DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32867#0077
CHAPTER III
MONUMENTS OF CLASSIC STYLE
I
SECOND CENTURY
^T^HE earliest monuments of importance in Northern Central Syria, as we have seen,
are in the classic style of the second century a.d., though there are proofs in the
inscriptions 1 found upon the wall of the temenos on the sununit of the Djebel Shekh
Berekat that building activity had begun here as early as the first century of our era.
Neighboring portions of Syria had contained important centers of Hittitb civilization
in remote antiquity, for Hittite inscriptions have been found at Hama, and an impor-
tant Hittite city has been located, with great probability, a little farther south at Tell
Nebl Mindo. Inscriptions and other scant remains of Phenician origin have been
discovered at numerous points along the coast, and the oldest foundations at Ba'albek
are believed to be Phenician work. Classic architecture had been introduced into
this part of Syria as early as the third century n.c., when Antioch became an impor-
tant artistic center under the early Seleucid kings. But there are no remains known
in the vicinity of Northern Central Syria for the restoration of a Iiittite, a Phenician,
or a Seleucid city, though there are numerous sites here, like Hamath (Epiphanea),
Emesa, Apamea, Antioch, and Chalcis, which were built upon long before the Chris-
tian era, and the scant remains of polygonal masonry in the mountains themselves
may belong to an early epoch; but it is very doubtful whether the mountain region
under discussion was regularly settled during these three pre-Roman epochs. With
the expansion of Roman imperial influence toward the East, however, an era of build-
ing began, which not only revived the architecture of these ancient sites and trans-
formed it, but extended the classic style far to the East, erecting its monuments in
numerous places from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates, including the mountain
districts which are the immediate subject of this work.
The architectural remains of this period in Northern Central Syria, though they
JSee Part III, inscs. 101-109.
47
MONUMENTS OF CLASSIC STYLE
I
SECOND CENTURY
^T^HE earliest monuments of importance in Northern Central Syria, as we have seen,
are in the classic style of the second century a.d., though there are proofs in the
inscriptions 1 found upon the wall of the temenos on the sununit of the Djebel Shekh
Berekat that building activity had begun here as early as the first century of our era.
Neighboring portions of Syria had contained important centers of Hittitb civilization
in remote antiquity, for Hittite inscriptions have been found at Hama, and an impor-
tant Hittite city has been located, with great probability, a little farther south at Tell
Nebl Mindo. Inscriptions and other scant remains of Phenician origin have been
discovered at numerous points along the coast, and the oldest foundations at Ba'albek
are believed to be Phenician work. Classic architecture had been introduced into
this part of Syria as early as the third century n.c., when Antioch became an impor-
tant artistic center under the early Seleucid kings. But there are no remains known
in the vicinity of Northern Central Syria for the restoration of a Iiittite, a Phenician,
or a Seleucid city, though there are numerous sites here, like Hamath (Epiphanea),
Emesa, Apamea, Antioch, and Chalcis, which were built upon long before the Chris-
tian era, and the scant remains of polygonal masonry in the mountains themselves
may belong to an early epoch; but it is very doubtful whether the mountain region
under discussion was regularly settled during these three pre-Roman epochs. With
the expansion of Roman imperial influence toward the East, however, an era of build-
ing began, which not only revived the architecture of these ancient sites and trans-
formed it, but extended the classic style far to the East, erecting its monuments in
numerous places from the Mediterranean Sea to the Euphrates, including the mountain
districts which are the immediate subject of this work.
The architectural remains of this period in Northern Central Syria, though they
JSee Part III, inscs. 101-109.
47