1850.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEKR AND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



33 



LECTURES ON ARCHITECTURE, 



By Samuel Clegg, Jon., Esq. 



Lei'tiire II. Phcenicia. — Assyria. — Persia. — India. 



{With an Engraving, Plate III.) 



In the Egyptian bas-reliefs we constantly meet with battle-pieces, 

 where the enemy aa;ainst whom the Egyptians are fighting are 

 represented as on an equality with themselves, as regards civilisa- 

 tion and tlie art of war. These are the Hycsos, the inhabitants of 

 Ludin, names of frequent occurrence on the Egyptian monuments; 

 the former translated by Signor Ilosellini as "strangers and wan- 

 derers," and the latter denoting the west and south of Asia. We 

 have seen that these Hycsos were sufficiently powerful to overcome 

 the Egyptians, and to keep possession of their country for upwards 

 of a century. The principal nations included in Ludin must have 

 been Phcenicia and Assyria; the former of which touched upon the 

 Egyptian frontier at Pelusium. 



We are told that the Phoenicians were an industrious people; 

 the invention of letters is by some writers ascribed to them; and 

 in commerce and navigation they far excelled the Egyptians, who, 

 like the Indians, had a superstitious awe of the sea, and all who 

 ventured thereon. 



The Pheenician manufacturers were so celebrated in ancient 

 times, that to whatever was elegant and tasteful in wearing 

 apparel or domestic utensil, the epithet Sidonian was always 

 applied. The most ancient author amongst the Gentiles, of whose 

 writings any fragments have been handed down to us, vvas a Phoe- 

 nician, by name Sanchoniatlio. He claims for his native country 

 the high honour of having given birth to our first parents; and, 

 like all the old liistorians wiio were not particular in separating 

 tradition from fact, evidently places implicit faith in the circum- 

 stances he relates. After enumerating several generations, San- 

 choniatho says: "Then Hypsuranius inhabited Tyre; and he 

 invented the making of huts of reeds and rushes, and of the 

 papyrus." Then follow three more generations, after which lie 

 continues: "Of these were begotten two brothers, who discovered 

 iron and the forging thereof. One of these, called Chrysor, who 

 is the same with Hephoestus, exercised himself in words, and 

 charms, and divinations; and he invented tlie hook, bait, and fish- 

 ing line, and boats slightly built; and he was the first of all men 

 that sailed; wherefore he was worshipped after his death as a god, 

 and called Diamichius.* And it is said his brother invented the 



way of making walls of brick Afterwards, from this generation 



were born two youths, one of whom was called Technites, the 

 other Geinus Autochthon. These discovered the method of min- 

 gling stubble with the loam of bricks, and of drying them in the 

 sun; and found out tiling." In the next generation, we are told, 

 courts and fences for houses were invented, and caves or cellars. 

 Then follow many other generations, and in their course the origin 

 of almost all the useful arts is referred to the Phoenicians. 



From the scanty information we possess relative to the architec- 

 ture of the Phoenicians, we might be led to conclude that this 

 bustling, trading, manufacturing people had not paid as much 

 attention to the arts of architecture and sculpture as their more 

 serious and learned neighbours, the Egyptians. But we are told 

 in one place that the Tyrians were "the first to have advanced the 

 science of architecture to any degree of perfection with regard to 

 proportion, design, and variety of ornament;" and again, that 

 among the Phoenicians not only the Doric order was known, 

 but also a kind of rude Ionic, though with a different entabla- 

 ture. Is it not probable that in the grotto of Beni-Hassan 

 (see engraving in Lecture I., Ecjypt, p. 8), we have a specimen 

 of Phoenician architecture? Tiiese polygonal columns differ so 

 widely from the native Egyptian (those in the form of a bundle 

 of reeds), and though the form is again repeated in a second 

 grotto at Beni-Hassan, and at Kalapsche, there is no reason why 

 they may not have been equally imitations. The columns of the 

 principal grotto at Beni-Hassan are pure, primitive Doric, and the 

 dentel on the architrave has been found (as far as I have been 

 able to ascertain) nowhere else in Egypt. We have no means of 

 knowing in what style the more ancient buildings of This and 

 Memphis may have ijeen constructed; but as the sacred architec- 

 ture was under the control of the priests, and as the most ancient 

 was always held in the highest veneration, we have no reason to 

 suppose that it differed from that of Karnac and Luxor, where no 

 vestige of Doric appears, though the former temple was commenced 



* The name " Hepliceslus" occurs in the list Maaetbo gives of kings in Egppt. 



