Page:History of Art in Sardinia, Judæa, Syria and Asia Minor Vol 2.djvu/242

 2 24 A History of Art in Sardinia and Judaea. neighbours. Hence it came to pass that the language, the cus- toms, and culture of this region continued till a late age ; and when St. Paul visited Derbe and Lystra, the inhabitants spoke a dialect which was unlike Greek/ Profoundly affected though they may have been by Hellenic civilization, they never entirely relinquished their traditional methods, as reference to the annexed woodcut will show (Fig. 359). '^ The monument, doubtless a funereal stela, was found by Texier some fifty years ago, built in the modern city wall of Konieh. It is the por- j trait of a warrior with a Greek helmet, e.g. furnished with crest, nose-piece, and end at the back to protect the neck. He holds a pitch- fork in his sinister hand, and in his dexter a scimitar, which may be compared with the Boghaz-Keui example (Fig. 319). A bronze coat of mail reaches to the middle of the thigh, leggings and knee-pieces protect his legs, and his feet are encased in tip-tilted shoes, laced in front. A circular shield com- pletes his armour. In this present- ment of the Lycaonian warrior are characteristics which at once recall the earliest sculptures of this region; nevertheless, if the modelling was faithfully rendered by Texier, cen- turies divide it from those at Ibreez and Eflatoun. The legend permits us to date this monument before the Macedonian conquest ; for it contains letters of the syllabaries of Lycaonia, Lycia, and Caria, which had preserved a considerable number of characters of an older syllabary in order to express sounds not provided for in the simpler Greek alphabet. ^ Acts xiv. 2. ^ When Texier (whose account is the only one we possess) saw the monument, it still preserved traces of colour, notably a red fringe under the shield. It was doubtless destroyed soon after Texier's visit, for it has been sought in vain by subsequent travellers. Fig. 359. -Stela at Iconlum. Plate cm. TfiXlER,