DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18096#0028
unchecked career, making themselves sole navigators of every s&e
and finally founding a city which stood unrivalled for more thaD
700 years. Through their hands, as Mommsen has observeof
passed grain, ivory, and skins from Libya, slaves from the
Soudan, purple and cedar from Tyre, frankincense from Arabh l
copper from Cyprus, iron from Elba, tin from Cornwall, wine frorr
Greece, silver from Spain, and gold and precious stones frore
Malabar. As a nation of traders and navigators they establishes
themselves on the coast, and wherever they settled depots a:^ '
factories of various kinds were erected. We do not find thei
in the interior of a country. Neither do we hear of alliance
with the people with whom they came into contact, nor of then
impressing barbarian tribes with any notions of the advantage-
of civilisation. In the field of intellectual acquirements th
Carthaginian, as the descendant of the Phoenician, has n<*
place, and his skill in the gentler arts of life has no recognition7
We find no native architecture, nor do we hear of any industrial
art worth recording. Carthage, it is true, became the metro-j
polis of their widespread kingdom, and one of the wealthiest
cities of the world. But this was due, in a great measure, to its
central position, and its convenience as an outlet for the vast
produce of North Africa. Temples and stately edifices adorned
its streets, and the remains of great constructional works still
attest the solid grandeur of the city. But the architecture wafe
the work of Greek, and not of Punic, artists; and the feviv
sculptures of note, which may be assigned to a period anterio r
to the last Punic war, have nothing in common with the rude-;
carvings which bear the impress of Carthaginian origin. On the*
other hand the art of navigation, the science of agriculture, th( e
principles of trading, and a system of water supply combined
with the construction of gigantic cisterns, which may still be;
seen at Carthage and on the outskirts of many towns in North
Africa, became Rome's heritage from Phoenicia. The distinguish '-
insr characteristic of Phoenician architecture, or rather of buildingr
o ' CI*
construction, is its massive and imposing strength, singularljV
deficient in fineness of detail, as M. Renan has observed, but witl'i
a general effect of power and grandeur. The few Phoenicia! 1
buildings existing are constructed with immense blocks of stones,
such as the ramparts of Aradus, the foundations of the temple a t
Jerusalem, and the earlier portions of the great temple at Baalbec.
and finally founding a city which stood unrivalled for more thaD
700 years. Through their hands, as Mommsen has observeof
passed grain, ivory, and skins from Libya, slaves from the
Soudan, purple and cedar from Tyre, frankincense from Arabh l
copper from Cyprus, iron from Elba, tin from Cornwall, wine frorr
Greece, silver from Spain, and gold and precious stones frore
Malabar. As a nation of traders and navigators they establishes
themselves on the coast, and wherever they settled depots a:^ '
factories of various kinds were erected. We do not find thei
in the interior of a country. Neither do we hear of alliance
with the people with whom they came into contact, nor of then
impressing barbarian tribes with any notions of the advantage-
of civilisation. In the field of intellectual acquirements th
Carthaginian, as the descendant of the Phoenician, has n<*
place, and his skill in the gentler arts of life has no recognition7
We find no native architecture, nor do we hear of any industrial
art worth recording. Carthage, it is true, became the metro-j
polis of their widespread kingdom, and one of the wealthiest
cities of the world. But this was due, in a great measure, to its
central position, and its convenience as an outlet for the vast
produce of North Africa. Temples and stately edifices adorned
its streets, and the remains of great constructional works still
attest the solid grandeur of the city. But the architecture wafe
the work of Greek, and not of Punic, artists; and the feviv
sculptures of note, which may be assigned to a period anterio r
to the last Punic war, have nothing in common with the rude-;
carvings which bear the impress of Carthaginian origin. On the*
other hand the art of navigation, the science of agriculture, th( e
principles of trading, and a system of water supply combined
with the construction of gigantic cisterns, which may still be;
seen at Carthage and on the outskirts of many towns in North
Africa, became Rome's heritage from Phoenicia. The distinguish '-
insr characteristic of Phoenician architecture, or rather of buildingr
o ' CI*
construction, is its massive and imposing strength, singularljV
deficient in fineness of detail, as M. Renan has observed, but witl'i
a general effect of power and grandeur. The few Phoenicia! 1
buildings existing are constructed with immense blocks of stones,
such as the ramparts of Aradus, the foundations of the temple a t
Jerusalem, and the earlier portions of the great temple at Baalbec.