Chapter I
Larnaca (Citium)
Appointed American Consul at Cyprus. — Arrival at Larnaca in 1865.— Description of the town. — Larnaca built on the ruins of Citium. — Its remains of Phoenician, Assyrian, and Greek Art. — Foundations of a Phoenician and a Greek Temple discovered. — Phoenician and Greek inscriptions found in them. — Diggings forbidden by the Turkish authorities. — Arrest of a Consular employe. — His release, and the satisfaction obtained from the Porte.
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At the close of the civil war in the United States, in which I had taken part, I was appointed Consul at Cyprus by President Lincoln a few days before his tragic death. I arrived at my post on the Christmas Day of 1865, after a stormy voyage of fifteen days from Ancona, where I had taken passage on board an Austrian Lloyd steamer for Cyprus, that being the only regular line touching at the island, and that but once in fifteen days.
I shall never forget the first impression I had of the town of Larnaca, my future official residence, while the
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vessel was slowly steaming towards her anchorage. The day was cloudy, and the sea very rough. The anchor was cast at a mile or so from the shore, there being no harbour, only an open bay. The town from that distance looked the very picture of desolation; no sign of life, no vegetation anywhere visible, except a few solitary palm trees, with their long leaves drooping, as if in sign of mourning. I admit that my first thought was to remain on board, and not to land on such a forlorn-looking island.
The captain, an able sailor, who during our extraordinarily long passage had been the essence of kindness to my family, endeavoured to persuade us that Cyprus was an earthly paradise, and assured us that we should, after a while, like it very much. Has his prediction been realised? I leave the reader of these pages to judge by the fact, that I am writing this, ten years afterwards, from the same town; though not quite prepared to accept its distinctive features as paradisaical.
I remarked, as we came in sight of Larnaca, that the "stars and stripes" had been hoisted on board the steamer, as a token of respect for the Representative of the American Republic. Soon afterwards, as if by enchantment, above a row of buildings near the sea-shore, were seen floating the flags of other nations. They had almost the effect of changing the aspect of the town. This was the usual compliment paid by the foreign Consuls to their new colleagues. A large lighter, called by the natives " Mahona," flying the American colours, soon approached our steamer. The craft contained about twenty persons; some armed with antiquated pistols, others with yatagans, and carrying silver-headed batons six feet in length. All had the red " fez," a common headdress of both the Mussulman and Christian natives of
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the island. This heterogeneous crowd came on deck, entered the cabin, and would in all probability have invaded my state rooms also, had I not promptly come out to meet them. The spokesman, expressing himself in tolerably good Italian, said that he had the honour to present to me the "staff of the American Consulate."
I must confess I was not very proud of the personal appearance made by my consular employes. Every one as he approached me, instead of taking my proffered hand, would kiss the tips of my fingers, or make pretence of so doing.
After having gone through this ceremonial, which seemed de rigueur, I was informed that my luggage had been transferred to the lighter; so I took leave of the captain, assisted my wife and infant into the "Mahona", and sailed towards the shore. The nearer we approached Larnaca the less I liked its appearance; when we reached within four or five yards of the shore, where a large crowd of people was gathering to witness the arrival of the new Consul (always an event in this town) the "Mahona," probably too heavily laden, stuck in the sand, and a surprise of a new kind awaited us. The lighter, in spite of the wild and deafening yells of the boatmen in encouraging one another, could not be made to advance an inch further. A boatman jumped into the water and made a sign to me to alight on his broad shoulders. Other boatmen did the same, and began to land my "staff officers" in this manner. I comprehended at a glance that there was nothing else for me to do but to comply. It was therefore in this undiplomatic style that I was obliged to make my entry into the city of Larnaca.
To persuade my wife, however, to accept this biped conveyance, would have been time lost; she would
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have returned all the way to New York, rather than submit to such an act of impropriety. She was sure, she said, that there must be a landing somewhere for ladies; but, alas! the island of Cyprus does not resemble her native Manhattan, and landing-places here for the convenience of travellers are quite unheard-of luxuries.
A bright idea occurred to one of my employes; a chair was procured, and held by two boatmen, and the American Consul's wife was invited to sit on it, and be thus landed! But not even the " sella curulis " of a Roman Senator would have induced her to accept it. Fortunately, however, the "Mahona," having been considerably lightened by the landing of all my employes and our luggage, was made to move once more nearer the shore, when my wife, refusing all aid, sprang lightly to the beach. Once on terra firma, we were welcomed by several foreign Consuls, who had kindly gathered there to receive us, and offer us their hospitality; this we found we should be forced to accept for a time from one of them, as no hotels of any description exist in Larnaca.
