Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/145

FORMS. 125 wonders of Luxor and Karnak would have been to squander her vital forces. The Phoenicians were too economical, their intellects were too practical, for such ambitions as these. The only great works to which they turned with real good will seem to have been such as were of public utility ; the embankments, for instance, by which they increased the actual superficies of Tyre, and made it better fitted for the storage of merchandise, for the loading and discharging of ships. 1 The same readiness was shown when the question was one of dredging the harbours or closing their entrances against an enemy, of providing a supply of water, either for maritime Tyre or for the town on the mainland ; but, so far as we can tell, temples and palaces remained comparatively small ; they were distinguished rather by wealth of decoration than by magnificence of plan. The apparent anomaly is to be accounted for by the utilitarian character which distinguished Phoenician civilization from the beginning to the end. But although the Phoenician merchants refused to follow the lead of the Egyptians in the matter of splendid architecture, none the less do we constantly encounter proofs of the dominating influence exercised by Egyptian art over that of Phoenicia. To be convinced of this we need only glance at their details. The tufa and shelly limestone of Syria was less well adapted to receive and preserve the work of the chisel than the marble of Greece ; it was even excelled by the fine limestone from the Mokattam and the sandstone from Gebel-Silsilis of Egypt, while the stucco under which the coarseness of its grain was mostly disguised has now disappeared, at least from those monuments which are really ancient. But in what little remains to us of the works of Phoenician builders it is the taste of Egypt that is to be recognized in the choice and arrangement of the ornamental motives. 1 MENANDER, quoted by Josephus (Fragm. Hist. Grcec., Muller, vol. iv. p. 446, fragm. i.). Another historian, DIGS, mentions the same works, and his testimony has also been preserved for us by Josephus (Apion. i. 17).