Paphiar- Aphrodite in her oriental character
of a goddess of fertility : — but the style and drapery are not
of an early period.
The village lying next in order up the valley, Letymbou, is ItfyitboH.
famous in all the country side for its churches ; three only,
those of Sts. Kyriakos, Theodoros, and the Panagia Photo-
lampousa, are in a state of repair, but the crumbling remains
and sites of no less than seven others, four dedicated to the
favourite Cypriote saint, St. George, and one each to St. Marina,
St. Epiphania, and to the Holy Ghost, may be found among
the sixty or seventy houses of the village. The most interesting
is that of St. Kyriakos, whose frescoes are of truly remarkable
beauty in such a land of daubs as Cyprus : those on the transept-
roof represent scenes from the life of our Lord, those on the
roof of the nave and choir a legend, probably of St. Kyriakos ;
and in all there is a freedom of attitude, beauty of expression,
and richness of colouring which I have seen nowhere else in
Cyprus. I could only regret that there was not with me some-
one with greater knowledge of fresco painting, who might have
said with authority that which I suspected, namely that this
church has been decorated by Italian artists, and was a Latin
edifice. The villagers have repaired the fabric, but the frescoes
are fast falling to pieces, and something ought to be done towards
their better preservation. In the Lusignan period Letymbou
was a casal of the bailiwick of Emba ' ; and a document pub-
lished by M. de la Mas Latrie (hi. p. 235) shows that it was
a centre of local government ; for certain ' jur6s ' seem to have
existed here, one, Vasih, paying loo besants on appointment.
These were assessors of the local court of the bailli and,
* Uaa Latrie, HisL de Chypr«, vol iiL 507-
db/Goog[e
30 Devia Cypria.
corresponded, according to M. de la Mas Latrie (iii. p. 813),
to the bourgeois of the Viscount's Court ; they are also known
at Alona near Morphou, and their presence seems to argue a
position of importance for Letymbou in the Frank period, of
which its crumbling churches are a survival.
Between this and Polemi is the largest tree in Cyprus, a great
holm-oak, known as the Apvi SravpoXi^dyov, standing alone in
the middle of a little plain. I put the tape round it five feet
above the base and found it to measure 23 ft. 6 in. in girth,
while the span of the branches was 118 feet. Among the
great claws which it throws out on every side nestle the ruins
of a tiny church, still enclosing a irptxrKvp^a^is or rude altar '.
Among the many villages which dot the eastern end of
the ridge only Drimu has any reputation as an ancient site.
Four Cypriote texts are ascribed to it in Collitz" Saramlung,
Nos, 26^-29, which prove that it boasted a worship of Apollo
Hylates ; these texts are said to have been unearthed by a
shepherd in a locality nearly a mile to the north of the village
and not far from the ruined church of Agios Min^, where also
Besh-besh dug and found, according to native testimony, many
terra cottas, statuettes, etc. I picked up a few fragments of such,
but concluded from the nearness of the bed-rock that the place
was not worth further excavation. Near the ruined church are
three large blocks of limestone, with singular perforations :
the largest is four feet high, rudely shaped into an almost
conical form and has two holes near the apex ; another is also
rudely conical and has one perforation, similar to those in the
great Kuklia blocks, and apparently bored to facilitate traction
from the quarry. Being found also in Gozo and on other
Phoenician sites, their presence may be taken as proof of the
work of the latter people, and in this case as confirming the
evidence of the C3^riote texts as to ancient settlement here ^.
' These rude piles of stones are built up and still venerated on the sites of hundreds
of churches which have long ago fallen into ruins, and the Cypriote is never at a loss to
ascribe the holy spot to a particular saint. On the patron's festival a little incense is
Still burnt there, and the ashes placed on the altar in a potsherd. When no stone of
the walls remains upon another, loose stones are collected and piled up rudely in the
outhne of a church.
' There seems no reason to doubt the genuineness of these Drimu texts in spite of
the suspicious circumstances connected with certain others, said to have been found
here afterwards, and (probably) identical with those published by MM. Beaudouin
and Pettier (Bulletin de Corresp. Hell. 1879, p. 347). M. Aristides Micbaelides
informed me that the shepherd, whose sheep had accidentally scratched out the first,
saw that there was money in such discoveries, and forged others, selling them, as I
underatood, to Aristides himself, who presumably showed transcripts of them to the
db,Google
The Papho District. 31
Perhaps they are the remains of a rififvos of Apollo Hylates
on the present site of the church. A white marble basin, now
used as an otl-receptacle at Dhrynia, a mile and a half distant Dhtynta.
from Drimu on the other side, may also have come from
here: it is 2 ft. g in. in diameter and quite plain except for
three string mouldings running round the top, and being of
foreign material can hardly be modem.
Nothing else in this section is worth mention from an archaeo- M^kt.
logical point of view except a cippus buih into the church fence
at Melia near Dhrynia, and inscribed with the single word
9. E Y X H N €^15".
In every other village on this ridge I halted at one time or
another but found no antiquities: in Anadhyou, I heard the
usual story of a written stone carried off ten years ago by a
\6pSoi, who, if he be not fictitious, was probably Besh-besh ; and
in a field near Kritou Marottou, one loannides Parthenius, a
monk of Chrysaorgiatissa resident in the village, <leclared that
strange things had once been found : but I knew too much of this
gentleman's inventive powers to place much credit in a statement
which was designed to attract the Excavation Fund to Kritou.
Descending from Kritou Marottou to Kannaviou we pass
the river not far below the point at which it debouches from the
Forest, and climb the tremendous slope of the Panagia mountain,
the culminating point of all the Papho ranges. It is sanctified
at this day by the presence of Chrysaorgiatissa, the second
monastery in Cyprus, on its northern slopes a few hundred
feet only below the deTOKp7]fip6s, as its flat clifF-girt summit is
called. It must have been sanctified in former days by the
Temple of Hera which appears to have existed a mile to the
west of the monastery on a site now covered by the church
and quadrangle of Agia Moni, a beautiful little /lerox^ of the
greater foundation of Kykko ^.
Two inscriptions in the Cypriote character were found among Taupu of
the foundations of the church when it was in process of restora- ■"'™'
tion in 1885, and, with a third in ordinary Greek, were built
into the west wall on either hand of the doorway. The Cj^priote
French students; why he did not show the stones themselves, may well be asked.
In any case two facts seem to stand out : fir^C, that the Bulletin mscriptions are
probably not genuine : secondly, that H. Ariatides Hichaelides knows more about them
than anyone else.
' On the Ordnance Survey map it is mia-called ' Chrysiaorsiatisjft Uon.' as though
it were a /arox^ of the neighbouring foundation.
db/Goog[e
32 Devia Cypria.
ones were copied by M. Vondiziano of Liraassol and entrusted
to Dr. Deecke for publication, and they appeared in the Beitrage
z. Kunde d. indg. sprachen, xi'; but owing to the imperfect
copies from which Dr. Deecke had to work, he could not be
certain of the last two lines of the longest of the two texts, and
rejected the name "Wpai as not suitable to the spacing or pro-
bable in itself. However, I was more successful than M. Von-
diziano in getting good impressions of the stone, and both in
squeeze, photograph, and copy "Wpot is beyond doubt. As
further there is an entirely new form in line 4, and my copy
supplies several other missing characters, it is perhaps well to
re-publish the inscription in facsimile. It is the most accurately
and elegantly cut Cypriote inscription with which I am ac-
quainted: the characters are li inches in height, exactly pro-
portioned and spaced, and remarkable for a slight broadening
at the extremities, a fashion designed (like the addition of
apices) to give a finished appearance. We might therefore
conclude at "once that this inscription, like the similar one at
'A\&via Tov k-rrwKfmov near New Paphos, is of quite the latest
period, viz. the end of the fourth century b. c. The material
is fine limestone, the surface being accurately dressed ; water
has trickled down the centre and worn the face, but with two
exceptions the characters can all be read. In one end of the
block is a semicircular excision.
10. X + f + /S- /7 /■, H 2 >^ ^ /^ Z "1
I- ^ s H T x^y ^ H
It ± "i I- i I- :^ ± -L ^ l# 2 ^
O ' pa • po ■ pa • si ■ le ■ u • se ■ ni ■ ko • ke • le • ve ' se •
o • i ' e • re ■ u ■ se ■ ta ■ se ■ va ■ na ■ sa • se ■
o ■ pa ■ si ■ le ■ (vo) • se ■ ti ■ ma 'ra ■ ko ■ i ■ ni ■ se ■
ta ■ se ' ki ■ (?) • na - u ■ (?) ■ ne ■ a ■ se ■
ka ■ te • se • ta ■ se ■ ta • i ■ te • o • i ' ta ■ e • ra • i •
' I was not aware of this when I visited Agia Moni, and inu^ned that I had found
something entirely new; nor did I le«rn my mistake until Dr. Deecke himself, to
whom I had sent a squeete. pointed it out to me.
db/Goog[e
The Papho District.
'0 nd<pw ffa(ri\(i>s NiKoitXtfij?
6 Upfds tS,s Favdffffas
6 ^aiTiktFos Ti/idp)(a> Tun
ras
KaTf<rra<Tf rjc 6f^ tS 'Hp^.
The value of the fourth symbol of line 4 I cannot determine,
nor can anyone to whom I have submitted it ; it is perfectly
clear on the stone and my photograph and squeeze : the latter
I sent to Dr. Deecke, and he replies : ' Der Abklatsch ist
durchweg sehr deutlich. In z . 4 ist 2 = Ki ; g vermag ich
nicht zu deuten : es scheinen mir dann zu folgen die Reste von
na ■ u ■ ? ■ ne ■ a ■ se ■ Das ne ' ist "71I . Wie aber das Ki ■ ? ■ na "
u • ? • ne ■ a ' se zu deuten ist weiss ich nicht.' Prof. W. M.
Ramsay suggested to me that rds is followed by some long
feminine compound of ntwv : if so, S niight represent jo, for
which no symbol is yet known.
The other inscription is cut in a much inferior style, the
characters being 2i inches in length, narrow, deeply and
coarsely incised. The face of the stone has been plastered in
modern times. Its wording is identical with the former up to
the word Taj, at which point the stone has been sawn across.
I have no doubt also that the text, published in the Samralung
(No. 40) and vaguely ascribed to ' Paphos,' was impounded by
the Turks from this site ^ ; and the rai dem mentioned in it will
be accordingly not Aphrodite but Hera.
Dr. Deecke conjectured that this King Nicocles is identical
with the one dethroned by Ptolemy Lagus in 310 b. c, and this
accords with the late appearance of the lettering of the first in-
scription. It should be noticed, however, that the only certain
inscription referring to him (J. H. S. vol. ix. p. 239) is in ordinary
Greek character.
11. The third inscription is in the Greek character, but so
much worn as to be quite hopeless. It is built into the wall
low down on the left of the door. The lettering is coarse and
of the fourth century b. c. ; I give as much as I was able to
decipher in repeated attempts on the stone and squeeze.
' The Mtpuwm and aeveml peasants told me tales of preWojs finds on this spot.
db/Goog[e
34 Devia Cypria.
^ro\ ////■/// i //■ Tl /■//■//■//■ o 1 1 1 A A ///■//•/■
N N N /////////////////////////////////
//•// r ////////////////////////////////
//\ A P A O ///////////////////////////
5 //////// O H T n M ' ///////////////////
/// I- T n N K A ■ ////////■/////// O ///
///■// P r Y P I N P I . . //T///-/E I «///////
//■/ A T T n £ A E A b N ////////////////
Except some part of (d)S€X{ip)6! in line 4 ; a participle, e. g.
(iarpaTTjyTiJK&ran' Kal, in line 6 ; {a)pyi;pjoi' in line 7 ; and
(«<r)a;vTtor 5" 'E\iv{os)7 (cf. Inscr. of Paphian Temple, Nos. 11,
20, log),— nothing else is worth conjecturing.
In the neighbourhood I found other traces of the temple,
whose ruins probably lie buried beneath the monastery build-
ings. Built into a fence on the north of the church are four
plain limestone drums, 2 ft, 2 in. in diameter, and the same in
height ; and it should be noted that these are nearly as large as
the drums in the southern stoa of the temple at Old Paphos.
A drum of i ft. 9 in. diameter lies near them, showing that two
orders of columns existed. In the apse of the church itself,
and in a confining wall to the south of it are many large
blocks, conspicuous among the small rubble of which the rest
of the church and the buildings near are constructed ; the
church itself has the reputation of being one of the oldest
foundations in Cyprus, and the apse is probably part of the
original structure.
Without excavation no more can be known about this temple
of Hera, and from the circumstances of the site a thorough
exploration can hardly be made. Terms might however be
arranged with Kykko with a view to making a few borings
in the open spaces on all sides of the church, which probably
stands on the temple itself.
The importance of this shrine may be inferred from the royal
dedications, and the size of the columns. It was situated in one
of the most favoured spots in Cyprus : the cliffs of the (fero-
Kprifiyos close round it in a half moon, averting every wind but
the west, and from their foot gushes a perennial spring, famous
throughout the district for its purity ; as it flows down the slope
its course is marked by orchards and olive-groves, and the
flowering shrubs gave forth a scent almost overpoweringly
db/Goog[e
The Papho District. 35
sweet on the June evening on which I first rode into this happy
valley. Lying nearly 3000 feet above the sea it enjoys cool airs
in the hottest summer, and the view over the Papho ridges to
the Bay of Poli and the Akamas, and up the Ezuza valley to
the shaggy heights of the Forest, is of singular beauty. Claudian
might have seen such a spot, and made of it his ' Venusberg •.'
The ascription to Hera is of great interest in a part of the
island devoted to Aphrodite. So essentially Hellenic a goddess
must have come late to Cyprus, and perhaps this temple was
only erected in the fourth century b. c. by this King Nicocles
whose name appears in all its inscriptions ; even Apollo ought
to be her senior in the island, for the settlement of Curium gives
a definite period and reason for his introduction, and, as I
have conjectured, his easy assimilation with Asiatic divinities
would tend to spread his cult. But Hera had no such sponsors,
and probably was not known in Cyprus until the Hellenising
period which followed the introduction of Athenian influences
in the middle of the fifth century, and culminated under the
rule of Evagoras at Salamis in the early part of the fourth.
Her individual cult was never popular ; indeed we have further
evidence of it only at Old Paphos and Amathus : in a frag-
mentary inscription built into the church of the Panagia Chryso-
politissa at the former her name appears after Ziii^ floXitijs and
Aphrodite ^, and at the latter another inscription (C. I. G. 2643)
makes mention of a Heraeum.
Of the great monastery of Chrysaorgiatissa this is not the chry^aor-
place to speak at length, although no very adequate description ml^tty.
exists'. Unfortunately there is no compilation treating of it
like the Patriarch Ephraim's history of Kykko, or the Ritual
Ordinances of Nilus of Machaeras, or St. Neophjrtus, but
I was fortunate enough to procure from the monks an en-
graving, made for the Monastery in 1801 by one Comaro, a
> Epithal. Honor. e[ Har. 49 ET.
' This inscriptioQ, very imperfectly read by Engera suthoriOes and by Cesnola, is
published more correctly by M. Wftddington (Lebas and W., No. 3795). It nin»
according to our reading : —
Ar[y]u[irr]o[i'3 lir /Mi^iipxi* «iJ tAr iltX.[ipir rir tava Itpia
barrevt,
' Sakellarioa (vol, i. p. iii) aays bo little about it, that one wonders if he was ever
really at the place. Pococke missed it, lying the night at Agia Moni. Miss Agnes
Smith (Mrs, S. S. Lewis) stayed there in 1879 (' Through Cyprus,' pp. 170 foil.).
db/Goog[e
36 Devia Cypria.
Cretan artist, and detailing in a series of tableaux and legends
the Uf^i \6yos of the holy picture to which the sanctuary owes
its origin and present fame, — but from what authorities this was
compiled I know not. According to this account the picture
was painted by St. Luke and found its way to Isauria; on the
breaking out of the tUovonaxia it was thrown into the sea by a
woman and wafted across the strait to Cyprus. As it lay on
the beach a monk, Ignatius, was directed to it by a vision, and
bore it into the mountain of Roia (presumably the Panagia hill,
or a general name for the Forest Range), where his comrades
received it, and built for it a shrine, the germ of the present
monastery of Chrysaorgiatissa. This occupies four tableaux,
the remaining six being devoted to miracles wrought subse-
quently by the picture, or generally by the Virgin on behalf
of Cypriotes, none being of any interest
It follows that the authorities (if any) on which this is based
placed the foundation of Chrysaorgiatissa in the middle of the
eighth century, for the mention of the iiKovonay^ia and Isauria
probably contains a reference to Leo the Iconoclast (717-741).
If this be true (and there seems to be no reason why it should
not be so) Chrysaorgiatissa is by far the oldest of the great
monasteries of Cyprus, the foundation of Kykko falling in 1092,
that of Neophytus at the very end of the twelfth century, and that
of Machaeras in 1200. The sanctity of its picture was somewhat
dimmed by the importation of the great Eleousa of Kykko, but
has always been very great, and still attracts numerous pilgrims ;
indeed it is popularly supposed that he who for seven years in
succession has visited both Kykko and Chrysaorgiatissa on
September the 8th, the day of the great common irav^yvpii, has
performed the equivalent of a journey to Jerusalem ; for between
the two shrines lies a six hours' journey through the Forest.
Chrysaorgiatissa has also a smaller iraf^yvpis on August 15th.
After the occupation of Cyprus by the Turks, the monastery
suffered severely through the appropriation of its lands by
those of the conquerors who hastened to settle on the pleasant
Panagia hill ; at this day there is not a single purely Christian
village in its neighbourhood except Statos, whereas Lapithiou
and Kannaviou are wholly Moslem, and Pano Panagia very
nearly so. In recent years its finances have been mismanaged,
and the remnants of its real estate have been sold or heavily
mortgaged, so that at present, with the possible exception of
Trooditissa, it is the poorest of the greater monasteries of
db/Goog[e
The Papko District. 37
Cyprus ; however under its new Hegoumenos, one of the most
energetic and capable ecclesiastics in the island, it should
recover its prosperity. It has about a dozen monks all told,
of whom only four were in residence during niy stay ; but the
number of 5oCAoi seemed considerable.
Architecturally the buildings present no points of interest ;
much damage was done to them some sixty years ago after the
Greek rising, and they have been since restored. They are
grouped irregularly about the church and have evidently grown
by accretion. The church has the usual gilt iconostasis, and
beautiful silver hanging lamps and censers; in the gallery at
the west end is kept a library, which I searched thoroughly
without finding anj^hing better than an illuminated vellum MS.
of the Gospels, looking not earlier than the fourteenth century ;
but the monks showed no desire to part with this, and it was
not worth haggling over. The other MSS., about seven in
number, were either fAiivaia or books of music. Of the holy
picture I was only permitted to see a square inch. On the
whole Chrysaorgiatissa lacks interest : it has less of the dignity
of an ancient foundation than Kykko, and less life than
Machaeras ; though it excels both in the natural advantages of
climate, water, and scenery. Years of depression, and the want
of rational occupation such as is provided by the management
of large estates, have produced a slipshod untidiness in the
monks and the buildings : but under vigorous administration
the monastery will doubtless resume its proper place among
the great sanctuaries of the Orthodox Church.
The remaining objects of archaeological interest to be found
in the villages of this section demand only a brief enumeration.
A small late site, marked by squared stones, two plain shafts Lapuhiay
and an uninscribed cippus, lies near the ruined church of Agia
Paraskeve, half-a-mile below Lapithiou : it can have been no
more than a large farm, but an ingenious Turk, with an evident
eye to future profit, declared that the village hodja knew of a
spot, where might be found a subterranean church whose floor
was of silver and its roof of gold \ Surely we would come and
dig there next year ? At Agia Varvara above the same village
are two deeply buried monoliths, which, if excavated, would
probably prove to be the usual irirpai Tpinrrj/iivai : near them .
lies a large ' oil-stone '.'
I must use this term frequently without explanation, it may
that it means the class of Uige circular stones, often seen on
db/Goog[e
38 Devia Cypria.
Descending the western slopes of the hill, and passing States,
the village of Agios Photios is reached, and in the cornfields
below are two similar monoliths, called by the villagers 'Aytai
iTiTpai : the one is embedded up to its perforation, but still
stands 61 feet above the ground : the other remotely resembles
the Orodhes examples in being hardly shaped at all — a mere
block of natural rock through which a slit has been driven ; it
only stands 4 feet high and is not more than six inches thick.
Near it are traces of poor foundations, and two plain shafts of
small diameter. A stone basin, evidently an oil-receptacIe, was
found near it and now lies in the village, and some poor graves
have been opened in the slope immediately above. Coarse red
potsherds lie about in profusion. In a vine3'ard on the ridge
above the village terra cottas are said to have been found, but
the ancient site seems to have lain immediately to the east of
the present Agios Photios and about the ruined church of
Agios Prodromos; here are many traces of buildings, plain
shafts, and two more monoliths, the one very small and nearly
wholly embedded, the other not pierced quite through, as is the
case also with an example in the Kostithes valley (v. infra,
p. 48).
On a spur of the mountain below Agios Photios lies Phalha,
whose inhabitants are of gipsy origin, unless my judgment is
much at fault No other village in Cyprus shows the same
peculiar type, particularly noticeable in the women, who
appear, though Moslems, not only to dispense with veils, but
to accost and talk openly to a stranger in the company of the
men. I have noticed an equal pitch of freedom only in the
remote Moslem villages of the Carpass, whose inhabitants are
certainly not of Turkish origin. These Phallia ladies wear also
a profusion of gold ornaments, unique in Cyprus. The faces
of both men and women are of extreme swarthiness, the hair is
raven-black, the noses and lips fine, the eyes very brilliant, and
the ears small. There is a slight resemblance to the Marathas-
iotes, who are believed by the Cypriotes to be descendants of
Phoenician settlers, but on the whole the likeness is rather to
the gipsy type with which we are familiar in the west. A few
poor graves are said to have been opened here, but nothing
worth recording was found ; and the same is true of Choulou,
sites in Cyprus, whose grooved surfaces show that a milt-st
to crush olive-berries. They are larger than those now in
greater wealth.
db/Goog[e
The Papho District. 39
a large and rascally village at the foot of the mountain, where I
bought two jars of Roman period and a terra-cotta mask.
Pentalia, on the slope overlooking the Xero, can show poly- PaHtdia.
chromatic local pottery of a slightly better order, obtained
recently from tombs in the chalky cliff overhanging the village :
and on a knoll, a few minutes' ride below, are remains of a
village-site, several small drums of i ft. 5 in. diameter, oil-
stones, and foundations covering the hill-side. Remains of a
precisely similar character exist also a mile to the south, not
far from the Adhia tchiflik ; and passing these the traveller
reaches Agia Marina, whose church boasts a carved iconostasis ^s^*,
vastly superior to the conventional Cypriote type, but so far
inferior to the Ascheha work that one hesitates to call it a Latin
remnant ; the same qualification applies to an elaborately-carved
picture-frame in the church of Natan, in the Xero valley some Natan.
four miles south of Agia Marina : in both the design is a simple
floral one, but the relief is high and executed with a care foreign
to native art. No record exists of either village in the Lusignan
period. Tombs have been found at the latter. In the hills
above lies Amargetti, already sufficiently described in the
J. H. S. vol. ix, pp. 171 foil.
Facing about we ascend the course of the Xero, past the
Sinti monastery with its large empty church, and under the
eastern flanks of the Panagia hill, to the little hamlet of Vretsa,
not yet acknowledged as a ' village ' : thence a path leads up
the narrow gorge of the river into the Forest itself, and the last
outpost of civilisation is a little mill, known as Roudhia, the RoudUia
property of the Kykko monastery. Into the front of this has ™"'
been built a sculptured stele, where found and by whom brought
hither I could not learn : it represents two female and a male
■figure draped, rather more than half-length, and two feet in
height. Those on the right and left grasp the hands of the
central figure, that of a young girl, in the conventional manner
of leave-taking, and the monument was probably raised to a
daughter by her father and mother. The clumsy lines of the
drapery recall the statuettes found in profusion at Amargetti,
and the relief is undoubtedly of a late period. The material is
native limestone. Any interest that this stele possesses arises
from the remoteness of its present situation : no ancient site
exists nearer than Agia Moni, but it is hardly credible that this
heavy stone (2 ft. 10 in. x 3 ft.) should have been conveyed eight
miles, and down two thousand feet to be built into a mill I I
db/Goog[e
40 Devia Cypria.
questioned the monks at Kykko as to its history but in
vain.
The mill stands on the left bank of the Xero, at the foot
of the narrow ridge which intervenes between this stream and
the Dhiarrizos. In the villages of this fourth section I found
no antiquities whatever worthy of record : a Cypriote inscrip-
Saiamiu. tion is published in the Sammlung, No. 41, as from Salamiu, a
village high up on the ridge, some thirteen miles inland as the
crow flies, but I visited the place twice, without seeing or hear-
ing of any remnants of the temple of Horus mentioned in the
inscription, or of any other relic of antiquity ; and perhaps the
provenance of the inscription is wrong. The neighbourhood
is chiefly remarkable for magnificent olive-trees of great age —
in themselves a proof of ancient settlement.
