78

HISTORY OF ENGINEERING.

Rook I.

more than the result of taking out the middle voussoirs and bringing the other portions ofthe arch nearer together, or, in other words, narrowing the original opening, making useof the same stones which served for a semicircular arch. Such an accidental adaptation mayhave been the cause of the pointed arch. In some of the cities of Etruria , particularly atTusculum, are the remains of arches similarly constructed with that in fig. 90., but itsdate remains uncertain. This example has been adduced as an early specimen of the use ofthe pointed arch; it forms a por- ___

tion of a subterrraean course

or conduit, through which the 1 ‘ ^

water was brought to the re-servoir distributed to the lowerportion of the city. The aper-ture, which formed the entranceto the emissary, is narrower attop than at bottom, and co-vered by a single stone lintel.

Had we any authority for affix-ing a date, we should no longerbe in doubt as to the originof the pointed arch; but wehave not evidence by whichwe can trace its introduction,or decide whether it is notthe work of a much later epochthan that assigned to it.

The great resemblance thewalls of the Etruscan citiesbear to those of Greece indicatesa common origin, or that theywere the work of the sametribes, though scattered on va-rious shores. Tarehon, the sonof Tyrrhenus, a Lydian prince,was supposed by Cato to betheir great leader to the plainsof Italy ; and if his followerswere drawn from the shores ofAsia Minor , we have no diffi-culty in accounting for the remains, appertaining to the arts, dug up at Naples, Capua,Verona, and Padua, resembling those discovered throughout Greece .

Etruria, bounded by the Tiber on theeast, by the Maira on the west, by the Tyr-rhenian sea on the south, and by the Ap-penines on the north, according to Polybiusand Herodotus , had its inhabitants from theAsiatic coast; their language nearly ap-proached th* Hebrew or Phoenician , andtheir alphabetic characters were the earliestused in Italy . Of the inscriptions remaining,there is enough to indicate, particularly inthe latter period of their institutions, aGreek connection. Etruscan artists werealways held in high repute, and in the earlyhistory of Rome , we find them selected toconstruct what was necessary for the em-bellishment of the city. If the Pelasgi orPhoenicians were the civilisers of the shores of the Mediterranean, we must follow them, toaccount for the similarity of manners and customs. About 2080 years before Christ, theyfounded in Egypt the dynasty of the Hucsas, which Sesostris drove out about 500 yearsafterwards. Greece received its first colony under Inachus, 1986 before Christ, which wasfollowed bv others under Danaus, Ceerops, Cadmus, Deucalion, Pelops , and variousPhoenician or Pelasgic chiefs. In the course of time, the settlers driven out by Deucalionfrom Thessaly, who had settled at Epirus, retired or went over to Italy , carrying all thatwas valuable, and established themselves first on the coast. This seems probable, and enablesus to account for the similarity of their habitations and arrangements as well as in theirengineering works.

Treasuries were generally added to the Greek cities at a very early period. According

y v;

TUSCCLUM.

Fig. 01.