How pleasant it was to hear that there were no hotels wherein to take shelter, no shops wherein to buy household furniture of any kind, and that the only resource left for us was to accept the proffered hospitality of persons utterly unknown to us five minutes before! Yet how courteous and kindly manners can soften even the asperities of life amid a semi-barbarous people! And such was my experience at the hands of my Italian colleague, Cavaliere Candido Negri and his wife, who generously offered us the hospitality of their house. I remember well the pleasant society into which I found myself introduced among my colleagues at that period; Ceccaldi and his brother; Lang and his sister, Negri
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with his accomplished wife, and Simondetti with his young bride.
The day after our arrival the Governor, or Caimakam as he is called, and other local authorities, called officially upon me; and during a whole week I was occupied continually in receiving or returning calls. Fortunately, by the end of that time, I succeeded in getting together some scanty furniture, which Mr. Lang and the Belgian Consul had kindly put at my disposal, and I took possession of a tolerably good house, in which I am living at the present day.
Larnaca, which derives its name from the ancient tombs upon which it is partly built, is a modern town, sprung into existence since the conquest of the island by the Turks, and like some of the ancient cities of Cyprus is divided into two separate districts, about twenty minutes' walk from each other. That portion which lies along the seashore is called the "Marina," while Larnaca proper is about three-quarters of a mile inland.
Some forty or fifty years ago all the consulates were in Larnaca; the "Marina" at that period consisting only of a few scattered houses and magazines. But since the pirates of the Greek Archipelago, who used to infest these shores, have ceased to exist, thanks especially to England, the "Marina" has become the commercial centre of the whole island. The shore is now covered for half a mile in extent with private dwelling-houses, possesses an extensive bazaar, several churches and mosques, and is increasing every year, in the same ratio as Larnaca proper becomes depopulated. The foreign Consuls, with one or two exceptions, reside at the "Marina", in a row of buildings a few feet from the sea, almost following one another in succession. The exterior appearance of the houses is rather humble, and without pretension; but they are spacious, and not
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altogether deprived of a certain degree of comfort. I am led to believe, from the Greek church of Saint Lazarus still existing in the neighbourhood, which is said by the natives to have been built over the tomb of Saint Lazarus more than a thousand years ago, and which bears evident traces of Byzantine architecture, but above all from tombs of that period which I discovered in its immediate vicinity, and the remains of mosaic pavements met with here and there, that previous to the Turkish conquest, not only storehouses, but a town of some importance existed here, though no record of the fact, that I know of, now remains. The population of both districts does not amount to more than 8,000 souls; of these about 3,000 are Mussulmans, and the remainder Christians. There is likewise a sprinkling of the descendants of Europeans. A little north-west of the "Marina", in the intervening fields between the two districts, are to be seen evident remains of the ancient city of Citium.
The distance from Citium to Amathus is about fortyeight miles, or twelve hours' ride (as reckoned by the native mode of travelling). Like Amathus, it had been founded by Phoenicians, and it is probable, as already pointed out, that it was owing to the paramount importance of this town that its name of Kittim was in early times applied to the whole island. It seems also to have retained its Phoenician character longer than such other towns as Amathus and Paphos, being always a place celebrated for its trade and commerce, and not being under the hierarchical influence which prevailed in those two towns. In the earliest records, as of the refusal to pay tribute to Tyre in the reign of Hiram, and afterwards again in the reign of Elulaeus, Citium is identified with Cyprus, but it is not certain whether we ought to conclude from this that it had taken a leading part in these movements, though such is far
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from improbable. As Tyre sank in importance, Citium, from its position, was well suited to take its place as a centre of commerce between the East and the West. In the time of Sargon (B.C. 707) we find the King of Citium included among the six other Kings of Cyprus who paid homage to that Assyrian monarch. This appears from the cuneiform inscription accompanying the has relief of an Assyrian figure on a slab of basalt found in the western outskirts of the "Marina" of Larnaca in 1846, and now in the Berlin Museum. The engraving here given of this slab I owe to the kindness of Professor Lepsius, who sent me a photograph of it. A King of Citium also appears among the ten Cypriote kings who paid tribute to Esarhaddon.
