King Maosolos
"I have lying, over me in Halicarnassus, a gigantic monument such as no other dead person has,adorned in the finest way with statues of horses and men carved most realistically from the best quality marble.King Maussollos in Lucian[2] 's "Dialogues of the Dead"
Location In the city of Bodrum (Halicarnassus) on the Aegean Sea, in south-west Turkey.
History When the Persians expanded their ancient kingdom to include Mesopotamia, Northern India, Syria, Egypt, and Asia Minor,the king could not control his vast empire without the help of local governors or rulers-- the Satraps.Like many other provinces, the kingdom of Caria in the western part of Asia Minor (Turkey) was so far from the Persian capital that it was practically autonomous.From 377 to 353 BC, king Mausollos of Caria reigned and moved his capital to Halicarnassus.
Nothing is exciting about Maussollos life except the construction of his tomb.The project was conceived by his wife Artemisia, and the construction might have started during the king's lifetime.The Mausoleum was completed around 350 BC, three years after Maussollos's death, and one year after Artemisia's.
For 16 centuries, the Mausoleum remained in good condition until an earthquake caused some damage to the roof and colonnade.In the early fifteenth century, the Knights of St John of Malta invaded the region and built a massive crusader castle.When they decided to fortify it in 1494, they used the stones of the Mausoleum.By 1522, almost every block of the Mausoleum had been disassembled and used for construction.
Today, the massive castle still stands in Bodrum,and the polished stone and marble blocks of the Mausoleum can be spotted within the walls of the structure.Some of the sculptures survived and are today on display at the British Museum in London.These include fragment of statues and many slabs of the frieze showing the battle between the Greeks and the Amazons. At the site of the Mausoleum itself, only the foundation remains of the once magnificent Wonder.
1.Maussollos：摩索拉斯，加里亞王國(guó)國(guó)王。加里亞王國(guó)位于小亞細(xì)亞西南部，都城是哈里卡納蘇斯。摩索拉斯于公元前353年死去，其妻接過(guò)政權(quán)，為了紀(jì)念他，就按照丈夫生前擬就的陵墓圖樣，修建摩索拉斯陵墓。陵墓總體似神殿，上部為金字塔形，頂上有大理石雕塑，由建筑師彼提阿斯設(shè)計(jì)建成。由于這座陵墓被西方傳誦為古代陵墓的奇跡，故現(xiàn)在西語(yǔ)中的“陵墓”一詞，也以Mausoleum為詞源了。
2.Lucian：盧西安(?120~?180)希臘作家、修辭學(xué)家。曾游歷希臘、意大利與高盧等地，聞名于羅馬文壇。后定居雅典。主要著作有《神的對(duì)話(huà)》與《冥間的對(duì)話(huà)》等，對(duì)當(dāng)時(shí)盛行的迷信和宗教狂熱以及某些人生前的虛榮作了諷刺和揭露。
