Studies of Travel: GreeceFreeman, Edward A. (Edward Augustus)
History
Studies of Travel: Greece
Freeman, Edward A. (Edward Augustus)
Greece -- Description and travel
But, while the remains at Tiryns have this special interest for the
student of architectural history, they show also how far the primitive
engineers had advanced in the scientific study of the art of defence.
Even the non-military observer can well take this in on the eastern
side. There rises what, seen from within, seen in a direct view from
without, the beholder is apt to call a tower. But it is merely that
the wall is either better preserved at this point or else was higher
from the beginning. Here was one chief approach to the fortress, and
it was guarded by what, in the technical language of Colonel Leake,
is called a ramp. The only approach to the gate was by going up an
ascent formed by an advanced wall, made so that an assailant would
expose his unshielded side to the defenders of the fort. This skilful
piece of fortification, with the sally-port which is so nearly perfect,
and another, traces of which remain on the other side, shows that the
primitive engineers, call them Kyklôpes or anything else, had advanced
a long way beyond mere mechanical piling together of stones.
The walls doubtless fence in only the akropolis, the primitive city,
answering to the oldest Athens, to the oldest Rome on the Palatine.
How far the town may have spread itself over the surrounding plain we
have no means of judging. We cannot believe that Tiryns ever became a
great city like Argos and Corinth. Its name vanishes from history too
soon for that. But at Tiryns, as we shall also see at Mykênê, there was
an upper and a lower city within the fortified enclosure itself. Greek
antiquaries call the higher level a καταφύγιον, a place of refuge, but
it is the strongly fortified part to which the approaches lead. Was
this the royal citadel, and was the lower part the dwelling-place of
the other original settlers before the town had spread at all beyond
the present akropolis? The military objects of the two levels are
gone into by Colonel Leake, but we must remember that these ancient
strongholds were not, like modern forts, built simply to be attacked
and defended. They were dwelling-places of man, fortified because they
were dwelling-places of man. One would think that the whole of the
first body of settlers would find shelter within the walls. There was
the king on the higher level; the rest of the tribe was below. A δῆμος
might or might not arise beyond their defences. At Rome and Athens such
a δῆμος did arise, and made the history of Rome and Athens different
from that of Tiryns.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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