Nikokiia. Nikoklia, which appears to preserve the name NiKOKXfjs, com-
mon in the Cinyrad dynasty of Old Paphos, only a mile away ',
encouraged hopes, but yielded nothing.
PraHori The fifth and last section, which contains Old Paphos itself,
is almost equally barren. Praetori, far up towards the Forest,
can show some empty Roman tombs at a spot called 'EWrives,
midway between itself and Yerovasa, and on the path to
Kedhares. A jar of common local ware, and a figurine from
a vase, were sold to me in the village, and probably came from
these tombs. In a' field half a mile below Praetori lies a rough
column, similar to the Paramali stone inscribed in honour of
Jovian, but on this there is no lettering, and it was perhaps
a boundary mark.
Arsos. On the top of the ridge and on the eastern slopes towards
the Kostithes lie the great wine-villages of Arsos, Vasa, and
Omodhos, the richest of their class in Cyprus. The first-
named was, as Arsinoe, the residence of the exiled Orthodox
Bishop of Paphos in Uie thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,
but has nothing to show for it but the fine church of St. Philip.
Vaaa. Vasa was a fief of the great house of Ibelin, Counts of Jaffa,
and perhaps owes its present wealth and prosperity in the first
Omodkot. instance to the premier barons of C3T)rus. Omodhos boasts a
< It is very possible that the name Kuktia, whose derivation has been much disputed,
is merely a corruption of this, the original, fonn. Other derivations, less satisfactoiy,
have been suggested (see J. H. S. vol. a. p. 191I. We must suppose that NiK^icXia
retained its name from very early times, and that, when the modern village grew about
the ruins of Old Paphos, desolated by the eiodus under Justinian II and by the fleets
of Haroun al Raschid, it took its title in a corrupted form from the nearest existing
village. The plural form t^ Koiw\ui rqi O&ifov tells, however, against this suggestion. -
db,Google
The Papho District. 41
fine but desolate monastery, enclosing a famous church, the
5'Tau/>Sj '0(i6Sov : the guest-chamber is a pretty room adorned
with good native carving of modern date, and in the church are
preserved certain fragments of cord, said to be the remnants of
those which bound our Saviour, and to have been presented by
the Empress Helena.
Only Yerovasa has an3rthing of greater antiquity to show, Yerovasa.
and even this amounts to no more than a group of irfrpai
Tpvnrjfitvai. Above the village near the path to Arsos are three,
two fallen and one upright, and all of great size : but half a mile
to the west, on the edge of the Dhiarrizos vdley is a more
interesting specimen, canonized as Agia Trypim^ne; near it
stands on edge a manifest ' oil-stone,' and a small stump of wood
stands opposite the perforation on one side, and is now covered
with rags, the repositories of fevers. Of the many monoliths
about Dhora and further down the Kostithes valley Dr. Guille-
mard has treated in the Athenaeum of April 14, 1888.
There remains then to be described only the strip of flat
coast-land which intervenes between the earlier and later
capitals, and included two towns known to Strabo, 'lepoKrjTria
and 'Ap<tiv6t], and one important mediaeval village, Aschelia.
The first-named, as is well known, is the present Hieroskipou, HUrosH-
a village two miles east of Ktima, which boasts some indiffer- ^"^
ent gardens in a little valley leading from the spring, but
nothing of that singular beauty which impressed General di
Cesnola twenty years ago. No traces of ancient buildings are
visible in the neighbourhood, but some florid Corinthian caps
of greyish marble in the precinct of the church, the hind-quarters
of a marble horse in the village-spring, and many Graeco-
Roman gems found in the fields near, bear witness to Strabo's
accuracy.
Arsinoe is more difficult to identify : Aschelia on the left Atsinot.
bank of the Ezuza suggests itself as the mediaeval representa-
tive of an ancient town, but, although there are many relics of
the Knights of Rhodes in the two churches, the aqueduct, and
the foundations of the chateau at that village, there is absolutely
nothing classical, and furthermore it stands fully a mile and a
half from the sea, whereas Arsinoe seems from Strabo's expres-
sion to have been situated on the shore itself The ancient
geographer places it west of the promontory of Zephjria, which
is itself west of Old Paphos ; now this headland is unquestion-
ably the modem Ztipvpos, the rocky point which runs out
db/Goog[e
42 Devia Cypria.
immediately to the west of the mouth of the Xero, and east of
a little bay, the only one before New Paphos is reached, and
still a favourite anchorage for caiques. In the hollow of the
bay, near the solitary church of Agia Evr^sis (or Agia Irc6na ?),
are faint traces of an ancient site : remains of walls cover the
sides of the knoll on which the church stands, and the latter
itself seems to be built on older foundations and of old material,
fragments of white marble being embedded in its walls.
Inside is a very fine ' oil-stone ' of coarse pinkish marble, now
serving the purposes of an altar. Between the church and the
sea is a well, once plastered, and hard by large squared blocks.
To the west is an ancient quarry of considerable extent, and to
the east a tumulus, and a curious mass of rock pierced in all
directions by tunnels, roughly hewn and vaulted. One such
tunnel is as much as 150 feet in length, and all are now used
to stable flocks at night ; and I can only surest that in former
days they served the purposes of warehouses or of a covered
bazaar, and had been excavated to this end : in any case they
are not natural and are clear proof of ancient settlement at this
point.
This is all that exists above ground, but enough in my
opinion to fix the site of the ' S.W-r\ 'ApirifSij ' of Strabo, mentioned
by him only ', and probably of little importance. Of its dfXtroj
no tree remains.
The mediaeval settlement of Aschelia ^ has been alluded to
already ; as the centre of the great sugar-growing plain of
Cyprus, it was constituted the head of a bailiwick of the Domain
Royal, and on the capture of Acre the Hospitallers received
lands in its neighbourhood, and established there a Com-
roandery. It is now a miserable hamlet, of not more than half-
a-dozen families, but its two churches preserve relics of former
' Arwnoe aeems to hive been a singularly common dty-name in Cyprus, for there
were at different times no less than four : — (i) The beat icnown of the name, the city
on the gulf of Poll, whose site is now covered by Poli-tia-Chrysochou ; the city
existed previously to the period at which it was called Arsinoe, but under what name
is uncertain {see infra, p. los, for the theory that it was formerly called Marium).
(a) On the east coast, south of Famagusta [Strabo 68a. g). This is generally accepted
as the see of the Greek bishops of ' Arsinoe ' (Gams' Series Episc. eccL Cath. pp. 43S,
439)1 and not Poli-^Chiysochou, nor Aisos, as M. de la Has Latrie thinks (HisL i.
p. So). (3) The one mentioned in the text. (4) The present Araos, in the south-east
comer of the old kingdom of Paphos, to which the Greek bishop was banished in
laaa (f. supr. p. 4). This was probably a Byzantine foundation.
' Ctuclie in a Latin declaration of James the Bastard (Mas Latrie, iii. p. 176^, and
I'Eschelle in French (ibid. iii. p. 319), the latter being the equivalent of La ScaJa
or ' the Port,"
db/G00g[e
db,Google
POLPIT AT ASCHELIA.
db/Goog[e
The,Papho District. 43
prosperity : the smaller lies a quarter of a mile to the south of
the present road, and is a small Byzantine edifice, completely
ruined ; it contains however a fine cap of white marble, elabor-
ately moulded, and a tombstone also of white marble, in the
centre of which appears a lion passant with an indistinguishable
object at its head, the bearing of some Hospitaller. The
larger lies close to the road itself and contains the finest
carved woodwork in Cyprus. The following account of the
church and its contents has been communicated to me by
Mr. R. Elsey Smith, with whom and Mr. M. R. James I visited
it on more than one occasion.
' The church inside, not including the apse, measures about
62 feet by 19 feet ; it is covered by a continuous pointed stone
vault, divided into four bays, rather than supported, by three
transverse moulded ribs springing from moulded corbels at a
height 1090 feet only from the floor. The side walls are 380
feet thick, and opposite the ribs external buttresses 3-70 feet
wide and projecting i-6o feet, give additional strength, and
the roof shows no signs of failure.
In the first bay from the west end, an exceedingly light
arch has been thrown across to assist in carrying a gallery
which has a separate door in the south side. The springing of
this arch is 695 feet from the floor, and the rise is only 1-75
feet, while the voussoirs of which it is composed are but 100
foot deep ; it is a dangerously light bit of construction, and has
failed slightly in the centre though it still stands apparently
secure, but the gallery above has been removed. In the second
bay the side doors occur, and in the thickness of the south
w^l a narrow flight of steps leads up through the jamb of the
door to the pulpit which is placed exactly in the centre of the
south wall. This is a remarkable specimen of wood-carving,
but appears to have been constructed out of an older carved
frieze. It projects from the side of the wall, and is formed by
five sides of a regular octagon three of which are most elabor-
ately and finely carved. The centre (the lefl;-hand side in the
photograph) it will be observed is in two pieces, which are
placed in their right position, while the panels on either side,
only one of which is seen, are each in a single piece though
badly split, and have been placed vertically instead of in tJie
horizontal position for which they were designed. The subject
of the frieze consists of birds and animals and a magnificent
running scroll of the most richly carved foliage. The design
db/Goog[e
44 Devia Cypria,
is very vigorous, the execution in high relief, but carved with
the utmost delicacy and attention to detail without however
any loss of breadth. When fitted up as a pulpit two additional
plain sides were added, and a moulded cap and moulded and
cai-ved base, while the soffite was inlaid with wood in geometrical
lines. The wood is of a dark rich colour, and appeared to me
to be chestnut. It is a fortunate circumstance, now that it is in
Greek hands, that, owing probably to the poverty of the district,
this and the other carving in the church have never been
painted. In some of the Nicosia churches, where carved work
of somewhat similar character exists, its appearance has been
almost ruined by successive coats of paint, and especially by
the red, blue, green and gold of the last coat.
The Rood screen stretches right across the church just east
of the third vaulting rib, that is to say in the fourth bay. The
height exclusive of the cross, but including the two steps on
which it stands. Is about is-oo ; it is divided into three unequal
stages. The lowest is 7-20 feet high to the bottom of the first
horizontal carved frieze, and is divided vertically into seven
bays, of which the central is the widest These are separated
by elaborately carved pilasters, with caps having somewhat
of a Corinthian character, and have semicircular heads sup-
ported on small carved brackets, which in the centre bay are
formed by birds with spread wings devouring bunches of
grapes ; the heads are moulded and fringed with delicate inter-
lacing cusps, and the spandrils filled in with carved scroll
work. Above this is a frieze i-oo foot deep and tilted forward,
of carved scroll work divided into three parts by two carved
tablets placed immediately over the two central pilasters, and
the whole is surmounted with a moulding. The central opening
has two richly carved doors treated with arches and gables,
having a more strongly marked Gothic feeling than the rest
of the screen. They give access to the sanctuary and altar, the
other openings had merely a cross rail 0-30 feet deep at a height
of 3-45 feet from the floor which is richly carved ; the part below
this rail is now filled in with plain vertical boarding, the upper
part with Greek paintings of saints.
The stage immediately above the frieze is divided into
fifleen compartments by pilasters whose height including cap
and base is 1-65 feet. Above the pilasters are a series of semi-
circular heads with the interlacing cusps, and surmounted by
rather flat gables, the whole elaborately carved on a rail o^
db/Goog[e
db,Google
Ox/m-d U«mriily Prta.
Baldachino at Aschelia.
.Hil.zedb/GoOgie
Th€ Papho District. 45
feet deep, very considerably tilted forward, and forming another
strong horizontal line. The openings in this stage are all filled
in with boarding.
The top stage is somewhat similarly treated, but is divided
into thirteen bays only, and is somewhat higher, measuring with
the topmost cornice or frieze about 3-20 feet, though the exact
dimension could not be ascertained ; this also was filled in with
boarding, and from the top of the cornice over the centre of
each panel there is a long projecting bar, fantastically carved,
apparently in imitation of a Gothic gargoyle.
The whole is surmounted by a cross reaching to within a few
inches of the crown of the vault, and with ropes of flowers and
foliage carved in wood on either side. Though an excessively
rich piece of work, this appears a trifle over-elaborated, and
somewhat large for its position and the size of the screen and
church ; whereas in the screen itself, although the carving is
most elaborate, it is not in very high relief, and is contrasted
with large masses of plain woodwork, and produces a very
handsome, but not overladen, effect. The whole of the work
is strongly framed together, the framing appearing at the back,
but being partially hidden in front by the carved friezes,
canopies, &c.
Lastly we have the Baldachino, another elaborate and exquisite
specimen of woodwork. Owing to the want of space it was
impossible to photograph the whole of it, and the fragment,
which shows about half the east side, was only obtained by
holding the camera outside the small window in the apse.
The lower part is rectangular and plain with square angle
posts, and measures 3-60 feet in height to the top of the altar
slab under which a cupboard is formed ; above this point the
posts are carved ; at a height of 1-50 feet above the slab there is
a moulded and carved horizontal band ; up to this level the
posts remain roughly square, but above it they become circular
and are treated with large spiral coils, between which delicate
sprays occur with branching leaves and flowers, and every here
and there a bird with carefully executed plumage ; the height
to the top of the cap from the altar slab is 475 feet, and to the
top of the moulded cornice 5-10 feet, while the cap is 0-70 feet
high. Between the columns on the long sides there occur very
flat cusped arches moulded and carved, and with a delicate
carved edging, the spandrils being filled in with pierced and
carved work consisting of flowers and foliage. In each spandril
db/Goog[e
46 Devia Cypria.
is the representation of a bird with wings spread, and wearing
a crown or crest; birds also are found at the centre of the
arches.
The cornice is surmounted with flattish carved pediments of
which a mere fragment is seen.
The preservation of the whole of this carving is very remark-
able ; with the exception of the splitting of the panels in the
pulpit and the loss of a few portions from the screen, it seems
to have suffered no damage whatever, and to be as sharp and
perfect as when first erected in the church.
It seems possible to fix the date of its execution within some-
what narrow limits ; it is clearly Renaissance in character, and
can therefore be little, if at all, earlier than the commencement
of the sixteenth century, while in the middle of that century the
last of the Hospitallers, by whom the church was probably
erected at a not much earlier date and adorned with this
exquisite work, were expelled by the Ottoman invaders. It
appears, therefore, to belong to the early years of the sixteenth
century, and this well accords with the character of the work, for
we find m^ked signs that Gothic influence had not been entirely
shaken off. This is observable especially in the folding doors
of the central opening of the Rood screen and the curious
gargoyle-like projections higher up, and in the treatment of the
flat cusped arches of the Biddachino'.'
Lastly, following the coast line eastward towards Old Paphos
we halt before the two great monoliths, standing between the
mouths of the Xero and Dhiarrizos, which Von Hammer
(Topogr. Ansichten, p. 144 sqq.) believed to be the relics of
a harbour (which never existed), while General di Cesnola's
luxuriant imagination reconstructed from them a Temple of
Aphrodite Anadyomene {Cyprus, pp. 213 foil.), at which the pil-
grims from New Paphos halted before ascending to the greater
shrine of Aphrodite Paphia. To his measurements the reader
is referred, but not to his picture, for the latter is somewhat
imaginative, the stones really standing over 200 yards from the
beach, and the background of serrated peaks dropping to a
commonplace ridge not a thousand feet high. In their present
condition the stones are about eleven feet in height, three feet
broad at the top and five feet where they disappear into the
' Since this account was written IJeamed that the wbole of the carvings had heen pur-
chased by an English resident in the island, Mr. J. W.WiUiantson, who has now brought
them to this country ; at the present moment their ultimate destination is
db/Goog[e
§1
I B
i
-
s i
db,Google
db,Google
The Papho District. 47
soil, and two feet thick. The eastern one of the two is perhaps
older— at any rate far more weathered — than the other, which
has modern foot-holes cut in one edge, whereby women may
climb upon it for the cure of barrenness. Each has a slit driven
right through the stone, three feet in length by one foot
three inches broad, and they stand side by side (the slits not
facing) six feet apart. Near them are lying a cippus and many
squared blocks and drums of small plain columns of late
date.
General di Cesnola is not the only traveller who has sought a
religious explanation for these monoliths ; they have been con-
stantly regarded as menhirs, emblems of fertility, whose conical
shape and apertures were designed to combine the organs
of the sexes, counterparts of Jachin and Boaz in Solomon's
Temple. Lately Dr. F. H. H. Guillemard, in the Athenaeum
of April 14th, 1888, has propounded a far more prosaic theory,
that they are the remains of ancient presses, whose use the
modem Cypriote has forgotten : with this I concurred in a post-
script to his letter, and now, on a still wider experience of
similar stones, see no reason to change my view.
The religious theory depended very largely for attractiveness
on the supposed singularity of these Paphos monoliths, and
their existence only near the Temple where Aphrodite's em-
blem was undoubtedly a conical stone. But Dr. Guillemard
and myself have found over forty similar stones in all parts of
Cyprus, a hst of which I append : —
5 on the plateau near the village of Anoyira (». Athenaeum
article).
6 in the Kostithes valley, near Anoyira, three on each side
of the river (v. Athenaeum article).
4 on the village site, known as Agios Stefanos, near Pakhna
(v. Athenaeum article).
I on the site known as Despoticos, near Pakhna (k. Athe-
naeum article).
I between Pakhna and Agia Evresis {v. Athenaeum article).
I in the Kostithes valley, near Dhorii (v. Athenaeum article).
1 on the hill behind Pissouri. -
4 near Agios Photios, on the Panagia hill (». supra, p. 38).
2 (7) near Lapithiou, on the Panagia hill (v. supra, p. 37),
4 near Yerovasa [v. supra, p. 41).
? I near Giaz — seen by Dr. Guillemard later.
I ina field a mite and a half east of the large Paphos monoliths.
db/Goog[e
48 Devia Cypria. ■
I near Orodhes {v. supra, p. ao).
I near Kolossin.
4 on the site known as Per^mon, near Akanthou {v. infra,
P- 97)-
6 on that of Macaria [v. infra, p. 103),
I between Agia Grosh and Agios Epiktetos, Kyrenia,
4 recorded by General di Cesnola in the Carpass and at
Cape Greco.
These, with the two Paphos stones, make up a total of fifty.
Dr. Guillemard has stated the characteristics of this class of
monoliths and their surroundings most clearly and concisely,
and I need do no more than record the most significant, in the
main drawing on his account, and supplementing it here and
there in the case of such stones as he did not see.
The monoliths are of all sizes, from the great Paphos ex-
amples down to the one at Agios Photios only 4 feet high,
and they face impartially all points of the compass: with one
exception, that at Pissouri made of conglomerate, they are cut
from the ordinary limestone of the island. The dimensions
vary indefinitely and show no significant coincidences. They
are found generally singly, sometimes in groups of two or
more, but in only two cases, Paphos and Pei^amon, do two
stand in close proximity, and in the latter only do they face
each other, i, e. with the slits opposed. This slit is in almost
every case driven horizontally through the stone, carefully
finished, from 2 to 4 ft. long by g in. to i ft. 6 in. broad, and
either rounded or square at the top : in a very few instances
its lower end slopes, as if for convenience of tilting something
passed through ; and three stones are not completely per-
forated, two being near Anoyira and one near Agios Photios :
to this significant fact I will recur presently. All the mono-
liths are shaped more or less exactly, tapering in some cases
slightly to the top, which is either rounded or square,— with
the exception of the examples, mentioned on pages 20 and 38,
at Orodhes and Agios Photios, which are mere masses of un-
trimmed native rock, and are possibly the oldest specimens
existing.
There is thus every kind of minute variety and very little
indication of character in the monoliths themselves : but their
surroundings and ' properties,' as Dr. Guillemard has shown,
are more instructive. They stand in many cases at the corner
of a platform of masonry or rubble, apparently intended to
db/Goog[c
The Papko District. 49
resist weight or pressure, and near them are often foundations
of small many-chambered buildings, like those of a farm.
Near the platform cisterns often occur, lined with cement,
or cut in the solid rock, and small gutters lead into them :
this is especially noticeable near the Pissouri, Pergamon,
and Agios Stefanos stones. Dr. Guillemard also found frag-
ments of stone vessels about 10 in. deep, and of large terra-
cotta jars, as much as 3 ft. 4 in. in diameter at the mouth,
similar to those used for storing wine and oil at this day.
These were in all cases of coarse unglazed red ware which
might have been of any date. Dr. Guillemard also noticed
certain cut stones near a few of the monoliths which he likens
to the uprights of a modern oil-press, but I did not see the
instances in question, and must refer the reader to his article.
But the most significant adjuncts of many of the monoliths are
two varieties of mill-stones, the one circular, hollowed out to
a depth of 5 or 6 inches, and manifestly worn by a roller circu-
lating from a peg in the centre (such a roller of peg-top shape
was actually found in some cases) ; the other, not hollowed, but
seamed with channels diverging from a flat boss in the centre
to a runlet round the rim, which finds outlet at a spout. On
such a stone at the present date olives are pressed, after being
crushed on the first mill-stone by the circular roller : and there
can be no manner of question that, in calling both these kinds
of mill-stone k\a6i).v\oi, the peasants are perfectly correct '.
All the surroundings, therefore, of the monoliths point to
their being connected with olive culture ; but it is not easy to
determine the part played by the upright pierced stone itself in
the operations of crushing or pressing. As Dr. Guillemard has
shown, the crushing is done by means of a beam with the roller
attached, made to revolve from a peg in the centre of the circular
stone ; and in this operation the monolith could not be needed.
It must be connected, accordingly, with the pressing, and be a
relic of days before the modern screw was invented, and the
operation had to be efifected by simple impact of weight or of
a lever. This would amply account for the modem Cypriote's
ignorance of the character of the monoliths. Unfortunately no
parallels exist in any of the countries of the Levant : the many
varieties of ancient press seen by M. R^nan in Sjoia (Mission
* One or other, or both, of these milt-stones accompany nineteen out of the fitly
monoliths that we have seen, and many others may exist unperceived among the dense
scrub which often surrounds the siles.
db/Goog[e
50 Devia Cyprta.
en Ph6nicie, passim) were rock-cut indeed, but presented no
other points of resemblance: and only the occurrence of re-
mains of wine-presses and circular stones near certain of the
so-called 'menhirs' of Moab (Conder, Heth and Moab, pp.253,
254) makes one suspect that some of these mysterious stones are
not unconnected with the press. It is at least curious that the
Hajr-el-Mansflb, near which lies ' a large wine-press,' should
have a mysterious groove 6 in. wide and li in, deep cut across
its face ; and that the Arabs should give to a large group of
' menhirs ' and ' dolmens/ three quarters of a mile away, the
name ' mother of little olive trees,' and declare that it was once
an oil manufactory.
The function of the monolith I conceive to have been some-
thing like the following: through the perforation was passed
a massive baulk of timber, to one end of which was suspended
a ponderous upper mill-stone: to the other end, projecting
beyond the monolith, would be attached ropes, whereby that
end might be pulled down, and thus the mill-stone at the other
end up: the latter could then be lowered at will 'with a run 'on to
the olive berries lying on the nether stoned To resist the
strain of alternately raising and lowering such a beam with such
a weight at the end, a very massive fulcrum would be required,
and this was supplied by the monolith, whose long slit allowed
for a good deal of ' play.' The latter was at first made hori-
zontal, but later the slope was introduced for convenience of
tilting the beam : in these cases the press would be on the side
towards which the slope falls. The three imperforate stones
present a difficulty ; and I can only suggest that, if they are
not (as is likely enough) simply unfinished specimens, they
represent feeble first attempts before even the advantage of
using the stone as a fulcrum was recognised : the beam was
simply rested in the 'step' afforded by the imperfect perforation,
and the stone at its extremity was lifted and dropped by men
working under the beam. At the best, however, it was a clumsy
contrivance enough, and must have been at once abandoned
and soon forgotten on the introduction of the screw-press:
but this was probably not until Byzantine times, to judge from
the pottery and other remains which lie near so many of the
monoliths. It is however possible that the new process
would continue to be employed on the same sites as the old
■ Compare the principle on which the shadouf bucket was raised and lowered in
ancient times, and is stilt in Egypt and Asia Minor..
db/GoogIc
Tke Papho District. 51
beside the now meaningless monolith, until the exodus under
Justinian 11., 688 a, d., robbed the island of half its inhabitants,
and left so many villages and farmsteads to fall to ruins in
a deserted land.
The modern Cypriotes have utilised a few of the mill-stones,
but the majority are much larger than those in use nowadays,
and thus have remained in situ : the uses to which the monoliths
were once put they have absolutely forgotten (as they have
forgotten other obsolete things much more recent, e.g. the
cultivation of the sugar-cane on the Paphos plain), and their
ignorance has invested these solitary relics of a past age with
properties attractive, but misleading, to the student of folk-
lore.
