Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/130

I I Fortified Towns and their General Characteristics, loi heights above the valley, where the escarps of the cliff, make all attempts at an assault impossible, and leave little to be added by the architect to the work of nature. On the other hand, the difificulties of access are so great, even in time of peace, as to render relations with the lowlands irksome and arduous. Such fortresses are either impregnable shelters or freebooters' dens. In either capacity, circumstances are adverse to their growing into populous centres, and becoming the resi- dence of chiefs having large and intimate dealings with the masses — artisans, labourers, and mariners — ^grouped in fertile lands or along sheltered coasts, under the protection of their masters. On the contrary, the acropoles, whether of Troy, Tiryns, or Athens, are very little above the surrounding plain ; they are sufficiently close to the sea to have their boats moored in one or another of its creeks, frequented by alien traffickers. They are far enough from the shore to enable the garrison posted on the wall to follow the movements of a hostile force that might have suddenly landed on the coast, giving it time to prepare for defence or sally forth to meet the foe. If in the first encounter the attacking party succeeded in breaking the lines of the defenders of the castle, these would fall back towards the friendly shelter of the walls, whither the enemy would follow, only to be broken against the impenetrable and lofty barrier. Then it would frequently happen that the soldiers massed on the curtain successfully repulsed the aggressors with stones and other missiles, obliging them to effect a hasty retreat, and closely pursuing and compelling them to embark on the ship that had brought them.^ Reverses alternating with successes, checks followed by renewals of attacks, provoked by the obstinate resistance of the besieged against the dash of the vanquisher, are easily grasped, when one tries to picture to oneself the many incidents likely to have occurred in a battle fought around Tiryns or Troy — granting that Hissarlik occupies the site of Ilium — such as they are delineated with its varying fortunes in the tales of the Iliads where the strife, from the first combat to the death of Hector, is waged between the town and the ships. ^ In this way Patroclus, after having pursued and routed the Trojans as far as the city gates, thrice attempts, but in vain, to scale the wall (Iliad). The Greeks, unable to force an entrance, fight in front of the Scaean Gates until nightfall.