Page:Essays and Addresses.djvu/281

 subscript of is absent (as the copy indicates), this was doubtless a mere slip of the stone-cutter's. In v. 53 of this same document he has given us  instead of : a Neo-Hellenic curtailment which we certainly should not find in a public document of the second century B.C.

Passing upward from the Roman to the Macedonian period, we note some points of interest in an inventory drawn up by the hieropoioi of the Delian temple. This mentions a gift dedicated by Perseus before he was king (i.e. somewhere between 200 and 179 B.C.); and one of the most recent items gives the name of Lucius Hortensius, doubtless the praetor of 171 B.C. The inscription belongs, probably, to the very last years of free Delos, 171–166 B.C. It exhibits the diphthong used both for  and for : thus  ( = ):  as well as :  as well as. The values of the objects are given in Attic terms, but certain fractions are expressed in terms of the Delian copper currency. The weight of an object is commonly denoted by the participle of, or by the phrase But here we have a peculiarity,—the use of the neuter participle  even with a masculine noun; e.g.