No. 149.— Vol. XUI.— February, 1850. 



about the same time as the grotto of Beni-Hassan (1600 B.C.) We 

 learn from the inscription that Nahride Nevothph was a general — 

 is it not probable that in some incursion into Phoenicia, he had seen 

 and been struck with the Doric architecture, and had imitated it in 

 his tomb? which, no doubt, for so eminent a man, had been prepared 

 during his lifetime. It is strange that of a country so flourishing, 

 and from which such numerous colonies were sent out, we should 

 have no more exact information: even of its greatest daughter, 

 Carthage, once the proud rival of Rome, there is now scarcely one 

 stone left upon another, to tell what has been. 



In the sacred writings we have an account of Hiram, king of 

 Tyre, exchanging gifts with King Solomon: it seems they were 

 both great bviilders. We find these monarchs mentioned, also, in 

 a fragment of 'Dins' (Tyrian annals); but there, instead of being 

 instructed in the style of King Hiram's building, we find those 

 great potentates amusing themselves with setting each other rid- 

 dles, and playing at forfeits. The anecdote runs thus: "Upon the 

 death of Abibalus. his son, Hiromus (or Hiram), succeeded to the 

 kingdom. He raised the eastern parts of the city, and enlarged 

 it; and joined to it the temple of Jupiter Olympius, which stood 

 before on an island, by filling up the intermediate space; and ha 

 adorned that temple with donations of gold. And he went up into 

 Libanus (Lebanon), to cut timber for the construction of the 



temples And it is said that Solomon, king of Jerusalem, sent 



enigmas to Hiromus, and desired others in return, with a proposal 

 that whichsoever of the two was unable to solve them, should for- 

 feit money to tlie other. Hiromus agreed to the proposal, but was 



unable to solve the enigmas, and paid a large sum as forfeit 



And it is said that one Abdemonus, a Tyrian, solved the enigmas, 

 and proposed others which Solomon was not able to unriddle, for 

 which he repaid the fine to Hiromus." It is worthy of remark, 

 that mention is here made of a temple of Jupiter Olympius, in 

 Tyre, about 1012 b.c; the first authentic record of any temple 

 erected in Greece being some centuries later. The inhabitants of 

 vEgina, indeed, claim .Silacus, son of Jupiter, as the founder of 

 their temple of Jupiter Panhellenius; but it is needless to observe 

 that such legends are worthy of little credit. 



We now proceeed eastward to Assyria, whose sovereigns styled 

 themselves "king of kings," as an assertion of their power and 

 greatness. Until the present day, the Assyrians were even more 

 enveloped in mystery than the Phcenicians; but by the talents and 

 energies of Mr. Layard much has been revealed to us. All honour 

 to him, and such as he is! Tiiere is a child's story, where a magi- 

 cian, by waving a wand before a mirror, brings over its magic 

 surface the images of people and things belonging to long past 

 .iges, — nor is the story altogether a fable: it is our historians and 

 antiquarians who ai'e the true necromancers, bringing to our view 

 scenes, and even the likenesses of those whose very existence had 

 passed into the twilight of legendary times. We need not leave 

 London to see Nimrod, "the mighty hunter," face to face; and to 

 make ourselves as familiar with the eunuchs and ministers of the 

 Assyrian court, as Holbein has made us with Henry VIII. and 

 Cardinal Wolsey. 



According to an ancient tradition, a civilised people possessed 

 the country when Ninus founded the Assyrian empire; and having 

 conquered this people, he attempted to destroy their works. We 

 have no certain date of the reign of Ninus, but there is no reason 

 to suppose the Assyrian empire less ancient than the Egyptian. 

 Berossus, the Chaldean historian, a priest of Belus, who wrote 

 in the time of Alexander the Great, describes Babylonia as 

 a countiy which lay between the Tigris and Euphrates: "It 



abounded with wheat and barley There were also palm trees, 



and apples and most kinds of fruits; fish, too, and birds At 



Babylon there was (in these times) a great resort of people of 

 various nations, who inhabited Chaldea, and lived without rule 

 and order, like the beasts of the fields." He then goes on to de- 

 scribe how an animal, part man and part fish, came up from the 

 Erythraeum sea, which bordered upon Babylonia, and "taught 

 them to construct houses, to found temples, to compile laws, and 

 explained to them the principles of geometrical knowledge; he 

 made them distinguish the seeds of the earth, and showed them 

 how to collect fruits: in short, he instructed them in everything 

 which could tend to soften manners, and humanise mankind." 



The ruins of Babylon and Nineveh now present to the eye of the 

 traveller, only vast mounds of earth; nor were there many more 

 striking remains of the latter great city when Xenophon passed by 

 with his "ten thousand," twenty-two centuries ago. To quote from 

 Mr. Layard: "The graceful column, rising above the thick foliage 

 of the myrtle, ilex, and oleander; the gradines of the amphitheatre, 

 covering a gentle slope, and overlooking the dark blue waters of a 



