MERGE TO GYRENE. 515 structure has a different aspect from those of the churches, both of which are at the eastern extremities where the altars appear to have been placed. The columns of the basilica (if so we may call it) are also composed of handsome coloured marble— we mean the shafts of the columns, for the capitals are of white marble. The remaining two, (c) and (e), appear to have been dwelling-houses of a superior description, (e) has had immediate communication with the turret close to which it is placed on the southern side of the town ; and a long colonnade running parallel with the sea has been erected close to the other dwelling-house leading along the edge of the cliff towards the eastern church. On the south side of the town, without the walls, there is another large building (h), which seems to have been a fort and to have contained quarters for soldiers. A road, inclosed by large stones placed upright, has been purposely carried close along the eastern side of this structure, and turning short round it through an archway has led to the semicircular excavation opposite to the gate (1), one of the principal entrances to the city. We will not pretend to fix with any certainty the date of the buildings we have here alluded to ; but we should consider them to be decidedly Eoman, and the employment of Corinthian capitals and shafts of coloured marble would seem to favour this opinion. It is not improbable that the churches may have been erected in the time of Justinian, although we do not recollect that they are mentioned by Procopius in his account of the works of that emperor.

In the quarries which inclose the walls, serving, as we have already stated, the purpose of trenches, there are a good many excavated .3 u 2