BENGAZI. 383 and other parts of various buildings of more than ordinary consequence at Ptolemeta, that very little satisfactory information can be obtained of their plans, without a good deal of labour in clearing them, from the accumulation of soil, and the fragments of fallen building, with which they are encumbered. There is a structure of very large dimensions at the north-eastern part of the town, the outer walls of which are still standing to a considerable height ; but the plan of its interior is not sufficiently apparent to authorize any restoration of it, and we will not even hazard a conjecture of its nature.

On its northern face are three large quadrangular tablets of stone, built into the wall, each five feet in length by four in height, on which are cut the Greek inscriptions (marked 1), given in plate (page 385) ; and to the westward and south-westward of this building are many interesting remains of private dwelling-houses, palaces, baths, &c., which require a great deal of excavation. On a pedestal in one of these, is the inscription (4) in plate (page 385) ; most of them appear to have been Roman, and the capitals and bases of some of the columns belonging to them are very fanciful and overcharged with ornament. Some of the shafts of small columns in this mass of building are spiral, and formed of coloured marbles ; and may probably be attributed to the time of Justinian, when the city revived under his politic munificence. If the taste displayed by the Greeks and Romans of this period had been at all in proportion to the expense which they lavished upon their public and private edifices of almost every description, the result would have been splendid in the extreme ; but the costliness of material, and the labour employed in ornament, will not