Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/324

 308 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. Phoenicians represented a culture superior to that of Caria. Then came by turn Greeks, lonians, and Dorians, who in their progressive stages gradually drove the Carians out of the island, or became fused with such of them as had not been expulsed or annihilated. Hence it came to pass that in or about the eighth century B.C. the Carians ceased to exist as a compact and distinct group, save in that province of Asia Minor which has preserved their name. But although they had long been playing a losing game, and had been obliged to withdraw more and more before the invader, they had lost none of their roving proclivities, and their name as soldiers stood as high as ever. Herodotus credits the Carians with three inventions that were afterwards adopted by the Greeks ; l namely, the fashion of putting plumes about their helmets, and ornamental figures on their shields, which they shifted and kept in place by means of a leather strap slung over the neck and left shoulder, and also fitted with a handle ; for until then, every one who made use of a shield carried it without a handle." 2 We must turn to Caria, therefore, for the prototype of the Greek hoplite ; as also for the example she gave to the sons of Hellas, of selling their services to Asiatic and Egyptian monarchs. 3 Both Carians and lonians penetrated into Egypt as early as the reign of Psammeticus I., and henceforward the flow never ceased. 4 Better armed and of a more bellicose disposition than the natives of the Delta, thoroughly versed, too, in their profession, they formed, under commanders selected from their own ranks, the main force of the armies the Sait Pharaohs moved in the field. These had established them in what were called " The Camps," on the Pelusiac branch of the Nile ; whilst the lonians occupied the other side of the river. Somewhat later, in the reign of Amasis, quarters were also given them at Memphis. 6 Of these mercenaries, whom age or wounds had unfitted for active service, 1 Critias, a poet of the fifth century B.C., referring to the inventions due to different nations and different cities, expresses himself as follows : rjftrj 8' ' a.pp.a.TQiVTa. 8i(f>pov (rvveTrr}a.TO irpwTT/, opTrjyovs S'dxaTOVS Ka/aes dAos ra/uat. 2 Herodotus, i. 171. 8 To talk of a Carian, in the seventh century B.C., was synonymous with soldier of fortune. Thus Archilochus (BERGK, Poetce lyrici greed, Frag. 24) : Kcu 8 OJSTC Kap KfKrj(rofJiaL. 4 Herodotus, il 152. * Ibid., 154.