Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Archaic Fictile Revetments in Sicily and Magna Gr�cia
A study of the fictile revetments of early temples in Sicily and Magna Gracia would appear at the first glance to be a purely technical subject, and of course primarily it is so. But we must seek further in order to understand the construction of the temples thus adorned, why they were built, who were the builders, and something, if possible, of the social and political conditions of the towns in which they stood. Moreover, the question arises whether those revetments were the work of local or foreign craftsmen, and in the latter case, what induced these strangers to come hither? If they came at the bidding of the ruling prince, that fact would imply intimate trade relations or treaties of alliance with their mother-country, and in this way apparently insignificant details add to our knowledge of those remote times and supplement the meagre information doled out to us by early writers.
Nevertheless, we cannot wander too widely into these enticing fields, and have been obliged to limit ourselves to a brief description of the site where the terra-cottas were discovered and a rapid summary of the history of each township to which the Shrine belonged in the endeavour to gain some sort of idea of the social conditions which led to the erection of the temple, its varying fortunes and final destruction or devastation at the hands of marauders.
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