I have already mentioned the Agia Trypim^ne near Yerovasa,
round which bushes and stumps bear countless rags, whereto
countless fevers and agues have been consigned ; and the
perforation of one of the Agios Stefanos stones was full of
vicarious pebbles, while the apex of another was similarly
loaded. This custom is, no doubt, at least as old as the Mosaic
scapegoat, but is of so universal acceptance in the East (nor
altogether unknown in the West) that a special origin need
hardly be inferred for it in particular instances, I have
observed rags tied to trees and shrubs, not only near this
monolith, and the dolmen, known as Phaneromene, near Lar-
naca, but to many other trees and bushes near nothing in
particular, both in Cyprus and Asia Minor. In two cases only
could I hear of a habit of crawling through the aperture for
the cure of sickness : ailing children are said to be passed
through the Paphos stones, and barren women through one
of those near Anoyira : and on the top of one of the former
women sit, as on the holy stone at the Trooditissa monastery,
and on many stones in Egypt and elsewhere. Troth is also
said to be plighted by clasping hands through the slit at Paphos,
as in the Woden stone in Orkney. The natives of Agios
Photios call their monoliths vaguely ayiat •airpa.t, but I could
elicit no trace of any belief in their possessing medicinal or
other virtues ; and a similar result attended my constant
and persistent enquiries as to all the remaining examples in
Cyprus — that is to say, that to not one fourth part of the whole
number of instances does any popular superstition attach. For
example, the villagers of Kalorgi smiled at the suggestion that
there was any virtue in the six monoliths of Macaria, and to one
db/Goog[e
53 Devia Cypria.
only out of twelve near Anoyira was any sanctity attributed.
Several stand near churches, as at Anoyira, Kolossin, and
Pergamon, .but it is just as probable that the village press was
erected, as the oil and wine presses are invariably at this day,
near the church (because in its vicinity lay always a piece of
undisputed common land), as that the church rose beside an old
monument of phallic worship. In short, the belief in the
mysterious virtues of these monoliths exists in so few cases,
and is so weak even in those few, that it may fairly be ai^ed
that it is only of modem origin and has not had time even yet to
develope into a universal tenet.
db/Goog[e
CHAPTER II.
THE CARPASS.
The name ' Carpass ' has been used in ancient and modern $aH»y
times to denote the long peninsula, which, projecting towards "" ^^"^
the mouth of the Orontes, forms a vast breakwater to the Bay
of Salamis and Famagusta. From its base at Trikomo, it runs
out for over forty miles without exceeding eight miles in
breadth, while in two places it is contracted to less than two
and a half; and to this singular position between two neigh-
bouring seas, whose airs temper the summer heat, to its superb
scenery, and its simple, thrifty peasantry it owes the peculiar
charm which all travellers appreciate who, like myself, have
just left the torrid Mesaor6a.
So dense a forest as that which clothes the Vallia and the
regions east of Rizo-Karpaso is seen nowhere else in Cyprus :
dwarfed, indeed, by the lightness of the soil and want of rain,
the shrubs and firs composing it cannot compare tree by tree
with the pines of the western mountain ranges ; but the under-
growth of the Carpass is denser, and better able to survive the
heat of July and August.
The grandest scenery is to be found at the root of the penin-
sula, where the last peaks of the Northern Range, densely
wooded and riven into wild forms by the torrents, terminate at
Yioudhi in the sea itself. Thenceforward a lower mountain
S3rstem runs up the promontory, abrupt and deeply scarred on
the northern side, but leaving flat forest tracts along the
southern shore, or opening out a series of fertile valleys and
plains such as those of Agios Theodores, Gastria, or Sykadhes,
east of Galinoporni. No other part of the island is so extra-
ordinarily varied, albeit everything is on a small scale ; little
plains green with cotton-fields and melon-gardens, hemmed in by
sheer crags ; flat-topped ridges, stony, and thick set with forest ;
peaked hills, bare from foot to top ; then other smiling plains,
and so on. Everywhere from the central ridge the Karamanian
Taurus, from Tarsous to Annamur, lies full in view, and from
the eastern hills the peaks of Casius may always be seen ; while
Digtizedb/GoOgie
54 Devia Cypria.
looking back over Cyprus the eye wanders round the great
bay of Salamis to a horizon bounded by Mt. Sta. Croce and the
peak of Machaeras, seventy miles away.
The coastline is bolder and more broken than elsewhere in
the island, and, added to the wildness of the forest tracts behind,
gives a singular beauty to the scenery. On both sides of the
promontory rocky bays and islets succeed one another, very
different to the even sweep of the southern coasts : no one
of these bays could be made of service for modern shipping,
but in the days of vessels of small size and draught, the
harbours of Aphendrika (Urania), Agios Philonos (Carpasia),
Exarchos, Makhaeriona, Gialousa, and many more on the north
coast, must have been much frequented by the traders of Asia
Minor. Indeed the chain of Byzantine and mediaeval remains
noticed by M. dela Mas Latrie', as existing on the Karamanian
shore, and used by him as evidence of a great mediaeval com-
merce between the two coasts, finds its exact counterpart in the
series of stone-strewn sites, occurring at every few miles from
Moulos (Macaria) to Cape St. Andr6as.
Probably this facility of communication with the outer world,
coupled with comparative isolation from the rest of Cyprus, has
imparted to the peasantry of the Carpass their peculiarly un-
Cypriote look : the white skins and frequent fair hair, the
beauty of the women*, and the use of foreign words such as 'rpe'
for rpiht ^SdWa (rix-dollar ?} for a coin, suggest that Western
influence is here especially present*. The Mussulmans who
inhabit the central villages of Agios Andronikos, Elisis, Korovia,
and Galinopomi present few of the ordinary characteristics of
the Turk : they speak Greek and are almost ignorant of
Turkish ; the women rarely veil themselves, but, on the contrary,
stare at and speak to the western stranger in the presence of
the men ; while the latter show little of the reticence and
reserve which mark the Moslem elsewhere. The industrious
habits of both Turk and Greek, their assiduous tillage of the
soil, and careful husbanding of what small portion of water the
sun allows to them in July, the good construction of their
houses, and the comparative cleanliness of their habits, may be
' L'tle de Chypre, Souvenirs Historiques, p. 330.
' Cr. Mrs. Scott -Stevenson's remarks, 'Our Home in Cyprus,' p. 994; and for an
opposite view, Sir S, Baker, 'Cyprus as I saw it in 1879," p. 139.
* Can these Carpasiotes be the descendants of the ' Veneziani bianchi,' who sprang
from the soldiera of Vila) Miehaele, settled in Cyprus after the first Crusade, and v^ere still
-adistinclraceinthethirlcenthi^cntury? (Stubbs, Lectures in Mediaeval Hist. viii. p. 189.)
db/Goog[c
The Carpass. 55
ascribed as much to these causes, as to favourable climatic
conditions, and to the undoubted fact that, owing to its in-
accessible position, the Carpass was allowed to retain under the
Turks some of that prosperity which had been the common
lot of the whole island under the Frank rulers ^. At least it is
certain that no district so much impresses the traveller with its
good government, order, and essentially native civilisation as
this remote peninsula.
The name by which it is still known is of great antiquity ; for History.
the foundation of Carpasia is lost in the obscurity of heroic
times, and its inhabitants have always been called Kapwaaitt or
KafmafffSiTai. Demetrius of Salamis who writes Kap^atrCa,
derives it from the wind Kaphas''', known also at Cyrene, but as
to whether this was a name for the east or the north-east wind,
authorities differ.
A short notice in Strabo ' furnishes the only description of the
Carpass which any author of antiquity has left to us; but, the geo-
grapher besides enumerating the towns of Aphrodisium, 'Axat^y
dxT-^, and Carpasia with its harbour, tells us no more than that the
transit from the last named to the Carpasian isles was only 30
stadia (not far wrong) ; that the eastern end was mountainous ;
and that on its extreme point stood the temple of Aphrodite
Acraea, ' dSvrov ywai^l Koi doparov.'
Could the earliest history of the peninsula be recovered, it
might prove of great interest ; for it is most probable that this
end of Cyprus was the first to receive that immigration from
Cilicia which has left so strong an impress on the whole island.
Indeed the legend that Teucer, the immigrant from Asia Minor,
landed in the Carpass may represent this tradition.
As soon, however, as we are on firm ground, the Carpass has
lost its individuality in the larger aggregate of the Kingdom
of Salamis, of which it must have formed about one third part.
Scant authority exists whereby to determine the boundaries
of the Cyprian Kingdoms, either early or late, but the Carpass,
and the whole eastern portion of the Mesaor^a, including the
district of Cape Greco, must always have appertained to that
of Salamis, which, according to M. Six*, included at one time
or another Chytri (Kythrea), Ledra (Nicosia), and even Tamassus
itself, at the foot of the western mountains. It is improbable
however that it passed the Northern Range, as does the
■ See Mas Latrie, Hiat de Ttle de Chypre, ch. iv. p. 98.
' See note in Engel, vol. i. p. 84. Demetrius is quoted by Stcph. Byi. s. v. Kofwooia,
' xiv. 68a. ' Revue Numismatique for 1883, p. 354.
db/Goog[e
56 Devia Cypria,
modem administrative district of Famagusta, for the natural
boundary is too well defined ; and therefore I have assigned in my
map the eastern end of the northern strip of plain to the Kingdom
of Kerynia, whose territory must have lain almost wholly to the
east of itself, since Lapethus, ten miles to the west, was also
a royal city'. That Aphrodisium ever had an independent
king, or was a royal city in any sense, is proved neither by
numismatic nor any other kind of evidence that I can discovert
The large towns of Carpasia and Urania probably existed
from early times as the principal ports of the district, receiving
much commerce from the Asian coasts, and acting as outlets
for Salaminian trade, if the timid mariner feared to double the
cape of Dinaretum. To judge from the ruins at the apex of
the Vallia, an important town must have guarded the northern
limit of the Salaminian Bay ; and somewhere on the northern
coast between Aphrodisium and Carpasia stood Teucer's land-
ing-place 'Ay(aiSiv a«r^. The extreme point of the long pro-
montory has been rendered famous by the mysterious temple
of Aphrodite Acraea. Lying actually within sight of the Syrian
coast, the Carpass must have been harried by many a Phoenician
fleet during the next century and a half, while the kings of
Salamis alternately maintained and lost their independence, and
probably it suffered severely during the ten years that Evagoras
was shut up in his capital. After the kingdom of his successors
had been subjected to the Egyptian Empire, we hear definitely
of an invader landing in the peninsula, — no other than Demetrius
Poliorcetes, who crossed from Cilicia, drew up his fleet at Car-
pasia, and, having harried the country, took by assault both
that city and Urania, before marching to commence the siege of
Salamis, and fight the greatest naval battle of antiquity ^
Thenceforward until Christian times we hear nothing of the
Carpass, as distinct from Salamis : we may infer that the Jews,
who destroyed the latter, and devastated its territory in the
reign of Trajan, did not spare these fertile coasts; but we
have no certain knowledge of any event previous to the founda-
tion of a bishopric at Carpasia, still situated probably on the
sea-shore, and not yet forced by piratical and Arab incursions
to remove to the central ridge, and become the modem Rizo-
Karpaso; indeed, the ancient church, whose ruins overlook
' See DFod. xix. 79.
* The conjeclure that it is the 'Upri' whose king paid tribute to Assyria has not
met with acceptance. ' Diod, xx, 47.
db,Google
The Carpass. 57
the old harbour, is dedicated to the sainted founder of the see,
St. Philo. His life and therefore the foundation of the bishopric
falls in the latter half of the fourth century A. d. ; during the
absence of St. Epiphanios in Rome in 382 a.d,, he was left to
administer the metropolis of Constantia with power to ordain \
and he became known to fame as the author of a commentary on
the Songof Songs. Thenceforward, the name of the see appears
regularly in Hierocles and the Notitiae, and Constantine Pv-
phyrogenneta ranks ' Carpasus ' among the thirteen chief towns
of the island.
At some period of Byzantine rule, perhaps after the recovery
of the island from the Arabs by Nicephorus (964 a.d.), the castle
of Kantara or the Hundred Rooms {iKwr^iv av'ma) was built on
the last lofty peak of the Northern Range' to keep watch and
ward against the corsairs who infested the strait of Kerynia ;
to their attacks the long Carpass was especially vulnerable, and
Pococke tells us that even in his day it was sorely harried by
the Maltese *■ In the fourteenth century the Carpass was a fief
of the family of La Roche, but for how long a time previously
it had been in their possession we have no evidence, —
possibly since the partition of the island by Guy de Lusignan
himself in 1192. In any case a certain Gauvain de la Roche,
son of the Seigneur of the Carpass, was among the adherents of
Henry 11 in 1307*, and in 1364 the wife of Afre{?) de la Roche
was almost captured by the Saracens, who made a raid on the
peninsula during the absence of King Peter I in Europe, and
of his fleet at Adalia : but the vigorous measures taken by the
prince of Antioch precluded a renewal of the disaster. If a tomb-
stone found by M. de la Mas Latrie in the mosque of Emerghi^
in Nicosia, and recording the death of Marie Antiaume, wife of
' Sire Rovo de Carpass,' in 1388, be correctly read, it would
seem that the La Roches had ceased to rule at Rizo-Karpaso
at the end of the century, but the French savant confesses to
1 Diet, Christ Biog. s.v.and the Preface to his Caiil.Canllc, in Galland, BibL Vet. Pfltr. ix,
* M. de la Mas Latrie by a strange and rare slip ascribes its construction to the
Luaignana (Les Comtea du Carpas, Bibl. de I'Ecole des Chartes, vol. ili. p. 375),
although in his Histoiy (vol. i. p. la) he has rightly stated that, like St HilaHon and
Bulfavento, it was in existence when Richard of England landed, and, according to
Roger de Hoveden (Rolls Ser. iii. p. ill), opened its gates without resistance.
If Roger de Hoveden means to imply that Richard received Isaac Comnenus' surrender
in ptrson at Cape St. Andreas, he probably visited Cantara also in person tt$ mule.
' Travels, vol ij. p. 318.
' On the whole Frank regime in the Carpass, see M. de la Mas Latrie's admirable
article in the Biblioth^ue de I'Ecole des Chartes, quoted above. My facts are all
derived from him.
:db,Google
58 Devia Cypria.
doubts as to the word ' Rovo,' and suggests La Roche. In
any case by 1467 the seigneury had passed to the De Vemys,
(who had perhaps held the neighbouring fief of Agridia near
Aphendrika since the thirteenth century), for it was from a
certain Louis de Vemy that James the Bastard received it in
that year^ either in virtue of an exchange, or by confiscation ;
but on the death of Louis in 1468, his son Aguet received it
again at a rental of 1000 byzants, and the king presently added
to it the transport animals and oxen of the cazal ^.
Thus far it had been merely a seigneury, but in 1472 Aguet
de Verny was apparently deprived, and Jean Perez de Fabrice,
an Arragonian, already high in favour with King James, Admiral
of Cyprus, and Count of Jaffa, was further created Count of the
Carpass, and premier baron of the island : the latter title he
appears to have held in virtue of his titular fief of Jaffa, but
it pleased his successors, the Giustiniani of Venice, who had
lost the latter, to assert that, contrary to all ancient usage, the
premiership depended on the comt^ of the Carpass, and not on
that of Jaffa, of old held by the great house of Ibelin, and now
by the Venetian Contarini, who had received it at the hands
of King James' widow, Catherine Cornaro, with the sanction
of the Republic of Venice. For the details of this squabble
which gave employment to two famiUes and the Council of Ten
as late as 1568 (only three years before the fall of Famagusta),
I must refer the reader to M. de la Mas Latrie's article, only
stating that the advantage was always on the side of the
Counts of Jaffa, and that they at last gained a decisive verdict;
only in 1538 and 1539 did Angelo Giustiniani succeed in pro-
curing illegal enrolment at the head of the Cypriote barons.
The fief had passed to the Venetian family on the death
of Jean Perez's unmarried son in 151c, through the marriage
,of his sister Charlotte to Nicolas Giustiniani. The comt^ of
Jaffa had already been taken away in 1474, and was never again
claimed with any insistance by the Giustiniani, of whom four in
succession were Counts of the Carpass. Their history, so far as
known, is a mere record of squabbles with the Contarini : their
revenues are stated in an Italian inventory printed by M. de la
Mas Latrie (Hist. vol. iii. p. 490) to have amounted to 2500
ducats per annum, inferior to those of the Comari and Con-
tarini ; and their authority extended especially over Rizo-
Karpaso and Agios Andronikos, and generally over the whole
* These documents are printed in Mas Latrie's Hist, de Chypre, iii, pp. 345, a6o.
:db,Google
The Carpass. 59
peninsula, while attached to the fief was also a knot of villages
in the Kythrea district of the Mesaor^a, of which Knodara was
the chief, the others being Trypimeni, Antiphoniti, Agia Marina,
and Agios Nicola. The fief passed out of their hands on the
Turkish conquest of the island in 1570.
Meanwhile, Rizo-Karpaso had obtained the doubtful dis-
tinction of becoming the residence of the Greek bishop of
Famagusta ; this anomalous arrangement was the result of tljp
Concordia ^, brought about at Famagusta in 1222 by the legate
Pelagius, sent expressly to Cyprus to settle the difficult questions
which had arisen during the last thirty years from the simul-
taneous presence of bishops and clergy of both the Western and
Eastern churches. It was probably to minimise the chance of
further collisions that Pelagius, while sanctioning the presence
of four Orthodox bishops for the future, contrived that each
should take up his residence as far as possible from the old see,
and, indeed, from the centres of civilisation. Thus were banished
— the bishop of Nicosia to the Solia valley in the Forest Range,
a long day's journey from his metropolis ; the bishop of Paphos
to Arsos in the recesses of the western hills ; the bishop of
Limassol to Lefkara among the foothills of Machaeras ; and the
bishop of Famagusta to the extreme eastern end of the island,
where thirty miles up the peninsula lies Rizo-Karpaso. Needless
to say, the Orthodox bishops were not satisfied with these
arrangements, and 250 years later Pope Sixtus IV, on hearing
of continual offences against the Concordia, despatched a BulP,
once more defining the bounds which must not be exceeded.
That the Carpass was entirely unmolested by the Turks is
disproved by the existence of so many ruined churches in
its area, and of Greek-speaking Mahometan villages like
Galinopomi and Korovia, sure traces of a forced conversion
of the conquered. But mixed villages are rare, and the
Christian community seems to have held its own and to have
slipped less into the slough than elsewhere in Cyprus. Under
the Turkish, as now under the English, rule it remained under
the jurisdiction of Famagusta, and it is certainly better de-
veloped at present than any other remote district of the island.
The Carpass has not been often visited by archaeologists since
the Ottoman rule was established in Cyprus; the best description
of its antiquities is that of Pococke, published in 1745 (vol. ii.
' The text is given in Mas Latrie, vol. iii, p. 6as,
' Ibid, p. 315.
:db,Google
6o Devia Cypria.
3. 3), but that most admirable of explorers is all too brief, and
although in successive excursions from Gialousa he saw almost
everything worth seeing in the district he contents himself with
little more than a mere enumeration of the ancient remains.
Second to this comes the account of Sakellarios (KmrpiaKd, i,
chaps. II, 12, 13). Sibthorpe, Leake, Von Hammer, and Ross ^
saw various districts of the island but not the Carpass: M.
Waddington, like most travellers, did not go beyond Salamis
(Voy. Arch, iii): General di Cesnola implies in his map of
' Travels and Explorations ' that he had seen the Carpass
pretty thoroughly, but his letterpress shows a very imperfect
acquaintance with it, while his brother's excursions therein
resulted in no gain to science (Salaminia, Introduction). M. de
la Mas Latrie explored the base of the peninsula but did not
penetrate to Rizo-Karpaso (Bibl. de I'EcoIe des Chartes, xli. p.
375). Von Loherwas never in the Carpass at all (Reiseberichte
in d. Insel Cypem 1878), nor could he be reckoned an archaeo-
logical traveller ; the latter remark applies also to Sir Samuel
Baker (' Cyprus as I saw it in 1879 "), and Mrs. Scott-Stevenson
(' Our home in Cyprus ') ; the former gives an excellent geological
and topographical account of the peninsula, but ignores its anti-
quities ; the latter was only three and a half days in the Carpass.
I determined therefore as early as January to examine syste-
matically the ancient remains of this district, as soon as I should
be able to leave Papho. Accordingly in July, after spending a
few days in and about Famagusta and Salamis, I travelled into
the peninsula, and visited every village except Komi Kebir,
Galatia, and the small hamlets at the base, which Dr. Guillemard
had examined earlier in the year : and in describing the district,
I propose to proceed in geographical order along the southern
coast to Cape St. Andreas and back by the northern to the
territory of Kyrenia.
Before entering the Carpass a few words should be said upon
the ruins of the ancient capital at the mouth of the Pediaeus —
ruins to which no others in Cyprus are comparable for extent
and variety. They and their history have been too often
described * for me to enter into detail. I regarded them mainly
* Dr. Sibthorpe, who travelled in 1787, turned north-westward froni Salamis,
(Walpole's Travels in Turkey, ii. pp. 17 foil.). Col. Leake merely passed across the
island from Kyrenia to Lamaca and v.v. in 1800 (Walpole, ii. pp. 243 foil.). Ross in
1S45 saw Kantara Castle, but did not proceed east (Reise suf Kos und Cypcrn, p. 134^
' Pococke, vol. ii. pp. 914 foil. ; A, Cesnola, ' Salaminia,' Introd. ; M. O. Richter in
Journal of Hell. Studies, vol. iv. pp. iia foil, j A. H. Sayce in a letter to the ' Academy,'
March iSeS; and others.
db/Goog[e
The Carpass. 6i
from the point of view of the excavator, and after remarking
that the large building in the western centre of the site, known
to the villagers as the/lovr/joc, appears to me to be not mediaeval,
as has been suggested, but of late Roman or Byzantine work,
and to have been a receptacle wherein the water brought in by
the aqueduct, whose broken arches still remain, might be stored
and cooled, I will proceed to the consideration of future re-
searches. The whole seaward side of the site is a succession of
hillocks, clogged with drifted sand, which at the northern end
has raised all to a common level, while upon the south is a
marsh formed by those deposits of the Pediaeus which have
silted up the harbour, and left faint traces only of its quays and
piers above ground. In all this tract there is of course no
indication as to what lies buried beneath, and the digger must
run exploratory trenches in all directions before fixing on a
spot for his work ; but considering the evident depth of deposit,
the rapidity with which archaeological treasures were probably
hidden from rapacious eyes by the sand, and the fact that,
whenever the peasants of Enkomi or Agios Sergios filch a
corner of land from the Crown and proceed to plough it, they
find gems, coins and small antiques in greater abundance than
on any other site in the island (over a dozen gems, recently so
found, were shown to me in Limnia and Agios Sergios), I cannot
but hope that some attempt will be made to cut into the sand-
hills and the marsh.
On the landward side is a hideous chaos of stone, squared
and unsquared, marble and granite shafts, fragments of cornices
and capitals, but hardly a clear trace of any one building.
There are, however, two places in this wilderness where I longed
to set a few diggers to work ; the one is near the south-
western corner of the site, just within the walls, where a fluted
shaft of white marble, evidently deeply buried, is peeping
out of the ground ; the other is at the north-western angle
beyond the Aovrp&v where in a well-defined oblong depression,
much choked with sand, lie half-buried a number of glistening
granite shafts of very large diameter — quite half as large again
as any on the site of New Paphos: the sand here is strewn
with fragments of a white marble pavement. That this
is a temple-site I have little doubt, deeply buried enough to
make the chance of finding treasures fairly good. Professor
Sayce was perfectly right in describing ■ all that is now above
' In his ' Academy ' letter, v. supra.
:db,Google
62 Devia Cypria.
ground here, as at New Paphos and Soli, as of a late period, and
it cannot but be admitted that our failure to find an earlier
layer beneath the existing ruins of the temple of Aphrodite at
Old Paphos, is not encouraging : but I submit that the chances
at Salamis are better: for here we have a very ancient city of
much greater size than any other in the island, which has
been twice destroyed ' and rebuilt on its own ruins, and upon
which, whether from river deposits or sand, silt has accumulated
with great rapidity. It was adorned by one temple of great
antiquity and renown, — that of Zeus Salaminius — compared by
Ammianus Marcellinus * to the great shrine at Paphos ; by that
of Athena Pronoea, also of note'; besides lesser shrines* in
which, as in that of Zeus, Asiatic rites and human sacrifice were
practised. Further, the cemeteries which surround the city are
very far from being exhausted ; where Alexander di Cesnola
was working when the British Government stopped him in
1879, and where the peasants still open graves from time to
time, there is a very good season's work yet to be done.
In the neighbouring village of Enkomi I saw a headless stone
lion, said to have been found in a large tomb about a year ago.
He sits on his haunches in a stifT attitude, and is three feet
high : the execution is archaic but bold, and he has evidently
guarded one of the sides of an entrance. The tomb is said to
have been filled up again, and it probably contains the fellow.
A small fragment of granite had been picked up on the site
a day or two before my arrival, bearing the following inscription
in small and good lettering. It is broken on all sides :
12. \ e I U o .
A I A T e T A ... i(OT«Ta[y/iti'oi' . .
