84

Euxine by the Scytho-Sarmatian stock. These races being all assumed to be intrusive, must have previously displaced some other people, and either absorbed, extirpated, or drove them forwards, as in turn they, pressed upon by fresh swarms from Asia, moved westwards, till at length the Gael overflowed from Gaul into Britain, and northward into the Kimbric Chersonesus, and southward into Italy. These fresh swarms are assumed to be the Germanic stock, who entered by the only unguarded Immi- portal between the southern spur of the Ural Mountains gration and the Caspian Sea, probably about 500 or 400 B.C., and found their way along the banks of the tributaries of Volga. the Vistula to the Baltic.

Intru

sion of

Germans by the

Gate of

the

a migra

Europe.

Different Besides the maritime one of the Mediterranean, it is ways by true there are only three routes by which a great migrating which horde of people could easily pour into Europe. The first tory peo- leading from the plateau of Iran and the highlands to the ple may eastward through Hamadan (the ancient Ecbatana, the enter capital of the Medes), through the Elvend Pass, over Kermanshah to Bagdad-the route of Alexander the Great to India-then across the Tigris and Euphrates into Asia Minor, and across the Hellespont into Europe. The second route leading from the regions of the Oxus and Jaxartes, and the remarkable table-land, opening into the western depression of the Aral and Caspian Seas, which lies between the Altai and Thian Chan mountains, is along the littoral of the Caspian, at the foot of the Elbruz mountains, to the plains of Magan, at the mouth of the Araxes, thence by the low valleys between the Caucasus and the Caspian, and across the Don and Dnieper, and into the valley of the Danube. The third, also leading from the same central Asiatic regions across the Kirgis Steppes, the Jaik, and the peculiar depression lying between the low range of the Ural, called Obtchei Syrt, the Caspian, the Jaik, and the Volga, and across the latter into Russia, and then going northward to the Baltic, or south-westward to the Danube. Of these routes, Dr. Wilson selects the latter, which is that almost universally adopted by ethnologists, because the others were closed, Asia Minor being occupied by Lydians, Lycians, Phoenicians, and other warlike civilized races, while the Danubian countries were

84 It would appear that our author assumes that not only were the Sarmatians the same as the Sclavonians, but that the Scythians and Sarmatians were also one and the same.

the Ger

mans

Scandi

in the possession of Scythian tribes. From the Volga, The he supposes them to have crossed Russia" along the route of northern edge of the impenetrable forests of Volhynia and Poland, and the water-shed of the Dnieper and from the the Vistula-the route pursued by the Huns under At- Volga to tila in the fifth century-and thence along the tribu- navia. taries of the Vistula to the Baltic", near Livonia and Esthonia. Thence they were compelled by their neighbours and predecessors from the East, whose power had been consolidated, and who had become settled, to cross into the "islands of Gottland, Oland, and to Scania, and there settling themselves in the great northern Scandinavian peninsula, where archæological research proves

85 In the very next paragraph (p. 44), Dr. Wilson mentions the kind of archæological investigations which he considers confirmatory of the conclusion which he has advanced, relative to the late arrival of the Germanic Nomades in Western Europe. This is "the abrupt transition from the aboriginal stone relics, to the evidences of the metallurgic arts of the last pagan period, disclosed in the sepulchral depositories of Northern Scandinavia". The effect of prejudice in diminishing the power of critical judgment in man is really remarkable. The Neo-German School having decided in their own minds that all great discoveries, both abstract and practical, belong chiefly to the Germanic branch of the Indo-European race, of course the discovery of metals must have been made by them, and was, therefore, carried into their new settlement in Scandinavia! What if the German Nomades were ignorant of iron, and only learned its use in Scandinavia, or on their way thither! Yet such is, very probably, the case. The idea that three successive races occupied the north and north-west of Europe, the first of whom used only weapons of stone, the second bronze weapons, the third, being acquainted with iron, originated, I believe, in Denmark. In an excellent little guide to the ethnological archæology of North Europe, published by the Society of Northern Antiquarians of Copenhagen, having the title of "Leitfaden zur Nordischen Alterthumskunde. Kopenhagen. 1837", this hypothesis is stated, as it ought to be, with caution and reserve, and merely as a probability. Some of the members of that body have not imitated this good and scientific example; among others, Mr. Worsaae in his "Dänemarks Vorzeit durch Alterthümer und Grabhügel beleuchtet. Kopenhagen, 1844”, looks upon the hypothesis as an expression of facts. Another and more recent writer of the same school is Mr. Axal. Em. Holmberg, who has published a popular exposition of the ancient condition of Scandinavia, under the title of "Nordbon under Hednatiden. Populär Främställing af våra Förfäders äldsta Kultur, 1854", in which the first part is devoted to-1. The Stone Age. 2. The Bronze Age. 3. The Iron Age, etc. Another work on the same subject, but which we have not seen, is Fr. Klee. Steen-, Bronce-og, Jern-Culturens Minder, efterviste fra et almindelig culturhist. Standpunct i Nordens nuværende Folke-og Sprogeiendommeligheder. That weapons composed of the three kinds of materials mentioned are found in tumuli, not only in Scandinavia, but also in Ireland and elsewhere in North Europe, is true; and this is just the whole amount of truth in the hypothesis-the three successive races, each in a distinct state of cultivation, being an interesting creation of imaginative archæology, which has found favour not only in the country of its birth, but in England, Scotland, and we may also add, Ireland.

