Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/365

FORTIFIED WALLS. 343 we have seen, the Tyrian settlements in the west were little more than factories, whose safety depended rather upon their friendly relations with the native tribes than upon military strength, so that the walls of Eryx must date from the time when Carthage took up the work of Tyre. 1 It was not till then that the necessities of a new political situation compelled the great African city to construct this vast intrenched camp, a camp excellently contrived FIG. 241. Postern in the wall of Eryx. From S.ilinns. either for preparing an advance in force or for covering a retreat. The walls of Eryx can hardly have been commenced earlier than 1 At the meeting of the Berlin Archaeological Society on November 6th, 1883, Herr Sachau, in speaking of the paper of Salinas, drew attention to the fact that the mason's marks found so far on the walls of Eryx were not enough to give a date to that structure. The ain certainly was shaped as in the oldest Phoenician writings, but before any certain conclusion could be arrived at from the study of these characters we must wait, said Herr Sachau, until other letters such as mini and shin, whose forms were greatly modified by time, have been found (Philologische Wochen- schrift, ist December, 1883, p. i).