-J N K A I C A Kaia^a . .
r I ATTC
H PC *
Probably a fragment of a honorific inscription commemor-
ating the despatch of some Salaminian on a irpia&da to the
Emperor.
In the surrounding villages, so often visited, I hardly expected
to find any unpublished inscriptions: but nevertheless in
' Once by the Jevra in the time of Tn^Jan ; and once by the great earthquake which
oceuired in the re^ of Constanttne, aAer which it was rebuilt *s ConsUntia.
■ xiv. 14. CC alao Tac. Ann. iii. 6a ; LacUuitius, i. ai.
' Ovid, Metfm. xiv. 759 foil. ' Porphyr. de Abslineatia, ii. 54.
db,Googlc
The Carpass. 63
Limnia, about half an hour's ride to the north-west, I copied five,
which are certainly not in any publication with which I am
acquainted, besides others already correctly published.
IS. A stone fragment in the yard of Hadji Anastasi Panagi :
v^///N Tf/ _TNIENH
[<r]i.»{y]e»'^
a title of honour at the Ptolemaic court. Cf. Inscriptions of
Paphos, etc, passim.
14. Ibid, fragment of a blue limestone pedestal, built into
the wall of Dimitri H. Giorgi.
Fair lettering ij in. long. Broken top and right, and much
worn on the surface.
v^ I
A \ K
S Y r r E N H I (rvyyfy^
T H S TT O A P Ttjs iToX^ms.
15. Ibid, in the wall of the house of the same Dimitri;
a block of stone, with letters li in. long :
i.fcl OYIONroYAHIKION Sepoiuioy XovXirUiay
nATKAEAOYHPANIANON IlayKXta Oitjpat'iavhi'
ONHSANAPOSAZ///ABATOY 'Ov^<rav8pos'A^i}xpdTov>
KATAArASHKHN Karll Sia&^Kr,v.
Cf. an inscription relating to the same individual published in
Lebas and Waddington, vol. iii. No. 2759.
16. Pedestal of blue limestone ibid., built into Maria
Manjalou's wall. Coarse letters i\ in. long, and difficult to read.
XPEO<()TAAZIII X/wo^oit(i')
4ilATQN0nP0£THf Al //y/ \0////// it\Tav 6 irph ts (S([a]Xo[yg
TQNENTni XPE////4)YAAK I///. I t&v h rf )^^o']pv\aK{<p
BYBAIO///KArKI //•///// A S /Sw^Aio^i-] xal ^yvys
APE^TOyr? AM //////// EYUN 'Apitrrov ypa/i[/toT]«W
C A B L ffAjS' L.
db/G00g[e
64 Devia Cypria.
Xp(o<f>v\dKiov = the archives where lists of public debtors were
kept, of. C. I. G. 2826, 38; it is known only from inscriptions,
and therefore xp«o0''^«|, though a hitherto unknown word, need
not be questioned : SioKoy^ must mean ' sorting ' or ' arranging ' :
Philto's office amounted to that of a book-keeper ; and he with
the clerk, Cinna, dedicates to the heads of the department.
The date, if reckoned from the era of the province, is a. d. 174.
17. Ibid, on a large block of stone in the village street, worn
nearly smooth, and broken on all sides.
I C T O N
These inscriptions were all shown to me by the village
school-master, a Gialousa man of considerable intelligence, who
stated that a stranger had copied some of them a few years
before, ' but he did not seem to be much of an dp\aio\6yo9' He
guided me also to a house, in whose courtyard lay a very florid
Ionic capital of coarse pink marble, one and a half feet in diame-
ter, and a portion of a Roman oil-mill of black basalt ^ Built
into the porch of the next house was a fragment of a coarse
frieze, representing birds and dogs, but frightfully defaced. In
many walls in Limnia may be seen fragments of florid Byzantine
mouldings, relics of the former church of Agia Sophia ; and the
villagers possess many gems, coins, and small antiquities,
collected from the site of Salamis ; I bought four intaghos of
no particular interest — the best representing Eros To^o<p6pos. In
Aguis Agios Sergios I found two more intaglios, but no other
Sergios. relics of antiquity worth recording, while in Aloda survives
jiioM. only the usual tale of a written stone, long ago carried off to
spaihariko. Trikomo. In Spathariko, formerly an Armenian village, to the
north of Salamis, are many Roman rock tombs, in which the
villagers say that gold ornaments and glass have been found.
This was the hottest spot I ever found in Cyprus, and one
of the poorest and filthiest : such hospitality as they could show
the villagers readily offered, but the heat reflected from the
naked rock, and the pitiless scirocco combined with the effects
of a bad fall the day before, which had skinned my face and
hands, to give me an evil recollection of my last halting-place in
the Mesaor^a.
The Vallia. Late in the afternoon we set out for the Carpass itself, and
leaving the plain rode along the sea-shore, crossing many
db/GoogIc
The Carpass. 65
torrent-beds which came down from among the foot-hills of the
Northern Range. At a point beiow Monarga, where the road
can barely pass between cliff and sea, I was told that some
rough statuettes had been found by the road-makers. After
this defile the hills recede and leave a fertile plain, on the
further side of which lies the prosperous mixed village of
Gastrin under the cliffs of the Vallia. Gastria.
While resting in the coffee-house here an inscribed stele
was brought to me which had been found in the Vallia ; it had
a low pediment, and (as Prof. W. M. Ramsay suggested to me)
appears, from the employment in two cases out of three of for
O >', to belong to the fourth century. It read thus :
18. SYMMAXOESirr
OSAMATPIHPAPXO
K N I A I O Y
Svitfid)(o(ti) ktrri rh a&iia Tpi7}pdp)(p{v) KviSiov.
This seems to be a rude attempt at a spondaic hexameter. AkroHri.
The stele was said to have been found in the Vallia among Cnidus.
the extensive ruins which I visited next day, and of which the
only extant description is that of Sakellarios^. They are
known as Akrotiri, and lie on the extreme southern point—
the Cape Elaea of Ptolemy ; and this Gastrin inscription is of
some topographical importance if it identifies them with those
of the lost Cyprian Cnidus ^, the birthplace of the historian
Ctesias, according to Tzetzes :
O &i KTTjirla! larpbi, vlbf toO KTt]<n6)(ou
'E^topitrjfiivo! woX.fm €K EvlSov rijs KvTTpCas^.
Suidas (s. v. Kr-rftrtas) calls him a Cnidian without specifying
to which town of that name he belonged ; and the only other
probable reference to this Cnidus seems to be made by Ovid
(Metamorph. x. 530), who ranks it with the great shrines of
Aphrodite in Cyprus :
' Non alto repetit Paphon aequore cinctam,
Piscosamque Cnidon, gravidamque Amathunta metallis''.
Curiously enough, Sakellarios' * identified it with Koma tou
■ KinrfMiuni, vol. i. p. 155, Dr. Guillemard had made a careful examination of them
earlier in [he year.
' Engel, Kypros, vol. i. p. 157. ' Chiliad, i. 83.
' But it may be intended in many passages, usually understood of the Carian Cnidus;
e. g. Horace, Odes, L 30. » p. 154.
db/Goog[e
66 Devia Cypria.
Gialou, a few miles only to the east, on the very slender
evidence of this word piscosa : finding Byzantine remains (all
quite late and unimportant) in Koma and learning that the
natives lived mainly by fishing, he jumped to a conclusion
which narrowly missed being right. Akrotiri he identified
with another lost city, Acra (Steph . Byz. s. v.) ; but dxpor^pioy
is " too common a designation for a modem headland to be
readily accepted as a survival of any name of antiquity.
I have httle to add to Sakellarios' description of the prin-
cipal site— indeed I saw less than he did, for I failed, whether
from the denseness of the undergrowth or of my perception,
to discern the ' gates of the city,' or any ' colossal pillars.' To
my eyes it was a wilderness of formless heaps, extending
round a small bay for about half-a-mile, and inland for some
four hundred yards. Large 'oil-stones' are seen here and
there (the cape was called 'EXaia), and many traces of houses
and city wall, but no temple or very large building. The rock
is everywhere too near the surface to make excavation pro-
fitable, and only the tombs would repay exploration. I heard
that Alexander di Cesnola's diggers opened five or six, and
that Mr. Hamilton Lang had also caused the site to be tried.
In a large open tomb, approached by a rock staircase, I found
fragments of early buff and red unglazed pottery of the ' Para-
skeve ' class, and the circular form of the chambers indicated
a fairly early date^ In another which was blocked up, my
guide {an old tomb-robber from Agios Theodoros) informed me
that there were ' forty columns ' : if this is more than the usual
romance, it may mean either that the tomb has a facade with
two or three pillars like those at New Paphos'' and Phla-
moudhi', or (more probably) that it contains several cippi,
so often found in late graves.
But the most interesting feature lies about one hundred and
fifty yards to the east, and a like distance from the sea — a stone
enclosure*, represented in the annexed illustration, a repro-
duction of a photograph taken by Dr. Guillemard.
The enclosure is rectangular and oblong, the long sides
lying nearly true east and west, and measuring 37 ft. from
the outer faces of the walls : the short sides are 31 ft. 5 in.
in length, similarly measured. The stones average about
' See the article on Tombs in the Journal of Hell. Studies, vol. in.
' Cesnola, Cyprus, p. 394. ' Vid. infra, p. g8.
* Sakellarios cannot have seen this. Tor he makes no mention of it.
db,Googlc
db/Goog[e
:db,Google
The Carpass, 67
I ft. in thickness, rise 2 ft. above the ground, and range from
6 to 2 ft. in length. They stand in close contact with each
other. The north-west angle is composed of a great upright
block, obviously a menhir or an emblem of fertility ; its full
height from the ground is 6 ft. g in., and its width and thickness
each 2 ft. 10 in. It tapers slightly, but is not pierced, though
a slight incision has been made, apparently by chance, in one .
side. I have no doubt that the enclosure has never been higher,
nor is it silted up, for some disappointed treasure-seeker has
revealed the rock a few inches below the surface. The blocks,
which are of the common limestone of the district, have been
shaped and roughly dressed, and all are much worn, but some
bore traces of a chisel-draft round the inner face, the centre
of the stone being thus raised in relief, — no uncommon charac-
teristic of Phoenician work '.
That this is a Phoenician relic there can be little question ;
stone enclosures with upright menhirs are frequent on the
opposite coasts^, although the usual form is circular. Major
Conder, R.E.^ quotes an example of a quadrangle at 'Adlun
between Sidon and Tyre, the long sides containing six, the
short, two stones apiece. Here however the blocks are not
contiguous as in the Cj'prian instance. It should be noticed
that where in England a single menhir stands in a circle, it
is usually upon the north-east, and is supposed to stand in
relation to the rising of the sun at the summer solstice ; in the
present case, if the relation be solar at all, the setting sun must
be indicated, as it disappears behind the rock of Kantara, the
most conspicuous object in the landscape. It must be added
that there is and can be no trace of sepulture either in or near
the enclosure, the solid rock cropping out in all directions ; and
this singular example of a large class of stone monuments must
depend for its explanation on that assigned to its fellows all
over the world.
In juxtaposition to this Phoenician monument should be Camarats.
placed the three monoliths which stand over tomb-doors at
Camaraes or Tria Litharia, on the eastern edge of the Vallia,
about an hour's ride from Akrotiri ; and we will pass rapidly
by the stone-heaps at Agia Thora, which probably represent
a suburban dependency of Cnidus, and by a spot known as
Pallura in the centre of the forest, where some fragments of
' But cf, supra, p. 5. » See Conder, Syrian Stone Lore, pp. 43 folL
' Helh and Moab, p. 937. Cf. also p. a^^.
db,Google
68 Devia Cypria.
rough stone statuary of the conventional early Cyprian type
were lying on the rock.
The tombs at Camaraes are three in number, approached by
SpSfioi nearly six feet wide (a sign of antiquity in Cyprus), and
now rifled and empty. They face east, looking from the cliff
of the Vallia on to the plain of Vokolidha, and on the surface
of the ground under which the tomb-doors are cut stood (for one
only is still upright) three roughly shaped monoliths, the height
of a man, two feet and a-half broad by one thick, tapering and
rounded at the top. Like the menhir at Akrotiri, the guardians
of these three lonely tombs have no mark of any kind upon
them \
The large village of Agios Theodoros, which lies behind
' low hills bounding the forest tract of the Vallia, has no an-
tiquities more interesting than a Roman milestone, already
published.
Neither Vokolidha nor Tavros have anything to show, and
we follow the road to Koma tou Gialou — 'the village of the
beach' (aiyiaXov) — one of the prettiest and richest in the
Carpass, and identified by Sakellarios, for the insufficient
reasons stated above, with ' piscosa Cnidus.' Byzantine re-
mains there are undoubtedly, and the native imagination
runs riot as usual over the number of churches Koma once
possessed : certainly some remains of four are still standing,
and seven more sites are pointed out. In the ruins of that
of the Panagia I found two fragments of limestone cornice
which proved to fit on to each other, and to bear parts of one
inscription. The lettering was about li in. long and of late
period ; the middle hopelessly gone.
19. //XAAICTOKO /// N ///////////////////// I HN AAOXO ///
KjaXXiar^ Kii^C^v^Tos .] Ti)y <2\oj(o[>'.
It is not improbable that here, as at Letymbou in the Papho
district and in other Cypriote villages where the number of
churches is out of all proportion to the population, some of the
ruins are those of Latin edifices, Koma tou Gialou may well
have attracted Venetian settlers to its little bay sheltered by a
headland on the east and by the Vallia on the west, and to its
fertile, well-watered plain : and my supposition was curiously
' Most unfortunately my photograph was a failure.
db,Google
The Carpass. 6g
illustrated a little later; for while I was resting in one of the
coffee-houses of the village a peasant reported a cave with a
written rock above it, lying to the east : he offered himself as
guide, and led us half an hour's journey to a spot near the sea-
shore, where by a little ruined church dedicated to St. Anna
was a quarry, and on its face the date
MDXXXin.
proving that the quarry was worked about forty years before
the loss of Cyprus by Venice, and perhaps furnished stone for
the building of churches at Koma tou Gialou.
From this point to Cape St. Andreas the southern slopes of
the Carpass become more and more wild ; the villages, with the
exception of Neta, retire from the sea, and before them lies a
craggy ridge of almost virgin forest, traversed only by a few
rough paths, and stretching down to the shore ; few human
habitations appear for many miles, and, if any there be, they
are mere summer-huts, deserted except during the reaping of
the little tracts reclaimed here and there from the wilderness.
But the evidences of ancient inhabitation are not infrequent ;
no less than three sites are to be seen, choked with undergrowth
and hemmed in by the impenetrable ' schinia ' shrubs, in the
tract lying between Leonarisso and the sea. The largest — now
known as Mazaraes and not marked on the Inch Survey— lies Ma»arats,
on the top of the first rocky ridge in a strong position above ^l^%„^
a second site, marked on the map as Kakozonara, which, being Ki^saii,
very small and unimportant, is probably that of an outlying
village built about a well.
Of 'Mazaraes,' in spite of its lar^e area of ruin — nearly half
a mile square — there is hardlyanything todetermine the character
or date. Like a score of forgotten sites in C3Tirus it is a wilder-
ness of grey stone, of which half is unsquared, with here and
there a patch of clearing from whose surface the peasants have
removed and heaped up the debris. No mouldings, no archi-
tectural details could I discover— only a few oil-stones, and some
blocks of unusual size piled together in one heap ; and no
better evidence was forthcoming than that of a dozen rifled
rock tombs which lie near the southern centre of the site.
Argument drawn from such msufficient data as the width of a
Spoitoi or the shape of sepulchral chambers is never convincing ;
but so far as it is worth anything, it would suggest an early date
for the town to which these tombs belonged : the Spoftoi are
db/Goog[e
70 Devia Cypria.
wide and the chambers in some instances circular, like those
in the fourth century group known as ' AXmvia rod 'Ewktk&jtiw
near New Paphos ; and other negative evidence may be quoted
to support this inference. Were it a Byzantine ruin, experience
of Cyprus would lead one to expect the remains of one or more
churches and almost invariably a tradition of sanctity attaching
to a ruined apse with a rough pile of stones in the centre repre-
senting the former altar : a Ptolemaic or Roman town would
have probably survived into Byzantine times and have left
evidence of itself in the shape of concrete pavements and florid
mouldings; and I am inchned therefore to refer this site to earlier
days, perhaps to the sixth or fifth century before our era;
the very absence of all architectural features among ruins whose
blocks are so large aflfords in itself a presumption of antiquity.
The rough and unglazed potsherds, which were all that I could
pick up upon the site, might have been of any period.
A place of some strength it must have been, for a cliff
breaks away below it on all sides but the north ; and on the
sea-shore half a mile to the south-east I found traces of what
was perhaps its 'scala,' a httle patch of the usual grey ruin, now
known as Katzari, strewn with rough red potsherds, and here
and there large squared blocks among rubble. Deep down into
the limestone rock has been bored a well-shaft, and there are
faint traces of a considerable building, perhaps a tower, on a
little rising ground overlooking the tiny bay.
The name and history of this forgotten town are probably for
ever lost ; and I can hazard no conjecture, except that ' Mazaraes'
possibly contains the name Makar (in Cypriote pronunciation
'Madjar'), and is a survival of a Phoenician settlement.
A deep valley intervenes before the central ridge of the
Carpass, on which due north of Mazaraes lies the long village
of Leonarisso, where I camped for two nights, and was tor-
mented by clouds of insects brought up by the hot wind *. On
the very crest of the ridge, about half an hour to the N.N.W.,
Pmsir/dm: I was shown a curious site, where a ' stranger ' was said to have
dug a few years before : it is now known as Peristefani, and
covers a small area only, but is remarkable both for its remains
and for the extraordinary strength of its position ; except from
' The heat for the last week had b«en so terribly aggravated by the sdrocco that the
melons, figs, and vines had been ruined, the wells were drying up, and a woman fell
dead of sunstroke on a threshing-floor at Leonarisso the day that 1 arrived. To this
is due the failure of almost all my subsequent photographs, for my whole stock of
films was so much spoilt, that no decent print could be taken from them.
db,Googlc
The Carpass. 71
the south-east this peninsula of crag is perfectly inaccessible.
The peasants have brought the little plateau under cultivation,
and collected the surface-ruin into heaps, or built it into fences,
obliterating all traces of foundations ; but here and there from
fence or heap project the torsos or legs of large stone statues
of a very early period, the most remarkable of which I gathered
together and photographed : —
(i) A female figure, nude; head and legs below the knee
broken oif. When complete it must have stood about nine feet
high. Arms close to the side and hardly distinguishable from
the trunk ; similarly the legs are hardly divided, and the back is
flat and unworked.
(2) A female head, found separate but possibly belonging
to the above, measuring sixteen inches from the point of the
chin to the crown. The face is much mutilated. The hair falls
straight to the nape of the neck and then curls upwards, but is
not worked in detail.
{3) Shoulders and lower half of the head of a male figure,
nude. Most noticeable is the wedge-shaped beard, not worked
in detail. This figure again must have been much over life-size.
(4) A draped torso, about the size of life, apparently female,
and having the right hand upon the breasts ; probably a repre-
sentation of the Asiatic Goddess?
The sculptures give the spectator a strong impression of
antiquity ; the stiff pose and rude style recalling the more
archaic Dali figurines,
I picked up also, besides much rough pottery, two of those
' prehistoric ' stones, flattened on one side and rounded on the
other, which have been found on many early sites in Cyprus, and
are supposed to have been used for purposes of crushing grain ^,
Any foundations that ever existed on the centre of the plateau
have been obliterated, and no traces exist in the rock round the
edges to suggest that there was ever any wall or fortress ; it
seems therefore most probable that these statues are the relics
of a solitary temple, possibly of the Asiatic Goddess, which
looked down from the crest of the Carpass on to both seas, and
across to the Cilician coast whence she came.
To complete the survey of this group of ancient sites we must ^™
pass eastward from Leonarisso, through Vasili, to Ljrthrankomi,
where the ground east of the village shows traces of a former
settlement. Close to the small monastery of the Panagia tou
• See Journal of Hell. Studies, vol. a. p. 154.
db/Goog[e
72 Devia Cypria.
Lythrankomou are three large blocks about three feet by two,
set on edge, one having a deep depression in its upper surface ;
but it would be rash to assert that they belong to any such
sacred enclosure as we have seen at Akrotiri, although it is not
impossible,
When, after passing through Vathylakka and Agios Symeon
— the latter being the first of a line of four Moslem villages —
we next meet with ancient remains, they are of a remarkable
order. The ridge of the Carpass has now become higher, and the
whole aspect of the country more rugged and mountainous;
deep gorges run down from the backbone to the sea, and pre-
cipitous flat-topped hills become a feature in the landscape. It
is while passing under one such hill, after abruptly descending
from the central ridge and within sight of Elisis, that the
traveller suddenly perceives high up in the cliflF upon his right
a dark patch, which a moment's scrutiny convinces him must
be the mouth of an artificial cave ^ If he turns off his path, as
we did on that blazing midday in July, and, tethering his horse
at the foot of the hill, bursts his way for five hundred feet of
ascent through matted thorns and over rocks so hot as to blister
the bare hand, until he reaches the foot of the scarp which
forms the crest of the hill, he will have had no bad foretaste of
purgatory. And still the door of the cave — now evidently arti-
ficial — is fully twenty feet above his head. The rock is sheer
and even slightly overhanging, and for a few minutes he will
see no way up its smooth face ; but a long ledge in the cliff face,
running obliquely across it and passing under the cave-door,
ends in a turn of the cliff about fifteen feet above the ground,
and careful search will reveal the possibility of reaching it by
means of knobs and cracks on the face of the precipice ; and,
once therein, it is fairly easy, though most unpleasant, to wriggle
the body along the ledge, which is not more than a foot wide,
until immediately under the opening, and get into the latter
with a sigh of relief, tempered by the consciousness of having
to descend that sloping ledge again sooner or later. But, standing
upright in the doorway, the climber will not regret his labour,
for the largest of ancient Cyprian sepulchres hes before him.
The plan below shows the arrangement of the aisles and
niches, but its measurements are not quite accurate, as I had no
tape, and had to measure by paces.
' Pococke (p. 33o) aaw this cave, which he calls Ag;i Mama, but he seems to have
falted to get into it Satellarios (p. 153) heard of it, but somehow did not see it.
Mrs. Scott-Stevenson saw it, but rode on.
db/Goog[e
The Carpass.
73
It will be seen that this tomb is cut for 87 feet straight
into the precipice. 12 feet is taken up by the passage
which runs down to the door, and then the great hall opens
out divided into a central nave, supported on four arches,
and flanked on each side by aisles, from the farther sides
of which run out the sepulchral chambers, four on the
left and two more shallow on the right, the tomb never having
been completely finished on the first plan. The whole is rather
flatly vaulted, and not more than seven feet high ; the floor is
perfectly even, and covered with a couple of inches of coarse
dust, the detritus of the roof; the cutting is in all parts regular
and careful. On either hand of the entrance runs a narrow
db/Goog[e
74 Devia CyPria.
passage, opening out into a little chamber, which is lighted by
a sHt in the face of the cUff: these may be relics of a time when
the cave was used as a refuge or a stronghold, and seem to be
of later period than the rest. The peasants of Elisis have a
tradition that robbers once used it, and the roof is in places
blackened by smoke, while cinders and dung are to be seen on
the floor. The tjeds in the sepulchral niches lie across the
inner end, in shallow recesses. At the far end of the Tomb is
a square arched recess containing what is apparently a well,
cut perhaps in later times, and a stone which I threw down
seemed to bound and rebound from its sides to infinity ; but I
had neither the means nor the will to descend the shaft, more
especially as persuasion and threats had alike failed to induce
my servant to follow me up the clifif. In no part of the tomb
— and I looked most diligently — was there any sort of inscrip-
tion, excepting only two or three names of modern Greeks who
had climbed up in past years, and had carved the sides of the
entrance after their manner. The whole cave is absolutely empty '.
At the foot of the cliff is a small chamber, probably a tomb,
running some six feet into the rock, and a shallow depression
to the right of it — both empty.
Such is the most remarkable of Cyprian tombs, whether for
size or situation ' : but before considering the question of its
character and date, the similar (but smaller) example at Galin6-
porni, three miles to the east, must be described '.
Caw at It is cut in the face of a precipitous hill, which looks S.E.,
immediately east of the village and near the well and ruined
church of St. Anna. It is far more easily accessible, and, a
false door having been cut on the left of the true entrance, has
been long used as a stable, a fact which accounts for the goats'
bones lying on the floor among the dust (in this instance often
two feet deep). As will be seen from the plan, it is a few
feet shorter (68 ft. 8 in.) and has no aisles, only deep chambers
running out from the nave. On the whole it has the same
general characteristics, but is slightly more lofty — nine feet at
the highest point ; the cutting is hardly so careful ; the first
* The plan bears a striking resemblance to one published by M. Rinnan (Mission en
Phfnide, p. 669) of a tomb at MDgharet.es.Souk, but of the date of the latter there is
' I tried to photograph the scarp from the slope below, but could get no effective
view; and the heat reflected from the rock was so tremendous, and our thir^ so great,
that 1 hurried back to the horeea ; in the two or three minutes that my camera stood
in the sun the brass-work became too hot to touch.