A considerable number of Phoenician inscriptions discovered at Citium, and published by Gesenius, are evidence of its having continued to be the residence of Phoenicians, whilst its readiness to take part with the Persians against the Greeks, appears to show that the Phoenician element had preponderated in its population. It was on an occasion of this kind that it was besieged by the Athenian, Cimon, the son of Miltiades, who lost his life there. Yet it is said by Plutarch, in his life of Cimon, that the people of Citium paid special reverence to his tomb, but they had been directed to do so by an oracle in some time of famine. That
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Citium was regarded as a Phoenician town even in the time of Cicero (de Finibus, iv. 20), may be inferred from his calling Zeno, the founder of the Stoics, a Phoenician, to which title he could have no other claim than that of his having been born in Citium, since by parentage he was a Greek. Suidas also calls him a Phoenician. To the Greek part of the population was probably due the legend that the town had taken its name from Citia, a daughter of a king of Salamis, which town or kingdom gradually superseded Citium in importance under the rule of Evagoras.
In B.C. 391 Citium, with Amathus and Soli, sent to Artaxerxes for assistance against Evagoras. The Persian monarch arrived with a fleet and an army. For a while the forces were equally matched, and equally destructive of each other, till ultimately the fleet of Evagoras was completely destroyed. At this time Citium was a fortified place of considerable extent, and continued to be so during the sovereignty of the Ptolemies over the island, as appears from Greek inscriptions of the latter period found here (Engel, i., p. 106—7), in which such military titles as φρούραρχος and ἀρχισωματοφύλαξ occur.
Alexander the Great bestowed the sovereignty of Citium on Pnytagoras, the previous king having been Pasicyprus, who it would seem, preferring luxury to the cares of government, had sold his kingship for fifty talents to one Pymatus. After Pnytagoras there are mentioned, as kings of Citium, Nicocreon and Pygmalion, the latter of whom, on the breaking up of the empire of Alexander, took part with Antigonus. This, however, proved the losing side, and Pygmalion was removed from his kingdom by Ptolemy, the rival of Antigonus. From this time a military officer seems to have taken the place of the old kings of Citium.
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The close harbour of Citium, mentioned by Strabo, is almost entirely filled up, and upon the foundations of a portion of its pier now stands a convent of French nuns; large stones belonging to the ancient pier are found in the fields east of this convent, and remains of the city walls and of a castle are yet to be met with at a few feet beneath the surface two hundred yards north-east of the convent. The ancient coastline is still marked by a continuous undulating line of rock, formed of agglomerated pebbles naturally cemented together by time, and mistaken by Pococke and other European travellers for the foundations of the walls which encircled the ancient city. The only monument of Phoenician architecture still extant is a sepulchral chapel or tomb, composed of four large stones; the one forming the roof overlaps the others and forms a kind of portico. The natives call this place Φανερωμένη (Phaneromene), and the Greek peasants go there to light in the interior of it candles and lamps in honour of the Panaghia (Holy Virgin).
On the site of a low hill overlooking the salt lake to the west of the "Marina", a number of small terracotta figures have been found from time to time during the past twenty years, and a few specimens of them,
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chiefly, however, very fragmentary, may he seen in the New York and British Museums. The typical figure represented in these terra-cottas is a seated goddess draped and wearing a high crown (stephanos), richly ornamented with rosettes and sphinxes, resembling the figure of a sphinx in gold found at Curium, or, as in one instance in the British Museum, with the figure of a dancing Maenad. From the back of the head hangs a veil. In the example here given (which is eleven and a half inches high) she is supported on each side by a female figure, each holding a casket. Supposing the central figure to be Aphrodite, then the two attendants might be either Eunomia and Paidia, as on a painted Greek vase in the British Museum where their names are inscribed, or some other two companions, such as Peitho, who are represented on works of art as attending her; on the other hand, the high crown and the hand raised to the breast would suggest the goddess Demeter, whose worship is known to have existed in the island, and to have been accompanied by a very celebrated festival. This suggestion is confirmed by the discovery on this spot of two inscriptions in honour of Demeter Paralia, to whom there appears to have been erected a temple here. In the British Museum is part of a terracotta group from Dali, apparently representing the same subject, but only one of the supporting figures remains; the goddess herself is headless. Among
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the terra-cottas found here were also a number of other female figures, some seated and others standing, and a large percentage of rude grotesque representations, but mostly with a tambourine in their hands or a lyre. One of these figures is remarkable as being a portrait probably of a philosopher. From the fine quality of the clay and the general artistic spirit of these terra-cottas, particularly of the groups of the seated goddess, it seems less likely that they were the provincial work of Cyprus than that they had been imported from Greece, most probably from Athens, between which and Cyprus there existed active intercourse in the 4th century B.C. To this period of Greek art these figures appear to belong. Further, had they been produced by local artists in Cyprus, we should have expected to find in them some local peculiarity, for example, of dress, such as we find in the terra-cottas from Tanagra in Boeotia. But this is not the case. Along with these
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terra-cottas of a good period of art, and the many coarsely executed figures, chiefly representing musical performers, I found also a number of others representing an Egyptian goddess with a cow's head, and with the breasts largely developed.
