A mong the new objects, which firft attracted our attention,
were two live camelions, one of the fize of a large lizard. They
were confined each on a long narrow piece of board fufpended between
two firings, and had for fecurity twifted their tails feveral
times round. We were much amufed with the changes in the-
colour of thefe reptiles, and with feeing them feed. A fly, deprived
of its wings, being put on the board, the camelion loon
perceives its prey, and untwirling its tail, moves toward it very
gently and deliberately. When within diftance, it fuddenly feizes
the poor infeCt, darting forward its tongue, a fmall long tube
furnilhed with glutinous matter at the end, to which the fly adheres.
This is done fo nimhly and quietly, that we did not
wonder it remained unobferved for ages, while the creature was
idly fuppofed to fubfift on air. One of thefe made its efcape, the
other perilhed with hunger.
C H A P . XVIII.
Origin of Smyrna — The f t e — Its profperity — Ruined— iThe
. citadel repaired---- 'The Mahometan and Chrijlian towns___
Succefs of Tamerlane — Smyrna reduced by the Sultans —- The
prefent town — The citadel — The fadium and theatre — The
port — The walls — The fepulchres —- Confumption of the old
materials — Tomb o f St. Polycarp.
I T is related of Alexander the Great, that after hunting he
fell alleep on Mount Pagus beneath a plane tree, which grew
by a fountain near a temple of the Nemefes j and that the god-
deflfes directed him in a vifion to found there a city for the Smyr-
neans, a people from Ephefus, then living in villages. The work
was begun by Antigonus, and finifhed by Lyfimachus. The
Clarian oracle was confulted on the removal of the Smyrneans,
and
lil lafe
59
and anfwered in an heroic couplet, that thofe who Ihould dwell
on Mount Pagus, beyond the facred Meles, would experience great
profperity. Afterwards the Ephefians, remembering their common
origin, procured, with the concurrence of king Attalus and
of Arfinoe his queen, their admiflion as members of the Ionic
bodyj an honour, which the Smyrneans had coveted long before,
when it was firft conftituted.
T he fite feleCted by Alexander for this people was fuch as
-the antient founders commonly preferred. Their cities in general
were feated by fome hill or mountain, which, as this did,
fupplied them with marble, and was commodious as well for
defence as ornament. The fide or Hope afforded a feciire foundation
for the feats of the ftadium and theatres, leflening both
the labour and expence. It difplayed the public and private
ftruCtures, which rofe from its quarry, to advantage; and rendered
the view as captivating as noble. The Greeks were of old
accounted happy in chufing their fituations. They had been
fiudious to unite beauty with ftrength, and good ports with a
fertile foil. The Romans were attentive to articles negleCted by
them, to the paving of the ways, to aquseduCts, and to the com-
mon-fhores.
Sm y r n a flourifhed, as Apollo had foretold ■, and, under the
Romans, was efteemed the mod beautiful of the Ionian cities.
The wall comprized a portion of Mount Pagus, but more of the
plain by the port, by the Metroum or temple of Cybele, and by
the gymnafium. The ftreets were as ftrait as the fite would admit,
and excellently difpofed. The ways were paved. Both above
and below, were large quadrangular ftoas or porticoes. There was
alfo a library, and, befides the other requifites of a noble city, a
port which fhut up j but, from an omiflion of the architects, the
want of fewers occafioned a great nuifance. It was much frequented
by the fophifts, and, with Ephefus, became renowned
as a fchool o f oratory and fcience. It has been exalted with high
H 2 encomiums,