red around the wound inflicted by the sword. He compares it with ivory dyed with purple by the hand of a Lydian or Carian woman, as she sits at her work and decorates the bridle destined for the war-horse of the king, a bridle that all the other warriors will covet.[1] The harness of the famous Lydian cavalry was doubtless ornamented with inlay, a mode of enrichment that has never been out of fashion in the East, abundantly proved by the specimens exposed for sale in the bazaars of Bagdad and Cairo.
General Characteristics of Lydian Civilization.
The task we have taken upon ourselves involves the collecting of the minutest remains in which the hand of the Lydians may be traced, together with the most casual literary mention having reference to their art and industry. Nevertheless, if our attention had no other criterion outside the monuments that exist above ground to guide it, there is no doubt but that Phrygia would appear worthy of a larger place than Lydia in this history of civilization. But, though specious, the conclusion would be unsound, and in danger of being upset in favour of the Lydians, whenever explorations among the ruins of Sardes—which cannot be long delayed—shall furnish proofs of the constructive and industrial superiority of Lydian craftsmen. Besides, even now, before the discoveries are made, traditions that have come down to us testify to a country whose political and international action was far in advance of anything Phrygia can show. The Phrygians were above all tillers of the ground; they raised cereals, reared cattle and sheep. Agriculture was equally in favour with the Lydians; their meadow land nourished kine as numerous, and a breed of horses which for the space of a hundred years and more made their cavalry the best in the Oriental world. Their practical turn of mind and trading propensities, however, found uses for their horses other than those of war. Long processions were to be seen slowly trending their way along the paths that follow the course of the Hermus, the Caÿster, and the Mæander, laden with fruit from field and orchard; merchandise obtained from their Asiatic or Greek neighbours, as well as the manifold productions of their workshops; woven fabrics and carpets, tiles and vases of home manufacture; gold won from the depths of Tmolus, which the
- ↑ Homer, Iliad, iv. 141-145.