A distinguished archaeologist who visited Larnaca in 1867, is of opinion that these remains were those of a potter's manufactory; but upon careful examination I have become convinced that this was a wrong theory, and that the terra-cottas belonged to a temple; in fact, on the crest of the mound several years afterwards, I discovered foundations of walls, with fragments of frescoed plaster and two little marble pedestals with the inscription ΔΗΜΗΤΗΡ ΠΑΡΑΛΙΑ, already referred to, on both of them. Before the harbour of Citium was filled up, this mound must have stood very near the sea; and the epithet of Paralia or protectrix of the seashore given to the goddess, was thus an appropriate one.
Another reason for believing that a temple stood there, and not a potter's factory, is the quantity of tombs which surround the spot, and which mostly, if not all, belong to the same period as the terra-cottas; that is, from 400 to 300 years before Christ.
It was on this mound that I began, in 1866, in a mere amateur way, the explorations which were afterwards to expand into very serious undertakings, and to extend to every part of the island. During my residence in Larnaca I explored more than 3000 tombs, mostly discovered on the western side of the "Marina", but, with very few exceptions, they proved to be of the Greek period, varying from 400 B.C. to the second century of our era; and all of them were mere holes excavated in the earth in the shape of an oven.
In a tomb a few hundred yards north of the Phoenician
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sepulchral chapel before mentioned, I discovered a very large sarcophagus in white marble, in excellent preservation, the lid having at the head a representation of a female head with long tresses. The resemblance between this sarcophagus and the Phoenician sarcophagi in the Louvre, from Sidon, is very striking. Two of these will be found engraved in Longperier's " Musee Napoleon III.," pi. 16, 17. A very similar sarcophagus from Sidon is in the British Museum, and another, discovered by me at Amathus, is still packed in the courtyard of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. In another tomb almost contiguous
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to that in which the marble sarcophagus was found, two large alabaster vases with their covers were discovered. On one of these vases is incised a Phoenician inscription oi a few letters only. (See Appendix.) Another sarcophagus was found in a field adjacent to the mound containing the terracotta figures; it is evidently of a later period. In the intervening fields between the "Marina" and Larnaca proper, near the aqueduct, I found an architectural fragment of white marble with a basrelief representing apparently Silenus seizing hold of a Maenad (Doell, Die Sammlung Cesnola, No. 233, pl. vii. 14) and a
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mutilated statue, perhaps of Ganymede with the eagle, also in white marble.
Another temple had existed on a little eminence south-west of the salt lake, and in the vicinity of a Turkish mosque or convent containing the coffin in which, it is said, the foster sister of Fatima, the sister of Mahomet, was buried, and for this reason it is held in great veneration by the Mahometans. At a depth of 19 inches I found several fragments of white marble bowls and paterae with Phoenician inscriptions incised on their rim.
The foundations of this Phoenician temple were found 3½ feet below the surface; also portions of the pavement consisting of large square slabs in calcareous stone of the same shape as those used at the present day in Cyprus, but much larger. One which was discovered intact measured 3 feet 9 inches in length by 3 feet 4 inches in width, and was nearly 4 inches thick. The foundations were found in a broken condition, and
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had been previously destroyed by stone diggers. In one of the tombs situated between this temple, which stood upon a conical mound, and the hill containing the terra-cottas, but nearer to the latter, one of my diggers with his companions in 1870 discovered a bronze vase closed at the top with a leaden cover. When, from a fracture, some gold coins came rolling out, a scuffle ensued between the diggers, and they stupidly damaged it beyond repair. They found in it 990 staters of Philip and his son Alexander.
After a few experiments in the vicinity of Larnaca, I travelled along the southern coast of Cyprus. Visiting the sites of Amathus and Paphos, and other localities in their neighbourhood, I came to the conclusion, that had I sufficient funds at my disposal, I might explore some of these ruins with a fair chance of success. I explained the plan I had conceived to some of my acquaintances, both in Europe and America, but none seemed to be disposed to embark in so doubtful and expensive an enterprise. I had almost given up the hope of being able to continue my explorations, when an incident occurred which seemed to put an end to them for ever; yet the result was quite the contrary.
