DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0204
182
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chap. VI.
Cyprus and of the Levant generally. But such excava-
tions would require large sums of money, and it is found
impossible in our country to procure such sums. If
hereafter Cyprus falls into the hands of the Greeks, they
will probably soon show how far more active and
efficacious is their love of archaeological knowledge than
is that of England.
It is clear that although the civilisation of Salamis was
in essence Hellenic, yet it had a strongly marked cha-
racter of its own. Coins, which so often give an accurate
picture of the growth and decay of the Greek common-
wealths, reflect well the phases of the story of Salamis.
Previous to the reign of the great Evagoras they bear as
type a ram, and inscriptions in Cypriote Greek. For the
mere heraldic device of a ram Evagoras substitutes
beautiful representations of the Greek Herakles, and
amid the Cyprian inscriptions we find in some cases
ordinary Greek letters. Under the successors of Evagoras
Greek mythological types, Zeus, Pallas, and Aphrodite,
become usual, and by the end of the fourth century
the Greek alphabet has supplanted the Cyprian in in-
scriptions.
The new discoveries take us further back, to a time
when Salamis was still under eastern rather than western
influence. Especially important are a series of terra-cotta
figures now added to the riches of the British Museum,
which merit a careful comparison with the sculptured
remains of Assyria and Persia; bearded men adorned with
abundant jewelry and clad in flowing Oriental garments,
the rich patterns of which, in arrangement like the painted
devices of early Greek vases, give them a singularly vivid
look. It is evident that before the days of Marathon and
Plataea the flowing wave of Asiatic influence had fairly
engulfed the Greeks of Cyprus, whose soft and pleasure-
loving disposition rendered them little fit to resist conquest
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chap. VI.
Cyprus and of the Levant generally. But such excava-
tions would require large sums of money, and it is found
impossible in our country to procure such sums. If
hereafter Cyprus falls into the hands of the Greeks, they
will probably soon show how far more active and
efficacious is their love of archaeological knowledge than
is that of England.
It is clear that although the civilisation of Salamis was
in essence Hellenic, yet it had a strongly marked cha-
racter of its own. Coins, which so often give an accurate
picture of the growth and decay of the Greek common-
wealths, reflect well the phases of the story of Salamis.
Previous to the reign of the great Evagoras they bear as
type a ram, and inscriptions in Cypriote Greek. For the
mere heraldic device of a ram Evagoras substitutes
beautiful representations of the Greek Herakles, and
amid the Cyprian inscriptions we find in some cases
ordinary Greek letters. Under the successors of Evagoras
Greek mythological types, Zeus, Pallas, and Aphrodite,
become usual, and by the end of the fourth century
the Greek alphabet has supplanted the Cyprian in in-
scriptions.
The new discoveries take us further back, to a time
when Salamis was still under eastern rather than western
influence. Especially important are a series of terra-cotta
figures now added to the riches of the British Museum,
which merit a careful comparison with the sculptured
remains of Assyria and Persia; bearded men adorned with
abundant jewelry and clad in flowing Oriental garments,
the rich patterns of which, in arrangement like the painted
devices of early Greek vases, give them a singularly vivid
look. It is evident that before the days of Marathon and
Plataea the flowing wave of Asiatic influence had fairly
engulfed the Greeks of Cyprus, whose soft and pleasure-
loving disposition rendered them little fit to resist conquest