[845] Some of the Greek statues were larger than any Egyptian. Olympian Jove stood 60 feet, Apollo 45 (Pausanias), and the Image of the Sun (commonly called the Colossus of Rhodes) 105 feet, exceeding everything in the Nile Valley. I need not refer to Mount Athos and the Charonion of Antioch. The oldest known Greek statue is a portrait produced at Miletus in b.c. 550, and inscribed: ‘I am Chares, son of Kleisis, rider of Teichiousa, an offering to Apollo.’ The style of this and other archaic works (vases, &c.), which are rare, connects it with Assyrianism, about the age of Assurnazirpal (b.c. 880).
[846] Iliad, ii. 362 and iv. 297 sq.
[847] De Ages.
[848] But who is to do this under a Republic? And here we foresee troubles for our neighbours in the next Prusso-Gallic War.
[849] For instance, the ‘Holy City’ of Miletus, with its 300 dependent towns. When we speak of ancient Greece we must remember that it extended from Asia Minor to Sicily, Italy, and even Southern France; and from Egypt to Albania. Modern Greece is a mere mutilated trunk.
[850] Demmin (p. 106, &c.) tells us that ‘the Greeks had not even a term to denote the action of riding on horseback’; and that ‘even in French a proper verb does not exist, as the expression chevaucher means rather to stroll (flâner) on horseback.’ As his English translator remarks, the assertion is hardly admissible in the face of such words as ἱππεύειν (equitare), cavalcare, to ride the horse; ἱππεία (riding), ἱππεὺς and ἱππότης (a rider, a knight), and ἐπιβεβηκώς, mounted (scil. on horseback). His interpretation of chevaucher is equally erroneous. Chevaucher, a fine old word, now only too rare, exactly expresses our ‘to ride’: Il chevaucha aux parties d’occident, is quoted from a French MS. (early fourteenth century) by Colonel Yule in his preface to Marco Polo; and the word occurs twice in the same sentence with the same sense.
[851] Lord Denman’s translation.
[852] D. K. Sandford.
[853] ‘Armour’ is from the Lat. armatura, through O. French armeure and armure; armoire is armarium, originally a place for keeping Arms, and armamentarium is our arsenal. It is not a little curious that ‘finds’ of Roman weapons are so rare, bearing no proportion to the wide extension of the rule. We must also beware of the monuments which are apt to idealise and archaicise: this is notable in the shape of the helmet, the pilium, and the Sword. Jähns specifies as the best place for study the Romano-German Central Museum at ‘Mainz,’ under Professor Dr. Lindenschmit (p. 192).
[854] In our day the only ‘Fecialists’ are the Moslem States.