Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 2.djvu/269

 GEMS. 245 opponent's lance in his breast and falls upon his knee. The tiara worn habitually by the Persians, as Herodotus tells us, may be easily distinguished. 1 The word tiara is too often applied by modern writers to the cidaris, the lofty head-covering proper to sovereigns. 2 Strictly speaking the tiara is a soft cap of cloth or felt with an apex which could be bent forwards or backwards, like the Phrygian cap, and movable coverings for the ears and cheeks. As for the second and victorious combatant, he wears the conical cap borne by so many terra-cotta cavaliers and infantry men from Cyprus (Vol. I. Plate II). The gem as a whole is a souvenir of the struggles between the Cypriot Greeks and the Persians during the revolt of Ionia ; in the following century, during the rule of Evagoras, the subject would have been differently treated if treated at all. The execution would have been better and the style affected to some extent by Hellenic example. FIG. 173. Scarab.s It is much to be lamented that the Phoenician engraver seldom cared to make portraits of his contemporaries or to illustrate the history of his own times. His art, as a rule, is terribly common- place. He was content if his productions did their work ; the images cut upon them were of very secondary importance, and these he stole without scruple from the rich stores of Egypt and Chaldaea. Egypt was his favourite. Upon a carnelion scarab from Amrit (Fig. 1 73) there are two letters giving the commencement of a name Kheb, an imitation of the baris, or sacred boat, and the winged globe. Two more are classed among Hebraic intaglios by M. de Vogue", because the names they bear are Jewish rather than Phoenician ; but we think their execution must be given to 1 HERODOTUS, vii. 6 1. Herodotus explains Tuipas by -n-iXovs dTrayea?. Commentators have been much exercised over this word a-n-ay^ ; and yet its meaning seems plain enough. It is composed of an alpha privative and TTT/yjiyii ; its exact significance may be gathered from a phrase used by a Greek physician, who speaks of two opposed conditions of the blood as drrayes and TreTn/yos (Thesaurus, S. V.). 2 The ancients sometimes applied the word rtapa to the royal head-dress, but in that case they supplemented it with the adjective opOi'j, straight. 3 From DE VOGUK, Melanges, 6r., plate v.