1854.

sion of

from

Scandinavia

into central

Europe.

them to have displaced an older Allophyllian population, they nursed their young strength, preparatory to their intrusion on the historic area of ancient Europe".

From the Scandinavian peninsula, he then supposes Incur- the Germanic race to have issued at a later period, and Germans produced those grand disturbances which ended in the destruction of ancient civilization. Beginning by the displacement of the Kymri from Denmark, they seized upon the centre of Europe, from the Rhine to the Elbe, penetrating like a wedge between the Gauls and Sarmatians, causing a Keltic wave to flow over Central Italy on the one side, and into Britain on the other; and thus intruding the Gallic Cantii, Belgæ, etc., upon the older Keltic races. The pressure of the same Germanic wedge drove another part of the Kelts down the Danube, where they mingled or displaced the Illyrian and Thracian occupants already as early as the time of Alexander the Great. At a later period the Kelts invaded Macedonia and Ætolia under Brennus, and even attacked the Delphic Shrine; some also crossed into Asia Minor, where they peopled Galatia; the displacement of one race disturbing the eqilibrium of the whole chain of races throughout Europe and Asia, until the entire were set in motion, and finally poured as a vast torrent upon the Roman Empire.

Such, then, is the Indo-European hypothesis in the form in which it has assumed the greatest degree of consistency and development, by having attempted to add to the physiological and philological, the more definite and sure test of history. Taking this remarkable hypothesis as our basis, we hope in our next article to be able to investigate the problem we have in view-namely, how far have these migrations, if they are correctly stated, left recognizable traces in the languages and mythologies of the existing nations of Europe and Asia, as well as the general subject of the influence of physical circumstances upon the intellectual developments of mankind. We shall then also have an opportunity of making some observations upon the opposite theory of Latham, in which he denies the eastern origin (in the sense of the IndoEuropean hypothesis) of all the European nations.

W. K. SULLIVAN.

[To be continued.]

129

ART. III-Structural Characteristics of the Basilicas.

THE

lica.

HE buildings first used by modern society for the special purpose of what was a new worship, were the Basilicas. These buildings were no new invention, nor, on the other hand, were the Christians for the first time collected for worship within them. The basilicas existed under the Empire, and the new society had its meetings in small oratories or private houses, whenever the frequent outbreaks of persecution did not force its members under ground. Of the origin of the title Basi- Origin of lica there are several accounts, and the matter is of little the Basiimportance except as indicating the use of the buildings Its name so termed. Our modern Exchanges seem to come nearest and use. to them, both in form and use, having both a large central space for walking and business, with covered walks or alleys by its side for the special resort of distinct traders or dealers. Besides this, the basilicas were halls of justice, and the recessed space at one end, termed tribune, was the court, with the seat of the judge raised against the centre of its wall, and benches for his assessors, and sufficient space in front for pleaders, and so forth. The side naves or walks were separated from the open centre by colonnades, which, in more splendid buildings, supported galleries appropriated to spectators, the sexes being separated. This is the outline of the basilica in its old state. It was roofed, at least in most instances, with the flat roof raised on coved sides, and thence termed testudo. There was nothing to compare to it among the existing buildings of antiquity for the uses required. Whether, however, these actually existing halls were permanently converted into cathedrals and churches is questionable. They were so used, doubtless, and formed the model for the ancient churches still preserved to us.

There is a great deal to be said about the basilicas, not only in the way of very curious and interesting description, but on the principle they exemplify of adapting Princiexisting buildings, or existing models or notions of build- ples they ings, to purposes of worship, and of their other principle, embody. of the taking no account of their exterior in comparison with their interiors.

They may be viewed, too, as the grandest examples of

Colour.

Struc

ture.

1. The

decoration in colours that modern architecture has produced, and in many other respects.

It must suffice, for the present, to take a sketch of the various forms, developments, and modifications of these buildings, under their leading structural characteristics. Under this term basilica, we must include a class of buildings not always so named, which involved developments or additions that became the germs of great and wonderful features in the architecture of the greater periods, indeed of the greatest period, of modern art.

The basilica proper is an oblong building divided into three or more naves, the central being the most important, by colonnades, with a raised tribune, a sort of semicircular alcove, called the absis or apse (from the Greek avaẞaivo). This apse is separated from the naves by a wide transept running across the whole building, and generally extending beyond its limits of width, and spanning the central nave by a vast arch, called "triumphal". The apse exactly corresponds to this great arch, and sometimes chapels have grown in the back wall of the transept, corresponding, in like manner, to the arches opening into the side naves, so as to end the vista of all the colonnades with these recesses and altars. In the earliest churches, however, altars were less abundant than Basilica now, and the central apse was the only one existing. proper. Sometimes the side naves were double on each side (as in San Pietro), forming five with the central nave. Still the basilican oblong form remains in them all. The galleries, however, are not found in the earliest basilican churches. Coins remain which afford a rude representation of the great Ulpian basilica of Trajan, and from this one would gather that the galleries extended all along above the colonnades from end to end in that building. If so, the earlier churches built after these models omitted that feature, and raised the walls of their central nave on arches, or colonnades with flat architraves, under which access was given to the side naves. These naves, with the transept, apse, and raised tribune, under which was a subterranean chapel or "confession", in which the tombs of the saints were deposited, tombs which fixed the site of the church, formed the leading structural features of the basilica proper.

Besides this kind of structure, we have round and 2. Other domed buildings, all variously taken after ancient models, particularly the Pantheon and the domed vaults of

forms.