THE TRIUMPH OF AURELIAN. 281 was preceded by twenty elephants, tame wild beasts of Africa, 200 different kinds of animals. from Palestine, four tigers, camelopards, elks, and other animals in order, 800 gladiators, the ensigns and trophies of the conquered nations, the wealth, jewels, and plate of Zenobia, and the spoil of Palmyra; captives of different barbarous nations, Blemmyes, Arabs, Indians, Bactrians, Goths, Vandals, &c., &c., ten Gothic women dressed in armour, the royal carriage of Odenatus covered with silver, gold, and gems; a second carriage presented to Aurelian by the king of Persia; a third sumptuous carriage built by Zenobia, in which she was said to boast she would one day enter Rome as a conqueror, but now all eyes regarded the beauteous form of the eastern queen, humbled and a captive, walking before that same chariot to adorn the triumph of the conqueror. She laboured under the weight of jewels; her feet were bound with golden rings, her hands with golden chains, a golden chain was wound round her neck, and slaves supported her weary and tottering frame. After, came Aurelian in his chariot drawn by stags, and the procession was closed by the senate and the victorious army. Arrived at the capitol, Aurelian slaughtered the stags that drew his chariot, sacrificing them to Jupiter Capitolinus. Concerning the fate of the unhappy Zenobia there are two accounts; some say that mourning over the utter destruction of Palmyra and her ruined fortunes, she refused all food, languished, and died; others, that she was married by Aurelian to a Roman noble, and lived many years on an estate given to her by the emperor on the banks of the Tiber, called Conche, where she had a large family, and lived universally admired. Certain it is that a century afterwards her descendants are spoken of by writers as of senatorial rank, and enjoying considerable importance at Rome; but they might be descendants of her two children by Odenatus. Zosimus says, that all the rest of the prisoners, excepting Zenobia's sons, were drowned in the straits between Byzantium and Chalcedon. Since the period of the second capture of Palmyra, and its fearful destruction by Aurelian, the city has never again prospered; “ the seat of commerce, of arts, and of Zenobia gradually sunk into an obscure town, a trifling fortress, and at length a miserable village." The Palmyrenes, says Zosimus, had several declarations from the gods, which portended the overthrow of their 66 * Αὐτὴν μὲν Ζηνοβίαν φασὶν ἢ νόσω ληφθείσαν, η τροφής μεταλα βεῖν οὐκ ἀνασχομένην ἀποθανειν.Zosimus, lib. i. p. 56. P. + Gibbon, THE FATE OF ZENOBIA. 283 empire; and, among others, having consulted the temple of Apollo called Sarpedonius, at Seleucia in Cilicia, to know if they should ever obtain the empire of the East, they got the following unceremonious answer: "Avoid my temple, cursed treacherous nation! Ἔξιτε μοι μεγάρων ἀπατήμονες ουλίοι ἄνδρες Φύτλης ἀθανάτων ἐρικύδεος ἀλγυντῆρες. Zosimus, lib. i. ch. 57. CHAPTER X. PALMYRA. GENERAL ASPECT OF THE RUINS.-GREAT DESERT.-GRAND GATEWAY.-GRAND AVENUE OF COLUMNS. -GATEWAYS.-RUINED BUILDINGS.-COLONNADES.-RUIN "Ici, me dis-je, ici fleurit jadis un ville opulente: ici fut le siege d'un empire puissante. Oui, ces lieux maintenant si déserts, jadis une multitude vivante animait leur enceinte ; une foule active circulait dans ces routes aujourd'hui solitaires. En ces murs où regne un morne silence, retentissait sans cesse le bruit des arts et les cris d'allegresse et de fêtes." LA MEDITATION DE VOLNEY. OCT. 30th.-Passing through the mud houses of the humble village of Tadmor clustered round the great Temple of the Sun, and surrounded by detached columns, portions of the majestic double portico which once closed this vast area, we emerged from the narrow gateway and looked over the plain of yellow sand extending from this raised platform of ruins to the base of the moun THE RUINS OF PALMYRA. 285 tains, covered with long avenues of columns, ruined gateways, and shattered temples; but it is on descending to the plain, passing on the left a ruined mosque, and walking over prostrate columns and heaps of stones, that these wonderful ruins burst upon the eye in all their imposing extent and grandeur of situation. No modern structures or dwellings encumber them, no sign of life or cultivation takes off from the deep solitude of the spot, the bright light streams between lines of columns losing themselves in the distance, and heaps of stone shading the sand in different directions, mark the site of a temple or a palace. I did not share in the disappointment expressed by one of our travellers, because the columns of these porticos were not above half the height of the columns of the great Temple of Baalbec, not at all expecting to find columns composing lines of porticos extending for a mile, of the same gigantic size as those of the peristyle court of a temple, any more than I should expect the portico of the Quadrant in Regent's Street, to be composed of columns as high as the Duke of York's column in Waterloo Place. Nor do I at all agree in the opinion, that the details of the architecture are unworthy of admiration: true it is, that the capitals of the columns, and all the more deli |