Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/136

 1 1 S A History of Art in Sardinia and Judtka. would have been Semites, who, on being driven out of Crete by Greek colonists, returned to Syria after a lapse of some hundred years. 1 It has been variously held that the Philistines were of the same stock as the Phoenicians, against whom they often warred, and the Hebrews, whose life they made bitter. As we well know, community of blood and speech, forms no impediment to people when they wish to hate or quarrel with each other. Could this be doubted we have only to turn to the example furnished by Greece in the long, inveterate and bloody strife of her two leading cities ; whilst parallel cases are found in the Italian Republics of the Middle Ages. Others, on the other hand, think that the Philistines were Aryans, related to the Greeks and Italiotes, a remnant, in fact, of the great confederacy of sea kings who, on being expelled from Egypt, dispersed in various directions, some returning to Asia Minor, the primitive home of the greater portion. 2 Be this supposition correct or not, there is no doubt as to the Philistines having possessed fortified towns, and of their having been bound together in some kind of defensive and offen- sive alliance. They were warlike, and had been familiar with manifold vicissitudes in their long wanderings, ere they became a settled people, and had been entrusted by the Pharaohs with the guard of the " Syrian march." Contact with Egypt, whether as friends or foes, had given them their main education ; thus the knowledge of metals had been acquired, evinced in their well- wrought armour, and in the bronze-plated chariots in which their chiefs went forth to do battle. 3 Sublying the Phoenicians and Philistines were the Canaanites, the "Amaur" of Egyptian inscriptions, and " Amorites" of the Bible. 4 They were already a settled people and occupied the region called later Palestine, bound to the east by the Dead Sea and the Jordan Valley. These Canaanites were divided into numerous clans, who spoke languages or dialects closely related 1 Such an hypothesis receives colouring from the fact that the name Cherethites, or Cretans, seems to have lingered at one point of Philistia (i Sam. xxx. 14) ; whilst the foreign bodyguard of David was composed of Cherethites and Pelethites. See also Survey Map of Exploration Fund, which shows Keratîya, whence Cherethites were named. — Editor. 2 This is the opinion of M. Maspero, who confirms Hitzig's views by reference to Egyptian texts. Hitzig's work is entitled, Urgesehichte und Mythologie der Philistcr. Leipzig, 1846. 3 J u dg> i- 18-20 ; 1 Sam. vi. 5 ; xiii. 19-21 ; xvii. 4-8. i Amos ii. 9, 10 ; Josh. v. 1 ; vii. 7, etc.