' Sir S. Baker was taken to this cave (p. lai).
,.CooqIc
Galmo-
The Carpass.
75
chamber on the left has a square recess in its side wall ; and
there are three square holes in the floor in different parts of
the tomb, filled up with stones. The villagers have grubbed
among the dust for treasure, but found none.
Why then were these great caves cut out of the rock, who
cut them, and when ? The answer to the first question is not
doubtful. Tombs they were in the first instance beyond all
question ; the niches and beds estabhsh this at once : and we
may safely conjecture that they were the burying-places of
great families. The latter points however are not so readily
settled: there is little 'internal' evidence to guide us: the
arching and vaulting might belong to any period but the latest ;
no stalactite has formed whereby we might estimate the
centuries that have passed since water first dripped in these
dark abodes of the dead ; the cutting has been done with an
adze-like tool — about an inch broad in the blade — but so has
db/Goog[e
76 Devia CyPria.
that of most Cyprian tombs ; and we must appeal to any other
remains which seem to be of the same period and afford better
indications.
The great tomb at EUsis stands alone, no smaller graves are
hollowed out beside it as by the royal sepulchres of Phrygia,
and no ancient site can be detected for some miles round ; but
at Galin6pomi a hundred other rock-cut graves honeycomb the
eastern slope on which the village is built : the houses are often
built on to them, and they are used as inner rooms, as store-
chambers, as stables — indeed the natives are half troglodyte. '
Many of these tombs are square pits sunk into a flat plateau of
rock, and would therefore have been open to the sky had they
not been covered with a lid of some kind ; the ledges on which
this lid rested are seen an inch or two below the top of the
tomb walls '. Now this characteristic is, I believe, very rare in
Cyprus: in a group of tombs known as 'E>Xi)vikA, near New
Paphos, and bearing Cypriote inscriptions, I have noticed it^;
and in the necropolis of Macaria (vid. infra, p. 103) a few -
tombs occur, sunk in the solid rock and covered by ordinary
sarcophagus-lids, in this case however not resting on a ledge,
but on the top of the rock itself I know of no other instances,
but M. R6nan (Mission en Phenicie, pp. 225, 229, 288, etc.,
and Plate XXXI) remarked it frequently on the opposite coast
at Gharfin, Maschnaka, and other places in the districts of T5Te
and Byblos. The general plan of the Galin6porni tomb should
be compared with that of one at Sidon on p. 437 of M. R^nan's
book. It seems therefore clear that this fashion of sepulture
was introduced into Cyprus from Phoenicia ; and as we find no
other instance of its prevalence except this at Galin6pomi, we
may conclude that the graves at the latter are of about the same
period as those at New Paphos (fifth or fourth century?}, and
are perhaps Phoenician.
But where is the city to which these graves belonged? I
confess that I can give only a tentative answer. Pococke states
that he saw ' some small ruins of an antient place which might
be Urania' on a hill above Galinopomi : if he was right, I
failed to find them, and in any case they are probably not
those of Urania, which seem to be situated at Aphendrika.
Failing these ruins— of whose existence I am sceptical, for I
' This peculiarity was also noticed here by Pococke, who bad previously remarked
it on the site upon Cape Dinaretum ; vid. infra.
' See article on ' Tombs ' in Journ, Hell^i. Studies, vol. ix, and ' Sammlung,' No. 33.
b,Goo<^lc
The Carpass. 77
questioned the villagers most closely, and they showed every
inclination to guide me to all ancient sites that they knew of
with a view to attracting our money to their neighbourhood in
another season' — I can only refer both the Elisis and the
Galindporni tombs to a large site which lies on the coast at a
point due south of Korovia ; as the crow flies it is distant two
and a-half miles from the Elisis cave, and a little more than
three from Galinoporni.
The ruins extend for half a mile westward of the ruined ^gia .
church of Agia VarvSra (miscalled Agios Giorgios in the ""^""^
Survey), and cover the slope inland for some three hundred
yards. At the western extremity, overlooking the sea, is a
knoll which appears to have been the citadel : a low cliff falls
to the beach, and inland another cliff walls in the site. Here, as
at Mazaraes, search as I might, I could find neither columns
nor mouldings of any description : only very large blocks of
stone, a carefully b'uilt water channel, some large ' oil-stones,'
and rough red pottery. The church has a double apse, and
seems to have been built from the debris of the town : were it
in any way connected with the latter in point of date, we should
have expected to find remains of other churches in so large a
ruin. I could see no trace of any harbour.
Such an entire absence of architectural features might equally
argue an early site, or a ruined
modern village: the size of the
building material is against the
latter alternative, but, if it were not
for a stone head now in a house at
Korovia and affirmed on all hands
to have been found at Agia Varv^ra,
certainty would have been impos-
sible. This head however, of which
I append a wood-cut taken from
a photograph, is clearly not a
product of modem Cyprus : it
is Ufe-size, the moustache and
short curling beard are treated in detail, and the eye-sockets are
' It is true that a certain Mustapha some years ago found a pit in bis garden at
Galindpomi from which he obtained some stone heads, now built into his gate, and
some fragments of statuary now in his garden. He averred thai A. di Cesnola had
offered him £3 for the digging-right; he refused it, and as theair of the pit was so foul
as to extinguish any hght, he filled it in again. Stripped of exaggerations, the story is
only that of the opening of a tomb.
db/Goog[e
yS Devia Cypria.
well finished : the hair however is rather roughly worked on
the crown and back of the head. The end of the nose is the
only mutilated feature, and the whole appearance is singularly
pleasing.
Half a mile east of Agia Varv4ra, on the opposite side of the
torrent which runs down from Korovia, a spur of the hills pro-
jects into the sea, and its extremity rises into a steep knoll,
known as Nitoviklia. Hidden among a mass of undergrowth
and 'schinia' both on the knoU and on the ridge immediately
below it are ruins which impressed me with a sense of greater
antiquity than those of Agia VarvAra : they are of much smaller
extent, and are confined to a mass of fallen blocks on the knoll
and a circular foundation, in places three feet thick and ap-
parently that of a tower, commanding at once the road down
the valley on the west and the little bay below. The fallen
stones are from three to five feet long by two to three broad
and two deep, and very accurately squared and dressed. Further
on the ridge below, besides many traces of houses, are two long
parallel lines of foundation, resting on solid rock, and now con-
sisting only of a series of blocks, about a foot high, not very
closely fitted without mortar. Near them is a deep well, whose
walls are lined with unmortared masonry, and in it was found
(according to the Korovia villagers) a bronze shovel, now in the
possession of Col. Warren, R.A., C.M.G., at Nicosia. This
implement belongs certainly to an early period ; and it should
be remarked that we also picked up on the site three of the
flattened crushing-stones, already described at Peristefini.
With these two groups of ruins I would suggest that the
Elisis and Galin6pomi tombs are connected. The great dis-
tance which intervenes between city and cemetery may be
discounted by the following considerations: there is certainly
no site nearer to the Elisis cave than these, and if the latter was
constructed at so great a distance, why not also the Galindporni
graves ? It has been found by experience on several Cyprian
sites that the older cemeteries often lie at a great distance from
the cities, the newer graves filling up the intervening space.
Thus the oldest tombs which we opened at Old Paphos lay
quite a mile to the east of the city; the graves which honey-
comb the bluffs of Ktima undoubtedly belong to New Paphos,
distant not much less than a mile : at Arsinoe again the older
graves are the most remote. It is well known at what distance
from their capitals the tombs of kings are constructed in Egypt
db/Goog[e
Tke Carpass. 79
and Palestine, and it seems not unreasonable to suppose that
the great Cyprian caves are royal bur3'ing-places, carved in the
lonely cliff above Elisis, and in the strange contorted strata of
Galin6porni, at a like distance from the city on the coast. The
inaccessible position of the former has caused it to remain
solitary, but round the latter scores of lesser graves were cut,
the rock being unusually adapted for the purpose by its softness
and durability ^ : indeed it is possible that none so good exists
nearer to the city.
We may now proceed rapidly up the remainder of the southern
coast to Cape Dinaretum, for there are no other remains of much
importance on this side of the Carpass. Leaving Galin6porni K^mia.
and striking the path to Rizo-Karpaso the site of an ancient
village is seen on the right just before entering the Sykadhes
plain. The most noticeable feature is a pair of sarcophagi, one
complete (but rifled), the other broken into two pieces : the
chests of the sarcophagi and the lids are each cut out of a
single piece of the native limestone, the former being neither
inscribed nor ornamented in any way. The lids are of the
usual pattern. The dimensions of the chests are 7 ft. 4 in.
X 3 ft. 5 in. X 3 ft. 8 in., and the lids are i ft. 6 in. high.
The walls are six inches thick. Both appeared to me to be
Roman or Byzantine. Half a mile east again, on a flat-topped
hill, known as Mesovouni, are several earth-graves, probably
belonging to this village ; they were accidentally revealed a
short time ago to the owner of the soil while ploughing,
one of his oxen treading through into a grave. Glass and
inferior jewellery and pottery were found in all that were
explored.
On the sea-coast, at the mouth of the Karamani stream, are
the ruins of a small village of Byzantine period, and at ' Aphen-
drika^' in the plain is a dilapidated church of unusual size,
surrounded by traces of a cloister. The next point of interest
is Chelones, which should be marked on the Survey Map at csrfcwj.
Agia Pappou. Here is a considerable rock, known As'Aawpo,^™
vri<ri, and two or three other wave-washed reefs, which are pro-
bably the N^aot Kaptracriai, as they lie at a point exactly opposite
Carpasia, and at which the width of the isthmus would naturally
be measured. The distance, as the crow flies, is rather over
' It is noticeable that on the west side of the Galiniipomi gully, where the rock
changes to a pebbly conglomerate, there are no graves.
* Not the better-known site on the coast, some miles to the north-east of this.
db,Googlc
8o Devia Cypria.
three and three-quarter miles, so that Strabo's thirty stadia is
wonderfully exacts
Beside some late ruins about the ruined shrine of Agia
Pappou, curious remains exist a hundred yards to the west
of a slip for launching ships down to the sea. Two walls of
coarse rubble project from the earthy cliff, and a concrete floor
can be seen in section among the detritus which has filled up
the space between the walls : the whole has been eaten away
by the waves, probably for some distance : but in the clear
water I could plainly see an artificially smoothed slope of rock
a few feet below the present margin of the water, down which
the ships slid into the sea. It is difficult to divine for what
purpose such a slip was constructed here, — unless (as Strabo's
choice of this, not the narrowest, part of the peninsula for
measurement may imply) the cautious mariners of antiquity on
their way to and from Salamis sometimes drew their vessels
across the neck of land at this point to avoid the dangers of
Cape Dinaretum. I saw no corresponding slip at Carpasia,
but in a site so much choked with sand it might very well exist
unseen ; and high as the land is in the centre here, the slope,
more especially on the north, is more gentle than at the
narrower parts further east. There are instances in the
history of ancient navigation of herculean labour undertaken
to avoid doubling a headland, sufficient to make the task here
seem light by comparison. I examined the valley which runs
up towards Rizo-Karpaso, but, if there ever were a plank road,
the earth washed down by the torrent has obliterated all trace
of it.
On a round hill known as Palaeokhorio, standing back from
the shore a few hundred yards further east, are very consider-
able debris of houses, a very large ruined church, surrounded
by late graves, and one or two plain shafts of columns : the
ruins are unusually abundant, covering the whole hill-top with
tumbled heaps, but there is every reason to consider them of
late period and unimportant. Like the sites that we have just
left at Chelones and Karam^ni and many others on these
coasts, this place was probably abandoned in comparatively
modem days, when the ravages of pirates seem almost to have
driven the inhabitants from this part of the island altogether*.
From this point to Cape St. Andreas stretches the wildest and
' xiv. 663.
' See PocDcke's remarks on tbe desolation of this end of the Carpass, ^.-ai^.
db,Google
The Carpass. 8 1
most beautiful portion of the Carpass : the mountainous ridge
has become higher and assumed bolder shapes, and Its shaggy
spurs run out into the sea. Between them for the next few
miles Ues a succession of tiny fertile plains, destitute of inhabit-
ants except at harvest-time, and fringing sandy bays, on the
very margin of which sweet water can be found at the depth of
a few feet, while the wells further inland are brackish. In one
such plain an hour eastward from Rizo-Karpaso lies Platia, a
little summer-hamlet built upon and out of the ruins of an
earlier settlement ; on the left a great isolated block of a bril-
liant red colour stands up among the forest, and somewhere
among these hills copper has been found, for on the shore in
the bay of Nankomi I picked up slags similar to those at Limni
in Papho.
Presently the little plains and bays come to an end, and the
shaggy ridge bends round to the sea, falling in perpendicular
cliffs right into deep water. There is no longer a road along
the gullies and low ground, and we climb on to a rugged
plateau which gradually slopes again to the eastern cape : the
little monastery of the Apostolos Andreas, the islands called Aposioios
the ' Keys of Cyprus,' and a knob of rock standing upon Cape ^'"^'"^•
St. Andreas itself come into view, and far away over a stretch of
windless burnished sea the blue cone of Mount Casius in Syria
rises out of the haze. A quarter of an hour before reaching
the extremity we passed the ruins of a village on the edge of
the cliff, now known as Agios Iannis and quite modern, and
were soon established in the guest-room of the Monastery,
lately entirely rebuilt by the care and munificence of its Oeco-
nomus'. Situated at the world's end, on a burning plateau of
rock and scrub, it has almost no inhabitants: one solitary
monk and two &(^\ot were alone in it during my visit, seeing no
one but a chance traveller, or the sailors who land to get water
' This monastery is said to owe its foundation to St. Andrew, who, landing on the
island, found here a spring, by which he set up two stones. The additional legend,
mentioned by Mra. Scott- Steven son (p. 395), that he was conveying the sacred Kykkou
picture, I did not hear, and I doubt if it be a genuine legend at all, as the provenance
of that picture from Constantinople in the eleventh century is well known in Cyprus.
It has however a historical interest, as having been the last refuge of Isaac Comnenus,
who probably fled hither in the hope of finding conveyance to Cilicia or Syria. From
Roger de Hoveden's account it would appear that Richard himself received Isaac's
surrender at this lonely spot Bishop Stubbs has wrongly accused the chronicler of
confounding 'Candare' with 'Caput SancEi Andreae'; although the expression
' fortissima' suits the fonner better. Still the words of Hoveden are explicit, and
besides Kantara was not an abbatia.
db,Google
82 Devia Cypria.
at the spring under the tiny church of St. Andrew, from which
the Monastery derives its sanctity and its fame. From time to
time a sponge-boat fishes in the bay, and I made use of one to
procure conveyance to the Kleides Islands for the investigation
of the reported (but wholly fictitious) antiquities thereupon. I
had first tried an Arab caique which had called for water, and
indeed concluded a bargain with its captain to take me thither
at daybreak : but a fair wind springing up at sunset tempted
him, and taking advantage of my departing for a bathe, he
sailed away with the narghile which I had lent to him in token
of our contract concluded! A Symiote sponge-fisher proved
less perfidious, and next morning I was rowed out to the
islands, coasting round the cliffs, and looking down through
two hundred feet of clear sea on to every shell or weed upon
the bottom. But I had to be contented with the marvellous
scenes of the voyage, for the islands afforded me nothing more
than a superb view of the Cilician and Syrian coasts divided by
a hazy gap which marked the bay of Iskenderun. Three of
the six islands are mere reefs washed from end to end by the
swell which seems to heave always round Cape St. Andreas : of
the remainder, one is very small, not more than a few yards in
diameter, but just raised enough out of the water to support
a scanty vegetation ; another, somewhat larger, is divided
from the mainland by a channel only a few feet wide, and is
a mere mass of shingle cemented together and covered with
stunted undei^owth ; the last and largest lies nearly a mile
out, and is covered with 'schinia' shrubs and grass, and in-
habited by countless sea-birds. On its northern side reeds and
rank grass indicate a dried spring, but I searched every inch of
the ground without finding a tomb, a hewn stone, a cut rock, or
any trace of ancient inhabitation whatsoever.
On our way back to the Monastery we boarded the caique
whose boat we had been using, and after I had been treated to
sailors' twist and villainous rum at midday in July, the trawl
was hauled in for my edification. Boats like this, using simply
a heavy drag-net, form the lowest grade, paying only £3 las, to
the island revenue ; whereas if diving apparatus of any sort be
used, the impost would be £30. The trawler may get as many
as fifty sponges a-day, ranging in value from a piastre up to
three shillings ; but the damage that is done meanwhile to the
fishery is incalculable, if by each haul thirty miniature spwDnges
are torn off the bottom to every three or four matured and
db/Goog[e
The Carpass. 83
worth retaining ! Such at least was the case that morning, for
among the strange sea things which came up with the net were
some thirty sponges in all, of which three only were approved
by the fishermen. A paternal administration should look to
this: the Fishery properly preserved and farmed might be a
very lucrative perquisite of the C3T)rian Exchequer,
From the Monastery it is an hour's journey to the extremity Ttmpieof
of Cape Dinaretum, where rises the mass called the Castros — ^m«a.
Pococke's ' rock of marbles of different colours stretching into
the sea/ upon which he observed ' signs of foundations of a
building.' These foundations I also saw, though they have
been much robbed since Pococke's time to supply material for
the rebuilding of the Monastery ; nothing is now left but traces
of an oblong, about 117 ft. x 57 ft., set nearly true east and
west, and therefore crosswise as regards the top of the little
mount which lies about N.E. and S.W.'. Within these
foundations one or two attempts have been made to dig, but
to no great depth. Down the western slope of the rock (which
falls a hundred feet sheer to the sea on the other three sides)
various remains of the building above have fallen or been
rolled. Among heaps of squared stones I noticed a pedestal
of blue hmestone, uninscribed ; a headless stone statue, female,
and with the arms close to the sides, in the stiff archaic posi-
tion and of the same rude workmanship that I had observed
at PeristefAni ; and near it a draped leg of a later period.
These then are the remains of the Temple of Aphrodite
Acraea, for Strabo's words are clear: ^ 5' aKpiopaa xaAeirai
'OXvftiTOS, iyovva 'AippoSiTJjs 'AKpaias vaov, ASvrov yvyai^l Kal
a&paTOV, irpiKfiVTai Sk ir\^<rtov at KXtiBis, k.t.\. : and this hillock
is that dignified by the name of Olympus, the trt/tvA KXiriis
'OXv/iwov^ alluded to by Euripides in the Bacchae (409) as an
abode of desire, and is certainly the original of Claudian's
imaginative description of the mountain and grove of Venus
(Epithal. Hon. et Mar. 49 sqq.) :
' Mom latus eoum Cypri prseruptus objmbrat
Invius humBno gressu ; Phariumque cubile
Proteos et septem despectat coniiia Nili,' etc.
That the Temple was ASvtov yvvat^l xai aoparov ^obably
' Sakellarios, vol. L pp. 150 foil., haa a fair description of this.
' Tiie only Cyprian mountain which retains the name of Olympus in modern days
is one of the peaks of the Northern Range behind Akanthou : but there is no reason
to believe that the names of this line of peaks are old ; cf. ' Sina,' • St. Hilarion/ etc.
G 2
db/Goog[e
84 Devia Cypria.
means that »iamc(/ women were excluded from its rites, Avhile
maidens there underwent the initiation which Herodotus re-
cords at Babylon, adding, kvLa.ycr\ Si koX t^s KCwpov eirrl irapa-
ir\^<rios TtfvTtp I'Sfics^. We are never likely to learn more of it,
for there is no scope for excavation, the site having been too
thoroughly plundered either to rebuild the monastery, or, like
Famagusta, to make the quays and hotels of Port Said.
At the foot of the rock remains of a town extend for some
distance inland : immediately to the south stood a lai^e build-
ing, among whose ruins is a plain cap of i ft. 6 in. diameter :
but the whole site has been much quarried. Several rock-
tombs covered by lids, but of a different type and later period
than those at Galin6porni, lie near the latter building, and
others are in the hill behind. Along the northern shore ancient
wheel-marks are distinctly visible, and two subterranean pools,
to which access is obtained by flights of steps, lie on the south
of this road. There remain to be mentioned only two artificial
grots in the northern face of the Temple rock, but I failed to
get into either, one being blocked by the falling-in of the rock,
the other inaccessible without a ladder. I could see that the
roof of each was blackened by smoke, and they may have been
the abode of hermits, who seem to entertain a predilection for
remote headlands. Engel (vol. i. p. 156) suggests that the town
of Acra mentioned by Stephen of Byzantium (s. v.) should be
placed here : no other situation has ever been assigned to it
(except by Sakellarios), and the epithet dxpaia is slightly in
favour of an identification with these ruins, while their position
on Cape Dinaretum is such as one would suggest for an
"AKpaV Still this is slender evidence whereon to base the
identification of a town whose bare name is mentioned once
only; and it must be remembered that &Kpaia is a standing
epithet of Aphrodite at Cnidus and Troezen, and of Hera at
Argos and elsewhere.
Late in the afternoon of July i8th we began the westward
journey down the northern coast, with difficulty threading our
way through a luxuriant forest of arbutus, schinia, and flowering
thorns, the path now following the windings of the fretted coast-
hne, and presently striking in to the hills, when they approached
too near to the sea to allow farther passage. Nothing of more
interest is to be seen on the way than the small site of Palaeo-
khani, whose oil-stones and well are indicative of an ancient
1 L 199. ' Cf. Strabo, loc. cit. : th' ixpa xol ipK.
db,Googlc
The Carpass^ 85
farm, until after four hours' journey we reach Aphendrika ^, a
mere cluster of huts, around and among which lie ruins which
are probably those of Urania.
Neither Strabo nor Ptolemy makes mention of this city, nor Urania.
do they note anything at all between Carpasia and Cape Dina-
retum : and, but for a doubtful reference in Nonnus (xiii. 450),
our only authority for its existence is Diodorus (xx. 47), who
relates its capture Kwrh Kpdros by Demetrius Poliorcetes. His
previous phrase — rots irXt}<rio)(apois npoa^oXiis 7roii)<rdfi(vos —
suggests that it lay at no great distance from Carpasia where
Demetrius landed, while we are led to suppose that it was the
place of next importance, fortified or possessing an acropolis.
To my knowledge there are two sites only at this end of the
Carpass whose remains are sufficient for such a town, that at
Agia Varvara, already described, and this at Aphendrika : the
latter is distinctly the more important of the two, and possesses
a stronger citadel, while it is also much nearer to Carpasia (four
miles distant as against eleven), and would more naturally be
connected with it. The words of Diodorus by no means imply
that Demetrius took these cities on his way to Salamis ; rather
he seems to have made a preliminary raid and returned to his
ships. For these reasons accordingly, failing all assistance
from the geographers, I would identify Urania with the ruins
at Aphendrika.
There is a narrow strip of fertile plain between the hills
and the sea, and the ruins lie back from the coast on the last
slopes of the ridge, covering a considerable area with masses
of squared stone, fragments of columns, and foundations of
houses. Three large Byzantine churches are prominent ob-
jects, the principal one, dedicated to the Panagia Chrysiotissa,
having a threefold apse, and being much larger than modern
village churches. In the precinct of a second, that of Agios
Demetrios, lie fragments of granite columns of Roman period
and a marble cippus uninscribed ; and the sites of three other
churches can be traced, proving that Urania (if so it be) was
a place of considerable importance in the Byzantine period.
East of the town may be seen the large quarry from which it
was built, now called the ' Phylakes,' and behind the ruins rises
the citadel, of no great height but a very conspicuous object,
projecting sheer on three sides from the hills into the plain.
..' Pococke'a 'AsphronUy.' I tiled to see hia 'wall running down to the sea ' : what
remains there were of it are probably built into cottages by this time.
db/Goog[e
86 Devia Cypria.
The summit of this rock bears ancient remains as interesting
and perhaps as primitive as anything in Cyprus, for the entire
ground-plan of the building, whether palace or fortress, which
once crowned it, has been preserved by the fact that the lower
portion of all its chambers were excavated in the living rock, to
a depth of from 2 to 4 ft. The walls are therefore so far intact
as to determine the position of the doorways and the character
of the approaches : the outer walls are generally 2 to 2I ft. thick,
and the party-walls vary from i to i4 ft., but no trace is left of
the masonry, which must have been superimposed. From the
appended plan it will be seen that the building was approached
from the south-east by a gate and wide passage, on the left
of which are two chambers : a flight of four steps and another
gate whose sockets remain lead into an inner chamber, which
again opens into a third, the largest of all. On the east a
considerable ' margin ' of uncut rock has been left, and a
smaller one on the right, but on the north, overlooking the
city, the precipice falls away sheer from the outer wall of the
chamber.
