Fort, the rendering in the A. V. of the following Hcb. words : ^'^'0, metsad' (so called as a place of ly- ing in wait), a castle, esp. on a hill, Ezek. xxxiii, 27 (elsewliere usuall}- "stronghold"); or fem. fll^Ii'D, metsudah' , a similar kind of fastness, e. g. the citadel of Zion, 2 Sam. v, 9 (elsewhere "fortress," etc.). 71"^, maoz' (so called from its strength^, a stronghold, fortified by nature and art, Dan. xi, 19 (elsewhere usu- ally "strength," etc.). p'^^, duyeh' (so called from holing out), a watch-tov:er, especially a scaling-tower in a siege, 2 Kings xxv, 1 ; Jer. Iii, 4 ; Ezek. iv, 2 ; xvii,17 ; xxi, 22 ; xxvi, 8, M'n^lJJ'S, metsurah' (so call- ed as being compact), a fortification, e. g. in the siege of a city ; generally for defence (" fenced citj'," q. v.), but also for assault, Isa. xxix, 3. "S^", o'phel (q. v.), a mount (so called from its tumulus form), Isa. xxxii, 14 (elsewhere "tower," "stronghold"). -S^^, mis- gaV (so called from its height), a refuge (as often ren- dered; also "tower," " defence"), Isa. xxv, 13. See Fortification.
Fortia d'Urban, IMarquis of, was born Feb. 18, 1756, and died at Paris Aug. 4, 1843. After complet- ing his studies at the Military School in Paris, ho en- tered the army in 1773, but resigned his commission in 1779 to attend to an important suit in Rome before the papal court of appeals (the Rota^, pending the de- cision of which he devoted himself to the study of the fine arts, antiquities, and mathematics. He was a prolific author, and wrote on a varict}' of subjects, of which we mention Principes et Questions de Jlfoj-ale Xaturdle (Paris, new ed., 1834, 2 vols. 12mo): — Direc- tion pour la Conscience d'un roi (Paris, 1821, 12mo) : — Chronologic de la fie de Jisus-Christ (Paris, 1827, 8vo, and 1830, 12mo) : — Note sur la Genie du Christianisme (Par. 1830, 8vo) : — Essai sur Vorigine de Vecriture, etc. (Paris, 1832, 8vo): — Sur les trois systemes d'Ecriture des Egyptiens (Paris, 1833, 12mo) : — Essai sur I'immor- talite de tatne et .^ur la restn-rection (Paris, 1835, 12mo) : — Discours prononces au Circle de Morale Universelle (Paris, 18.35-0, 12mo): — Memoirespour servir a Ihistoire de V introduction du Christianisme dans les Gauks (Par.
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183S, 8to). He was also a collaborator in the Chefs- d'CEiwres des Peres de V Kglise (Pari?, 15 vols. 8vo), and the Annates de la P/dfosophie ChrHienne. — Hoefer, NoHV. B'log. Ginirale^ xviii, 217-221. (J. W. j\1.)
Fortification. The Hebrews had several terms whicli incdude the idea of military' walls, and which are variously rendered in the Auth. Vers., as "fort," "fortress," '-fenced city," "castle," "strong-hold," "mound," "trench," etc., all of which see in their places.
Inventions for the defence of men in social life are older than history. The walls, towers, and gates rep- resented on Egyptian monuments, thougli dating back to a period of tifteen centuries before the Christian era, bear evidence of an advanced state of fortifications — of walls built of squared stones, or of squared timber judiciously placed on the summit of scarped rocks, or within the circumference of one or two wet ditclies, and furnished along the top with regular battlements to protect the defenders (see Wilkinson, i, 407 sq.). All these are of later invention than the accumulation of unhewn or rudely-chipped uncemented stones, piled on each other in the form of walls, in the so-called Cy- clopean, Pelasgian, Etrus- can, and Celtic stj'les, where there are no ditches, or tow- ers, or other gateways than mere openings occasionally left between the enormous blocks employed in the work. As the first three styles occur in Etruria they show the progressive ad- vance of military architecture, and maj-^ be considered as more primitive, though perhaps posterior to the era when the progress of Israel, under the guidance of Joshua, expelled several Canaanitish tribes, whose system of civilization, in common with that of the rest of Western Asia, bore an Egj'ptian type, and whose
Africa, between the trade of the East and the West, and l)etween the religious feelings of tlie whole earth, has been the common battle-field of all the great na- tions of antiquity, and of modern times, where ruin and desolation, oftentimes repeated, have been spi'ead over ever}' habitalile place. Stones from six to fifty feet in length, with suitable proportions, can still be detected in many walls of the cities of those regions, wherever quarries existed; from Nineveh, where, be- neath tlie surface, there still remain ruins and walls of huge stones, sculptured with bas-reliefs, originally painted, to Babylon, and Bassorah, where bricks, sun- dried or baked, and stamped with letters, are jet found, as well as in all the plains of the rivers where that ma- terial alone could be easily procured. See Archi- tecture/
Ancient Egyptians attacking .a Fort.
towers and battlements were remarkably high, or, ratlicr, were erected in very elevated situations. When, therefore, the Israelites entered Palestine, we may assume that the "fenced cities" they had to at- tack were, according to their degree of antiquity, for- tified with more or less of art. but n'l with luige stones in the lower walls, like the Etruscan. Indeed, Asia Minor, Armenia, Syria, and even Jerusalem, still bear marks of this most ancient sj'stem, notwithstanding that this region, the connecting link between Asia and