Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/152

 134 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judaea. to the intellectual development of the capital, for she need fear no rival within the narrow sphere of the country. What Athens was to Attica, Jerusalem was to Judsea; outside were country and villages, but all intellectual and moral existence centred in her. Owing to her singularly privileged condition, the size of Jerusalem went on increasing under successive princes ; nor was she affected by the fall of Samaria, save in so far as that the number of her inhabitants must have been swelled by many an influential Israelitish household that fled to her for shelter. It is presumable, therefore, that at her final overthrow by Nebuchadnezzar, she numbered at least twenty thousand souls. 1 Already under Solomon the town had extended to the west, beyond the ancient fortifications of the Jebusites ; a wall connecting the new suburbs with the "City of David." 2 With regard to Solomon's palace, no need was there to add to its size, far exceeding the needs of the petty princes that had succeeded to the ruler of all Syria, whose household expenditure had to be brought within the limits of their much diminished revenue. On the other hand, to satisfy the increasing religious fervour of the people, the magnificence of sacred ceremonies became greater and the ritual more compli- cated. New buildings arose on every side, spacious courts and lofty porticos were multiplied to accommodate the priesthood and the throngs of the faithful. Similar structures, however, were too insignificant to have stimulated independent art ; so that the archi- tecture and ornamentation of this period must have been, as of yore, under the influence of Phoenicia, with which Judah and Israel continued on intimate terms, as may be inferred from the fact of two queens of Tyrian origin, Jezebel and Athaliah, having reigned in Samaria and Jerusalem. These princesses introduced in their 1 This may be inferred from a passage (2 Kings xxiv. 14) stating that Nebuchad- nezzar carried away all the mighty men of valour, 10,000 captives, and all the craftsmen, so that none remained but the poor of the land. A little further, another version says that 7000 men of valour, and 1000 craftsmen were obliged to migrate. The rank and file that were left must have been the third of the whole population, which, with women and children, may have summed about 15,000. In all such com- putations it should be borne in mind that at the time of the siege, there must have been a large floating population which had sought shelter within the walls of the city. The number, however, of 30,000 or 35,000 inhabitants, implied in the biblical narrative, must be set aside as too high. We shall not be far wrong at setting it down at about 24,000 souls. The quarters that were comprised within the south wall of circumvallation and destroyed in the Middle Ages have not been rebuilt. 2 1 Kings ix. 15 ; 2 Chron. xxvi. 9, 10 ; xxxii. 5 ; xxxiii. 14.