To this rock-cut dwelling it is difficult not to assign great
antiquity : this eminence must always have been the acropolis of
any city built here (for nature has provided no other), and on such
acropolis must have been a fortress. Now the fact that a tomb
belonging to this site bears a Cypriote inscription of a par-
ticularly archaic character' proves the existence of the town at
an early period, and these rock-chambers must be coeval with
its foundation. They recalled to me the strange remains of
a similar fortress, cut to a depth of several feet in the living
rock of the acropolis of Kumbet in Phrygia, and ascribed by
Professor W. M. Ramsay to the same period as the neighbouring
city of Midas^ : and I have little doubt that the plan of a fortress
or dwelling-place constructed by very early Asiatic immigrants
into Cyprus has been preserved at Aphendrika,
At a distance of barely half-a-mile below the city lies a little
horseshoe bay which served as harbour : the entrance is only
a few yards in width, and the space within would afford room
for many vessels of small draught. On the beach still stand
four mooring-posts of stone, three feet high and two in diameter,
> Published by MM, Beaudouin and Pettier in the Bulletin, vol. iii. p. 351, No. t.
To their copy I liave nothing to add.
' Compare also Professor Ramsay's account vX chambers in the citadel of the Lion>
City in Phrygia, in Journal of Hell. Studies, vol. ix. p. 353.
Digtizedb/GoOgIC
The Carpass, 87
E FOSTKESS AT APHENDRIKA.
b,Google
Diglizedb,ljOOgle
88 Devia Cypria.
and among the heavy sand may be traced for some distance the
masonry of the quay. It stands now some yards back from the
edge of the water, which has receded, owing either to encroaching
sand or to an upheaval of the coast. There are no traces of
forti6cations about the harbour.
In the western spit of rock and far up into the plain are cut
the tombs: many have been opened from time to time by
villagers (my own foreman owned to having conducted a little
excavation here on his own account before the Occupation), but
a vastly greater number are still unexplored, and might throw
light on a very early period. The tomb on which the three
archaic Cypriote characters (Beaud. and Pott., loc. cit., Samm-
lung, No. 143) are cut has a curious expanding 8p6fios: the
other inscriptions published by MM. Beaudouin and Pottier
I did not see, the sand having probably choked up the tombs.
A piece of very ornate cornice lies among the bushes, and near
it a stone lion, recumbent, and of more than life size : his fore
paws are broken off and lie not far away. No tradition of his
discovery existed in Aphendrika, and from the evident effects
of weather and driving sand I inferred that he had lain above
ground for many years. If, as seems most probable, he was
taken from a tomb, he may have guarded the sepulchre of a
chieftain who held sway over this fertile coast from the acropolis
of Urania.
On the summit of the ridge behind the city has stood a large
village of later times, among whose ruins stand the shells of
four churches of no special interest. To this securer position
the inhabitants of Urania, like those of Carpasia, may have
retired to avoid the Arab corsairs. The site is known now as
Agridia, and was a fief of the de Verney family.
Another village of earlier date (to judge from a fragment of
a stone statue of indifferent workmanship found among the
ruins) lay on the coast two miles to the west of Aphendrika ;
and, riding two miles still in the same direction, we come to
the first traces of Carpasia^.
Hellanicus {ap. Steph. Byz. s.v.) and Pliny both rank Carpasia
among Phoenician foundations in Cyprus, and certain remains
on the plain to the east of the city bear a superficial resemblance
to the stone-enclosure of Cnidus. In this case we find three
' For ancient references to (his city, see Engel, vol. i. pp. 83 foil., and Sakellarios,
vol. i. pp. 146 foil. : the latter gives a description of its remaiiis, and so also does
Pococke, pp. aiB, 319.
Digtizedb/GoOgIC
Tke Carpass. 89
enclosures arranged in a group thus, the one leading out of the
other : —
The walls of each are composed of large blocks 3 ft. high, i ft.
9 in. thick, and of various lengths from 5 ft. downwards : they
are set on edge, and are in no case perfectly contiguous, three
or four inches interval being left between each block and its
neighbour. That this is due to design and not to displacement
is clear from the perfectly perpendicular position of all the
stones. To the south are more traces of foundations,
I should hesitate however to assign to this enclosure any
mysterious character. Not far from the Monastery of the
Apostolos Andreas • I had already seen an enclosure, similarly
megalithic, but from the presence near it of three unmistakeable
' oil-stones ' had concluded at once that it was connected in
some way with a press ; perhaps had been a store. It should
be admitted however that it measured only 12 ft. x 6 ft., and
that the stones, though unmortared, were closely fitted, and
might well have carried higher courses. Again, in the centre
of the site of Carpasia large blocks are to be seen set on
end, and not contiguous, round the site of a large church ;
while in Rizo-Karpaso at this day fences are constructed
in precisely this manner. And therefore, while admitting the
possibility of this triple enclosure being a sacred Te/itfos, I
feel more disposed to regard it as a cattle-pen, perhaps modem
enough.
Such a domestic character should probably be ascribed to an
almost square building {30 ft, x 40 ft.) about 200 yards to the
south-west. The rock has been hollowed out to a depth of
two feet {or probably more, for much rubbish has accumulated
in the bottom), and round the edge has been built a wall of
large and small blocks to a height of five feet, A number of
holes in the inner face of the stones appear to have supporteti
the beams of a light roof. The stones are unmortared and not
closely fitted, but otherwise the character of the ruin recalls
' At a spot called 'AAXvio rip inapiirSs (!).
db,Google
90 Devia Cypria.
that of the Loutron at Salamis, and I would suggest that it has
been an hro^i^Kii or fenced cistern.
I need not describe in detail a site on which Sakellarios and
Pococke have said so much. For nearly a square mile the
slopes below Rizo-Karpaso are strewn with remains, in one
place a beautiful monolithic shaft of white marble indicating a
building of importance : but all is choked with drifted sand, or
earth brought down from above, and the excavator only will be
able to make much of the site. '
The most remarkable of its features are the Harbour, and
the Tombs in the chffs' of Tsambres. The first has been
described by the above-mentioned travellers, and I will only
add that its pair of artificial moles are the most considerable
works of the kind in Cj^prus, That on the eastern side can be
followed for 370 feet from its starting-place on the shore : it
is made for the most part of large squared blocks, formerly
riveted to each other by clamps of metal, the marks of which
only remain, thus : —
but near the outer end it has been patched in later times with
fragments of columns, marble and basalt, clamped together and
to the neighbouring blocks, while other drums may be seen
through the clear water lower down. The uniform width of
the mole is eight feet, and its height above the present water-
level about four. It projects from the shore in a north-westerly
direction towards the point of the other mole which runs due
north ; the latter cannot be followed far, but its massive abut-
ment on the shore is probably a fair sample of its character.
These works probably attracted Demetrius Poliorcetes, and have
caused Strabo to single out for notice the harbour of Carpasia.
The eastern headland is strewn with the ruins of the port
town, here free from the sand which has buried everything to
the west of the ruined church of Agios Philonos, which perhaps
represents the cathedral of the bishops of Carpasia in the early
days of the see : the present building is however of later date,
and appears to have formed part of a monastery. I found in it,
besides Roman drums and capitals, a much mutilated female
head of no particular interest.
* Whence the epithet al«ii^ applied lo Carpasia.
Digtizedb/GoOgIc
The Carpass. 91
As at Salamis and New Paphos, everything upon the surface
of this site is late : but clear evidence of earlier periods in the
history of Carpasia is found in the Tombs. Beginning almost
as soon as the Harbour is left on the west, they extend for a
quarter of a mile right up to the cliffs, which start from the
central ridge, and completely shut in the plain on this side.
On getting clear of the sand, the ground is seen to be honey-
combed with opened graves, from one of which has been excised
the following^ fragment inscribed with Cypriote characters, and
now serving for a manger in a stable near the church of St.
Synesius at Rizo-Karpaso. The characters are four inches in
length and very deeply cut: the excised fragment, which is
incomplete on the left, measures 4 ft. i in. x i ft. 4 in., and has
formed the lintel of a rock-cut doorway ;
20.
to • I mi ' e • I ro ' pe ■ ku ■ si ■ na ■ o
read from the right = 'OvaaiKi-npm rifii ra . , . .
This, so far as I can discover, is unpublished. Apother
inscription was reported to have been excised from a tomb at
the same time (perhaps the remaining half of the above), but I
could not learn what had become of it. Some late intaglios
were shown to me in the same village, but as to the provenance
of things so portable it is never safe to take the villagers'
word.
In the cliff of Tsambres itself are cut a series of fine tombs,
certain of which present a feature entirely new to me, and
•^^
possibly unique. The face of the rock is carefully scarped, and
on the right or left of the tomb doors are left in relief stelae,
sometimes singly, sometimes two or three together, some-
db/Goog[e
g2 Devia Cypria.
times of the conventional shape with pediment, sometimes
anthropoid, 3 ft. high and i ft. 3 in. in breadth at the widest end ;
but, strange to say, these tablets have never been inscribed.
The rock is very hard, its surface intact, the edges of the stelae
quite sharp, and mistake is not possible. Were there no more
than one example we might conjecture that either the original
design was not followed out, or the tomb ultimately received
an occupant other than him for whom it was originally hewn :
but, having not one but many of these stelae, and finding them
in groups on a few tombs only, we must conclude that they are
in some way tokens of the dignity or character of the dead ;
and being carved near the finest tombs, which are hewn out of
that part of the necropolis — viz. the cliff itself— which would
naturally have been most in request, it is not unreasonable to
suppose that they mark the sepulchres of families of very high
or even royal rank.
The tombs are all empty, and many, to judge from the crosses
cut on walls and roof, have been re-used in Christian times :
one is lined with plaster — a precaution whose rarity the tomb-
robber may regret — and the doors of others are unusually wide,
commensurate in fact with the breadth of the tomb.
There must be a very large number of unopened graves in
the plain below Tsambres, and a few weeks might be spent
profitably in exploring both them and the city, where the sand
is deepest. No scientific work has been done here, and only
the early TVfi^apvxo', the villagers, and perhaps Alexander di
Cesnola, have ever tried the site.
Another unpublished inscription of Carpasia exists in the
ruined church ot Agios Giorgios at Rizo-Karpaso : it is on a
pedestal of blue limestone, most difficult to read both from the
effects of weather and from being placed in the darkest comer
of the building. The lettering is of about the second century
B.C., and I of an inch in height. The pedestal measures
30 in. X 8 X 30 : the last line is broken away.
21. AEONNA //on TOI //// XION ////
HTEMONAEnANA //ON ///////OlSHASf
//////////
''fiyffihva eirav^(i\ov ^koX r]o« iratri
\ipyoti (nrovSai&raTov (vel simile quid).
db/G00g[e
The Carpass. 93
Probably dedicated by some guild, similar to those at Paphos
(the dp^iTiKToyei, the irtpl Aifivwov t^x""^^! ^^id the like ; see
Inscriptions of Paphos in the Journal of Hellenic Studies, vol.
ix, passim), to its President (^yt/Kuc).
From this point, until we pass out of the Carpass proper into Smaiisifa.
the district of Aphrodisium through the defile above Eptakomi,
there is little of archaeological interest. At Selinias, where a tiny
spring was still trickling at the end of July, Alexander di Cesnola
is said to have found ' a wall and statues ' : but the plough had
obliterated all traces of them '. At Vlakhou is a tiny coasting-
site, probably mediaeval, such as stud both coasts of the
Carpass : and at Pyrgos, twenty minutes' ride into the hills Towt* at
from the summer-hamlet of Makhaeriona, stand the remains of ^''^^"'
a square tower, probably built as a look-out place for and a
refuge from pirates. Three walls rise to a height of 25 ft, ;
the fourth has fallen, and the others will soon follow. It
is of very poor material and workmanship, and plastered on the
inner sides. Near it are two ruined churches and traces of a
large village.
Makhaeriona has a horseshoe bay, shallow and full of reefs ; Makhaer-
Pococke was told that ' some king antiently resided ' there, but """'
no remains are to be seen, and, though I camped there for
the night, I learned nothing more of such a tradition.
Upon the headland of Akdmas, below Gialousa, I saw no A
remains which would support the theory that here was Teucer's ^
landing-place, '^x*'^*' '■^f"^- Insignificant remains of a village
exist on the eastern side of the cape, and traces of a small tower
on the western ; but both of these, as well as the ruins known
as Agios Iannis, close to Gialousa itself, and two sites on a
desolate part of the coast below Platanisso, some miles farther
to the west, appear to me to be relics of the many stations
which maintained commerce with Anatolia in the Middle
Ages: ruins of late churches, and small drums of modem
columns, may be seen in all the last three that I have
mentioned.
As the first peaks of the Northern Range are approached, the
country becomes more and more broken, and the coast-road im-
practicable : the few villages which exist on this side, Agios
' It was here that Pococke saw 'remains of columns four feet in diamWer': ir he
WIS not mistaken in the character of what he saw, and if he really means ' diameter,'
they are very much larger than any others in the island. The villagers also have a
tradition about the place.
db,Google
94 Devia Cypria.
Andronikos, Kilanemos, Pktanisso and Eptakomi, nestle behind
the ridge in deep valleys, or on sheltered plateaux, raising crops
of cotton, gourds, melons and all kinds of vegetables, wherever
there is water at hand.
Across the base of the Carpass the mountains stretch like
a wall, terminating in the huge buttress of Mount Yioudhi,
which bars all ingress to the narrow strip — the garden of Cyprus
— which extends for fifty miles between mountains and sea,
past Aphrodisium, Macaria, Kerynia and Lapethus to Cape
Crommyon and the bay of Soli. Above Eptakomi, pleasantest
and most hospitable of Carpass villages, a narrow defile leads
into this favoured land, well judged by Colonel Leake to be
the most beautiful part of the Turkish Empire, and somewhere
towards its eastern extremity the site of Aphrodisium is to be
sought.
This point being of some importance and hitherto quite
undecided, it may be considered somewhat minutely. Ancient
authorities are seldom adequate for the exact determination of
questions in geography, and this case is no exception. Strabo
mentions it next after Lapethus : tXr' 'A<l>poSi(riov Ka6' b <rT(v^
4 y^iros' els yhp XaXa/itva {nrep^a<ni irraSCouf i^So/iijKOVTa' tlr'
'Axaiciv dxT^, K.T.h. But the distance of any point on this coast
from Salamis is not less than sixteen miles, or double Strabo's
estimate. Ptolemy places it between '-^x'"'^'' «'""'J and Macaria,
but as the site of the former is equally unknown, and of the
latter not too well assured, this does not help us much. Stephen
of Byzantium calls it Aphrodisias, and mentions it tenth among
cities of that name, but adds no details. It was not the Throne
of a Bishop, and therefore Hierocles and the Notitiae do not
help us.
Strabo then is the only authority who attempts precise
indication, and he tells us no more than that it lay at the base
of the Carpass and at or about the point of the northern coast
nearest to Salamis.
Remains still exist of three sites and three sites only in this
district which can be said to fulfil these conditions in any
way : that at Galounia, two miles east of Davlos ; that known as
Pergamon or Ypsil6, nearly due north of Akanthou ; and a
third two miles farther east, and known as lastrika. All
three are about equidistant from Salamis, and may be roughly
said to lie at that very ill-defintd locality, the base of the Carpass.
We must attempt to judge then by the intexnal evidence of the
db/Goog[e
The Carpass. 95
sites themselves, by the character and importance of the ruins,
by any indications to be drawn from individual objects found
upon any one of them, and by the quahty of their harbours :
for it may be at once premised that the most satisfactory kind
of evidence, a survival of the ancient name either in a modem
title or an inscription, is not available in this case.
The easternmost site, Galounia, has been generally accepted G^ounia.
as that of Aphrodisium *, probably because it lies more exactly
at the base of the Carpass than the others. The actual ruins
are insignificant and cover a very small area, not more than
200 yds. X 100. The schinia shrubs make search very difficult
on all these deserted sites, but I succeeded in exploring the
tumbled heaps of stone (much of it unsquared) without finding
an3'thing more sumptuous than a fragment of a stone triglyph,
three plain broken columns of small diameter, and plenty of
glazed and unglazed red potsherds. A very small aqueduct
may still be traced from the ruins of a plastered dwoS^Kij up
to a spring among the foot-hills, now known as Thepos, to the
east of which is a little village site, conspicuous for nothing
but ' oil-stones.' The harbour lies on the eastern side of the
ruins, and is formed by an elbow of the land, and a long reef
running eastward, its shape therefore being an oblong open
only to the east. The reef is now two or three feet below the
mean sea-level, but being formed of soft argillaceous rock, it
may have suffered from the continual assaults of the waves.
On the outside it is further protected by the Galounia islands.
This natural basin is still fairly deep, and has continued to
be a landing-place, if I may judge from the host of modern
Greek initials cut in the soft rock about it. There is however
no trace of any human handiwork, either in the shape of quays,
warehouses, mooring-posts, or the like, and it must be confessed
that the harbour would be most difficult to enter during westerly
winds (the prevailing direction in Cyprus), and anything but
sheltered from either the north or east. I saw no tombs, and
they may be yet to be found.
It is just possible that Strabo either stated, or intended to
state, the distance from Aphrodisium to the bay of Salamis,
and not to Salamis itself : if so, Galounia has strong claims, for
' E, g. both by Saketlarioa (vol. i. p. 143I and General di Cesnola (Cyprus, p. 339) : oT
the latter's 'plateau presenting the remains of an extensive town with Carinthian
capitals and (luted columns in maible and blue granite lying half buried in tbe soil,'
1 saw and heard nothing; nor is there any 'pier.'
db/Goog[e
96 Devia Cypria,
it is distant as the crow flies from the southern coast of the
Carpass just Strabo's 79 stadia, or 81 miles ; whereas both
the other sites are four or five miles farther removed from the
nearest point of the Bay. But as this involves an emendation
of Strabo's text, it must not be pressed ; and on other grounds I
cannot feel satisfied that the alteration is vi'orth the making. The
ruins at Galounia are insignificant in the extreme : one would
have looked for remains of marble, or of large buildings ; but
here not only are there none, but it is very improbable from the
nature of the ground that there is anything still buried, the
rock being everywhere near the surface. The site and its
aqueduct are alike those of a village or a small ' scala,' and the
harbour is ill-formed even by nature, and has not been bettered
by man. I arrived at Galounia fully prepared to accept it as
Aphrodisium, but left it with the conviction that, while it might
be ^A-^mmv 'Aicri}, the larger city was to be found further west.
Its vicinity to the pass of Eptakomi, the shortest and easiest
route to Salamis from the north coast, makes it very natural
that it should have been selected by the logographers as the
landing-place of Teucer.
PtrgatHon. The Central site of the three, Pei^amon or Ypsilo (so called
from the knoll which rises to the north), lies about nine miles
to the west, and within an hour's ride of Akanthou. It has
been described by Sakellarios (vol. i. p. 141), who imagined
it to be the site of Urania— a very unlikely suggestion; — but
Pococke seems to have missed all these sites through following
the higher road close under the mountains. A new traveller
however takes his place, namely Ross', who enumerates its
main characteristics, and identifies it with Aphrodisium. General
di Cesnola mentions it without comment. Two points tell for
Ross's theory, as against Sakellarios'— the greater extent of
the ruins as compared with Galounia, and the presence of a
sort of acropolis, on which are some evidences of man's handi-
work not unlike those at Aphendrika, but much smaller. I
should imagine that the hillock had originally been quarried
to build the city. There are distinct traces- of the top of the
hill having been cut completely away, a single pillar of rock —
7i ft. high, by 4 at the base and 3 at the top — having been
left near the centre of the summit. Near it two oblong de-
pressions, one higher than the other, have been cut into the
• Reise auf Kos und Cj^ieni, p. 135,
db/Goog[e
The Carpass. 97
gentie slope of the rock, and they communicate by steps with
each other and with the higher part of the rock beyond. The
relation of each to the other is shown in the woodcut.
At their deepest end they are not more than two feet
below the general level of the rock, and what purpose they
or the rock-pillar have served is not very clear. The latter
may be a menhir, but I doubt it, and the best suggestion that
I can offer as to the former is that they are ancient threshing-
floors. It should be added that a huge oil-stone lies not far
away, and that the other remains upon the site are not such as
to suggest extreme antiquity.
After a careful exploration of the heaps of ruins which
represent the ancient town, and which extend south of the
knoll as far as the little church of Panagia Pergaminiotissa,
I can state that the following exist on the site : —
The ruins of at least one church.
Only small columns of rough stone, and plain late capitals.
Plain unglazed red pottery only.
Stones bearing late masons' marks, e. g. Y and A.
Four pierced monoliths, two built into a fence, the other
two in situ, standing side by side, 3 ft. 8 in. apart.
They deserve particular notice because they ^cc one
another, thus bringing the two slits opposite in such
a manner that a beam might have been passed through
them, as in a modern oil-press. Near them is a rock-
cut tank.
db/Goog[e
98 Devia Cypria.
A tiny subterranean church cut in the rock. It is divided by
a rock-cut iconostasis ; and measures only i6i ft. x 13ft.
Many tombs, some roofed with slabs quite after the modern
manner ; a plain sarcophagus stands on the side of a
mound, having probably been taken from a tomb
but abandoned by the riflers as not worth the trouble
of carriage.
Ross had been told in Nikosia of an inscription, which he
failed to find here, probably because it never existed. A
Cypriote if asked for irerpai ypafifiivai will report them any
where, for chance scratches, mouldings, flutings, as well as
letters, rank with him under the common class, ypdfifiara. I
was assured at Akanthou that nothing had ever been found
here, and the peasants have a tradition that the old church
of Panagia Pergaminiotissa is coeval with the surrounding
ruins. For my own part I believe that this is not far from
the truth, and that Pergamon— however it came by its name —
is a Byzantine site, and most certainly not Aphrodisium. No
harbour exists at any near point of the coast, although there
are slight remains of a village at Agios Perperos on the cliff
top a quarter of a mile below Pei^amon : my guide averred
that fragments of statuary and terra-cottas had been unearthed
here, but discovering that he was the owner of this particular
piece of land, I was less inclined to believe him than I should
have been even under ordinary circumstances.
The third possible site is situated about three miles further
west, at the mouth of the stream which runs down from Akan-
thou. Its modern name, as I understood it, is lastrikd or
Giastrikd, but Sakellarios calls it AtatrrpiKd^, and Cesnola Gastria.
The ruins, which have been quarried to build the large village
of Akanthou, cover a headland which here separates two bays.
The end of the cape has been almost entirely stripped, but farther
inland the heaps of stone are thicker, and there is obviously a
great deal still buried. The Akanthiotes aver that since the
memory of man they have plundered the place, and have always
found large squared stones and marble; and that a pedestal
with an inscription was found many years ago, but impounded
by the Archbishop and removed to Nikosia ^. Among the
ruins I found a half-buried stone cippus, and turning it
' Sakellarios, educated Greek as he was, strangely distorts names : witness *Ei^\o
for the obvious 'TihjXo, Tporijpi for 'Aspor^/ii, etc.
' This may be Ross's Pergamon inscription ; vid. supra.
db,Google
The Carpass. 99
over read the following inscription in lettering' li inches in
length : —
22. APISTCAAO^ M^«rr{6)X{a)of
nAYSANIOT riavaaviov
On the western side of the headland is a perfectly-shaped
horseshoe bay, all but landlocked by high cliffs — the best
natural harbour in this part of Cyprus, and sheltered from every
wind. I saw however no trace of quays.
Without excavation no more is to be seen, and it is rash to
speak decidedly. But to my mind the evidence of the harbour,
of the inscription, of tradition, and of the size and possibilities
of the site all tend to its identification with Aphrodisium : from
Salamis it is about equidistant with Galounia, and the island
might easily be said to become orei-jj from this point. It is also
worth notice that whereas no modern settlement has succeeded
to Galounia, the chief place of all this district has grown out of
lastrikS. Akanthou stands in the same relation to it as Rizo-
Karpaso to Carpasia, Agridia to Urania, modem Lapithos to the
ancient, and Ktima to New Paphos.
We must dismiss very briefly two small sites in the neigh- Kato-scaU.
bourhood of lastrik^ ; — one, a spot on the left bank of the Akan-
thou stream, ten minutes below the village and known as Kako-
scale, where fragments of polychromatic statuettes are frequently
turned up by the plough. Gregorio and myself picked up half-
a-dozen such, on which the bands of colour were very distinct.
The same class of remains may be found on many Cyprian
sites, e. g. at the mouth of the Limniti river and near KalorgA
{vid. tn/ra), and probably indicates the position of a small shrine,
in this case about a mile and a-half from the walls of Aphro-
disium. The other site is called Elaopotami, and lies midway Eiaopo-
between Akanthou and Pergamon, among the charub-trees '"""■
which cover all this low ground. A fragment of a marble
column, the ruins of a church, and some large squared blocks
are its main features : it is of very small extent, and can have
been no more than a hamlet.
But we must return to the neighbourhood of Davlos to Tomb mar
describe a remarkable tomb, excavated out of the level rock, ^^'""'"''
and, so far as I could discover, absolutely solitary. It is situated
:db/G00g[e
lOO Devia Cypria.
in the middle of the forest, about half an hour due north of
Phlamoudhi, and a couple of hundred yards only from the sea.
