WONDERS OF THE PAST.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20380, 11 April 1928, Page 11

WONDERS OF THE PAST.

BACK TO THE STONE AGE. FORGOTTEN ITALIAN CITY. " MORE FAMOUS THAN POMPEII. Three Greek temples, majestic in their loneliness and grandeur, mark the site' cl the most impressive city of the dead in Western Europe. They stand near the southern tip of the Gulf of Salerno, about four hours’ motor run from Naples, and are practically all that is visible above ground of a once-flourishing city which the Greeks . called Poseidonia and the Romans Palatum. ; . . , , ~ , “ This ancient city is not only the oldest civilised site in Western Europe, but also the most neglected,” writes Mr G. A. Atkinson, in the Daily Express. Describing a recent visit, ho says:—“No corps of guides ros© from somnolence at ipy approach. There were no hotels or houses of refreshment. No one offered me picture postcards or coral necklaces. No children clamoured for baksheesh. Boats never call at this deserted shore. _ Trains on the single-track railway that runs down to the Straits of Messina are infrequent. The solo ccccupant of the deserted city was a donkey, which cropped the herbage at the base of a large stone in front of one of the temples. If he had been a guide he would probably have told me that it was the stone of'sacrifice. “ Half-buried houses peeped from mounds and overgrowth. Some were fairsized villas, and open doorways invited me to enter. A well-preserved gateway leads to what was evidently a cemetery. The air was heavy with the sweet scent of thyme. Pompeii flourishes while Poseidonia languishes. The awesome spectacle v of Vesuvius, and the impressive resurrection of the buried cities of the plain, hoy© caused the more noble monuments of the seaborn city, less than 150 miles away -to 'be omitted from the average excursion schedule. -ec MORE FAMOUS THAN POMPEII. “But Poseidonia was a greater, _older, and more famous city than Pompeii. Its remains disclose unbroken levels of culture reaching back to the Stone Age. Some authorities place the date of construction of these Greek temples in the tenth century before Christ. Poseidonia, in its heyday, harboured a colony of rich Greeks from Sybaris, a name which is a synonym for luxury. They were not too luxurious to fight, and they defeated Hannibal when he was the terror of the Mediterranean. “ There was much traffic on this forgotten city’s stone-paved thoroughfares. The ruts worn by the chariots on the sea road are in some places six or more inches deep. The stone sills of some of the houses are worn down to the sidewalk level by the passage of innumerable sandalled feet. The worn orchestra stalls of a half-obliterated theatre are visible. “ Poseidonia’s ground plan suggests that within the walls, portions of which still stand, it was about a mile square. There are outside the avails miles : of ploughed fields, the surface of which is covered with millions of fragments of broken pottery, carved stones, and pieces of brick and tile. Much of the city that remains above ground has been carried away to provide local building material. “All the way down this lonely coast I saw fragments of Poseidonia’s villas and walls buttressing Italian hovels and sections 6f its noble columns doing duty as door posts. The flat tops of the great, round, fluted blocks that formed the unmortared pillars of the Greek temples had found a modern use as dining tables. THREE FINE DORIC TEMPLES. “ The best preserved and least spoliated of the three temples of Poseidonia is made of a peculiar brown, warm stone, which hardens by exposure to the air. This magnificent building is 200 ft long, 80ft wide, and 30ft high. It is supposed to have been dedicated to Neptune, because ot the discovery of a atone which bore characters referring to the Greek sea-god Poseidon. All three temples are examples of Doric art, a standard of dignity and simplicity to which modern art must return. They are a majestic comment on the chaotic degeneracy of decoration in Italian cathedrals and churches. An immense mound conceals yet another temple, which tradition calls “ the hall of peace.” Practically all that official history records of Poseidonia is that the malarial surroundings gradually made it untenable by Greeks, Romans, and Saracens alike, so that before the year 900 a.o. it was deserted by all except local builders, who came thither for material. What lies beneath its tumuli and rank overgrowth no one knows. “The city's sole occupant, the donkey, was stubbornly uncommunicative. Ha cantered away when invited to make a statement for publication, and the echo of his hoofs on the ancient stone roadway was the only sound that broke the silence.”