318 



MILITARY ARCHITECTURE OF GREECE. 



or even eight sides, and in one instance, in a fragment of an ancient 

 wall, forming part of the Turkish fortress of Salona, (formerly 

 Amphissa,) of thirteen. Instead of placing them rough in the wall 

 from the quarry, they worked the stone, according to the shape in 

 which it happened to be detached into straight and smooth sides, so 

 that when joined together, these stones produced a very great degree 

 of solidity in the masonry. 



3. In a third method of building, the stones were placed in 

 horizontal courses, but occasionally by descending below, or reaching 

 above the line, they varied from regularity. The joints were some- 

 times at an angle with the horizon, and frequently perpendicular. 



The first mode of construction seems peculiar to Mycenas and 

 Tiryns ; the second and third are observed indiscriminately in the 

 fortified places of Greece Proper, as well as in Peloponnesus. Phyle 

 in Attica is built according to the fourth class ; as well as the 

 temples and other monuments at Athens; in these no cement, nor 

 any other sort of composition has been used to unite the * masonry. 

 In many of the fortresses of Greece, the stones have no other bond 

 but their own elaborate workmanship ; and their walls and towers 

 present the firmness and solidity of a rock. 



[The walls of Byzantium and Jerusalem, are described by Herodian 

 and Josephus, as constructed in the same manner ; the stones of a 

 rectangular form were so adjusted to each other, as to present the 

 most regular surface. Strict attention was paid by the military 

 architects of antiquity to this mode of building, because their for- 

 tresses were better able to resist those engines, the sharp points of 

 which were driven forcibly against the wall by the besieging party. 



Sometimes iron cramps with lead were used to unite the stones ; 

 they were employed in the wall built by Themistocles at the Pirasus, 

 which was begun in the year 481 B. C, and finished, 477, (Dodwell. 



* In some of the most ancient buildings of Egypt, mortar was used; " the stones of the 

 pyramids," says Shaw, " have all been laid in mortar." See also Dr. Clarke, vol. iii. 