Some small remains of an ancient village are to be seen some-
thing less than a mile away to the east, but their character is
far too mean for this sumptuous tomb, and I am fain to connect
it with Aphrodisium, distant as it is, and to suppose it to be a
royal sepulchre. The accident of losing my way in the forest
brought me to the place, no villager at Davlos having appeared
to be aware of its existence, and since no traveller but myself
has seen it, it is worth a detailed description.
The tomb has a square court — 12 ft. 6 in. each way — sunk to
a depth of 6 ft. 6 in. into the rock, and open to the sky. On
the western and northern sides of this run covered colonnades,
5 ft. 6i in. in breadth, each supported by two fluted Doric
columns, and a double column at the common corner, all cut
out of the solid rock. The colonnade on the north is continued
eastwards for 5 ft. 7 in. into the rock, and perhaps the recess so
formed contained a body. Similarly the western colonnade is
continued southwards. The columns have supported a small
architrave and frieze, with triglyphs and plain metopes ; but all
are much mutilated. The eastern side of the court is a blank
wall, but on the southern, three sepulchral niches, the longest
measuring 5 ft. 6 in. x 3 ft. 2 in. x 3 fl. 6 in., penetrate into
the rock. Crosses have been cut ever3Tvhere by pious
Christian hands to conjure the evil spirits of the old sepulchre.
Entrance is gained by a Sp6fioi, nearly 30 ft. long, which slopes
gradually downwards and tunnels under the western wall,
thus opening into the west colonnade. The plan above will
make these details more clear, and it wiU be seen that the whole
tomb could contain five bodies at least. The Spofios is much
choked with earth, but there is not much accumulation in the
db/Goog[c
The Carpass. loi
tomb itself. I took photographs from above and inside the tomb
itself, but, in common with all taken in July, they have failed.
Similar tombs exist in Cyprus only in the Palaeocastro near
New Paphos, one of which is described by General di Cesnola
{p. 224). The two examples there are each larger than this
near Phlamoudhi, but do not excel it in carefulness of construc-
tion ; indeed, as Pococke would say, the latter is ' a very par-
ticular piece of work,' remarkable for its exact proportions and
its remote and lonely situation. It is difficult to assign to it an
exact date, but the use of the pure Doric order is very rare, if
not unknown (to judge from existing remains) in Cyprus after
Ptolemaic times.
The superb castle of Kantara, the Hundred Chambers, which, Kantata
seeming to hang in mid-air, dominates this end of Cyprus, has ^'""''
been often visited and described. Buffavento stands higher, and
St. Hilarion can show more perfect ramparts and turrets, but
neither recalls so strangely a forgotten age, neither seems to
be so thickly peopled with its ghosts, as this lonely ruin on its
pillar of rock. No painter's wildest fancy has pictured anything
so fantastic as these Cyprian castles, and, standing at the foot
of the last steep leading to the gate of Kantara, and involun-
tarily recalling the fairy-towers of romance, the traveller might
imagine it the stronghold of a Sleeping Beauty, untouched by
change or time for a thousand years ! It is best seen from the
north-west, where the precipice is sheerest, the winding walls
seem to cHng most dizzily to its face, and the ruins of the interior
cannot be seen ; but once within the outer gate the illusion
partly vanishes in view of the broken battlements, although man
and horse can still find shelter in many of the chambers.
On the peak of the rock has stood a little windy chapel, now
destroyed by frost and rain, wherefrom may be seen the finest
view in C3'prus. To the east the jagged outline of the Carpass,
dividing two seas ; to the south the bay of Salamis, in whose
recess a yellow patch shows the situation of Famagusta ; and
westwards the vast brown level of the Mesaor^a, with just a
glimmer of the southern sea and the peaks of Stavrovouni and
Machaeras closing the view. On either hand the saw-hke ridge
of the Northern Range, on the one side declining in shaggy
steps to the broken ground of the Carpass, on the other bend-
ing in a blue semicircle to Cape Cormachiti. On the north a
stretch of indented coast-line and blue sea, and beyond the
enormous mass of the Karamanian Taurus, piled up ridge upon
db/Goog[e
I02 Devia Cypria.
ridge, dark lines marking the gullies, and white patches the
desolate uplands far into the interior of Anatolia. It is a match-
less view, not because it is more extensive than BuflFavento or
Troodos afford — nay, rather its radius is less — but because of
the wilder outlines of the coast, the double sea, the silence and
desolation of the prospect. Under Buifavento lie Kjrenia and
Nicosia; Troodos is too far above the prospect, and its sloping
sides do not appal like the abysmal precipices of Kantara,
whence hardly a glimpse of human habitation dispels the illu-
sion of an enchanted castle, asleep in a sleeping land.
Its early history has not been written ; no one knows precisely
who built it and when : perhaps it was the Byzantine governors
during the era of Arab inroads. The presence of a spring of
fresh water below the summit must always have given it an
advantage over the other two castles, but it opened its gates
without awaiting attack after St. Hilarion had capitulated to
Richard. During the next four centuries it was taken and re-
taken by the partisans of Frederick II, by Philip of Navarre,
and by the Genoese, until the Venetians finally reduced it to its
present condition of ruin.
The plain of Davlos, Phlamoudhi, and Akanthou is the richest
charub and grain district in the island. A special assessment
is assigned by the Revenue officers to its crop, and, after tithe
has been taken, each peasant stores his surplus in funnel-shaped
pits, called ' vouphes,' dug in the clay or soft rock, and baked by
a fire lighted inside— similar to those found on the site of the
temple at Paphos. But much prosperity has hardened the hearts
of the natives, and I met nowhere with such scant civility and
such stolid reticence as in Akanthou. The untutored rascality of
the Paphiti and the simple ignorance of the Carpasiotes are
both to be preferred to the more civilised cunning of the Greeks
of the centre of Cyprus.
We have already passed the proper limits of the Carpass,
but it will be well to continue for a few miles to the west, to
reach the site of Macaria. The headland of Moulos on which
lie its ruins projects abruptly into the sea and forms a fine
situation for a city : the harbour (if it is worthy the name) lay
on the eastern side, and remains exist of buildings near the
water's edge, and perhaps of a quay: but the bay is very
shallow, full of reefs, and unsheltered, and can never have
been much frequented. The remains of the city are among
the least interesting in Cyprus ; a mere wilderness of rubble,
db/Goog[e
The Carpass. 103
small stone" shafts, red and buff potsherds, oil-stones, and
pierced monoliths. The number of the latter is extraordinary ;
I counted no less than six on the site, all less than six feet high.
The oil-stones usually lay near them. I was disappointed with
the character of the ruins, for this site had been reported a
good field for excavation, while the identity of its name,
Macaria, with one of the synonyms of the whole island, and
its possible connection with Makar or Melkarth had encouraged
hopes of finding important and early antiquities : early it may
be, important it certainly was not, as indeed its omission by
Strabo and all ancient authorities, except Ptolemy, proves : and
it is needless to point out that any theory that all Cyprus
was called Macaria either by or because of the inhabitants of
this little coast-town, is probably an inversion of the truth.
Still there is a remarkable point of correspondence with Phoe-
nicia in the fashion of certain tombs south-west of the city (and
already alluded to p. 76 in connection with the cemetery of
Galin6pomi), which are sunk into the rock and covered with
ordinary sarcophagus lids, not resting on sills, but on the top of
the rock. To these graves, of which there are only half-a-dozen,
I know no parallel in Cyprus ; but M. R6nan ' describes their
counterpart at Maschnaka, near Byblos.
A short distance from this cluster we found among the
undergrowth a fragment of a sepulchral stone stele, bearing
a draped female figure, nearly life-size, and in very high
relief The right foot is crossed over the left, and the left
elbow has rested on some support, perhaps an urn. The
head is wanting, the hands are mutilated, and the whole
is much weathered ; but enough remains to show that the
relief was of a better period and of finer workmanship than
most Cyprian statuary. The treatment of the drapery shows
a great advance on the Peristefani draped figures, while it is as
much superior to the Roman statuary found near Kythrea, and
now in the Government Offices at Nicosia. The length of the
fragment, as it lies, is 4 ft. 3 in., but a piece has been broken off
from both ends. It may have stood upright after the manner of
the Ceramicus reliefs, or, were it about 5 ft. 10 in. in total length
when complete, have covered one of the above-mentioued rock-
graves. Gregorio's practised eye, and even my own, could see
that the slopes to the south and west of the site were full of
tombs, of which a very few only had been opened, and a large
■ Mission en Ph^nicie, p. aSS.
db/Goog[e
104 Devia Cypria.
field presents itself for the energies of the rvfiffmpvxos, if he
succeed in making terms with the owners of the land — a
syndicate of worthies described to me as the most <tk\t)poI of all
the hard-fisted Akanthiotes.
A little site called Liches, a mile and a-half to the west below
the village of Kalorga, where the peasants say that they have
found K((fxi\ia and iroSdpta, and where we did in fact pick up
some fragments, remains to be mentioned. The statuettes
show similar bands of colour to the Kako-scale specimens
mentioned above, and one held a bunch of grapes (?) in the left
hand, as did two of the rough figures found at Amargetti.
So far we have traversed the least-known part of Cyprus ;
but on emerging from the rugged mountain-tract which lies
west of Macaria, we join the beaten track of travellers, who,
having skirted the southern slopes of the mountains, now cross
the passes and descend into the broad and fertile strip extending
from Agios Epiktetos to Cormachiti, which was in ancient
times, as in modem, the richest and most civilised district in the
island ; and in the presence of macadamised roads, glazed win-
dows, and Frank garments the occupation of the archaeological
explorer is gone.
db/Goog[e
CHAPTER ni.
MISCELLANEA.
The antiquities of the central districts of Cyprus are too
well known to need minute enumeration ; a score of travellers
have described Idalium, Chytri, Citium, Amathus, Tamassus,
Curium, Nicosia, FamagUSta, Kyrenta, and all the lesser centres
of classical and mediaeval interest in the Mesaore4 and the
northern and southern hilly belts ; and I propose only to collect
in this concluding chapter a few disjecta membra from these
districts which have escaped notice or been but recently dis-
covered. I cannot claim so intimate.a knowledge of the centre
as of the extremities of the island, but have from time to time
ridden hither and thither about it, either while staying in
Nicosia or Lamaca, or in passing to or from Papho and the
Carpass.
No point in Cj'prian topography is more uncertain than the Marium.
situation of Marium, the city whose inhabitants Ptolemy Lagus
is said to have transferred to Paphos. Opinions have varied
as to whether it should be looked for near the modern Mart,
midway between Citium and Amathus, or whether it is not the
earlier name of the Arsinoe whose remains lie under Poli-tis-
Chrysochou, on the north coast of the island. The former view
is held by (among others) Sakellarios (i. p. 57), Engel (i. p. 109),
and M. Six (Revue Numismatique, 1883, p. 254), if we may
judge by the apparently geograpiiical order in which the latter
ranges his autonomous cities of Cj^rus. The latter view is
however more frequently received, and has certainly much in
its favour; Stephen of Byzantium directly asserts (s.v. Mdpiov)
that the name of Marium was changed to Arsinoe (but does not
further particularize which town of that name is intended) ; even
without the express statement of Diodorus (xix. 79) that the
Marians were transferred to Paphos after the rebellion of their
db/Goog[e
lo6 Devia Cypria.
King Stasioecus, we might still infer that the name had ceased
to exist in the Roman period from the fact that neither Strabo
nor Ptolemy makes mention of it. The discoveries at Arsinoe in
1887 proved that a city much older than the Ptolemaic period
had existed there, and the extraordinary amount of Attic pottery
in its tombs — far in excess of all the examples of such ware pre-
viously found in Cyprus — recalls the statement in the Periplus
of Scylax (s.v. Kimpai), Miipiov 'EXXijct'r'. Further, it is easier
to believe that the Marians were transported from Poli to the
nearest city, New Paphos, a distance of only 25 miles, than from
Mari for over 60 miles past Amathus and Curium and Old
Paphos, to say nothing of smaller towns like Treta. In short,
much goes to prove that, after Marium had been depopulated,
it was refounded as Arsinoe, and perhaps this season's excava-
tions will finally settle the point.
On the other side, there is very little literary evidence worth
regarding : the mention of Marium by so late a writer as Pliny
(N. H, V. 31) might be set against the silence of Strabo ; and if
the MdXos which Cimon besieged* be really Mdpiov, as seems
certain, the probability of its being near Citium may be accounted
of equal weight with the argument used above to show that it lay
near New Paphos. But there would still remain the express
statement of Stephen of Byzantium, and the necessity of finding
an earlier name for Arsinoe. But nevertheless the persistence
of an ancient name is not to be lightly disregarded, and my
reason for bringing up this subject of Marium again is to place
on record that remains do exist in the neighbourhood of Mari
and Maroni of a town, whose tombs contain objects ranging
from a very early to a very late period-^in fact, quite compatible
with an old and a newer foundation.
My attention was first directed to the neighbourhood by Mr,
Cobham, Commissioner of Lamaca, who told me that reports
had reached him of continual finds by the villagers of Maroni
and Psemmatism^no, and acting on this I made a journey thither
in the middle of August. I visited first Maroni, and found the
villagers, as I had expected, extremely reticent; but promises,
bribes, and assurances that I was no detective, so far opened
' It should be noticed that Scylax's (1) imperfect list apparently enumerates the cities
in geographical order from Satamis round the north of the island to Amanthua, and, if
this be so, the position of Marium between Soli and the latter is a strong argument in
tavour of Poli.
' Diod, Sic. xii. 3.
iirejb.Coo<)Ic
Miscellanea.
107
their hearts that I was conducted to a series of graves freshly
opened in a hillside south of the village and looking towards
the sea. The fragments of Graeco-Roman glass scattered about
their mouths sufficiently indicated their character, and near
them and subsequently in the village I found four inscribed
cippi, whose lettering was of a very late period : like most of
their class in Cyprus, these inscriptions are badly cut and
spelt.
28. In the village ;—
OAYMniAC 'OXvfimis
A(J)POAATOCrYNHXPH 'A^poSaTOS yvr^ XPI"
CTHXAIPAI <TTi) XO'pW-
For the name 'A^poSas see Pape s.v.
24. Near the graves : —
T P Y (|) e^ 1 ///I A TpiJ<pai{i')a
A P I C fl T C 'ApioT^Tos
X HCTHXAIPCN x[p]'?<^^ X^^K')"-
i. Ibid.:—
M AR K i A
MapKh
MAPiVi 1
M^fi(vm) ?
X PHCTH
\pn<rrii
XKlllllllll
X<V€.
26. Ibid., a mere scratch : —
? CIACIXPHCTH
On returning to the village I found that my character had
been cleared of suspicion, and I was shown a private hoard of
pottery which must have come from quite other graves than
those which I had just visited, for it was of the true ' Paraskeve '
db/Goog[e
io8 Devia Cypria.
t3T)e, i. e. unglazed ware, buiF ground with hatchings in black or
red, very thin, and rude in design ; and this, I was informed, had
been found nearer to the sea. I was further shown a Phoeni-
cian cylinder, but the jealous owner would neither permit a near
inspection nor sell his treasure. I then tried Psemmatismeno,
and found there red glazed ware with incised patterns of cross-
hatching and wavy lines, also a 'Paraskeve' t3T>e: and next
morning was conducted to the graves where the Mar6ni pottery
had been found, all comparatively freshly opened in several
localities in the charub-groves which stretch down to the sea.
Corresponding to the large necropolis which had evidently been
tapped only in haste and fear, I felt sure that there must be a
city-site, and at last, after many questions, elicited from my
guide the information that there was a place in the grove where
big T^Tpdyaifft irhpes were always to be found when any native
of Mar6ni wished to build himself a house. To this spot he
conducted me, and we emerged at last upon a tract of undu-
lating mounds from which peeped here and there the corners
of squared blocks, one as much as 5 ft. x 2^ : a second had a
chisel-draft round the edges, as in the second period of old work
at Kuklia ; and I further picked up one of the convex stones
with flat under-side which were found in numbers at Leontari
Vouno, and which are supposed to indicate an early site; I
have already mentioned their existence in the Carpass. Buried
under the hillocks and arable land, appeared to lie remains of
a town to which the graves around, both early and late, belong.
General di Cesnola is said to have found Phoenician pottery in
a knoll overlooking the sea, south of the site, but not to have
seen the site itself; and Sakellarios rested his conjecture that
the site of Marium was in this vicinity on a ruined church nearly
a mile away. The site is near Mar6ni, but nearly three miles
from Mari, where are no ancient remains whatever; and it is
with much diffidence that I suggest that Marium, and later an
Arsinoe, stood here, and that the earlier name has survived in
those of the two villages.
Hardly a mile from Mari is a village, which enjoys a certain
sanctity in Cyprus : this is Tokhni, where the Empress Helena,
who had landed on her return from Jerusalem on the coast near
Mari, made a bridge and founded the present church thereon.
In this she left a fragment of the True Cross, and proceeded, so
says Cypriote tradition, to hurl the ' devils ' into a well which
lies immediately north of the shrine. On a scarped rock above
db/Goog[e
this well is cut in deep letters, coloured red, the following
inscription : —
but what it signifies, in what alphabet it is expressed, whether
it is a date or a magical formula or what else in the world, no
one who has copied it has been able to determine.
The Commissioner (Mr. C. D. Cobham) has a fragment of a Lamaca.
pedestal, which was found in a wall at Old Larnaca a short time
ago. I publish it with his permission. The lettering is late,
and the stone is broken right and top ?
28. APXIEPEATHSPn
TON ArnNOeETH
PENTAETHPIAIKA
TOHLE<|)OTnPr
"OAAIMMAETEC
["H TToKis 4 KiTii<av\
[tJc SeXva tw Siivoi^
irfvrafTTjplSi ito[T4
ri ^ L' ^ip' o5 irp^Tov
The base of a statue of a high priest of the local worship of
the Genius of Rome \ and president for a period of five years of
the games held in connection with the cult, such period being
the eighth since the games were instituted (?). In his term the
supplying of oil to the competitors gratis was instituted. The
explanation given above of the words rg irem-aerrjpiSi Karii rS ^ L
appears to me to be the only one possible. The sign L in
C3^rus usually means 'year' ; but in this case that seems to be
' I ought to state that Hr. E. A. Gardner, who cop[ed this stone previously to
myself, read PO at the end of line i, and thence restored PO[AOT; but, besides my
conviction that I was not mistaken as to the II, the title Apx'^P*"' ^' "Pilfoii would be
passing strange, and the Paphos inscription {J. H. S. tx. p. 354), by which it might be
supported, is too fragmentary to be relied upon.
db,Googlc
no Devia Cypria.
precluded both by the words KUTk rh i\\_ not coming between
nfyTafTTfpiSi and its article, and by the use of xard.
The following late cippi I copied at the site of Tremithus
(Tremithoussa in the Mesaor^a) : —
29. ONACIXPHCTE 'Ovdm XPV<rrl
The existence of the name * Ovdtrti, though not hitherto found,
cannot be questioned as the forms ^Ovairas {supr. p. 24) and
'Ova<Tiov (Pape) are known in Cyprus, cf. also the frequent
'OvaaUvupoi (e.g. supr. p. 89).
30.
2 VMM AXE
Xililtux'
X P HC TE
ypniri
X A 1 PE
x«r/»-
€n A(j)PO /
'fi)ra^pi[ATe
XPHCT//
X/w?<r7{i
X£P£
X<P«-
Tl
TIjiMu ?
X PHC E
xpK"?
XEPE
X'/><-
Kftiia When riding from Athieno to Famagusta I happened to stop
{,M4saoria). f^^. ^ f^^ ^^^^ ^^ ^^^ village of Kultlia in the Mesaor^a, and
was informed by the cafeji of the existence of a written stone
in the Turkish graveyard. It proved to be a limestone pedestal
much chipped, a large hole having been made in the surface at
the right bottom comer, but it was otherwise complete. The
lettering was late, and somewhat irregularly distributed, the
upper lines not filling the stone up to the end.
33. TOKOINON KTPPrWN
KEI(i}NIANKAAAI£T(OATTrKHN
r //// NAIKA<i>AAYIOYI II 1 1 ! I II lllllll I E //////
II mil II II Q EN0TN^> c miiiiiiiiiJiiiiiim
I mill III I r A O Y X ////////
db/Goog[e
7^ KOivbv Kvnpmv
Kfioiviav KaX\i(rT& 'ATTiKtjy
y^v^faiKa ^Xaviov 'J[ovXiavoD ?] U^ptiay '_
Tfjs nap\6ivav
. . . d^faQoS
It seems impossible to make more of this. 'AmK^v must be
a name in spite of the unusual number of appellatives with
which this lady is endowed already.
If the restoration of line 4, given above, is correct, the flap-
6hoi occurs here for the first time in Cyprus. As Prof. W. M.
Ramsay has pointed out to me, this avalar of the Asiatic
Goddess, ' the unwedded mother of all life,' is known already
at Perga of Pamphylia on the shores opposite Cyprus ; and
thence he has traced her northwards to Ephesus and to the
Maeander Valley, as Artemis or Artemis-Leto {see a forth-
coming article on Artemis-Leto and Apollo Lairbenos in
J. H.S. vol. x). M. Reinach (Revue des etudes grecques i.
I, p. 36) collects instances of her presence at Halicamassus and
in the north. How easily such a cult might be assimilated in
late times with that of the Asiatic Aphrodite in Cyprus it is
needless to emphasize.
It is worthy of note, however, that the Mesaor^an Kuklia lies
about midway between two great Cyprian religious centres
where the name of the Fdvaa-a-a or Aphrodite has not been found,
at least in inscriptions : these are Salamis and {strange to say)
Idalium, whereas in both the chief goddess is Athena. The
Salaminian temple of Athena Pronoea has been already men-
tioned {p. 62), and in nearly all the Cypriote inscriptions of Dali,
Athena appears as the great goddess. Yet the unanimous
testimony of ancient authors makes Idalium a favored seat of
Aphrodite, and the conclusion seems inevitable that the Great
Goddess of Cyprus, known in early times (vide Cypriote inscrip-
tions passim) not as Aphrodite, but as 4 f&vavtra or ij riaiJHja, was
confounded by the western Greeks and Anatolians with not
one, but several, of their goddesses who happened to possess
one or more of her attributes. The poets established a tra-
dition in favour of Aphrodite, but to Anatolians she appeared
to be their Papdtyos, and possibly Greek settlers from the west
noticed her predominant celibate character, and identified her
with their virgin-goddess Athena. It is possible of course
db/Goog[e
113 Devia Cypria.
that the Idalian Athena is a deity of distinct origin, imported
or evolved by the native Cyprians, but it should be remarked
that the Cypriote texts of Dali, in which her name occurs, are
among the later examples of the script, and if she is posterior
in time to the F&vaaaa, she was probably confounded with her.
In any case, it is probable that the flapBtvoi of whom Ceionia
Callisto Attic^ was priestess, was not very clearly distinguished
either from the Fdvatrtra who was supreme in the west and
north of Cyprus, or from Athena who ruled over the south
and east.
In a field between Agios Epiktetos and Bellapaix I was
shown a Roman milestone, whose hopeless condition accounts
for its never having been published. Besides the intentional
erasure of a whole line, centuries of wear and of use as a
turning-post for the plough have obliterated almost every
letter, and I could read only these disjointed scraps : —
A o C
Augfustum)
. . ce B
. . PX 1 EP E/
AE
Xe'.
The last line appeared to be complete, and therefore this is in
all probability the 35th milestone on the road from Salamis to
Lapethus. As the crow flies, the spot where it stands is distant
just under ag English miles from the former, which leaves a
reasonable margin for the windings of the road and the slight
excess of the English over the Roman mile,
At Lapethus I found nothing new, and I convinced myself
that excavation there would never repay a large outlay. The
only objects of real interest on the later site are the rock-cut
sea-baths — oblong basins into which the waves flow and ebb
again by means of supply- and waste-channels : the harbour is
a mere angle of the coast open on two sides ; and the character
of the debris is most unpromising. Of the older town which
stood on the site of modem Lapithos, and on the hills above, no
trace remains but a few tombs.
Digtizedb/GoOgie
Miscellanea. 113
At Lafnaca-tis-Lapithou I copied once more the pedestal Lamaca-
erected by the priests of Poseidon to Numenius, son of Nume- ihon."
nius *, and assured myself beyond all possibility of doubt that
the title given to Poseidon in line 6 is tov Napvla^dov, not
Aapi\a\Kiov, as it has been previously copied. I subsequently
found that both Dr. Guillemard and Mr. Louis Dyer, who were
in Cyprus in the course of 1888, had read a N, not a A. This
dispels the pleasing illusion that Lamaca is an ancient name.
The site of Soli is, I fear, no more worth exploration than So/t:
that of Lapethus, and I saw no single spot wherein to dig with
profit, unless it be on the edges of the marsh which marks the
former harbour. The ancient buildings have been quarried to
build Morphou and Lefka, or towns on the Karamanian coast.
