Note 119 — BOOK VI.
Aubrey Stewart translation
Ptolemaïs (Ptolemeta), now Dolmeita. V. Beechey, p. 376. He gives, at p. 338, etc., a plan of the city and environs, and also drawings of some of the ruins. The city was something less than a mile in length from north to south, and its breadth from east to west something more than three-quarters. Captain Beechey describes the remains of the walls to the city and harbour, of two theatres, an amphitheatre, and various buildings of more than ordinary consequence. ‘Some of the shafts of small columns 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.’
Lieut.-Col. Playfair, ‘Footsteps of Bruce’ (1877), pp. 288, 289, gives a good account also.
Smith and Porcher, pp. 64, 66, give drawings of ruins. ‘At a point nearly opposite the centre of the east wall, the ravine is spanned by the arch of a bridge still standing, which appears to have been built for an aqueduct which we could trace distinctly for some distance from the city. Within the walls the aqueduct led in the direction of enormous reservoirs near the centre of the city.’ Messrs. Smith and Porcher describe them as consisting of six chambers, each chamber too feet long and 20 broad, arched over. The repairs to the aqueduct and cisterns are ascribed by Procopius to Justinian. (L.)