Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/364

 34- HISTORV OK ART IN PH ITS DEPENDENCIES. have exercised great ingenuity in preserving its level. The mason often had to make use of stones of a different height from those placed at the end of the course ; in that case he made up for the difference by introducing small stones, so that each course was built up as it were like a wall in itself. Such masonry no doubt leaves much to be desired. It cannot be compared to a Greek wall of the fine period, where every unit was carefully prepared for the exact place it had to occupy. To form a right appreciation of this way of building, the walls of Eryx must not be compared to those of Messene but to those of Tiryns or to any other Greek or Italian wall on the face of which the joints describe a network of irregular polygons. There is, in fact, real progress in the tendency to horizontal courses which we find at Balanea as at Arvad, at Sidon as at Eryx ; it is the mark of an advancing industry, of a taste just beginning to feel the sentiment of order and the subtle charm of symmetry. The chief gateways through this wall have been so much altered that we can only guess how they may have been arranged in antiquity, but the posterns at the foot of some of the towers are better preserved (B, c, E, F on the plan). They are of two different types. Some have a rectangular opening bridged over by a heavy stone lintel (Fig. 241). In others the opening is arched, the arch being obtained by a device of which we found many ex- amples in Egypt. 1 Our two views of this postern show that the arrangement of the masonry is not the same on both faces. On the outside the semi-circle of the arch is cut through two stones large enough to leave plenty of material above the void and thus to guarantee solidity (Fig. 242). On the internal face there are four stones corbelled out one beyond the other, the two uppermost so thin that we are astonished to find them unbroken beneath the weight that rests upon them (Fig. 242). The rampart of Eryx cannot be so old as the walls of Banias, Arvad, and Sidon. The Sicilian constructor seems to have progressed in his art. His joints are better placed. Instead of being one over the other they are, as a rule, over the middle, or something like 'it, of the stone below. Again we find small stones used in the curtain beside the masonry of much larger units of which the towers are composed. These are indications of a later age and are confirmed by the history of Phoenician colonization. As 1 Art in Ancient Egypt, Vol. I., Figs. 74-76; Vol. II., Figs. 51-53.