Q. Curtii Rufi de gestis Alexandri magni ... libri qui supersunt octo, herausg. von J. Mützell |
Popular passages
Page 361 - And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers : I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock. " It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea : for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God, and it shall become a spoil to the nations.
Page 382 - I was completely deceived ; instead of a few insulated mounds, I found the whole face of the country covered with vestiges of building, in some places consisting of brick walls, surprisingly fresh, in others, merely of a vast succession of mounds of rubbish, of such indeterminate figures, variety, and extent, as to involve the person who should have formed any theory in inextricable confusion.
Page 372 - The whole country between Bagdad and Hillah is a perfectly flat and (with the exception of a few spots as you approach the latter place) uncultivated waste. That it was at some former period in a far different state, is evident from the number of canals by which it is traversed, now dry and neglected, and the quantity of heaps of earth, covered with fragments of brick and broken tiles, which are seen in every direction, — the indisputable traces of former population.
Page 376 - ... was the one most generally employed. The preparation necessary for the bitumen is a much more expensive and troublesome one than that requisite for lime, for the commoner sort of which a simple burning with the brambles, which abound in the Desert, is sufficient ; while the bitumen, to deprive it of its brittleness and render it capable of being applied to the brick, must be boiled with a certain proportion of oil ; and after all, the tenacity of the bitumen bears no comparison with that of the...
Page 82 - ... evergreens. At the eighth mile the rocks on either side approached each other, and we passed under an arch of an old gateway, built of black granite and called Kara Cape, or the black gate. This building was once, without doubt, much more extensive than it now is: it is evidently intended to defend the entrance into the defile and I should guess it to have been constructed at a period antecedent to the conquests of the Turks.
Page 375 - Hillah; which is rather an unaccountable circumstance, considering that they survived the final ruin of the town, long after which they served as an enclosure for a park; in which comparatively perfect state St Jerome informs us they remained in his time.
Page 532 - ... form and quick motion, our traveller supposed to be a comet. In several of the woods through which their road now lay, no vestige of a habitation or signs of culture appeared, excepting a few narrow slips of land at the bases of the hills. But as they proceeded the valleys soon " opened, and exhibited a pleasing picture of plenty and rural quiet. The village...
Page 427 - The incident is well illustrated by the actual geography; for the whole coast, from the ruins of Phaselis to the western corner of the plain of Attaleia, consists of a lofty mountain, rising abruptly from the shore. Arrian, in saying that the passage was not long through the mountains from Phaselis into the plains where Perge was situated, shows that there was a pass in Mount Solyma not far from Attaleia; for Alexander was not yet in possession of Termessus, which commanded the principal pass of...
Page 497 - Bible-miracles fulfil neither of these conditions. It was said that the waters of the Pamphylian Sea miraculously opened a passage for the army of Alexander the Great. Admiral Beaufort, however, tells us that, 'though there are no tides in this part of the Mediterranean, a considerable depression of the sea is caused by long-continued north winds, and Alexander, taking advantage of such a moment, may have dashed on without impediment.
Page 321 - ... célestes qui l'accompagnent, il porte partout la lumière et l'éclat, il répand, comme la pluie, la lumière et l'éclat; il accorde avec profusion la lumière et l'éclat à la terre qu...