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Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
 
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SALAMIS

SALAMIS IN THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS.
BY ALEXANDER PALMA DI CESNOLÀ, F.S.A.,
page 59


The latter part of this inscription is the equivalent of the Latin formula, " Sit tibi terra levis", so frequently found on Roman sepulchral slabs. The following inscription (fig. 110) is cut on a marble slab, broken on the left hand side, measuring six inches and a half in height and three inches and a half in breadth:—


A slab of black marble (fig. Ill), broken on both sides, four inches broad and four inches and three-quarters high, contains the following inscription:—


The stone remains at Salamis are numerous, but their size and weight make them valuable prizes to the local wants of the mason and stone-cutter; hence destruction and mutilation are rife among these lapidary treasures of the past, and but few carvings of any interest or value can any longer be obtained. Among the sculptured stones which I recovered is an altar (fig. 112) of Phœnician origin, which measures eleven inches in height and five inches in width at the base, gradually diminishing upwards towards the carved or embattled cornice. On the front is a carving in low relief, and somewhat coarsely executed, representing, as Dr. Birch supposes, a man vested in flowing drapery, and wearing an Egyptian head-dress, in the act of sacrificing at an altar of a very archaic contour. At the side of this relic another stone represents a man holding a palm-branch, perhaps to indicate that he is the victor in one of the public games or in the circus. This circumstance perhaps suggests the cause which led to the erection of the altar. In a village now called Tremitusa, the ancient site of Tremithus, near Athieno, the ancient Golgoi, I found a stone cippus, which measures three feet in height, four in breadth, and one in thickness. The pediment, with which it is enriched, has a mythological head in the centre, adorned with ample curls of hair. Perhaps it is the head of Medusa. There are three half-length figures upon the panel

 

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