Page:History of Art in Primitive Greece - Mycenian Art Vol 2.djvu/131

I02 Primitive Greece : Mycenian Art. The Mycenian acropolis can scarcely be classed in this category. Its distance from the sea, as the crow flies, is fifteen kilometres, and from Nauplia close upon nineteen. It is fenced by two mountains ; its walls, unlike those of Tiryns, which rise sheer from the plain, overhang deep ravines on the north, south, and south-west of the citadel, thereby adding to its strength ; whilst on the side which faces the Zara, the rock below the wall, down to the bed of the Chavos, is almost perpendicular, and about forty metres in height. If by themselves the ravines could not render any attack well-nigh abortive, they did not prevent free intercourse between the castle and the outlying country. The hilly mass was not isolated. A narrow crest connected it eastward with the pass which interposes between the Haghios I lias and the Zara, and westward a broad isthmus joined it on to the low ridges which slope down towards the Inachus. Here, too, the value of the position resided above all in the strength of the ramparts ; a value which the rulers of Mycenae had increased manifold by advanced works raised around the fortress where they were enthroned, both at the entrance of defiles that led to their territory, or on mountain tops ruling it. We are not concerned with the political history of Greece ; hence we shall not, on Steffen's example, try to show how important was the site of Mycenae from a strategic standpoint, situated as it is at the converging of roads coming from the north ; and how in a campaign against Argos, starting with Corinth, its possession would assure the same advantages to an invading force as that which Decelia afforded to Attica.^ In the same manner Nauplia, the only harbour Argos possessed on the gulf, would be cut off by Tiryns, unless she was the ally or subject of Argos. Hence it came to pass that, with the growing ambitions of the latter, it was felt that its own safety would be imperilled unless these two townships were not only deprived of their independence, but of their inhabitants also. To have brought them to acknow- ledge the supremacy of Argos was looked upon as an insufficient measure, one, too, fraught with danger. The destruction of the walls would have been the surest way of accomplishing the end proposed ; if these escaped, it was because of the enormous materials of which they were made, to demolish which would have involved too great an expenditure of time and labour. ^ Steffen, Karien von Mykenai.