Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/423

 HARBOURS. 401 quays ? Ought we not to wait until something in the nature of an inclined plane is discovered before we conclude that these chambers were stalls for war galleys ? The question deserves closer study than it has yet received. Even before Daux had made his researches visitors to the site of Utica were struck by the fact that the arrangement of its naval harbour was quite similar to that described by Appian for Car- thage. 1 As in the cothon of the latter city, an islet was left in the centre of the basin ; its area was about two acres ; a kind of isthmus joined it to the principal quay and nearly the whole of its surface was covered by a building whose huge ruins, still partly standing, have such a peculiar character of their own. Daux is the only explorer who has made a stay of any length in this barren and malarious region ; he put forward a curious restoration of the building in question, which we cannot pretend to dispute ; but death prevented him from setting out his proofs and giving us those details of his explorations upon which he based his idea. It is, therefore, under all reserve that we re- produce a plan (Fig. 272) and two elevations (Figs. 273 and 274) compiled by him. " The admiral's palace consisted of a main block flanked by six round towers, and of four bastions or lateral ports. The main block was a huge irregular parallelogram with a round tower at each of its external angles. In the centre was a rectangular court i-> O (D) from which the chief apartments were lighted. All round this court ran a two-storied vaulted loggia supported on piers. In the centre of the north side of the palace a great door surmounted by a large balcony and flanked by two engaged towers, like those at the external angles, opened upon a small basin (A) divided by quays from the main harbour, with which, however, it com- municated by a narrow opening ; here waited the fleet of boats by which the admiral's orders were transmitted, and the barge in which he himself made his rounds or went off to his ' flag-ship.' " On the opposite or southern side was a forecourt (E) with a fortified gateway and flanking towers like those on the main block. Outside this gateway there was a wide jetty communicating with the causeway by which the islet was connected with the mainland. 1 DAVIS, Carthage and Her Remains, pp. 506-508 ; V. GUERIN, Voyage dans la Regence, vol. i. p. 9 ; BEULE, Fouilles a Carthage, p. 1 1 4. VOL. I. 3 F