By the kindness of Mr, King, the Commissioner of Nicosia, I
copied in his office an inscription found in the Solia valley and
conveyed to the metropolis as a marketable commodity. It is
a slab, broken right and bottom : the lettering is regular but
late:—
35. ATTOKPATOPAKAI AirroKpaTopa Ka^trapa
M-ATP HA r N AN TW M. Avp^Xiov ' Ai'T<J[vtT-
NONC€BACTON vop Je^aorSi' [ol wd-
rAIAP2ANT€Cr {X)ai} dpiavrts n[To-
AeMAlOC^N XeftaiQ! 'Oi^tjffdvSpov
///////* <"//// [««' ^ ^ftfa ToG SfTvos^
I cannot restore quite satisfactorily the letters preceding
Sp$avT€s. Some association of past magistrates is referred to
like 0/ yeyviivaai.ap^r}K6TfS and iarpaTtjytjKoret of Old Paphos
(J.H. S. ix, inscr. nos. 105, 3,) The preceding letters may belong
to a compound of -ap\a>.
I also copied once more and took impressions of the
' Sergius Paulus ' inscription, now built into the threshold of
a store in Karavastasi. The owner derives a small revenue
from digging it out afresh, and showing it for a consideration
to each passing archaeologist ; and all my persuasion and threats
availed not to deter him from replacing it in a position where
every one passing through the door must tread on it. Already
the upper line has been worn away since General di Cesnola
copied it, and the whole will soon be hopelessly defaced.
' Published in Le Bas and Waddinglon, No. 2779 : also in Cesnola, 'Cyprus,' p. 421.
:db,Google
ii4 Devia Cyprta.
I copied it again rather to verify the name Paulus, than with
any view to republishing the whole inscription, but I find, on
comparing my copy with that of General di Cesnola, some
important variants from his readings, which, added to the fact
that I have recovered some more letters in the right-hand half,
make it worth while to reprint the text in full.
36. Marble block built into the threshold of Christodoulo's
store at Karavastasi : lettering small but not very regular
— very much worn at the right side and top : —
[AnoAAWNrocTConAT] ^"^M^:'S.i7 """■ ^^'' ' "^"^
KAITHMHTPIAPl
TONnEPIBOAONKAITHN lAC
TMtONATTWNENTOAACCN ICT...
EATTOTTHCCOAIWNnOAEODC NO
nAPXHCACrPANMATETCACAPXIL
BYBAro4)TAAKIOTrENOMENOC LIT
-AvrinY 7T TIMHTETCACTHNBOTA
n ATOT.
'y^ffoAXcSj'ioy T^ ira-^X t^ Suvi tov Seiyos
Kat rfj /ii)Tp} 'ApT^ffttS^p^ roO Seivos Kadifp&ire
CifMv aiirStv fyroXSis
5 (avTOV Tijs SoXlwv ir6X€WS, [dyopa]i>o^p^tTas, i-
irap\^cas, ypa.(^p)/iaT(V(Tas, dp\i^pa<Tdfievos, firl tov
Pv^Xio^vXaKiov yfvopfvos ' Liyf . fti]yhs Srjfiap^f-
, ' l TipTjTe^iras t}}v ^ovX^fjv Si-
(i) (^{tT)a(rr&v tirl PavXov [ac^-
irdrov.
The last two lines and a half after the date are proved, both
by their matter and by the use of a different form of xi, to be
later additions, inscribed afterwards to complete the list of
ApoUonius' offices. I conceive them to refer to some special
reconstitution of the senate of Soli in the time of the proconsul
Paulus, ApoUonius having been commissioned to revise the
Digtizedb/G60gIC
Miscellanea. 1 1 5
list in the capacity of censor (Tt/iijreiio))^. It will be noticed, if
my reading is compared with that in Cesnola, that I have elimi-
nated the ' flavftdTfipa ' in line 6, I subjoin a translation : —
'Apollonius to his father .... son of ... . and to his mother
Artemidora daughter of . . . consecrated the enclosure and this
monument according to your own (i, e. his parents') commands
having filled the offices of clerk of the market, prefect,
town-clerk, high priest, and having been in charge of the record-
office. Erected on the 25th of the month Demarchexusius in
the year . 13. He also revised the senate by means of assessors
in the time of the proconsul Paulus.'
The great interest of this inscription lies in the possible
allusion to the Sergius Paulus of Acts xiii. There can be no good
reason for doubting an identification, which would unquestion-
ably have been proposed and hardly disputed had Sergius
Paulus been known from any other source than the New
Testament. The lettering is quite that of the first century.
It is much to be regretted that the third and most important
letter in the date of the year is hopelessly lost : if it was, as I
believe, P , then, reckoning from the establishment of the
province, we get a.d. 55 for the date of this inscription. St.
Paul's visit fell in 45, and it is evident from the wording of the
last lines that Paulus had ceased to hold office for some time
previous to the erection of this monument. Without being at
all desirous to find correspondances with Holy Writ still
existing all over the East, few can refuse to identify a ' Paulus
proconsul' with the only known governor of that name who
held office in Cyprus ^ Whatever opinion beheld about this
identification, the stone ought to be rescued from its present
precarious position, and lodged in safety : it would be an inter-
esting addition to the Government collection now in process
of formation at Nicosia.
' The reading Std if(€T)aiiTa» as well as minor points in the interpretation were
suggested by Prot W. M. Ramsay.
■ Beckh erroneously supposed Paiillus Fabius Mi
Cyprus; but H. Waddinpon has shown Ibis to be
this volume.
:db,GOOglC
APPENDIX.
PROCONSULAR GOVERNORS OF CYPRUS.
It may be useful to state, however imperfectly, how the list of Procon-
sular Governors stands at the present date, and how far the enumeration
made by Engel (vol. i. pp. 459 folL), and later by Marquardt (Rom. SUiatsv.
i. p. 391), can be supplemented or corrected. Had M. Waddington's Fasti
of the provinces of Cilicia and Cyprus been published, the task would have
been superfluous.
When Cyprus was first incorporated with the province of Cilicia (i.e. in
55 B.c) under the rule of P. Cornelius Lentulus Spinther, a special quaestor,
C. Sextius Rufus, was detached to look after its interests ; but the names
of his successors under subsequent proconsuls of Cilicia we do not know,
although it is probable that the Quintus Volusius, sent to the island by
Marcus Cicero in 51 B.C., 'ne cives Roman! pauci qui illic negotiantur jus
sibi dictum negarent' (ad Att, v. 21), held the otBce in question. However,
before four years had elapsed, Caesar bestowed Cyprus on Arsinoe and
Ptolemy, and eleven years later it passed by Antony's gift to the children
of Cleopatra. Meanwhile we hear in 39 B.C. of a certain Demetrius, a
freedman of Julius Caesar's, being sent by Antony to look after the island
(Dio Cass. 48. 40). It was not until 27 B.C. that it was resumed as an
. imperial province, and iive years later Augustus exchanged it (together with
Gallia Narbonensis) for Dalmatia with the Senate, and from henceforward
it was governed by propraetors with the 'brevet' rank of proconsul, under
whom were a legatus and quaestor. Of these governors we know about
twenty names in the next two centuries from ancient authors, inscriptions,
and coins, and I enumerate them approximately in order of date.
(Augustus) Aulus Plautius known from a coin (Head, Hist, Num.
P 627)-
P. Paquius Scaeva, stated in an inscription of Histonium
(C. I. L. IK. 2845) to have been sent ' extra sortem '
for the second time in the reign of Caligula 'ad com-
db/Goog[e
Appendix.
117
ponendum sta^um in reliquum provinciae Cypri.'
He had therefore fonnerly been proconsul, and
Marquardt fixes his terra in the reign of Augustus.
(Tiberius) Qutntus t . . . Teksinus f grandson of Q. Hortensius,
the orator, probably through bis daughter, Hortensia.
The prenomen and cognomen are restored conjee-
turally from a broken palimpsest inscription of Old
Faphos, published imperfectly in J. H. S. ix. p. 251 :
for the gentile name there appears to be no evidence,
as the name of Hortensia's husband has not been
recorded, so far as I can discover. Thus nothing is
assured except the fact that a grandson of the orator
governed Cyprus in the reign of Tiberius. The
unusual mention of the ma/ernal grandfather is ex-
plained by his fame.
Luam Axius Naso, known from an inscription of La-
pethus (Le Bas and Wadd. 2773). His exact date
is recorded — 29 a.d. — and the names of his legatus
and quaestor, M. Etrilius Lupercus and C. Flavins
Figulus.
C. Ummidius Durmtus Quairatvs, known from an in-
scription of Casinum (C, I. L, x, 5182), Liebenam
(Forsch. I, Verwaltungs Gesch. d. Romischen Kaiser-
reichs, p. 157) places his term in Cyprus in the reign
of Tiberius, He is identical with G. Ummidius
Quadratus, high-priest of Paphos, honoured in an
inscription (Le Bas and Wadd. 2801), now built into
the church wall at Kuklia. Cp. also an inscription
found by us in the Temple, and published J. H. S.
ix. p. 237, No. 41.
(Claudius) T. Comtnius Proculus, known only from a coin quoted
in Cohen, i. 262, No. 132.
Sergius PauluSy proconsul during St Paul's visit in
45 A.D. (Actsxili, 7),
Qutntus Julius Cordus, recorded in an inscription of
Citium (C. I. G. 2631). He was proconsul in 51 a.d.
Z, Annius Bassus succeeded the above (inscr. of Curium
C. I. G. 2632).
(Before Nero) ? L, Laherius Cocceius Leptdus (C. I. L. vi. 1440 ; cf.
Borghcsi, v, 251) is mentioned in a Roman inscrip-
tion simply as proconsul, province not named, but
the dedicator is one 'Apollonius limenarcha Cypri.'
Boighesi dates him befoEe Nero.
db/Goog[e
? ist century.
? Do.
? Do
Do.
(Trajan)
(Hadrian)
(Severus)
Varius Rufui
LuHui Coelius Tarphinusi •
D. Plautius Felix lulianus
Luciui Vilius Maromus
Quintus CaeKus Honoratus
Appendix,
known from undated in-
scriptions of OldPaphos
(J. H. S. ix. Nos. 49, 68,
104, 114), but, as no
Emperor's name was
found there later than
Domitian, I have ascri-
bed these proconsuls
cpnjectuiall}' to the ist
century,
/names found in an in-
scription of New Pa-
phos, published supr.
p. 8, and in one pub-
lished by Le Bas and
Wadd.z8i4. Theletter-
ing of both appears to
be not later than the
ist century.
Fiaccus, known from a fragmentary inscription of
Salamis (C. I. G. 2638).
Ti. Claudius Juncus (inscription of Citium, Le Bas
and Wadd. 2726). According to M. Waddington
he was a consul sufTectus in 127 a.d.
Audius Bassus recorded on a milestone of 198 A.D.
(Le Bas and Wadd. 2806).
Sextus Clodius . . . (I)uHanus t (inscription of Citium,
Le Bas and Wadd. 2728)
(Elagabalus) Claudius Alfalus. (Dio Cass. 79. 3.)
To what reign L. Gabo Arunculeius PaeiHus Severus, styled proconsul
designate of Cypras in an inscription of Brixia (C. I, L. v. 4332), is to be
assigned there is no evidence to show.
As Liebenam (p. 120) definitely accepts Waddington's emendation of
Ku((iqnjt) for KuTrpou in C. !■ G. 3548, we must strike the name of C. Antius
Aulus Julius Quadratus from the list of Cs^irian governors ; but it is to be
noted that no one has read anything but Kuirpov on the stone itself, and
it is not quite impossible that Quadratus obtained the two provinces
successively, though Bdckh's theory of the combination of the provinces
under the same proconsul is untenable. Marquardt, however, omits the
name, and it is best to follow him until the stone (if still in existence) be
re-examined.
I have also omitted the name of Paulius Fabius Maximus, supposed by
Bockh (on C. L G. 2629), by Eng^l, and by Marquardt, to have been pio-
db/Goog[e
Appendix. 119
consul of Cyprus after his consulship in 11 b.c. (Men. Ancyr. i. 38, etc).
As M. Waddington points out (Pastes, No, 59), the Faphian inscription
in honour of his wife Maicia, which does not add in-^Mrarot after the
husband's name, really affords presumption that he n^er governed
Cyprus, — and there is no other evidence on the point.
L. Flavius Sepfimiui A^r Octavianus (Engel, p. 462, C. I. L. vi. 1415)
was quaestor in the island, and besides him and the two under L. Axius
Naso, recorded above, the following magistrates are known : —
(Before Vespasian?) L. Seroenius Comuius, quaestor (inscr. of Acmonia in
Phiygia, published by W, M. Ramsay in Amer.
Joum. of Arch. 1883, p- 148).
(Nerva) L. Julius Marinus Caeeilius Simplex, legatus (inscr.
of Cures Sabini, C. I. L. ix. 4965).
(Hadrian) M. Calpumius Unfits, legatus (insci. of Ephesus,
C. 1. L. iii. 6072).
Z. Aquillius Fhrus Turciatms Gallus, proquaestor
(inscr. of Athens, C. I. L. iii. 551).
? M. Campanius Marcellus, procurator Augusti (inscr:
of Capua, C. I. L. X. 3847).
7 T. Flavius Philinus, legatus (inscr. of Thespiae, Rhein,
Mus. 1843, p. 105).
Certain other inscriptions (C. I. L. vi. 1651 ; x. 525, 3761, 7351) refer
to magistrates of Cyprus, but the names are lost It is to be expected
that the forthcomii^ excavations on the site of Salamis will fill up several
gaps in the proconsular fasti of the island.
db/G00g[e
db,Google
INDEX,
^V^i vrrpai, 38, 51.
Agios Photioa, 38, 47.
— Sergios, 64.
— Theodoros, 53, 68.
Agridia, 58, 88.
Akdmas peninsula, a, 10 sqq.
— cape, 93.
'KKpmOf 84.
Akrotiri, 65, 73.
'AXi^na ToO 'Eirio-inin-™, 36, 3a, 70.
Amargetti, 3, 18 m, 34, 35, 37, 39,
104.
Aphendrika, 76, 79, 85 579.
Aphrodisium, 4, 56, 94 sqq.
Aphrodite Acraea, 55, 83 sqq.
— , statue of, 39.
— , temples of, 3, 5, 65, 83.
Apollo, cult of, 3, 34 sqq., 37 n.
^-, dedications to, 36, 30.
— , temples of, 25, a6.
Apostoloa Andreas, Monastery of,
81,89.
Aqueducts, ancient, 61, 77, 95.
Arabs, 4, 56, 57, 88, 102.
'Apx"p''t T^f 'PA/Hji, 109.
'Apx** '"* Si)n/pai&¥, 3.
Ariosto, 15.
Armou, trough at, 03.
Arsinoe, i, 3, 16, 17, 41, 43m, 105.
Arsos, 3, 4, 40, 43 H,
Aschelia, 16 n, si n, 41 s^^.
Asia Minor, 51, 54, 55, 71, 93.
Asiatic Goddess in Cyprus, s6h,
37, 39, 71, III.
Athena, cult of, 111 sq.
Baker, Sir S., 54 «, 60, 74 n.
Beaudouin and Pottier, MM., 36,
BpuiTtE ruv 'EpojTcui'i 14 sq.
Callepia, ao, a8.
Camaraes, 67.
Carpasia, 55, 86 sqq.
Carpass, Counts of, 57, 58.
Caves, 4a, 72, 74.
CesDola, A. di, 60K, 63, 66, 77H,
93-
Cesnola,Gen. di,6,8, 13, 14, 17, t8M,
41, 46, 47, 60, 66 «, 95, 95 «, 96, 98,
Chelones, 79.
Choulou, 38.
XjKD^uXaMC, 64.
Christian history and remains, 4,
11, ai, 29, 35, 40, 41, 43 sq., 59 s^.,
68, 77, 81, 81 1», 93, 115.
Chrysoorgiatissa, Monastery of, 17,
21. 31- 35 sqq.
Cippi, 31, 47, 86, 107, iia
Claudian, 35, 83.
Cnidus of Cyprus ? 65 sqq.
Conder, Major C. R., 50, 67.
Contarini, 56.
Copper mines, ancient, 17, 81.
' Crushing-stones ' as evidence of
antiquity, 71, 78, 108.
Ctesias, 65.
Curium, I, 35, 35, 105.
Deecke, Dr. W^ 25 «, 3a. 3^ «, 33-
Demetrius of Salamis, 55.
Demetrius Poliorcetes, 56, 85, 90.
Dhrynia, 31,
Dhrys Staurolivanou, 30.
Diodorus Siculus, 56 m, 85, 106 h.
Drepano, Cape, 10 sqq.
Drimu, 3, 17, 30 sq.
ElaopotiUni, 99.
Elisis, cave at, 72 sqq.
db/G00g[e
'EXXiiniEa (tombs), 76.
Engel, 4, 5, la, 14 n, 17, a? m, 55 w,
65 «, 84, 88 m, 105.
English Administration, a, 4, 59, 83.
Enkomi, 62.
Episcopi Cordechu, a8, 36 n.
Evagoras, i, 26, 35, 56.
Excavation, prospects of, 5, 34,
61 sq., 84, 88, 92, 108, 113.
Fabrice, Jean Perez de, 58.
Famagusta, 42 «, 53j 59-
faraaaa, cult of the, 33, ill.
Ga]in<5pomi, cave at, -j&sq.
Galounia, 94 sq.
Gardner, Mr. E. A., I09«.
Gastria, 65.
Gialousa, 60, 64, 93.
Giustiniani, 58.
Guillemard, Dr. F. H. H., 41, 47,
49, 65 «, 113.
Harbour works, ancien^ 7, 61, 70,
80, 86, 90, 9S
Hera, Temple of, 31, 34 sq.
— , cult of, 35.
Hieroskipou, ai h, 41.
Hoveden, Roger de, 57 n, 81 n.
lastrika, 94, 98.
Idalium, goddess of, iii.
Inscriptions, Greek, 8, 11. 24, 31,
34. 35 «. 6a, 63, 64, 65, 68, 92, 99,
107, 109, no, 113, 114.
— Cypriote, -8, 9, 30, 33,88,91, in,
112.
— , Lusignan, 9.
Jaffa, Counts of, 40, 58.
James, Mr. M.R.,3,43.
Journal of Hellenic Studies, 3H,
8, II, 24,33, 39. 40«. 6o«. 66«,
7i«,76«,86«,93,iii.
Kakoscale, 99.
Kakozonara, 69.
Kantara, Castle of, 57, 67, loi sq.
Kapirn<ri'ai vjiaiH, 55, 79.
Karydhi, ao.
Kathikas, % 20.
Katsari, 69.
Khrysolakkona, Monastery of, 19.
Kingdoms, Cyprian, i, 16, a6, 55, 56.
KitvpopjcoE, 3.
Kiouria, 79.
Kleides Islands, 81, Sa sqq.
Knights of Rhodes, 2a h, 41, 43, 46.
Kou^v ILvfrplar, 9, III.
Koma tou Gialou, 65, 66.
Ktima, 4, 6, 7, 16, 78.
Kuklia (Papho), 3 sqq., 40 «■
— (Mesaorfia), no sq.
Lang, Mr. Hamilton, 66.
Lapethus, 4, 56, 94, iia.
Lapithiou, 36, 47.
Lamaca-tis-Lapithou, 113,
Legati, 9, Appendix.
Leonarisso, 70.
Leontari Vouno, io8.
Letymbou, 2, 39, 68.
Liches, 104.
Limni, 2, 81.
Limnia, a8 m, 61, 63.
Lipati, 2, 13.
Lusignan princes, 4, 7, 16 n, 39, 57 »,
51 sqq.
— Domain, 4, 16 it, 28 m.
— , escutcheons, 7, 18.
Lyso, 3, 18.
Lythrankomi, 71.
Macaria, 76, 102.
Magistrates, minor, 9, 64, 109, 113.
Makar or Melkarth, 70, 103.
Makhaeriona, 93.
Marathasiotes, 38.
Marathounda, 23 sqq., 28.
Marium, 26, 42 n, 103 sqq.
Mas Latrie, M. de la, 5, 16 n, 39, 30,
4a «. 54. 55 «. 57 «. 58, 59 ". 60.
Mazaraes, 69 sq.
Mediaeval sites, 54, 93.
Megalithic remains, 30, 5a, 66, 67,
86, 89, 96, 97. (See also Mono-
liths.)
MfXdvAoc, Apollo, 34, 35.
Melathia, 17, la
Melia, 16 m, 31.
Mesaorte, a, 53, 55, lor, no.
Milestones, Roman, 66, ti2.
Mills, Roman, 28, aSn, 64.
Monoliths, 20, 37, 38, 41, 46, 49, 50,
67, 97. t03-
db/Goog[e
Mvrtip6iu, Aphrodite, 24.
Mulberry, cultivation of, a.
MupTdnjt, Apollo, 24, 25, 27.
Neophytus, St., Monastery of, 20
Nicoclea, King of Paphos, 3, 26, 33,
35.40-
Nikoklia, 40.
Nitoviklia, 78.
'Oil-stones,' 37 m, 4a, 49, 66, 69,
77. 84, 89, 103.
Omodhos, 2, 40.
Ordnance Survey, 13, 31 «, 69, 77,
79-
Orodhes, 13, 19, 48.
Paintings, mediaeval fresco, etc.,
15, 21, 29.
Falaeokhorio, 80.
Paphos, Kingdom of, 1, 16.
— , Old, I, 3, 26M, 40, 4on, 48, 6a,
102, 106.
— , New, a, 4 sqq., a6, 66, 76, 78, 99,
loi, 106.
Uapdims, CUlt of the, III.
Paul, Saint, 4, 7, 8, 115.
Pelathousa, 17,
Pentalia, 39.
Pergamon, 48, 94, 96 sqq.
Peristefani, 70, 78, 83.
Phallia, 38.
Fhlamoudhi, tomb at, 66, 99.
Phoenician influence, a6 «, 30, 67,
70*76.
— remains, 30, 67, 76, 88, 94, 103,
108.
— settlements, 69, 70.
Pococke, Richard, 5, 17, 17 «, 57, 59,
60 M, 73 w, 76 «, Sow, 83, 85 «, 90,
93«,96.
Polemi; 2, 20, 30.
Poli-tis-Chrysochou, 16, 17 «, 42 tt,
105.
Poseidon Namakios, 113.
Pottery, 20, 39, 40, 66, 70, 71, 77, 79,
95, 97- 107. io8-
Praetori, 40.
Proconsuls of Cj^rus, 4, 9, 115,
Appendix.
Ptolemy, geographer, 12, 85, 103.
Race-characteristics, peculiar, 38,
54. I03-
Ramsay, Prof W. M., 33, 65, 86,
86«, 111, ii5«.
R^nan, M., a8it. 49, 74 n, 76, 103.
Richard, King of England, 4, 57 h,
81 n, loa.
Richter, M, O., a6 n, 27 «, 60 w.
Rizo-Karpaso, 56, 59, 93.
Roche, De la, 57.
Rock-remains other than tombs,
6 sq., 85, 96, 97.
Ross, 60, 96, 98.
Roudhia Mill, 39.
Sakellarios, 4, 5, 12, 17, 35 «, 60, 65,
68, 7a «, 83 «, 84, 88 «, 90, 95 », 96,
98, 98 «, 105.
Salamis, kingdom of, i, 55.
— , city of, 3, 26, 60 sqq., 85, 95.
Salami u, 40.
Sammlung der griech. dialekt-
Inschriften, 10, 26 «, 30, 33, 40.
Sayce, Prof. A. H., 6, 60 «, 61.
Scott-Stevenson, Mrs., 54n, 60, 72 w,
81 H.
Sculpture, 9, 29, 39, 68, 71, 83, 88,
90, 99. 103.
Scylax, pseudo, T06.
Sergius Paulus, 113, 115,
Six, M., 55, 105.
Smith, Mr, R. E., 43.
Soli, kingdom o^ i, 26.
— , site of, 12 M, 113. -
Spathariko, 64.
Sponge fishery, 8a.
Stephanus Byzantinus, 4 h, 25 h,
55*1,84,94,106.
Slrabo, 5, 35 w, 41, 4a «, 55, 8t^ 83,
85,90.94.95. 106.
STpanjyoi t!)s c^crov, 3.
Stroumbi, 16, 20.
Superstitions, popular, 8,36,38,47,
51 sq.
Tamassus, 26, 27 h, 55, 105.
Tokhnij 108.
Travellers in Cyprus, 5, 16, 35, 60,
73 w, 96, etc,
Troodos, Mount, i, a, loa.
db/Goog[e
Tsada, 2a
Tsambres (Carpasia), 91,
Uraniaj 56, 76, 85 aqq.
Vallia, 64 sqq.
Vasa,2, 4a
Venetian settlers, 68.
Veneziani biancbi, 54 n.
Vemey, de, 58, 88.
Von Hammer, 5, 17, 46, 6a
Waddington, M., 35«, 60, 63, ii3«,
IIS"-
Wood carving, ai m, 39, 41 sqq.
Yerovasa, 41, 51.
db/Googlc
db,Google
Diglizedb,G00glc
UMIV. OF MICH.
0CT29HM
'**»
^7
I
Digtizedb/GoOgIc
__Plmrf.,e Ho™, I _
db,Google
Live Music Archive
Librivox Free Audio
Metropolitan Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Internet Arcade
Console Living Room
Books to Borrow
Open Library
TV News
Understanding 9/11