The Caimakam (Governor) of Larnaca one day arrested two of my diggers without previously informing me, as is the custom, of his intention. I at once called on him for an explanation; he informed me in an arrogant manner that diggings without a firman were strictly forbidden. I replied that the necessity for a firman to dig in Cyprus must be something new, as I had not previously heard of it. "That is not my affair," said he; and no persuasions of mine could induce him to liberate my two men, whom he retained arbitrarily in prison for several days without any judgment. When it is considered that prisoners for petty offences are obliged in Cyprus to provide their own food or starve,
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and that their families have only their daily labour to rely on for support, the hardship and injustice of this sentence is easily perceived. From that day I had a grudge against the Caimakam of Larnaca, Genab Effendi, and I promised to repay him whenever an occasion should present itself. I had not long to wait. One morning a notable Turk of the "Marina" came and begged me to appoint him to the vacant post of American Consular Guard, explaining to me that the Caimakam had a personal spite against him, and had sworn to have him drafted into the military service. I was delighted to have so soon a chance of squaring my accounts with Genab Effendi, and I immediately appointed Mustafa Fefsi a regular privileged American employe. The Caimakam went into a great rage when he heard of this appointment, but, Turk-like, he immediately called on me, and tried in his blandest manner to induce me to make another selection. He promised never to interfere in my excavations again, if I would but appoint another man instead of Mustafa; but I laughed at him, and positively refused to have any other.
Genab Effendi, however, intrigued so effectively with his superior, the Governor-General of the island, that the latter, quite à la turque, without the slightest authority, refused to recognise Mustafa as my consular cavass, and wrote to me that I must select another person. I replied that by the existing Regulations issued by the Porte, and sanctioned by the foreign Legations at Constantinople, I had the full right to select whomsoever I pleased for my consular employes, and that I would positively insist on my selection, and protect Mustafa against his Excellency, his Caimakam, or anybody else.
Four months elapsed, and I thought the affair had been dropped, as is often the case with the Turks, but I
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was mistaken. One day about this time, when Mustafa had been sent by me on some official errand, he was chased by the Turkish police into an American storehouse, taken from it by force, and imprisoned as a deserter from the Turkish army.
My colleagues, as well as the whole island, were anxious to know what would be my action in the matter, and whether I would succeed in getting back my cavass, Mustafa. As a mere necessary formality, I demanded at once the restitution of my man from the Caimakam, and, as might be expected, without success. I then claimed him under protest from the Governor-General of Cyprus, with a like result. There was no time to be lost, and I took the first steamer for Constantinople, to lay my complaint before the Hon. Edward Joy Morris, our American Minister at the Porte, explaining to him the whole case. He entirely approved the course I had pursued, and promised to sustain my demands for redress in the strongest manner, and he kept his word.
The satisfaction I asked was very unpalatable to the Turks at Constantinople, and the Grand Vizir, Aali Pasha, hoped to evade it by proposing the appointment of a mixed commission to proceed to Cyprus, in order to investigate the truth of my allegations, which Mr. Morris and I readily accepted. The Turkish officials relied chiefly upon the usual prevarication of their subordinates in like cases, to sustain their cause; but the able manner in which the American Commissioner, Mr. Augustus J. Johnson, then Consul-General at Beirut, handled the whole case, caused a decision entirely in my favour. The timely arrival in the Bay of Larnaca of two American vessels of war, the "Ticonderoga " and the "Canandaigua," coinciding exactly with the ultimatum sent by Mr. Morris to the Porte, that if within a week after the decision, full
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satisfaction, as promised, was not given, the American flag would be lowered, forced the Ottoman Government to accede to all our demands, and officially to acknowledge that the local authorities at Cyprus had acted in an arbitrary manner, and involuntarily (!) insulted the American Consul. The following was the satisfaction received:
1st. The dismissal of Genab Effendi from the position of Governor of Larnaca, and he to be for ever disqualified for holding any office under the Ottoman Government.
2nd. The restitution of Mustafa Fefsi and his official recognition as American Consular Guard.
3rd. A salute of 21 guns to the American flag by the fortress of Larnaca.
4th. The payment of 10,000 piastres damages to the American dragoman for the unlawful entrance by the Turkish police into his premises, without the permission of the American Consul.
5th. The Governor-General of Cyprus to express his regret officially by letter to the American Consul for the mistake that he had made.
It was further stipulated and agreed between the Grand Vizir and the American Minister that the Governor-General should also, after the incident was closed, be removed from Cyprus, and sent elsewhere; in fact, a month later, a new Pasha arrived from Constantinople to take his place. After such a rude but salutary lesson the Turkish authorities of this island became extremely courteous in their behaviour towards the American Consul, thus often reminding me of their national proverb, "the hand thou canst not cut off thou must kiss."
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I therefore can cheerfully declare that during the ten years I remained in Cyprus after that event, no act of the Turks ever gave me serious cause of complaint; and the plan I had conceived for extensive explorations was carried into execution some months afterwards, independently of all exterior aid, by embarking all my private means in the enterprise.