Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/113

 Boundaries, Climate, and Natural Divisions. 97 between the points now occupied by Stamboul and Scutari, for- merly Byzantium and Chalcedon. However that may be, Greek traditions placed here, at a remote period, the entrance of the Brydges, Bebrydges, or Phrygians, " free men," of Thracian origin, who in their passage from* Europe to Asia, were doubtless borne on inflated skins which they used as rafts, even as the Kurds do in the present day, to go from one side of the Euphrates to the other. Here they spread on the banks of the springs of the Ryndacus and the Sangarius, not far from the sources of the Maeander, interspersed with woody tracts and verdant pastures, everywhere capable of being cultivated. Here the invaders founded a state, which for two centuries was the most important of the peninsula. When the tradi- tions connected with the wealth and power of the ancient Phrygians reached the Greeks settled on the coast, they had already passed into mythical forms, and were associated with their gods or kings. But all was not fabulous or the mere creation of the fancy ; such myths contained a certain documentary truth, manifested in the language and the venerable remains that have withstood the action of time and the convulsions of nature. The names of these heroes have been discovered carved on the rocks side by side with inscriptions which, though brief, prove that they were written in characters partly derived from the Phoenician alphabet, and in a dialect closely allied to Greek. We shall have more to say in respect to Phrygia when we describe her monuments, and show that intercourse with the other Greeks of the peninsula was in- cessant, be it with the northern or western coast. Weighing all these circumstances together, we shall not greatly err in dating Phrygian civilization immediately after that of the Hittites ; i.e., centuries before the Trojan War. Trending our way towards the west, we shall encounter the Lydians, a mixed race, albeit related on one side to the Phrygians, when we shall find ourselves almost in Greece. Their empire rose long after that of Phrygia and the Homeric epos. The spot selected for their capital was the alluvial plain which skirts the sea, a site favourable to commerce and domestic industry. As a quick-witted people, ever on the alert, they were sometimes allied to the Ionian Greeks, sometimes at war with them, as occasion served. But whether they tried to subjugate them or lived in amity with them, their relations and consequent influence one upon the other were frequent and lasting. VOL. II. "