500 MERGE TO GYRENE.

tremity of the city. The handsome marble columns, which now encumber the structures which they once contributed so materially to adorn, afford evident proofs that no expense had been spared in the erection of these magnificent buildings ; for the material of which their shafts are composed is not found in this part of the coast of Africa, and must have been transported at great labour and cost from the quarries of distant places On the centre of the shaft of some of these columns we found the figure of a large cross engraved ; they have all been originally formed of single pieces, some of which still remain entire, and would be no unappropriate or inconsiderable ornaments to churches of modern construction.

The discovery of these splendid monuments of Christianity in a country now labouring under ignorance and superstition, afforded pleasing memorials of early piety, and recalled the active times of Cyprian and Anastasius, of the philosophic Synesius, (himself a Cyrenean) and other distinguished actors in those memorable scenes which northern Africa (from Carthage to Alexandria) once presented to an admiring world. But the grass is now growing over the altar-stone, and the munificence which gave birth to the structures here alluded to is visible only in their ruins f .

♦ Pi'obably from the shores of the Red Sea, where there is a great variety of coloured marble.

-|- The bishoj)ric of Ptolemais was transferred to Apollonia (then called Sosuza), as that of Gyrene had been formerly to Ptolemais. The present Arab name of the port is Marsa Susa, which is evidently a corruption of the Ghristian appellation of this ancient harbour of the Gyrenaica.