Page:History of Art in Phrygia, Lydia, Caria and Lycia.djvu/40

 24 HISTORY OF ART IN ANTIQUITY. Christian era, imprecatory formulas continue to be incised, to scare away the impious who should presume to disturb the sacred repose of the dead. 1 If the social conditions of the people in possession of the coast line of the ^gean were scarcely disturbed by the Macedonian and the Roman conquests, there is every reason to suppose that the old order of things was maintained during the Persian rule, which lasted two hundred and fifty years. Under the name of satraps, the heads of local dynasties preserved, almost everywhere, their hereditary power, and priests continued to preside over their theocratic principalities. Despite the apparent disappearance of ancient divisions, the various races who occupied the tableland were allowed to live their own life, subject to paying a small tribute and furnishing a certain number of soldiers in time of war. No government was ever found to govern less than that of the Achae- menidae, nor was its policy ever directed to control the liberty of action of its subjects, who were left to work out their weal or woe unfettered. When we come to examine the monumental fa9ades which are so plentiful in the cemeteries of Eastern Phrygia, we shall find that they continued almost unchanged during the space of about five hundred years, beginning from the eighth century B.C., down to, perhaps, the Seleucidae. As time rolled on, Greek influence becomes perceptible in the pro- portion of columns, the shape of capitals, the character and make of entablatures, without prejudice, however, to the main dispositions or decorative themes, which are precisely the same as in the age of Gordios and Midas. It is a trite remark that religious concep- tions, inasmuch as they are implanted in the inmost soul, offer a far greater persistency than artistic forms, no matter how beautiful or ancient, easily imitated, too, or borrowed. In Phrygia it took a very long time to bring about modification and change in existing forms, which were with difficulty replaced by fresh ones. If this 1 The real significance of these formulas was first understood by Moritz Schmidt (Neue Lykische Studien, pp. 132-136). See also Professor Ramsay's recent disser- tation, entitled " Phrygian Inscriptions of the Roman period " (Zeitschrift fur vergleichende Sprachforschung, N.S., torn. viii. pp. 381-400). The formulas in question are more particularly found east and north of Phrygia ; that is to say, far from the boundaries of Ionia and the district subsequently called the kingdom of Pergamus. These territories were, from the outset, marts of exchange, and, so to speak, the focus of the electric contact between Phrygians and lonians ; hence they became closely united together, nay, blended into one community, Greek in speech.