Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 1.djvu/400

 MvCENiE. ^y^ just cited having the prefix 81 with the preceding one, as he had done before in enumerating the buildings of the acropoh's and those of the lower city. This always indicates with him that he is passing from one subject to another/ as anybody may see for himself by opening his Itinerary almost haphazard. Now the copulative conjunction Se when met with in Pausanias, should be rendered by "then, again," and not **but," as is usually done. Remembering this peculiarity of our author, the word Ss occurring where it does is an intimation, a warning so to speak, that the tombs he is about to handle are quite different from the treasuries alluded to in the pages that went before, and are not to be confounded with them either in plan or situation. But where was the site ? Unfortunately, Pausanias is not very precise on this head ; his words, however, contain an indication which, if rightly understood, would narrow the field of our researches. The circuit within which all the tombs, save two, were found, is not that of the lower city. The two quarters parted by this wall had no very special character of their own ; all the inter- ments of the lower plateau, domed buildings and shaft-graves alike, are scattered indiscriminately on this or that side of the minor rampart. The true circuit, the only important one, enclosed the acropolis, the royal city, whence were excluded the mortal remains of murderers and adulterers. The wall, to rsi-jfog, referred to by Pausanias, is the circuit {jTspiSoT^og) of his first paragraph, both words being used by him to designate the same object. He applies the first to the rampart behind which the Mycenians entrenched themselves and repulsed the Argives, until famine obliged them to surrender. The exceptional situation of the acropolis, the stupendous strength of the fortifications erected by the fabulous Cyclopes, could alone make good the fearful odds between besiegers and besieged. Pausanias is careful to note that this and the wall by the Lions Gate were built in the same style as the rampart at Tiryns ; - and if he only mentions the citadel enclosure, it is because he saw ^ The remark comes from Belger {Berliner phii, Wochenschriff). vvo 'Apyc/wf* treTci^iaTO yap vara ravrd r« ev Tipvrdi vko rtav KwhAwttwi' KaXovfievwy. On the meaning of the word to rcixoc, see Belger, Berliner phiL Wochenschrift With Pausanias, Ttiyo^ signifies the continuous circuit of a fortress or city, and o ircpiCoXoc TOW TiXypvq is frequently employed by him in the same sense.
 * ^ Pausanias : Mvioyra/otc yap ^ f^ '"ctx^C aXuiFOt Kara ro Xftyy^v ovk ilvyaro