Page:History of Art in Phœnicia and Its Dependencies Vol 1.djvu/427

1 1. kUOURS. 405 There were few mouldings, and those of the most elementary kind. On the outside a huge torus ran round the walls and towers at about a third of their height from the ground ; in the interior a roughly profiled cyma reversa marked the foot of the walls and was repeated about ten feet from the ground. These were the only ornaments to break the nudity of the great concrete surfaces. The general look of the building must have been very severe. It was, in fact, a fortress rather than a palace. The governing idea of its builder was to obtain solidity at any cost, and to make use of every defensive contrivance known to his time. The external walls were very thick and strong, especially near their base, where a batteringf-ram installed on a raft mio-ht o o otherwise have effected a breach. Their great height made an escalade difficult ; their platforms were fifty-one feet six inches above the water, and these measurements were increased by the height of the battlements. Any assailant would find himself exposed at every point to the fire of the defenders ; the angle towers flank the whole of the walls while the narrow strip of quay at their base would hardly afford room to plant a scaling ladder with a slope sufficient to prevent the garrison from easily throwing it off. Well arranged for defence, this palace or castle was also thoroughly well adapted for the surveillance of the port. From its terraced roofs the officer in charge had a full view of the basin and its dependencies and of the sea beyond. Over the chief entrance there was a w T ide balcony, sheltered by an arch, from which the admiral could superintend the arrival and setting out of fleets. Was this strange building Phoenician ? All the probabilities answer yes. No doubt the absence of any well-attested Phoenician building in which barrel vaults and domes play the important part they do here makes us hesitate for a moment, but, on the other hand, would our difficulties be lessened if we attempted to claim the building for the Romans ? When could the Romans have built such a castle ? Could they have done so during the period, between the fall of Carthage and its restoration, when Utica was o the residence of the pro-consul and the capital of the province ? But at that time the Mediterranean was a Roman lake. Its ports