Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/120

 98 HISTORY OF ART IN PHOENICIA AND ITS DEPENDENCIES. Nea-Paphos, Kition, and Amathos. 1 The two latter, and es- pecially Kition, remained Phoenician until the day when the victories of Macedonia brought the whole East within the Hellenic system. Salamis, on the other hand, always kept its purely Greek character. Not a single Phoenician inscription has been found in it, neither has it yielded any of those queer objects of earthen- ware and terra-cotta that have been recognized as Phoenician. At Kition such objects have been found in tombs dating even from the Roman epoch ; the oldest things from Salamis recall the style of Mycenae ; they are far from numerous, but they allow us to follow the progress of Greek taste with more precision than any where else in Cyprus. All those who have made excavations in the district have been struck by the contrast between the objects found there and at Kition. 2 We know from inscriptions on coins and elsewhere the names of several kings who reigned in Cyprus during the fourth century ; Asbaal, Baal-Melek, Baal-Ram, and finally Poumiaton, who was identical, no doubt, with the Pymatos deposed by Alexander. 3 Whether these towns were united into a federation or not, we do not know ; but the ancient chronogra'phers always speak of a Cypriot thalassocracy, a maritime supremacy over the ./Egaean and Syrian seas, in the ninth century. 4 It would be absurd to lay too much stress upon this date, but at least it bears witness to the persistence of the tradition left by the prompt development and momentary ascendency of the Cypriot Greeks. As artizans and agriculturists, the latter soon rivalled their Phoenician neigh- bours and teachers ; the Greeks never required to be told a thing twice. While the populations of the towns were occupied in working stone, clay, wood, metal, ivory, glass, and gems, outside the walls the process of bringing the country into cultivation 1 DIODORUS, xvi., xli ;. 4. This number must have varied, however, as this on that city of the second rank lost and regained its independence. ENGEL, Kypros, vol. i. pp. 231-233. 2 M. OHNEFALSCH-RICHTER, Von den neusten Ausgrabungen in der Cyprischen Silamis {Mittheilungen des deutschen Instituts in Athen, 1881, pp. 191-208 and 244-255). 3 DE VOGUE, Mhnoires sur les Inscriptions phenidennes de V lie de Cypre, p. 24. Monnaies des Rois phenidennes de Citium, in the Melanges Archeologie orientale. 4 EUSEBIUS, Chronicle, p. 321 of the Armenian translation published in Venice in 1818, i vol. 410., from a. lost text of Diodorus.