Page:EB1911 - Volume 06.djvu/592

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CNIDUS—CNOSSUS
573

parts. At Clydebank are large shipbuilding yards and engineering works; at Yoker there is some shipbuilding and a distillery; at Kilbowie the Singer Manufacturing Company have an immense factory, covering nearly 50 acres and giving employment to many thousands of operatives; at Dalmuir are the building and repairing yards of the Clyde Navigation Trust. The important Rothesay Dock, under this trust, was opened by the prince and princess of Wales in April 1907. The municipality owns a fine town hall and buildings. Part of the parish extends across the Clyde into the shire of Renfrew.

CNIDUS (mod. Tekir), an ancient city of Caria in Asia Minor, situated at the extremity of the long peninsula that forms the southern side of the Sinus Ceramicus or Gulf of Cos. It was built partly on the mainland and partly on the Island of Triopion or Cape Krio, which anciently communicated with the continent by a causeway and bridge, and now by a narrow sandy isthmus. By means of the causeway the channel between island and mainland was formed into two harbours, of which the larger, or southern, now known as Port Freano, was further enclosed by two strongly-built moles that are still in good part entire. The extreme length of the city was little less than a mile, and the whole intramural area is still thickly strewn with architectural remains. The walls, both insular and continental, can be traced throughout their whole circuit; and in many places, especially round the acropolis, at the N.E. corner of the city, they are remarkably perfect. Our knowledge of the site is largely due to the mission of the Dilettanti Society in 1812, and the excavations executed by C. T. Newton in 1857–1858; but of recent years it has become a frequent calling station of touring steamers, which can still lie safely in the southern harbour. The agora, the theatre, an odeum, a temple of Dionysus, a temple of the Muses, a temple of Aphrodite and a great number of minor buildings have been identified, and the general plan of the city has been very clearly made out. The most famous statue by the elder Praxiteles, the Aphrodite, was made for Cnidus. It has perished, but late copies exist, of which the most faithful is in the Vatican gallery. In a temple-enclosure C. T. Newton discovered a fine seated statue of Demeter, which now adorns the British Museum; and about 3 m. south-east of the city he came upon the ruins of a splendid tomb, and a colossal figure of a lion carved out of one block of Pentelic marble, 10 ft. in length and 6 in height, which has been supposed to commemorate the great naval victory of Conon over the Lacedaemonians in 394 B.C. Among the minor antiquities obtained from the city itself, or the great necropolis to the east, perhaps the most interesting are the leaden κατάδεσμοι, or imprecationary tablets, found in the temple of Demeter, and copied in facsimile in the appendix to the second volume of Newton’s work. Peasants still find numerous antiquities, and the site would certainly repay more thorough excavation.

Cnidus was a city of high antiquity and probably of Lacedaemonian colonization. Along with Halicarnassus and Cos, and the Rhodian cities of Lindus, Camirus and Ialysus it formed the Dorian Hexapolis, which held its confederate assemblies on the Triopian headland, and there celebrated games in honour of Apollo, Poseidon and the nymphs. The city was at first governed by an oligarchic senate, composed of sixty members, known as ἀμνήμονες, and presided over by a magistrate called an ἀρεστήρ; but, though it is proved by inscriptions that the old names continued to a very late period, the constitution underwent a popular transformation. The situation of the city was favourable for commerce, and the Cnidians acquired considerable wealth, and were able to colonize the island of Lipara, and founded the city of Corcyra Nigra in the Adriatic. They ultimately submitted to Cyrus, and from the battle of Eurymedon to the latter part of the Peloponnesian War they were subject to Athens. In 394 B.C. Conon fought off the port the battle which destroyed Spartan hegemony. The Romans easily obtained their allegiance, and rewarded them for help given against Antiochus by leaving them the freedom of their city. During the Byzantine period there must still have been a considerable population; for the ruins contain a large number of buildings belonging to the Byzantine style, and Christian sepulchres are common in the neighbourhood. Eudoxus, the astronomer, Ctesias, the writer on Persian history, and Sostratus, the builder of the celebrated Pharos at Alexandria, are the most remarkable of the Cnidians mentioned in history.

See C. T. Newton and R. P. Pullen, Hist. of Discoveries at Halicarnassus, Cnidus, &c. (1863).

CNOSSUS, Knossos, or Gnossus, an ancient city of Crete, on the left bank of the Caeratus, a small stream which falls into the sea on the north side of the island. The city was situated about 3 m. from the coast, and, according to the old traditions, was founded by Minos, king of Crete. The locality was associated with a number of the most interesting legends of Greek mythology, particularly with those which related to Jupiter, who was said to have been born, to have been married, and to have been buried in the vicinity. Cnossus was also assigned as the site of the labyrinth in which the Minotaur was confined. The truth behind these legends has been revealed in recent years by the excavations of Dr Evans. As the historical city was peopled by Dorians, the manners, customs and political institutions of its inhabitants were all Dorian. Along with Gortyna and Cydonia, it held for many years the supremacy over the whole of Crete; and it always took a prominent part in the civil wars which from time to time desolated the island. When the rest of Crete fell under the Roman dominion, Cnossus shared the same fate, and became a Roman colony. Aenesidemus, the sceptic philosopher, and Chersiphron, the architect of the temple of Diana at Ephesus, were natives of Cnossus.

The Site.—As the excavations at Cnossus are discussed at length in the article Crete, it must suffice here briefly to enumerate the more important. The chief building is the Great Palace, the so-called “House of Minos,” the excavation of which by Arthur Evans dates from 1900: a number of rooms lying round the central paved court, oriented north and south, have been identified, among them being the throne-room with some well-preserved wall paintings and a small bathroom attached, in the north-west quarter a larger bathroom and a shrine, and residential chambers in the south and east. The latter part of the palace is composed of a number of private rooms and halls, and is especially remarkable for its skilful drainage and water-supply systems.

In 1907 excavations on the south side of the palace showed that the plan was still incomplete, and a southern cryptoporticus, and outside it a large south-west building, probably an official residence, were discovered. Of special interest was a huge circular cavity under the southern porch into which the sub-structures of the palace had been sunk. This cavity was filled with rubbish, sherds, &c., the latest of which was found to date as far back as the beginning of the Middle Minoan age, and the later work of 1908 only proved (by means of a small shaft sunk through the débris) that the rock floor was 52 ft. below the surface. The first attempt to reach the floor by a cutting in the hill-side proved abortive, but the operations of 1910 led to a successful result. The cavity proved to be a great reservoir approached by a rock-cut staircase and of Early Minoan date.

In 1904–1905 a paved way running due west from the middle of the palace was excavated, and found to lead to another building described as the “Little Palace” largely buried under an olive grove. The first excavations showed that this building was on the same general plan and belonged to the same period as the “House of Minos,” though somewhat later in actual date (17th century B.C.). Large halls, which had subsequently been broken up into smaller apartments, were found, and among a great number of other artistic remains one seal-impression of special interest showing a one-masted ship carrying a thorough-bred horse—perhaps representing the first importation of horses into Crete. A remarkable shrine with fetish idols was also discovered. The sacred Double-Axe symbol is prominent, as in the greater palace. By the end of 1910 the excavation of this smaller palace was practically completed. It was found to cover an area of more than 9400 ft. with a frontage of more than 130 ft., and had five stone staircases. One object of special interest found