Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/117

 General Outlines of Sardinian Civilization. 99 left all that was worth having in their rear. The position of the nuragh-builders became less pleasant, and even precarious, when the Carthaginians decided upon the conquest of the island, in the sixth century a.c. What was then the attitude of the nuragh- builders ? Did they oppose an obstinate front to the invading force ? Was it against them that Carthage and Rome afterwards directed their formidable expeditions ? We are ignorant on the subject ; yet it is difficult to believe that they allowed their fat land to be taken and themselves dispersed without striking a blow. Nevertheless, the way is not clear for identifying them with the Balari and Ilienses, stated by ancient historians as occupying the eastern coast. Nor will it further the question to suppose, what would be extremely absurd, that the nûragh tribes were thrust back towards the Barbagia highlands, when they suddenly changed their habits and unlearnt all they had previously known. A theory that would seem natural, would be to assume that a formidable foe had to be met by commensurate means of defence, and his advance arrested at all costs ; hence nuragh groups had risen at the mouth of every valley or pass, on the edge of every plateau, or craig or mound, and natural fortifications had been further supplemented, where requisite, by the hand of man. Nothing of the kind, however, is to be observed throughout this part of the country ; nuraghs are as rare as they are plentiful in the south and west. Here and there detached portions of this people, driven to the mountains, may have mingled with the fierce, pillaging tribes which at the beginning of our era, were still in the enjoyment of their autonomy. It seems probable, however, that uncoerced and of their own free will the bulk of the nation finally accepted Carthaginian supremacy, and that they lived on friendly terms with the cities of the seaboard, as well as with the Libyo-Phcenician colonists of the plain ; that they adopted their language, or at least enough to make themselves understood ; and that — thanks to the neighbourly intercourse on the one hand, and the drafting of large numbers into mercenary bands on the other — a certain substratum of culture was the result. Had the Punic language only been spoken in the cities and their suburbs, it would not have remained the current means of communication two hundred years after the Roman conquest.