Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/322

 300 HISTOKV OK ART IN PIKKXICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. lies in the fact that the treasure was not restored to its place in the temple. That so many priceless objects should have been left neglected is only to be explained, so far as we can see, by suppos- ing that the town was taken and sacked, and that all those officers of the temple who knew of the secret hiding-place and its contents were slain. But from what Herodotus tells us as to the part played by Curium in that campaign, we cannot believe that such a disaster should have overtaken a city whose prince had just rendered so great a service to the Persian satrap. Again, among the intaglios found in these subterranean chambers there are some o which I am inclined to ascribe to the fifth rather than to the sixth century B.C. ; they show hardly a trace of archaism ; the nude is treated with much ease and freedom ; the female nude especially is presented in attitudes which imply much familiarity with the subject. 1 As we have begun to guess, why should we not go on ? May we not suppose that the treason of Stesenor excited the fury of the Greeks in the island, and especially at Salamis, and that when, towards the middle of the fifth century, Cimon appeared with his victorious fleet in Cyprian waters, Curium was besieged and sacked by its neighbours ? The collection includes one or two intaglios of such an advanced style of execution that we might at a pinch bring down the closing of the vaults to the time of Evagoras. At that period, again, the island was torn by san- guinary conflicts between the partisans of Persia and those who stood out for national independence, and between the two Curium may have paid dearly for the fault of a century before. In any case it appears that a certain tradition of the buried treasure survived, for the mosaic pavement of the temple had been pierced at several points, and Cesnola was able to trace excavations to a depth of from six to seven feet which, being ill directed, came to an end against the rocky foundations. His suspicions were, in fact, aroused by these abortive pits. 2 The floor in their neighbourhood sounded hollow, and by turning the 1 Mr. KING, in his attempt at a catalogue of the intaglios in the treasure of Curium, thinks that the series which he endeavours to establish embraces a period extending from the very beginnings of the glyptic art to the commencement of the fifth century before our era (CLSNOLA, Cyprus, p. 354). He calls particular attention to the following intaglios figured in Cesnola's work : Plate xxxix. 5, 6, 7, 8 ; and plate xl. 12 and 13. i.A, Cyprus, p. 30.?