Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/346

 324 HISTORY OK ART IN PIKKNICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. the neighbouring cities, and when its reconstruction was deter- mined on, such of the ancient materials as remained were either reworked and impressed with the taste of the day or dispersed far and wide. Some of them might, no doubt, be recovered, if the excavations, formerly begun by Beule, were taken up and pro- secuted with sufficient energy. But as for the real Punic temples, the buildings which saw Hamilcar and Hannibal within their gates, it is not likely that even if the site were explored down to the very rock anything but a few chips of mouldings and other unimportant debris would be recovered. Of all the great temples of Punic Carthage the only one whose site appears to be fixed by ancient texts and modern discoveries is that of Esmoun, which is called the temple of yEscula'pius in documents of the empire. 1 It was in the heart of the city, upon the hill, Byrsa, which served as an acropolis. Unhappily its site is now covered by the church of St. Louis and its dependencies ; but neither in the works undertaken when that church was built nor in the excavations of Beule was anything found which could be said to date from the primitive building ; all the fragments dug up belong certainly to the new Corinthian temple of white marble built under the Roman emperors. Its style was that of the Roman structures raised in the first century of our era. Nothing seems to have survived of the temple in which, on the supreme day of Carthage, nine hundred Roman deserters intrenched them- selves with Hasdrubal, and when betrayed by him defended themselves to the last extremity. This temple was the richest and most beautiful in Carthage." It faced eastwards, and was built on the edge of the plateau by the side of the great public square near the harbours. It was reached by a staircase of sixty steps, but if danger threatened it the staircase could easily be destroyed, for it merely rested against the perpendicular wall of the acropolis. The site was admirably chosen, and we should "much like to know how it was treated by the architect. The hill on which the temple stood rose about 200 feet above the sea level ; it dominated the whole city, and must have had a great effect upon those who sailed into its shadow and allowed their eyes to mount the wide steps with which it communicated with the streets below. Whether 1 BEULE, FouUles a Carthage, pp. 9, 10, 44, 51, 75. 2 APPIAN, viii. 130 ; MoAiora TWV aAAw cV