Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/133

 GREEK -1 INSCRIPTIONS 121 pillar at Bhitari in Ghazipur, at Sanchi, Eran, and other places. After the Guptas come the inscriptions of Toramdna, who seems to have succeeded them in Central [ndia. The Guptas were overthrown by the Vallabhi or Ballabhi kings, the founders of Vallabhi-pura in Kathuiwar, who established themselves in the latter half of the 5th century A.D. No monumental inscriptions of this dynasty have been discovered, but their copper grants are numerous, and fresh discoveries are constantly being made. Far down in the south the Kongu kings have left grants of the 4th century, and one of questionable authenticity corresponds in date to 188 A.D. In the Deccan reigned the gre:it family of the Chalukyas, which in course of time divided into two branches. They reigned from the 5th to the 12th century A.D., and their inscriptions, especially their copper grants, are very numerous. Sir Walter Elliot made the history of this dynasty his especial pursuit, and suc ceeded in collecting and epitomizing some hundreds of inscriptions. Mr Burgess, the archaeological surveyor of western India, and other explorers are constantly making fresh discoveries of inscriptions relating to the Chalukyas and other dynasties of the west and south; and these are quickly translated by the indefatigable Mr Fleet, Mr Rice, Dr Burnell, and other busy translators. Many other dynasties have left copper plate inscriptions which cannot be here described, and a mere list would be of greater length than value. The inscriptions are found in all parts of the country, and date from the early periods above stated until the establishment of the Mahometan rule. They are almost all in Sanskrit, but in the south inscriptions are found in Tamil and Old Canarese. Through all of them the gradual change of the letters from the old Indian Pali to the modern forms is distinctly traceable. Mr Rice lias published a thick volume of inscriptions discovered in Mysore, and the pages of the Indian Antiquary add every month to the store. A very handsome volume of photo graphs of inscriptions has been prepared by Mr Fleet at the expense of the Government, but only ten copies have been made. The inscriptions of the Mahometans in India are also numerous. They are either in Arabic or in Persian, and are often engraved with exquisite skill and grace. Some celebrate victories, but most of them record the erection of mosques, palaces, tombs, and other edifices. These inscrip tions are occasionally valuable in settling dates, but as the Mahometans are good historians their inscriptions are of less importance than those of their Hindu predecessors, who did not write history. (j. D.*) IV. GREEK. k Etymologically the term inscription (eViypaej^) would P~ include much more than is commonly meant by it. It would include words engraved on rings, or stamped on coins, 1 vases, lamps, wine-jar handles, 2 &c. But Boeckh was clearly right in excluding this varia supellex from his Corpus Inscriptiomim Grsecarum, or only admitting it by way of appendix. Giving the term inscription a somewhat narrower sense, we still include within it a vast store of documents of the greatest value to the student of Greek civilization. It happens, moreover, that Greek inscriptions yield the historian a richer harvest than those of Rome. 1 The legends on coins form part of numismatics, though closely connected with inscriptions. 2 The amphora; which convened the wine and other products of vari ous localities have imprinted on their handles the name of the magis trate and other marks of the place and date. Large collections have been made of them, and they repay inquiry. See Dumont, Inscriptions Veramiques, 1872 ; Paul Becker, Ilenkelinschriften, Leipsic, pt. i. 1862, pt. ii. 1863. Partly from fashion, but partly from the greater abundance of the material, the Romans engraved their public documents (treaties, laws, &c.) to a large extent on bronze. These bronze tablets, chiefly set up in the Capitol, were melted in the various conflagrations, or were carried off to feed the mint of the conqueror. In Greece, on the contrary, the Materials mountains everywhere afforded an inexhaustible supply of for them, marble, and made it the natural material for inscriptions. Some Greek inscribed tablets of bronze have come down to us, 3 and many more must have perished in the sack of cities and burning of temples. A few inscriptions on small thin plates of lead, rolled up, have survived ; these are chiefly imprecations on enemies 4 or questions asked of oracles. 5 But as a rule the material employed was marble. These marble monuments are often found in situ ; and, though more often they were used up as convenient stones for building purposes, yet they have thus survived in a more or less perfect condition. 6 Inscriptions were usually set up in temples, theatres, at Place of the side of streets and roads, in Te/j.tvr] or temple-precincts, erection, and near public buildings generally. At Delphi and Olympia were immense numbers of inscriptions, not only those engraved upon the gifts of victorious kings and cities, but also many of a more public character. At Delphi were inscribed the decrees of the Amphictyonic assembly, at Olympia international documents concerning the Felopon- nesian cities ; the Parthenon and Acropolis were crowded with treaties, laws, and decrees concerning the Athenian confederation ; the Heraeum at Samos, the Artemisium at Ephesus, and indeed every important sanctuary, abounded with inscriptions. It is a common thing for decrees (^rj(J3Lo-fj.aTa) to contain a clause specifying where they are to be set up, and what department of the state is to defray the cost of inscribing and erecting them. Sometimes dup licates are ordered to be set up in various places ; and, in cases of treaties, arbitrations, and other international documents, copies were always set up by each city con cerned. Accordingly documents like the Marmor Ancy- ramim and the Edict of Diocletian have been restored by a comparison of the various fragments of copies set up in diverse quarters of the empire. Greek inscribed marbles varied considerably in their Forms of external appearance. The usual form was the cmjXr}, the inscribed normal type of which was a plain slab, from 3 to 4 or m even 5 feet high, 7 3 or 4 inches thick, tapering slightly upwards from about 2 feet wide at bottom to about 18 inches at the top, where it was either left plain or often had a slight moulding, or still more commonly was adorned with a more or less elaborate pediment ; the slab was otherwise usually plain. Another form was the /3w//.os or altar, sometimes square, oftener circular, and varying widely in size. Tombstones were either crr^Aai (often enriched beneath the pediment with simple groups in relief, com memorative of the deceased), or /aWes, pillars, of different size and design, or sarcophagi plain and ornamental. To these must be added statue-bases of every kind, often inscribed, not only with the names and honours of 3 E.g., treaty between Elis and the Hermans, about 500 B.C., from Olympia (Boeckh, C. I. (?., 11) ; a similar bronze from Olympia, recently discovered (Archdol. Zeitung, 1877, p. 196); a similar bronze treaty from the Locri Ozolse (RangaW, Ant. Hellen., 3566); bronze plate from Dodona, recording the victory of Athens over the Lacedae monians in a sea-fight, probably 459 B.C. (Archaol. Zeitung, 1878, P. 71). 4 See Franz, Elem. Epigr. Gr., p. 168, &c. 6 See Karapanos, Dodone et ses mines. 6 What was done by Themistocles under stress of public necessity (Thucyd., i. 93) was done by others with less justification elsewhere; and from Byzantine times onward Greek temples and inscriptions were found convenient quarries. 7 It appears from Cicero, DC Lcgilus, ii. 26, 27, that the size of Athenian gravestones was limited by law. /-