Indigenous Races of the Earth

XGN23N881857 101

170 TIIE ART OF TIIE GREEKS. A. D. 50, had his name inscribed in Greek characters, on his coin, now in tho British Museum; but tho shape of his skull is Turanian, and tho die-sinker must have boon a half-civilized and probably half-bred Bactrian. Tho series of tho Arsacide coins is equally instructive, and loads to tl1o same result. The Maccdonian co11quost destroyed at once the old Persian in stitutions and civilization; for, although Alexander asAumcd tho royal in si()'nia and maintained the court etiquette and provin ·ial administl'ation of Persia, yet both ho and his cour­ticrB r maincd Greeks, and could not teansfol'm themselves into Asiatics. His successors in Asia, tho ol ncidro, w re still more avct·sc to tho old customs of tho empire. They thor fore removed th it· residence and tho capital of tlw empire from Babylon, .which at tl1at time was still highly flouri shitlO', so far west as Antioch; and tried to introduce Greek manners and d' potic centralized-civiliza­tion, into the provinces adjoinin()' tho s nt of dominion. 'rl10 out­lying atrapics could not long bo kept in subjection: and dming the war between Antiochus Thoos and Ptol emy Pltilad lphus of E()'ypt, A1·saces the atrap stirred up tho Pm'tl1ians (256 B. o. ), and at the head of his Scytl1ian hor omen established the Parthian empire in opposition to the rock elcucidro, who could not hold tho country b yond tl1c Tigris. But Arsaccs did not go bacl· to the Achmmc­nian institutions: he kept tho Arian I rsians in s ul~j cction, wh ii·om the time of Cyt·us to Alexander had been the rulers of the Empire: his realm mi()'ht easier be characterized as tho revival of the Scythian empire of Astyagcs. 'l'bc Parthians had no indigenous art of their own: accol'ding to Lucian, they wore Sv <p•Mxaf..o•, not friends of art, 183 and they hnd to borrow their artistic fo1·ms :fi·om their neighbors, just as the hcrnitic nations had done b fore them. While assuming tho empire, they copied tho Greek language and Fig. 68. ARSAOtlS I. tho Greek types ofthc Sclcu­cidro on th ir coins; and the portraits of AltSAOES I. [58], B. c. 256, and of (Ph mates I.) AnsAoEs V. [50], n. o. 190- 165, on their silver coins in tho British Museum, can scarcely be distinguished from Greek coins, as regards art: but tho globular shape of tho Parthian skull cha­racterizes them sufficiently 183 LvOIAN, de domo, 6. Fig. 59. ARBAOlilS V. TIIE AUT OF TilE GREEKS. 171 as not IIcllcnic. Tho conquest of the Syrian Empire by the Romans soon cut oft' the influence of Hellenism, and isolated tho Partbians, Fig. 60. Fig. 61. AUSAOES XII. ARBA0lol8 XIX, whose art rolap eel gmdu­ally into thcil' original bar­bm ·ism. 'l'IICportl'aitofAr­saecs XII. [60] (.Phmates IIL ), n. c. 50-60, belongs to the beginning of tl1c decline of al't, though this ki11g was a <: ntcmpora1·y of Lucullus, Pompey, a11<l Julius Crosar. Arsaccs tho XIXth [61 ], (Volo­gc cs lV., A. D. J DG) ex­hibits a mdoncss as if all the t1·aditions of al't l1ad bccomo forgotten. StilJ, he was a c ntcmpomry of tho cmpcl·or Commodus. One gcncl'a­tion after him we sec a now, national, Ariau art reviving in l'crsia uHdct· the Sassanidcs. Similar causes Jed to similar results in tho Crimea, or as tho ancients called it, in tho 'l'aurian or Cimmerian Chersoncsus. G I'C k colonies from IIcraclca and Milctus established themselves her among the aboriginal barbarians, and introduced art an<l civilization. Kings of Fig. 02. the c nations stood in friendly intercourse with Athens and J3yzantiurn, who us d to buy hcJ'O th it· corn; until Mitltridatcs tho Gr at [62], king of Pontns, occnpicd tho country (in 108 D.o.) which was to become the s cnc of his suicide. His portrait with tho rich flowing hair, probably a copy from a statue representing him driving a cha-riot, 184 belongs to the wonder of Grecian art. MtTuRU>ATEs. 'l'ltc Greek dynasty of Mithl'iclates, in the Crimea, eli d off in the second generation with Asandcr; and was succeed d by a long series of indigenous kings, who, without any bi sto 1·i al importance, maintained their sway clown to tho 4th century of our et·a. During thci L' reign the Greek colonies of Panticnproum, Chcrso nncsus,PhanaO'OI'ia,and Gorgippia, lost their licllcnic charac­tcJ ·s by the continuous immig1·ation of barbarians; and all tho tradi­tions of art disappeared litt.lc by little among tho half-brc cl inllabi­tants of the country,-until all G1·ccian blood, and with it, civiliza­tion, became absol'bcd by intercourse with tho barbarians. Tl1e IM VJSOON'rr, Ico7IO!Jraphie, ii. p. 182; note 4, Milan odition.