Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-03-04
The Ruins Of Melancholy Inau-
euce of the Scene.

enCe OF the scene.
There is feeling of melancholy, saws a
traveller, in looking the last look on such q
place, sensible that one will never see il
more. The ripping stream seemed to mock
me as passed over it:
... "Men may come and men may 60, -
But flow on forever"
And then, in the ghostly stiffness of the
night, l entered the vast Trilithou. The
Temple of Jupiter, under the deceptive
lightning of the moon, looked perfect 1t
seemed as if just finished by the architect,
and to morrow the day of its dedication.
To morrow AntOnius Pontfex Maximus,
might himself be coming to eonsecrate it to
mighty Jove. The religion of the Roman
has been celebrated there. Sacrifices to the
gods Of Baalbec we're offered there for near
400 years after the Christian era Then an
other religion occupied its halls and shrnes.
The Christians possessed it. The Cross was
erected where the beardless statue of Jupi-
Ter had stood. The Bishop of Heliopolis sat
in the Council of Antioch.
Three centuries heard the HYMNS of the
Church chanted in its temples and the lay
procession of the priests swept through its
hexagon and quadrangle. Then war was in
the land. The eKterminating conquests of
the Crescent, with a tide of blood flowed
from the ocean. board to the deserts of Da-
mascus, and quenched the lamps that had
burned everlastingly before the affairs of the
City of the Sun. Darkness covered it for
300 years, and silence blotted out the name
of HeliOpolis from history. When it once
more emerges, its classic title has persisted
in the food of devastation. Men called it
Baalbec, and the Arabian historian and Ben
jamin of Tuledo "a. ID. 1859 noted it, and
tell us of its "slones of enormous size. +"
and bow earthquakes have shaken the land
Of Syria, thrown down its structures, and
crushed to death its people.
Saladin next occupied the stage of time.
King Baldwin and Count Raymond carried
fire and sword through the Land, cried havoc
and let slip the dogs of war under its bat
Elements; for, no longer city of temples,
no longer the home of religion, it had been
converted into fortress and the historian
said, it lis castle built with very large
stones" And then another tragic actor
fretted his little day before the world. He
bade its citizens surrender and Tamerlane
flushed with victory, marched onward tC
Damascus. Another century and q hal
rolled over, and We hear no more of it, unit
the modern spirit of travel first exhibited it,
self, and the long catalogue of names com
menced with the Frenchman Beiar, A. D
1913; the English Maundrell, 1871 which
links 1t at last with the people of our owl
times.
The heather, the Christian, the Saracen
the Turk, all have been its lords ald mas
ters. What o tain of ghosty forms my
fancy pictured, with slow and stately march
going past me- sweeping over the floors anC
through the columned aisles, where once il
life they trod Pompey; the veterans o
Augustus's legiOns; the Emperors of Rome
Antonius, the bloody Caracalla, the Chris
tian TheOdosius; the actor-the poor actol
Gelasinus earning the hard. bought food o
the sock and the buskin, and yet with this
religion of Christ in his heart, going with
him OH to the stage, and hallowing his mar
tyr DEATH; the impetuous crusader; the
King of Jerusalem; the conquering anC
courtly Saladin; the fiery Tamerlane--all
| all seemed to pass before me, their wal
hands pointing to the ruins they had left
and the moon shining through the broker
inches, dismanted the architraves and pill
lars Of the Trilithou, reft of all the sculp
tors clothing, exposed them with funera
| light before me in giant FORMS the denude(
corpse Of imperial pride, the skeletons o
earthly pageantry and power, molderin,
away IN the tallnY-o OF. centuries.