Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 1.djvu/319

 Religious Architecture. 289 Siloam monolith ; and what archaeologist but would gladly give any amount of silver and gold for documents of the nature and epoch of the Mesa stone ? § 2. — Religious Architecture. Among the causes that conspired against the Jews possessing a religious architecture should be placed in the first rank the mono- theistic character of their religion. Had it been otherwise, the main divisions of the country would have had, like the communi- ties of Hellas, temples of their own. On the other hand, the temple, as it was understood in Egypt and Greece, had no place in the institutions of the Canaanites and the semi-nomadic Israel- ites, else a powerful ruler, such as Omri and his no less striking successors, would have raised a temple to equal or exceed that of Jerusalem, whereas the national building on Mount Gerizim only dates from Alexander the Great. The house of Lebanon was due to the whim or the pride of a monarch, who after his military successes aimed at making as good a figure in the world as those sovereigns with whom he was in friendly relations, and whose wealth and splendour were matter of common report. His own residence, therefore, and that of his God should favourably compare with the like buildings at Thebes, Tyre, and Babylon. To exact from the subjects of his newly acquired dominions that awe and admiration which seem to be ambrosial drink to an Eastern potentate, it was of the utmost importance that he should dazzle and astonish them with the state and magnificence of his surroundings. Such a result could only be secured by imitation of peoples with whom civilization had been of long standing. Hence the temple and the house of Solomon were, so to speak, importations from their Punic neighbours. The palace was doubtless destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar, and from that day it disappears from history and we hear no more of it. Greek influence was felt throughout Syria with the advent of the Macedonian conquest, and temples which before that time had been unknown, save in the great Punic centres in close relationship with the delta, began to be erected everywhere. Their ruins and those of the masters who followed them in the country are visible to this day. Inland there had been but the house of Lebanon, whose creation was due to the profound impression left upon the vol. 1. u